Compete Smarter, Not Harder: A Process for Developing the Right Priorities Through Strategic Thinking

NOTES

Introduction

1. See “Nokia's Bad Call on Smartphones” in the Wall Street Journal, July 2012: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304388004577531002591315494.html.

2. The direct quote is “Nowadays the only true consumer marketers are retailers—and forward integrated manufacturers with their own retail capabilities—because these have the transactional relationship with the consumer. But even retailers—as customers of wholesalers and manufacturers—are players in B2B markets.” Source: personal correspondence, March 18, 2013.

3. Time, February 11, 2013, page 16.

Chapter 1 The Importance of Fundamentals

1. Robert Frank, Choosing the Right Pond: Human Behavior and the Quest for Status (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1985), 3.

2. To reinforce this example, the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency in the United Kingdom once did a survey of British drivers that asked, “Do you believe that you are an average, above average, or below average driver?” It turns out that 98 percent of British drivers believe that they are above average!

3. A detailed account is provided in the book Barbarians at the Gate: The Fall of RJR Nabisco by Bryan Burrough and John Helyar (New York: Harper Business, 2009 [reprint edition]).

4. See Harvard Business School case 9–801–361, “Howard Schulz ...