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Post-COVID-19 Growth

The next big theme is the surging Chinese and US GDP, but the broader theme is that we're going to see a surge in growth post-COVID-19, which will mask bad, weak or improper strategy. When I was a strategy partner and advised some of the world's largest energy resources companies, one of the most common things we would see is that during a boom time, companies would make a lot of money. Even bad companies would make a lot of money. Even companies that were mismanaging their assets, inefficient and totally unproductive were making money. They would be making a lot of money, get excited about that, and it would pull management’s attention to: How do we exploit new resources? How do we build new sites? How do we build new production facilities? Focus would shift away from whether we are as efficient as we should be, whether we're in the right products, whether we’re deploying capital effectively, because there's just so much capital to be deployed. When that inevitable counter-cycle comes along and prices drop, the bad decisions rise from the receding tide, and you can clearly see who hasn’t performed as well. That's going to happen again. When…

The next big theme is the surging Chinese and US GDP, but the broader theme is that we're going to see a surge in growth post-COVID-19, which will mask bad, weak or improper strategy. When I was a strategy partner and advised some of the world's largest energy resources companies, one of the most common things we would see is that during a boom time, companies would make a lot of money. Even bad companies would make a lot of money. Even companies that were mismanaging their assets, inefficient and totally unproductive were making money. They would be making a…

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Apple’s Ecosystem Competitive Advantage

The next big theme is “Apple's Ecosystem Competitive Advantage,” but I'm not going to talk too much about Apple because the deep insight is more about what an ecosystem is. I have another client who works in the tech space, and he always talks to me about how they want to beat Apple. I pointed out to him that, “Yeah, you want to beat Apple, but Apple is an ecosystem. Apple is entrenched because it's convinced probably millions of developers to develop apps on their smartphone, which make those phones indispensable.” An Apple iPhone without those apps is pretty much a boring experience—a beautiful but boring experience. When you want to compete against Apple, you’re competing against an entire ecosystem. If you want to take on Apple, you can’t just look at what Apple is doing, but you have to look at the entire ecosystem that reinforces Apple. I spoke to Ram Charan recently, and we talked about how Apple has gotten the FDA to approve the algorithms behind their health initiative. That's a big move because it means that when other companies want to build software and apps for healthcare services, rather than doing all of the work of…

The next big theme is “Apple's Ecosystem Competitive Advantage,” but I'm not going to talk too much about Apple because the deep insight is more about what an ecosystem is. I have another client who works in the tech space, and he always talks to me about how they want to beat Apple. I pointed out to him that, “Yeah, you want to beat Apple, but Apple is an ecosystem. Apple is entrenched because it's convinced probably millions of developers to develop apps on their smartphone, which make those phones indispensable.” An Apple iPhone without those apps is pretty much…

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If Disney+ is just starting with streaming, where is Disney+ going? 

There’s a lot of action taking place in the world of streaming. The first theme is titled “If Disney+ is just starting with streaming, where is Disney+ going?” It’s an interesting theme. As many of you will know from previous episodes of Monday Morning 8 a.m, I’ve been working with a very senior executive in the streaming industry who has her sights and her company's sights set on understanding what is happening with Disney+. Quite often, she will present her team's thinking to me, and we have discussions about whether they're thinking about the right things. In a previous episode, I spoke about how Disney+ is not just a streaming service but also the first place where a child finds their best friend. This got the client thinking a lot about how they should compete with Disney. She reworked their plans and talked to me about how they're going to compete with Netflix, Disney and so on. The first mistake she made was to assume that Disney+ is going to compete with Netflix, wants to complete with Netflix and is going to compete on the same terms as Netflix. What does that mean? Too often when we decide what business we're in, we think everyone wants to be in…

There’s a lot of action taking place in the world of streaming. The first theme is titled “If Disney+ is just starting with streaming, where is Disney+ going?” It’s an interesting theme. As many of you will know from previous episodes of Monday Morning 8 a.m, I’ve been working with a very senior executive in the streaming industry who has her sights and her company's sights set on understanding what is happening with Disney+. Quite often, she will present her team's thinking to me, and we have discussions about whether they're thinking about the right things. In a previous episode, I spoke about how Disney+…

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Moral Duty in Management Consulting & Business

Moral Duty in Management Consulting & Business I want to end today's issue of Monday Morning 8 a.m. with the final story, which is titled, “Moral Duty.” This comes from an event in my past. For those of you who follow our programs like Partnership. Memoir or Rebuilding a Consulting Practice, you know that I made a big switch in my career. I changed offices when I was an up-and-coming associate. I was being promoted rapidly, and I moved into a new office. I was in the energy sector when I moved, and I moved to the new office and attended a meeting with the energy partners and energy consultants from that office. I assumed that I would be welcomed with open arms because their primary client, an energy company, was a client at my old office. I'd spent many years there—I basically built my entire career there. I knew the chief executive officer, the chief financial officer, the chief operating officer. I had served as chief of staff to the CEO when he had just joined. The consulting firm has seconded me as his chief of stuff. The CEO would also wave at me, even in a busy area…

Moral Duty in Management Consulting & Business I want to end today's issue of Monday Morning 8 a.m. with the final story, which is titled, “Moral Duty.” This comes from an event in my past. For those of you who follow our programs like Partnership. Memoir or Rebuilding a Consulting Practice, you know that I made a big switch in my career. I changed offices when I was an up-and-coming associate. I was being promoted rapidly, and I moved into a new office. I was in the energy sector when I moved, and I moved to the new office and…

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The Philadelphia 76ers and the New Jersey Devils Aren’t Sports Organizations

The Philadelphia 76ers and the New Jersey Devils Aren’t Sports Organizations The next big theme is titled, “The Philadelphia 76ers and the New Jersey Devils Aren’t Sports Organizations.” I know many people are going to say, “But, Michael, what are you talking about? That's an NBA team and an NHL team. Of course, they’re sports organizations.” This is building on the theme of the previous Monday Morning 8 a.m. where I mentioned that Tesla isn’t an electric car company and Disney+ isn’t a streaming service. I received a lot of good, positive feedback, and people liked those examples. Recently, I had a nice discussion with Scott O'Neil, a fabulous guy who's the chief executive officer of Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment. He's also the chief executive officer of the Philadelphia 76ers and the New Jersey Devils. We spoke about many things—his family, his life, his kids—a wide-ranging discussion about how he manages stress, makes decisions and how he programs himself to shut out the noise and focus on the most important things to make the right decisions. I also talked to him about his ability to look at his organization in different ways. Yes, it's a sports team, but in the same way that Starbucks is a third place…

The Philadelphia 76ers and the New Jersey Devils Aren’t Sports Organizations The next big theme is titled, “The Philadelphia 76ers and the New Jersey Devils Aren’t Sports Organizations.” I know many people are going to say, “But, Michael, what are you talking about? That's an NBA team and an NHL team. Of course, they’re sports organizations.” This is building on the theme of the previous Monday Morning 8 a.m. where I mentioned that Tesla isn’t an electric car company and Disney+ isn’t a streaming service. I received a lot of good, positive feedback, and people liked those examples. Recently, I had a nice discussion with Scott…

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Immigration patterns, Racial Diversity and Age Diversity

Immigration patterns, Racial Diversity and Age Diversity The other big thing we're seeing in the news today is how COVID-19 has changed work patterns and immigration patterns and how it impacts racial diversity and age diversity of the workforce. One of the big trends is that people from Brazil, India, Bangladesh and the Philippines are traveling to places like the Middle East, UK, Canada and the US to work. Many of them stay there, become permanent residents and become citizens. But with COVID-19, we've seen a bottoming-out of certain parts of the economy, particularly low salary jobs. Countries have to get their economies kick-started and growing again. There are two ways to do that. First, you increase your productivity per citizen, or you bring in more people through immigration so your GDP grows. Canada set an immigration target of 400,000 people in the next year. This means that they want to bring in 1% of the population to apply for permanent residence and eventually become citizens. That's a big number. Canada, obviously, has a track record of integrating people well, and they also have a points-based system so they’re sure that the people they invite in have the wherewithal and…

Immigration patterns, Racial Diversity and Age Diversity The other big thing we're seeing in the news today is how COVID-19 has changed work patterns and immigration patterns and how it impacts racial diversity and age diversity of the workforce. One of the big trends is that people from Brazil, India, Bangladesh and the Philippines are traveling to places like the Middle East, UK, Canada and the US to work. Many of them stay there, become permanent residents and become citizens. But with COVID-19, we've seen a bottoming-out of certain parts of the economy, particularly low salary jobs. Countries have to…

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Global Trade Issues & ROI calculation

Global Trade Issues & ROI calculation The next big topic is around global trade issues and ROI calculation, and that's a huge topic considering what's happening with China, the US, and recently in the Suez Canal. Hats off to the Dutch salvage company that was able to move the ship along and get global trade flowing again—no pun intended. Global trade can be used as a force for good. It can be used to modify behavior. As it relates to global trade issues, I'm going to talk specifically about what's happening in commodities, but the lesson is not just applicable…

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If It Bleeds It Leads – Why Is It That News Costs More Than TV shows?

If It Bleeds It Leads - Why Is It That News Costs More Than TV shows? The first big theme this week is called, "If it bleeds it leads - Why is it that news costs more than TV shows?" I picked that title to explain the big concept we’ve seen over the last few months in news organizations around the world. Major cable news networks, business publications and newspapers have seen a steep decline in traffic. From January to February, most of them have seen 20-30% drops: The Wall Street Journal, Fox News, CNN, The New York Times. Why did this happen,…

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Common Mistake – There’s Something Wrong with the World

Common Mistake - There's Something Wrong with the World It's important to realize that all of these are big, important strategy themes. At the beginning, I said I wanted to talk about how you need to use the insights and the training. At FIRMSconsulting, we always say we train leaders who have the fortitude, willpower and determination to move markets. I'm going to give you an example of how you need to apply these things by talking about an executive coaching client. He runs the strategy team at a division of a very large bank. It’s a big multibillion-dollar division. He…

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