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Strategies for a discontinuous future.





Consulting & advisory, research notes, in the press, about bubblegen,
next wednesdays.





Thursday, December 04, 2003
 


CIO asks if Amazon's 'growth' strategy' will work. It's not a 'growth' strategy, it's a strategy based on extending competences to new markets. Pretty run of the mill stuff, but also pretty dazzling when done correctly. Will it work? Yes.

Of course, you could read the article to see how not to look at strategy - it's peppered with (meaningless) ratios, (meaningless) valuation, and attempts at revenue breakdowns. Why am I against this?

First, the relationships between strategic variables are pretty complex - focusing solely on the numbers is a very crude way to try and look at some kind of 'output' - which may not even be there yet. Second, focusing on the numbers creates a kind of cognitive bias encouraging incrementalism in strategy. Third, focusing on the numbers is for beancounters - if strategists can't see the picture without the numbers, they're in trouble.

-- umair // 6:13 PM //


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