Intelligence Briefings – Page 11 – Rodenberg Tillman & Associates

All Intelligence Briefings that have been published by Rodenberg Tillman & Associates can be found here.

Management suffers from three crucial biases

July 1, 2015

We are forced to establish beliefs about the world, our lives, the economy, investments, and our careers among others. We deal mostly in assumptions, and the more indistinct these are, the stronger the confirmation bias. The ‘confirmation bias’ is the mother of all misconceptions: It reflects our tendency to interpret new information so that it becomes compatible with our existing theories, beliefs and convictions.

The drama of MH17

June 15, 2015

Joseph Rodenberg

A World View, Intelligence Briefings

These are merely two among many other comments relating to the dramatic flight of MH17 from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur. We can’t blame them, we can’t blame anyone, except those persons actually responsible for launching the missile on 17th July, 2014. But we can learn from this to overcome such dramatic events in the future!

Antifragility

June 1, 2015

Joseph Rodenberg

A World View, Intelligence Briefings

Black swans are large-scale unpredictable and irregular events that have a massive consequence. Examples are a tsunami, huge storms like Sandy in 2012, 9/11, Madrid 2004, and the loss of MH17. Antifragility means randomness, uncertainty, dealing with the unknown, doing things without understanding them and doing them well. However, it is easier to find out if something is fragile.

Only 30 percent of employees are actively committed

May 15, 2015

Joseph Rodenberg

A World View, Intelligence Briefings

What a statement! This comes from Gallup’s study “State of the American Workplace 2013”, published in HBR in May 2014. Is the situation any different in Europe? We think the percentages are more or less similar for Europe. How can this be changed?

Contrarians are some kind of fools

May 1, 2015

Joseph Rodenberg

A World View, Intelligence Briefings

The majority of leaders in our organizations and in politics do not like these contrarians. However, we desperately need such people in our organizations. It is interesting to see Cesare Mainardi’s research on ‘losers’ and ‘winners’ such as Amazon, Apple, IKEA, Haier, Natura and Starbucks.

The ventriloquists of the elite from the EU, IMF and ECB

April 15, 2015

Joseph Rodenberg

A World View, Intelligence Briefings

In April 2014, many TV and radio broadcasts and publications in the media informed us that Greece had recovered. We must admit that the elite of the EU, IMF and ECB put considerable effort in the media to mislead European citizens that the Greek economy was improving. Why do they take Greece as example?

The corpocracy of companies

April 1, 2015

Joseph Rodenberg

A World View, Intelligence Briefings

The story starts every year with the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, where the heads of the corporate world meet: CEOs, political friends and the consultancy-whisperers. They blame the politicians who are not able to solve the crisis, corporate management already has a focus on the future, and multinationals take the lead in solving the big future challenges: sustainability, growth and poverty.

The EU has a supra-national structure

March 15, 2015

Joseph Rodenberg

A World View, Intelligence Briefings

Dutch multinationals are facing strong competitors from outside the EU, who are confronted less with the difficult market circumstances prevailing in Europe. According to research by the Dutch Financial Times FD, this concerns multinationals such as AkzoNobel, Aegon, DSM, Wolters Kluwer, KPN, Heineken and Shell. Philips and Ahold are stuck in the middle, and Reed Elsevier and Randstad are the only outperformers.

To win the strategic game

March 1, 2015

Joseph Rodenberg

A World View, Intelligence Briefings

‘Strategic’ is one of the most misused words in management today and is often used to mean ‘important’. However, strategic decisions are about decisions with consequences of future impact for the organization. Compare this with M&A activity. Numerous research studies during the past 25 years have confirmed that 85 percent of all mergers and acquisitions fail.

Competing in arenas needs new information systems

February 15, 2015

Joseph Rodenberg

A World View, Intelligence Briefings

In the previous post “Companies compete in arenas, not in sectors of industry” we explained how crucial it is to go beyond an industry analysis towards analyses of arenas. This means it is no longer enough to look at the industry sector in which your company competes. A further step Is required, namely conducting an analysis of the ‘competitive arena’.