The Blog
Long-form essays, field notes, and frameworks from the FIRMSconsulting team — published weekly.
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Published weekly-
Three people that influence you the most
Three people that influence you the most The first big theme is titled, “The Three Most Influential People in the World: Roula Khalaf, Gwen Robinson, and Matt Murray.” This is a very deep insight. We have a lot of coaching clients, including very senior coaching clients. I’ve asked our coaching clients, “Who is influential to you?…
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Coal, Oil and Gas Need the Best Minds
Coal, Oil and Gas Need the Best Minds This week’s theme is called, “Coal, Oil and Gas Need the Best Minds.” If you read any major news publication, you’re going to see two big trends. One is due to activist pressure, major banks like the Japanese company Mitsui—which is a trading house that owns banks—are…
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Career Stagnation. When Promotions End and the Runway Ends
In the final piece for Strategy Insights, called “When Promotions End and the Runway Ends,” I’m going to talk through an interesting client situation. We have an Insider, who later also became a coaching client, named Addie. He works for a large multinational company. There’s nothing unusual about his career. He worked in industry for a…
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Understanding Negative Interest Rates
The next big theme I want to talk about is a pretty interesting one called, “Understanding Negative Interest Rates.” If you go to a bank and take out a loan, the bank charges an interest rate to give you that money. And if you have a credit card and use a $100 and the interest…
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CVC Capital Partners, Toshiba and What’s Really Happening There
The next big theme is titled, “CVC, Toshiba and What’s Really Happening There.” CVC Capital Partners, a private equity firm, is using their Asian fund to make something in the range of a $20 billion dollar bid to take Toshiba. I’m not going to talk too much about the mechanics of the deal because it’s…
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Insights and Implications of Declining Birth Rates
The first theme is called, “COVID-19 Is the World’s Best Contraceptive.” It’s been assumed for a long time that if you get two people to talk to each other and stare into each other’s eyes for long enough, they will eventually develop a bond. This connection starts with awareness and leads to empathy, friendship, and…
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How To Make People Follow You?
I want to end today by talking through some lessons from a client who is leading a large-scale change program at a very reputable investment bank. Part of the work he’s doing is to get the bank to relook at the clients and sectors they want to serve. It’s an important piece of work because…
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LG Exits the Smartphone Business
The next big topic is “LG Exits the Smartphone Business.” This has just been announced, and of course, there’s a lot of hand-wringing in South Korea and so on—wherever LG has their production facilities because it’s not a small business. It’s a multibillion-dollar business. Even though it’s losing money and hasn’t made money for a…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…