https://www.scmp.com/rss/322591/feed Howard Yu is professor of strategy and innovation at IMD Business School with campuses in Switzerland and Singapore. He received his doctoral degree at Harvard Business School. Stay connected on LinkedIn and Twitter (@howardhyu) en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com Among a certain strand of tech enthusiasts, there exists a peculiar form of amnesia. It’s a sort of collective memory loss inescapable because of the many technology conferences happening each year: The Apple Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC); Game Developers Conference (GDC); The Next Web (TNW); South by Southwest (SXSW); TechCrunch Disrupt; and, the biggest, flashiest, and oldest – Las Vegas’ The Consumer Electronics Show (CES). The CES in 1977 in Chicago was where the world’s first... https://www.scmp.com/business/article/2131627/hyper-vision-almost-every-disruptive-technology?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/business/article/2131627/hyper-vision-almost-every-disruptive-technology?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 02 Feb 2018 04:03:05 +0000 We tell ourselves stories in order to learn. Kodak failed because its managers did not take digital photography seriously enough. Blockbuster died because its chief executive refused to invest in Netflix. Nokia disappeared because its executives were initially blind to the potential of the smartphone, and when they finally realised its importance, they stopped short by not cultivating enough app developers. We tell ourselves repeatedly that understanding the past will hold out the promise of... https://www.scmp.com/business/article/2126942/stubbornness-human-nature-face-accelerating-change-recipe-disaster?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/business/article/2126942/stubbornness-human-nature-face-accelerating-change-recipe-disaster?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 05 Jan 2018 04:02:55 +0000 Achieving a sustainable competitive position is every manager’s dream. Outlasting competition is difficult, and doing so over decades or centuries often seems impossible. Since the great Industrial Revolution, every country that has become rich started by copying others: the French copied the British, the Americans copied the Germans, and the Japanese copied pretty much everybody else. I remember my junior school teachers describing the Hong Kong economy as an “entrepôt,” a term the British... https://www.scmp.com/business/companies/article/2122474/how-stay-competitive-when-everything-can-be-copied?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/business/companies/article/2122474/how-stay-competitive-when-everything-can-be-copied?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 02 Dec 2017 02:15:12 +0000 According to a study by Adobe earlier this year, we spend an average of 3.3 hours checking our work emails each day. That’s 16.5 hours each week, more than 800 hours a year, and more than 37,000 waking hours over a career. That constant, ubiquitous excess of emails has become so ingrained in our professional life that it’s hard to imagine any alternative. Even the most powerful industry captain seems powerless in resisting the temptation of email and can only rationalise it as a sort of... https://www.scmp.com/business/companies/article/2118307/taking-regular-email-holiday-can-make-you-smarter?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/business/companies/article/2118307/taking-regular-email-holiday-can-make-you-smarter?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 04 Nov 2017 00:01:59 +0000 Last Tuesday, the world’s biggest chip maker, Intel, whose brand is synonymous with personal computers and laptops, announced that its former chief executive Paul Otelini had passed away in his sleep at the age of 66. As the fifth chief executive of the company, Otelini presided over the period of largest growth in the company, raising the annual revenue from US$34 billion to US$53 billion in 2012. In fact, more money was made under his eight year reign than in the previous 37 years of Intel’s... https://www.scmp.com/business/article/2114161/uncertainty-has-become-new-normal-era-moores-law-draws-close?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/business/article/2114161/uncertainty-has-become-new-normal-era-moores-law-draws-close?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 07 Oct 2017 00:02:28 +0000 This week, e-commerce giant Amazon completed its acquisition of Whole Foods, an upscale supermarket chain in the US. Almost immediately, consumers felt the Amazon effect: prices were slashed as much as 43 per cent on the first day. Once nicknamed the “whole paycheck” for its exorbitant prices, Whole Foods has been transformed overnight and now brings health food to the masses – organic avocados, responsibly farmed salmon, and animal welfare-rated lean ground beef – under its new owner. Amazon’s... https://www.scmp.com/business/companies/article/2109170/amazon-take-note-too-much-good-thing-always-backfires?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/business/companies/article/2109170/amazon-take-note-too-much-good-thing-always-backfires?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 01 Sep 2017 02:32:45 +0000 Tesla announced its earnings on Wednesday last week. Nobody expected chief executive Elon Musk to come through with any profits, unlike other carmakers. By merely posting less-than-expected losses for the second quarter, the company increased its share price by more than 6 per cent in after-market trading. Tesla’s lack of profits should come as no surprise. All start-ups must go through an investment phase. In 2016, the Palo Alto, California-based carmaker lost about US$770 million on US$7... https://www.scmp.com/business/companies/article/2105379/can-tesla-take-over-world-it-all-depends-elon-musk-finding?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/business/companies/article/2105379/can-tesla-take-over-world-it-all-depends-elon-musk-finding?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 04 Aug 2017 03:03:16 +0000 No industry captain has garnered as much attention as Amazon’s chief executive Jeff Bezos. When the e-commerce giant announced the acquisition of Whole Foods last week, its share price shot up to a record high of US$1,017. With his net worth swelled to US$84.7 billion, Bezos passed Warren Buffett to become the world’s second-richest person, only behind Microsoft Corp co-founder Bill Gates. Perhaps because of this astronomic windfall, Bezos tweeted his 222,000-strong followers, asking them how to... https://www.scmp.com/business/companies/article/2100725/how-corporate-earnings-matter-so-little-amazon?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/business/companies/article/2100725/how-corporate-earnings-matter-so-little-amazon?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 30 Jun 2017 07:32:07 +0000 Last week, when I was travelling through Singapore and Malaysia, I was using Uber everywhere. My local friends were using something else; they were all on Grab. Outside Southeast Asia, very few might have heard of Grab. But a lot of ink has been spilled in the region about the fight between the two car-hailing companies and how they have been able to prosper simultaneously. The world’s most valuable start-up and valued at US$68 billion, Uber has a war chest dwarfing that of Singapore-based Grab,... https://www.scmp.com/tech/start-ups/article/2096573/size-not-everything-you-need-get-ahead-wired-world?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/tech/start-ups/article/2096573/size-not-everything-you-need-get-ahead-wired-world?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 02 Jun 2017 00:02:20 +0000 Microsoft this week declared its intention to take back a market segment long lost to Google: the education sector. At a New York launch event on Tuesday, Microsoft chief executive Satya Nadella unveiled Windows 10s, which is aimed at the high school market. “It’s not like education is new to us. We’ve been there,” Nadella said. The challenge for Microsoft, of course, is that Google has the habit of offering everything free. Its Chromebook series, for instance, many made by third-party... https://www.scmp.com/business/companies/article/2093184/size-matters-relentless-rise-artificial-intelligence?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/business/companies/article/2093184/size-matters-relentless-rise-artificial-intelligence?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 05 May 2017 12:00:30 +0000 Elon Musk has been known as a builder who loves to construct things. He builds Tesla cars that lure buyers from BMW, Maserati and Audi. He founded SpaceX, which manufactures and launches rockets and spacecraft. He opened the Gigafactory, which produces lithium-ion batteries, and will be the world’s second-largest plant after Boeing. He runs SolarCity, the largest solar energy services provider in America. A sceptic of artificial intelligence, Musk has long scoffed the idea of letting the... https://www.scmp.com/business/companies/article/2083524/managers-must-push-new-capabilities-key-future-success?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/business/companies/article/2083524/managers-must-push-new-capabilities-key-future-success?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 31 Mar 2017 07:13:47 +0000 After years of underperformance, Sony finally experienced much-needed relief, showing the world its innovation prowess once again. According to a New York Times article, senior executives at Sony were all taken by surprise as its virtual reality headset was selling as fast as the company could make it. Merely four months after launch, close to a million units were sold. Meanwhile, Facebook-backed Oculus Rift had barely shipped more than 240,000 units, and HTC Vive another rival, sold 420,000... https://www.scmp.com/business/companies/article/2075538/sony-edges-ahead-facebook-virtual-reality-race?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/business/companies/article/2075538/sony-edges-ahead-facebook-virtual-reality-race?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 03 Mar 2017 10:04:52 +0000 Last Tuesday, Apple announced its results for the fiscal quarter to December 2016. As the world’s largest firm by market valuation, it has not disappointed the public in terms of its sales volume. After three consecutive quarters of overall year-on-year decline, Apple’s overall revenues rebounded during the last big holiday season, and shares rose more than 3 per cent, now only about 6 per cent off the record high of February 2015, when the firm was valued at $775 billion. Despite its stellar... https://www.scmp.com/business/article/2067769/tim-cook-delivers-astounding-profits-he-still-cant-catapult-apples-share?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/business/article/2067769/tim-cook-delivers-astounding-profits-he-still-cant-catapult-apples-share?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 03 Feb 2017 03:29:34 +0000 Ever since Amazon.com debuted a grocery store without a checkout line, the world has been forced to ponder a jobless future. Located in the company’s home town, Seattle, Amazon Go looks every bit like a 7-Eleven, selling bread, milk, and cheese as well as pre-made snacks and fresh meals, except there are no cashiers or checkout lines. You walk in, pick up what you want, and walk right out. All purchases are charged automatically. It is one-click ordering, brick-and-mortar style. The “just walk... https://www.scmp.com/business/companies/article/2059626/cutting-edge-retail-experiences-highlight-importance-humans-over?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/business/companies/article/2059626/cutting-edge-retail-experiences-highlight-importance-humans-over?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 06 Jan 2017 08:31:49 +0000 Elon Musk has stunned the car industry again. The famously ambitious CEO tweeted last Friday that Tesla will roll out self-driving capabilities in mid-December, right before Christmas. Model S, Tesla’s most popular sedan, and Model X, the family SUV, will receive incremental updates to their autopilot features. Owners will soon start enjoying features ranging from “exit ramp autonomy” on highways and automatic lane-changing, to auto-steering which helps cars navigate complex roads, and smart... https://www.scmp.com/business/companies/article/2051139/driving-innovation-lessons-integration-teslas-elon-musk?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/business/companies/article/2051139/driving-innovation-lessons-integration-teslas-elon-musk?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 02 Dec 2016 06:54:55 +0000 In what amounted to the biggest deal of the year, the American telecommunications conglomerate AT&T sought to purchase Time Warner, owner of Warner Brothers, HBO, and a trove of hit films and television shows, for a whopping US$85.4 billion. To put that amount into perspective, when HP stunned the world by announcing its intent to acquire rival Compaq in 2001, approximately US$25 billion changed hands to create the world’s largest computer company. In another example, Sony paid a mere US$2... https://www.scmp.com/business/companies/article/2043024/managers-should-resist-growing-temptations-becoming-one-stop-shop?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/business/companies/article/2043024/managers-should-resist-growing-temptations-becoming-one-stop-shop?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 04 Nov 2016 06:50:40 +0000 In 2014, unbridled optimism swept through Canon’s headquarters. Six years since the launch of the first iPhone by Apple in 2007, the Japanese camera maker made record breaking revenues in 2013. Despite the threat from smartphone manufacturers, Canon doubled down on its focus on high-end digital single-lens reflex cameras (DSLR). That strategy had paid off. Even when Sony’s point-and-shoot compact cameras were fast becoming irrelevant, Canon’s DSLR reigned supreme among professional buyers.... https://www.scmp.com/business/global-economy/article/2023710/snapchat-shows-why-being-product-company-dangerous-idea?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/business/global-economy/article/2023710/snapchat-shows-why-being-product-company-dangerous-idea?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 30 Sep 2016 08:03:06 +0000 When Pokémon Go launched in July, the game quickly swept up gamers in a craze across the world, capturing more than 20 million active users in less than two weeks. Children and young adults alike, who would otherwise stay indoors, went outside and socialised. Hundreds of players stormed to parks to catch Pokémon. Cafés, bars, and pizza restaurants were busy setting up “Lure Modules” – the purchasable in-game item that attracts the virtual monsters, which, in turn, increases real customer... https://www.scmp.com/business/companies/article/2012409/pokemon-go-passes-peak-augmented-reality-live?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/business/companies/article/2012409/pokemon-go-passes-peak-augmented-reality-live?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 02 Sep 2016 13:03:57 +0000 In 1997, an upstart company sent out its first letter to shareholders to explain its business philosophy. The young chief executive reportedly measured the firm’s success not by profitability but by market leadership as defined by growing market share. “We have invested and will continue to invest aggressively to expand and leverage our customer base, brand, and infrastructure,” he said. This is a textbook approach for a fledgling company during its early investment phase. Remarkably, the same... https://www.scmp.com/business/companies/article/1999215/successful-managers-can-turn-razor-thin-margins-profit?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/business/companies/article/1999215/successful-managers-can-turn-razor-thin-margins-profit?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 05 Aug 2016 07:01:28 +0000 Look at almost any industry and you will see companies struggling to differentiate what they have to offer in the marketplace. Managers often ask: “My product is becoming commoditised. Is there a way out?” The good news: executives who are prepared to rethink their approach can find a way out. But that, of course, does not mean it is easy. Let’s start by looking at the most common – but ineffective – reaction. When feeling trapped by competition, companies tend to spin faster and introduce new... https://www.scmp.com/business/companies/article/1983595/thinking-outside-box-will-help-avoid-commoditisation-trap?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/business/companies/article/1983595/thinking-outside-box-will-help-avoid-commoditisation-trap?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 01 Jul 2016 07:00:11 +0000 For Intel, Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard, and the like, Computex in Taipei this week is the Oscars of the information technology world. There is the flurry of product hype, from virtual reality (VR) headsets to the internet of things (IoT) to artificial intelligence (AI) devices. One big topic that everyone has in mind is: machine learning. The idea of a thinking machine goes back at least as far as 1950, when British computer scientist Alan Turing famously wrote that if a machine was... https://www.scmp.com/business/article/1963545/what-every-manager-should-know-about-artificial-intelligence?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/business/article/1963545/what-every-manager-should-know-about-artificial-intelligence?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 03 Jun 2016 04:31:51 +0000