Every week, we put together a list of our top 5 articles of the past week. Happy reading!
Strategy, Disruption & You Roger Martin (reading time: 6 minutes)
The strategist’s view is that nothing about the future is certain. Nobody can predict it with accuracy. But a strategist believes that doesn’t mean you throw your hands up. You have to make investments — even if the investment is in doing nothing, which is an investment of available opportunities not taken. You use the most important question in strategy — what would have to be true — to pick the most plausible course of action.
Roger Martin delivers another amazing insight about strategy. Many people wrongfully assume that strategy is about planning. In the face of a rapidly changing environment, strategy does not go away. It in fact becomes more important.
An Executive Framework for Value Creation and Strategic Planning Georgian Partners (reading time: 6 minutes)
This is a neat framework by VC firm Georgian Partners. It provides a simple framework for CEOs to examine how they deliver value. It’s a bit overly simple in my view but a great starting point. I would pair it with the value creation white paper we wrote last year.
Outer space in 2030 McKinsey & Partners (reading time: 5 minutes)
As an unabashed Trekkie, I am excited about the final frontier. Space exploration is about to hit a tipping point. This short McKinsey article explores some of the cool stuff people will be able to do and the whole new economy that will emerge.
TV, merchant media and the unbundling of advertising Benedict Evans (reading time: 7 minutes)
Amazon has quietly built one of the largest ad businesses in the world. It is roughly the same as YouTube and the entire global newspaper industry. Ben Evans analyzes the business model and its margins. He also compares it to Shopify and the threat that company poses to Amazon.
Innovation In Media: Reinventing How Ideas and Culture Spread Rex Woodbury (reading time: 12 minutes)
Media is far from an unsexy or unprofitable category. Rather, it’s the way that we consume and create culture. “Traditional” media categories are all being reinvented in radical ways, and technology is creating new categories altogether.
Media is largely responsible for spreading ideas and culture. These tools are being reinvented by technology yet in many ways are largely the same.
