The sharp recession triggered by the 2008 financial crisis and the uncertainty created by the 2011 debt crisis have fundamentally reset the world. The new reality is austerity. But that should only be fiscal reality. Businesses, sitting on trillions in cash, seem to be using the economic environment as an excuse to build into their business a kind of strategic austerity that is inappropriate. In fact, when there are severe resource constraints, it is more important than ever to maintain audacious goals.

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Posted by Vijay Govindarajan at 08:42 AM | Permalink

Posted by Vijay Govindarajan at 08:24 PM | Permalink

What the rich world can learn from the poor and why it's so hard to put ideas into practice >>

Posted by Vijay Govindarajan at 08:22 PM | Permalink

As I explained in an earlier post, strategy is about transformation. In this video at the World Business Forum, I explain how the 3-Box strategy works:

Posted by Vijay Govindarajan at 08:15 PM | Permalink

The Thinkers 50 announced their bi-annual ranking of Management Thinkers recently. It is humbling to be ranked number 3 along side great management thought leaders as well as to receive the Breakthrough Idea Award for the $300 House Initiatiive. These recognitions are motivators to work even hard to justify these honors. Thank you for your support and encouragement.

Posted by Vijay Govindarajan at 09:42 AM | Permalink

You have probably heard the Wayne Gretzky quote about skating to where the puck will be a hundred times at least. But did you ever see it as the central metaphor for what truly innovative organizations must do?

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Posted by Vijay Govindarajan at 12:30 PM | Permalink

We believe this is the time for real leaders to come forward. This is the time for long-term thinking. The best time to prepare for expansion is during recession. Every recession is followed by growth. But how do you get started? Here are five steps.

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Posted by Vijay Govindarajan at 12:15 PM | Permalink

It’s the ultimate bottom-of-the-pyramid challenge: How do you create a well-designed, safe, and affordable house for the world’s poorest people?

When Vijay Govindarajan and Christian Sarkar posed that question in an HBR.org blog post in August 2010, they offered their own simple sketch of a possible solution—and wondered if a version of it could be mass-produced for $300. Since then the $300 house has become a full-fledged movement.

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Posted by Vijay Govindarajan at 12:55 PM | Permalink

The three-box approach is not reserved for those in the C-suite or for multinational companies. In fact it can be applied in any organizational setting: non-profit, for profit, in a factory or in a service organization, in a big conglomerate or a small family-run business.

To give readers a sense of how to apply the approach to their own setting, we interviewed Vijay Govindarajan and Brian Goldner, the CEO of Hasbro, Inc.

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Posted by Vijay Govindarajan at 12:41 PM | Permalink

We published the article article, "The CEO's Role in Business Model Reinvention," in January-February 2011 Harvard Business Review. The article urged forward-looking CEOs to manage reinvention with a "three-box approach": manage the present (box 1), selectively forget the past (box 2), and create the future (box 3). Leaders need to operate in all three boxes simultaneously. That's easier said than done, for the CEO must not only balance resources across the three boxes but also know what to destroy and what to create.

Brian Goldner, the CEO of Hasbro, Inc., was the chief architect of Hasbro's turnaround strategy in 2000, which focused on leveraging the company's core brands, reducing costs, and lessening its reliance on its licensed business. To do this, he relied and continues to rely on the three-box approach. In this edited conversation with HBR, Govindarajan and Goldner talk about how executives can implement the approach: http://hbr.org/hbrg-main/resources/pdfs/extras/transforming-your-organization-with-the-three-box-approach.pdf

Posted by Vijay Govindarajan at 04:10 PM | Permalink

In recent years Stanford University's BioDesign program has sent teams of engineering, business, and medical students into hospitals, hoping to identify medical problems that new devices could help solve. The students observe medical procedures, come up with ideas, and develop prototypes for the best ideas.

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Posted by Vijay Govindarajan at 03:56 PM | Permalink

Startups usually launch their products first in wealthy countries. Launching first in an emerging market is seen as a nonstarter because of commercial, regulatory, and political risks. This is starting to change: Pricewaterhousecoopers recently reported that faster approvals overseas are encouraging startups to enter the U.S. market last in some cases.

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Posted by Vijay Govindarajan at 09:08 AM | Permalink