Prayer recommended Todd Ordal A recent Wall Street Journal article highlighted the challenge J. C. Penney, Target and American Eagle are having in recruiting new CEOs. They are all large, well-paying, prestigious jobs. Why is this a problem? All three are experiencing significant declines. J. C. Penney recently fired its CEO, who had previously built the Apple […]
February, 2014 I’ve been asked several times whether there’s a logical progression in business strategy as a company ages. I’m talking about a company’s global strategy, the aligned set of actions to create a competitive advantage. I have no hard evidence that a sequential strategy shift is anywhere near universal, but I can tell you […]
Almost 2014 “Business is sure not what it used to be!” said a nonbusiness friend the other day. She was implying that it used to be less complicated, less global and, in her mind, have fewer scoundrels. She has, unfortunately, bought into the theme that business is evil and unpredictable. I replied that I didn’t […]
It’s about doing something different By Todd Ordal I used to fly airplanes. Most of my time was spent in a twin-engine aircraft flying business trips. It was an efficient way for me to get around because, at the time, I was in charge of hundreds of retail stores countrywide. In addition to flying business trips, […]
Taking a hard right with your strategy is a harrowing experiment. Just ask Ron Johnson and Bill Ackman, JCPenney’s former CEO and his previously supportive board member, respectively, who’ve both been bounced out of the company. Reed Hastings at Netflix also understands this, but so far he’s been relatively successful. The difference between the JCPenney […]
Disaster can happen quickly By Todd Ordal The recent plane crash in San Francisco brought the phrase “low and slow” into the public press. I’m not currently flying, but I used to spend many hours behind the yoke of a multiengine aircraft and have come close to that experience a few times. There are other apropos […]
The success secret you can’t see, smell or taste But you’d better be able to define By Todd Ordal I was once involved in a turnaround situation that required quick action. I looked at the company’s major accounts (ranked by revenue) and then had the CFO do a net (not gross) profit analysis by account. It […]
You need a strategy before you can execute successfully There’s a saying that people pass around a lot like it came from King Solomon: “It’s all about the execution.” As if strategy doesn’t matter. But, of course, it does. Executing brilliantly on the wrong strategy only makes you fail faster. As Sun Tzu said in […]
I bent over to fill the cat bowl the other night and vaguely remember slipping on a rug. The next thing I remember is waking up with my wife holding my head and my brain doing flip-flops. I’m still not sure exactly what happened, but am sure—based upon my head pain—that I smacked my noggin […]
Companies that try to serve multiple masters with one model get into trouble Years ago, I got a call from a customer who was mad as hell. She was from Dearborn, Michigan, and frequented a store we had there. At the time, I was in charge of 350 Kinko’s stores. (For you youngsters who weren’t […]