The Blog
Long-form essays, field notes, and frameworks from the FIRMSconsulting team — published weekly.
All posts
Published weekly-
China’s Belt and Road Strategy
China’s Belt and Road Strategy The final big topic is China’s Belt and Road Strategy, also known as the Silk Road Initiative. If China is setting up a network of interconnected sites to seamlessly move its products from China over land, sea and air to its biggest market, which is Europe in terms of proximity,…
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From Start-up to Operational Efficiency
From Start-up to Operational Efficiency The combination of Fiat, Chrysler and Peugeot group is creating a new holding company which is looking to merge the assets all these M&A bankers and M&A strategy consultants talk about—efficiency, synergies, etc. By default, most mergers fail. But this merger is interesting because given the size of the asset…
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Catching the Next Big Strategy Wave
Catching the Next Big Strategy Wave We’re going to stay in the telco sector for now. There have been on-again, off-again stories about how the New York Stock Exchange wanted to delist the three largest Chinese telco players. I’ve been a strategy consultant for a long time—all the way to partner and senior partner in…
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Nuances of a Private Equity Strategy
Nuances of a Private Equity Strategy Private equity and various forms of investment management have become the en vogue form of financing. Twenty years ago, it was investment banking, but now private equity has become the de facto, most elite form of financing—at least from a reputational and PR perspective. Private equity has gone through…
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Fear Is Not a Strategy
Fear Is Not a Strategy The Chinese government has done a phenomenal job in shepherding the economy to where it is today—a legitimate contender to be the largest economy in the world. China will almost certainly be the world’s largest economy if it isn’t already. Invariably, there’s usually a mistake measuring GDP, so by some…
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Electric Cars – The War Will Be Fought on the Operations Front
Electric Cars – The War Will Be Fought on the Operations Front Recently, there have been three big announcements in the automotive sector as it relates to electric cars. First, several major contenders that are challenging Tesla in the Chinese automotive electric car market have made plans to ramp up production. I’ve looked at the cars…
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Strategy is Hard: Coty’s Acquisition of Kylie Jenner’s Cosmetics Brand Example
Strategy is Hard: Coty’s Acquisition of Kylie Jenner’s Cosmetics Brand Example “It’s too early to say if Coty’s acquisition of Kylie Jenner’s cosmetics brand was a good decision or a bad decision. We’ll only know if the acquisition was a good or a bad decision if it works relative to what Coty planned to do…
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FC Insiders Update January 2021
FC Insiders Update January 2021 Over the last 3 months we moved to monthly FC Insider updates, versus weekly. As an example, in November we launched the entire Competitive Advantage with Kevin P. Coyne program (44 episodes plus 13 additional Q&As). In December and January we launched: – How to Solve Big Problems with ex McKinsey senior…
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Deep Specialization Creates Deep Value
Deep Specialization Creates Deep Value There is a great article in the Financial Times on deep specialization. It looks inside the font factory and the man who shapes the world’s letters. A font factory is basically a studio that designs the style of the letters you see published in, well, everywhere. We don’t take fonts very seriously. When…
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The cost of revolutionary ideas
The cost of revolutionary ideas Most people don’t have the confidence to push through revolutionary ideas. There was an article from the Financial Times about the makeover of Claridge’s in London, which is one of the most prestigious hotels in the world. While Claridge’s was being renovated—one of the most extensive renovations of any building in the world—they kept…
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One of the biggest strategy shifts ever in the next 10 to 20 years
One of the biggest strategy shifts ever in the next 10 to 20 years There was an interesting piece in the Financial Times related to how new is not always better. This shift is probably going to be one of the biggest strategy shifts in the next 10 to 20 years. Let me share with you a number of…
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The Myth of Case Studies and Best Practices
The Myth of Case Studies and Best Practices An article appeared in The Wall Street Journal about Pfizer’s development of the COVID-19 vaccine. I’m using Pfizer’s good work to contrast how hard it is to know when good work is being done. This article talks about the incredible drive and determination of pharmaceutical companies to roll out a vaccine in less…