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Centralized Decision Making Helps Kill Bad Products

Harvard Business

The three towers, which dominate the landscape of the Gangnam district, were built to consolidate many of the activities of the firm; their imposing presence is emblematic of the company’s hierarchal culture. Killing products isn’t easy. They invest significant resources in research, marketing, and distribution.

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A Simple Way to Test Your Company’s Strategic Alignment

Harvard Business

For example, as it grew, Facebook found that its early “move fast and break things” culture had to be funneled into focused technical teams and product groups to make its product development process faster and less erratic, and for it to have a chance of meeting the demands of its new public shareholders following its IPO.

Banking 47
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To Reduce Complexity in Your Company, Start with Pen and Paper

Harvard Business

I’m told that at one point the management-through-presentation culture of the company was so extensive that they were actually investigated by 3M for potentially re-selling the huge volumes of acetates used in those days to make slides for overhead projectors! The difficulty here is that this doesn’t happen overnight.

Company 28
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Organizational Fitness for Growth: Five Insights for CEOs

Kates Kesler

Royal Dutch Philips is a $20B diversified consumer electronics, healthcare, and lighting products company. He reset collaborative P&L metrics and business review processes, shared by the region leaders and the global product leaders, to form tight “business handshakes,” that he regards as the center of a granular set of growth strategies.

Apparel 82
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The Reinvention of NASA

Harvard Business

NASA has moved from being a hierarchical, closed system that develops its technologies internally, to an open network organization that embraces open innovation, agility, and collaboration. This demanded shifts in cultural values, relational approaches, and technology strategy. Adapting to change. Adapting to change.