Vijay Govindarajan - Fusion Strategy

How Should Companies Prepare for Debt-Ceilings Standoffs

Since a major realignment of the U.S.’s two-party political system is unlikely, we can expect partisan conflict and the subsequent debt-ceiling standoffs to continue for the foreseeable future. Corporate managers must not regard debt-ceiling crises as just political gimmicks, as they repeatedly and predictably affect firm profitability, growth prospects, and uncertainty. Managers must proactively gather information,...

Posted by: Vijay Govindarajan - 08/22/2023 at 06:08 am

Tuck GLP

We are in a strong position for 2023-24 GLP. Three observations: We’ll probably have 5 Consortium Companies with a cohort of 40-45 very high potential participants. This will be more than twice the size of the class that just graduated. We’ve revamped the curriculum which we will discuss in the Coaches Planning Meeting on July 11. Ramon has joined as a Co-Faculty Director. His passion and energy have...

Posted by: Vijay Govindarajan - 07/06/2023 at 08:31 am

Does Your Company Have an India Strategy?

The price-to-book ratios of Indian subsidiaries of multinationals far exceeds those of their parent companies. That suggests the subsidiaries have better growth prospects, which makes sense given India’s rapidly growing middle class. Read the rest of the post on Harvard Business Review.

Posted by: Vijay Govindarajan - 06/27/2023 at 08:30 am

Recent Technology Layoffs, CMR

Are recent technology layoffs a major disruption or a just minor course correction for past excesses? Read the entire post on CMR

Posted by: Vijay Govindarajan - 03/14/2023 at 07:04 am

HBR Special Issue

Of the 4,000 products Amazon sells every minute, approximately 50% are presented to customers by its personalized recommendation engine. When you visit the site, its algorithms select an assortment of products from about 353 million items and arrange them for you according to what they predict you will want at that precise moment. Read the rest of the post on Harvard Business Review. ...

Posted by: Vijay Govindarajan - 11/23/2022 at 07:59 am

Business School in the Metaverse: Part 2

Academic leaders and program directors traditionally innovate their MBA programs by altering curriculum design, adding new required courses, reducing the number of core courses, or offering more electives. These changes may incrementally improve MBA programs, but they certainly won’t transform them. Read the rest of the post on Harvard Business Review.

Posted by: Vijay Govindarajan - 11/22/2022 at 10:34 am

Tech Talent Is Flooding the Job Market

A recent series of mass layoffs in the tech sector, including Amazon and Meta’s dismissal of tens of thousands of workers, has created an incredible opportunity for companies that previously aspired to grow their ranks but couldn’t because of the lack of talent. Traditional firms that previously struggled to modernize business processes now have access to some of the best talent in the world. The same...

Posted by: Vijay Govindarajan - 11/22/2022 at 06:02 am

VR is a game changer

Educators and business experts believe that the vision of a metaverse, built on fast-developing virtual technology and augmented reality, has the potential to transform business education. Consider a European business school sending students on a tour of five factories across Asia, Europe, and the United States to interview managers and analyze day-to-day operational efficiencies and best practices—all experienced...

Posted by: Vijay Govindarajan - 11/17/2022 at 01:54 pm

IMS Lifetime Achievement Award

Humbled to receive the IMS Lifetime Achievement Award. The citation says: On behalf of The Institute for Management Studies (IMS), I am delighted to say that you’ve been selected for the 2022 Lifetime Achievement Award for your contributions to strategy and innovation. As you know, IMS’s mission is to leverage the power of thought leadership to improve the practice of management. During our 50-year...

Posted by: Vijay Govindarajan - 10/19/2022 at 07:53 am

The Unicorn Within: How Companies Can Create Game-Changing Ventures at Startup Speed

Dear friends and colleagues, As you may know, I am a Faculty Partner at Mach49, a Silicon Valley incubator that’s doing a lot of exciting work to help companies incubate and launch new ventures. I am delighted to share that their fearless CEO, Linda Yates, has a brilliant new book coming October 25th from Harvard Business Review Press: The Unicorn Within: How Companies Can Create Game-Changing Ventures at Startup...

Posted by: Vijay Govindarajan - 09/28/2022 at 01:17 pm

The Next Great Digital Advantage, HBR Special Issue

HBR editors have selected my article “The Next Great Digital Advantage" to be included in their forthcoming Winter 2022 issue of Harvard Business Review Special Issue, a collection of articles from HBR’s archives on new marketing tools. Read the artice here.

Posted by: Vijay Govindarajan - 08/24/2022 at 09:16 am

Restoring Shareholder Confidence When Your Stock Is Down

Numerous well-known companies have seen a decline of 60% or more in their stock prices from their recent peaks, all within a span of one year. They include Netflix, the streaming service; PayPal, the online payment company; Moderna, the Covid-19 vaccine maker; Roku, the digital media player; Peloton, the internet-connected stationary bicycle maker; Uber and Lyft, the rideshare...

Posted by: Vijay Govindarajan - 08/09/2022 at 07:13 am

How Companies Should Invest in a Downturn

Technology firms’ stock prices have declined recently, bringing memories of the early 2000s’ dotcom bust. For example, the value of Cathie Wood’s Ark Innovation ETF has declined by 75% from its peak. This downfall is quite similar to the 78% decline in Nasdaq from March 2000 to October 2002, which was followed by a recession. Read the rest of the post on Harvard Business Review....

Posted by: Vijay Govindarajan - 06/20/2022 at 05:50 am

Higher Ed’s Next Great Digital Advantage

Universities today face two competing choices: Should we go back to the erstwhile campus-centric, face-to-face education? Or should we leverage the lessons from remote teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic to redefine it? Read the rest of the post on Harvard Business Review.

Posted by: Vijay Govindarajan - 06/14/2022 at 09:34 am

The Growing Imperative to Build Leadership in Fourth Industrial Revolution

With lockdown in Shenzen tech hub in China and shipping disruptions arising from Russia’s attack on Ukraine, some of us have lost hope that we will ever receive that new phone, webcam, or car that we ordered during the Covid pandemic, and have patiently waited for months. This situation is not an outcome just recent events, but a culmination of series of events that led to contrasting...

Posted by: Vijay Govindarajan - 06/02/2022 at 05:42 am

How Companies Can Prepare for a Long Run of High Inflation

Consumers, businesses, governments, and investors are particularly concerned about recent inflation news. Thanks to demand continuing to outpace supply and Russia’s attack on Ukraine and the West’s subsequent sanctioning of Russian goods and trade, inflationary pressures and supply chain issues are real and here to stay. It’s important to develop an in-depth understanding of these problems and create a...

Posted by: Vijay Govindarajan - 05/02/2022 at 12:48 pm

The Next Great Digital Advantage

In our HBR article, N. Venkat Venkatraman and I argue datagraphs as the next source of competitive advantage. Datagraphs must drive strategy because they help companies create new pools of value. Digital companies such as Amazon, Google, and Netflix have come to dominate the market with their Purchase Graph, Search Graph, and Movie Graph, respectively, but the...

Posted by: Vijay Govindarajan - 04/13/2022 at 11:02 am

The Rapid Rise and Fall of Biotech Stocks Adversely Impacts the Society

Recently, President Biden announced an ambitious goal to reduce cancer death rate by at least 50 percent and to improve the experience of living with and surviving cancer. Why has the society not made faster progress on cancer front? Why do discoveries in biotechnology sector occur in fits and spurts? We claim that this slow and sporadic progress has a lot to do with the vagaries of capital markets. Let’s...

Posted by: Vijay Govindarajan - 03/16/2022 at 08:00 am

How Working with Competitors Made Jio a Telecom Giant

More than a traditional telecom business, India’s Jio Platforms is proving to be a disruptor. Jio was launched as a “freemium” service, offering free internet services to price-sensitive Indian customers to increase the adoption rate and scale up the market. Previously, Indian customers, whose average income is about $150 per month, had never had access to such a high-speed internet...

Posted by: Vijay Govindarajan - 01/03/2022 at 12:46 pm

MBA Programs Need an Update for the Digital Era

I want your reactions after reading the Harvard Business Review article. Consider three facts: 1. In the past two decades, there has been a major shift in value from industrial companies to the tech sector. 2. MBA program was invented in the 20th Century to produce managers for industrial companies. 3. We've introduced many innovations to the MBA curriculum in the last...

Posted by: Vijay Govindarajan - 11/11/2021 at 10:04 am

Winning The Right Game

My good friend and colleague Ron Adner is releasing an important book Winning The Right Game. It is a rare book that fundamentally changes how I think about strategy. Ron has now done this twice. If you haven’t read his first book, The Wide Lens, you are missing the big picture around innovation in ecosystems. With his new book, however, Winning the Right Game, Ron has taken an even bigger leap:...

Posted by: Vijay Govindarajan - 09/21/2021 at 07:42 am

What Zomato’s $12 Billion IPO Says About Tech Companies Today

Zomato, a food delivery company, is aiming to transform the eating habits of 1.36 billion people in India. In mid-July, its initial IPO was oversubscribed 35 times, giving it a valuation of $12 billion. Despite operating a traditional food business, Zomato epitomizes a modern tech company, and its successful IPO can teach us what a modern tech company is — and what it isn’t. It can transform whole industries,...

Posted by: Vijay Govindarajan - 08/06/2021 at 08:44 am

What the edX Acquisition Means for the Future of Higher Education

In a recently announced transaction, 2U will acquire all edX assets, including the brand, about 3,500 digital courses, and the website — with its 50 million learners. This development should serve as a wakeup call for other colleges and universities, which must start thinking about how to unbundle the value chain and outsource areas where others possess superior core competencies By partnering and controlling...

Posted by: Vijay Govindarajan - 07/15/2021 at 12:26 pm

Resist Old Routines When Returning to the Office

In places where pandemic restrictions are easing, companies must embrace this unique opportunity to retain the beneficial practices they adopted during the crisis. To do so effectively, leaders must be thoughtful about identifying which have been successful and deliberate in ensuring that the changes stick. We present a four-step framework to help leaders identify, retain, and sustain the changes that have been successful...

Posted by: Vijay Govindarajan - 05/11/2021 at 09:14 am

Mind the GAAP

Is a company making profit or a loss? Surprisingly, this question is becoming increasingly difficult to answer. Limitations in financial reporting will only increase with time, and changes in accounting rules to mitigate those limitations will not occur soon. We support the view that whenever appropriate, managers must report pro-forma earnings while detailing and explaining the reason for each exclusion. Using that...

Posted by: Vijay Govindarajan - 05/04/2021 at 09:13 am

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