Quotes from Rita Gunther McGrath

resources are directed by a governance mechanism that is separate from any given business unit.

You might contract with an innovation firm such as Innosight or Strategyn to help flesh out the business parameters and operating model.

Such firms realize that in contrast to the concept of "terminal value" from net present value (NPV)–oriented calculations, what one has instead is "asset debt"—the investment necessary to keep all assets at competitive best in class.

Amazon's "Mechanical Turk

The necessary resources are assembled to tackle a specific task or problem, and when the work is done the organization, such as it is, is disassembled and moves on to the next task.

access to assets, rather than ownership, provides flexibility and scalability without having to commit to a particular path

What we will see, increasingly, is a core of individuals who represent the long-term interests of the organization (its leaders and long-term staff) guiding the efforts of other people whose attachment is more episodic.

The temporary or "disposable" organizational form is all around us, and it fits well with strategies of rapid prototyping, quickly capitalizing on opportunities, and being willing to exit fast.

A related theme is to leverage external resources to the extent that you can, rather than trying to complete an ecosystem all by yourself.

When competitive advantages don't last, or last for a much shorter time than they used to, the strategy playbook needs to change. Leaders

Deconstructing reward systems, processes, legacy programs, structures, networks, and other elements used to deliver to an old advantage is not going to happen by accident and calls for real leadership.

Although dynamism and rapid change are all around us, people are not very effective when facing extreme uncertainty—it tends to be paralyzing.

outlier firms also appeared to have fewer big, high-risk all-or-nothing bets, which is also consistent with an options orientation.

change how you run the assets that deliver expensive nonnegotiable attributes.

limit the downside cultural and business risks.

They put serious investment into "soft" factors such as training and reinforcing their corporate values, which are backed up by meaningful symbolic actions on the part of their leaders.

CAT Telecom and TOT Plc, two telecom operators in Thailand, plan to merge their wireless 3G networks.

A stable organizational environment with transparent values is conducive to employees' feeling confident that they can take the risks that experimentation requires.

personal digital assistants (PDAs)

bewildering patchwork of technologies that are inefficient, hard to change, and rigid.

Trying to do more than the firm is capable of handling is tantamount to doing nothing.

stable competitive forces—take the time and effort to deeply understand these forces, and voilà, you can create a road map for your other decisions that is likely to last for some time. The emphasis in strategy was therefore analytical: because industries were assumed to be relatively

ambitions are important to long-term reconfiguration is consistent with what other observers have concluded is essential for preventing companies from becoming complacent and content

Think about it: the presumption of stability creates all the wrong reflexes. It allows for inertia and power to build up along