Strategy

The most successful companies are those that create strategies that align their plans for positioning in the market with the capabilities that they have. Here’s a step-by-step framework to determine if you have what you need to execute your strategy now or if you need to enhance your organizational capabilities moving forward.

Your firm’s value can be affected by trends that should affect your strategic outlook. Those factors may be technological, regulatory, institutional, cultural or societal changes. Analyzing these risks and opportunities—and thinking about how they may evolve—is critical to the long-term success of your business strategy.

Sustaining your stream of economic profits depends on there being certain barriers to entry and imitation to reduce competitive pressures. Here’s how to form a strategic analysis that identifies and analyzes direct competitors to forecast future cash flows and calculate an expected market value for the business.

Negotiation doesn’t have to be a battle, but an exchange that advances careers and builds relationships. For women, this perspective can tap into expectations others have of “female” strengths, as well as some competencies many already use. Here, drawn from research on negotiation and gender: techniques to achieve constructive, win-win outcomes.

Word-of-mouth is a powerful, organic form of marketing. But what about word-of-machine? Research from Professor Luca Cian shows that customers trust artificial-intelligence recommendations when a product or service is practical but resist when they’re pursuing a product or service for pleasure. What can companies do with this information?

Hype vs. discipline. Charisma vs. responsibility. The buzz around Adam Neumann’s WeWork went from enthusiasm for a unicorn with billions in venture capital to backlash for a company with a plummeted valuation and scrapped IPO. Yet with new leadership and governance structures, long-term profit may be in sight. What might we learn from WeWork?

Leading in the face of crisis and uncertainty is a different practice from daily management and decision-making. But good managers can learn to anticipate and manage through such high-stress experiences and embed lessons learned in the enterprise. A Darden expert shares best practices — do’s as well as don’ts — for successful crisis management.

Spotify is under scrutiny for content on Joe Rogan’s podcast and talent compensation. Darden experts explain how crises can be tempered with good governance — who’s on the board, how it thinks about risk, the business model, strategy, process and culture. Ultimately, “Governance is the way a firm organizes around and executes on its purpose.”

Issues of governance: It’s easy to focus on issues as they arise, rather than long-term vision and getting ahead of problems. A case that shows the importance of focusing on mission, strategy and communication with stakeholders: USA Track & Field, a nonprofit that oversees sports, training and events for professionals, coaches and students.

Western analytical tools are important to the process of understanding industries and competitors, but true insights can be achieved with what the Buddha called beginner’s mind. In this The Tao of Strategy excerpt, the authors explore how Eastern philosophy complements Western strategy-making and offer 12 principles that can inform business leaders