All Intelligence Briefings that have been published by Rodenberg Tillman & Associates can be found here.
It was fascinating to read the book of Mike Isaac on Uber and its former CEO Travis Kalanick. Many people see Uber as the most successful start-up in Silicon Valley. But Uber never made any profit and the loss in III/2019 has been US$ 4,6 billion. Every time the Board tells the financial world “profits will come in the near future”.
End of September 2019 the office-space company WeWork announced that it was postponing its initial public offering (IPO). The same day the reaction was a sharp decline of market value from US$ 47 to US$ 20 billion.
Mavericks are the brilliant original thinkers not yet at the top of the corporate ladder. These male/female professionals are able to generate rigorous discussions in team meetings, which sets the best performing companies apart from competitors.
Risto Sillasmaa’s turnaround of Nokia starting in 2012 is extremely impressive. Nokia was in 2011 almost dead! Now the company is in the top-2 in the global market of communication-infrastructure. Sillasmaa quotes:
How often does management presents strategic plans, cost & revenues estimates, budgets, investments and scenarios which seem to be not feasible, because the basic assumptions are wrong? How often do we fool ourselves with “spreadsheet management”?
Since the 1980s-1990s we have seen not that many new tools & techniques within the area of strategy and competitive intelligence. Research of SCIP during the last couple of decades confirms this. We still speak of Porter’s Five Forces, Where-to-Play & How-to-Win, Strategic Sweet Spot Analysis, Strategy under Uncertainty, Porter’s Four Corners Analysis, Extrapolation, Key Success Factor Analysis, Scenario Planning & Analysis and SWOTI. Most managers, professionals and leaders are familiar with these tools and techniques.In this article I argue for a totally new way of looking at strategic planning & competitive intelligence. And how I was able to implement this at our company.
The advances in technology, the upcoming of A.I. learning, the understanding of our environment are all progressing logarithmic, including the way we do business today. Understanding how we are all connected in this world and how we are influenced accordingly is crucial. Using new methods and techniques will help you to stay ahead. In this Special Intelligence Briefing I like to take the opportunity to give you in-depth background on “Predictive Foresights” and show recent case examples. Did you know that the academic research on our “Predictive Foresights” services goes back more than 80 years?
The upcoming week European citizens have the opportunity to elect the next ‘bunch of nonos’ in the European Parliament. Around 750 heavely overpaid politicians. Ask yourself what the Europeans got from them in exchange. Are you able to list 10 examples of their achievements? From our strategic intelligence perspectives we foresee crucial economic issues Europe is facing. We call them ‘The Gray Rhinos’. Gray Rhinos are threats already at the horizon, however, we don’t want to see them.
On the 22nd of May 2010, Laszlo Hanyecz made the first real-world transaction using Bitcoin paying for two pizzas in Jacksonville, Florida, United States. His bill at the time; 10,000 BTC. In current day value of Bitcoin this would have cost him nearly $54,762,500.- (as of the 24th of April 2019). A healthier option might have been, to make himself a sandwich.
Two/third of top management lacks the competency to manage successfully their companies through the ever changing external business environment. In additon they are not able to inspire and motivate their staff and employees. Over 80% of investors and analysts tell that leadership and vision are “leading” for their future investment strategies. Investors see leadership and vision as far more important than the financial performance during the past three years.