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With very few exceptions, it’s not a good idea for companies to make and sell substandard products and services.
Yet, that’s exactly what happened leading up to the 2008 financial crisis where banks bundled shaky and suspect mortgage loans known as collateralized debt obligations (CDOs) and …
Continue reading "When Is It OK to Sell a Substandard Product?"In a tightly interdependent global economy, information is exchanged everyday between people, communication networks and computers. Sometimes the information flow is benign or favorable. However, when the flow consists of gossip, rumor, bad news or panic, there is a tendency for such information to…
Continue reading "5 Strategies for Surviving Contagion"Think back to January 2008. Was your company prepared for the coming financial crisis that would happen later that year with Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers collapsing? Even better, look further back to April 2, 2007 when New Century Financial (one of the biggest body shops for sub-prime…
Continue reading "Recognize the Signs of Contagion"With the financial crisis of 2008 barely behind us, the wheels of globalization have slowed and, in fact, calls for protectionism are growing louder. However with the global integration of trade, capital, information and labor over the past decade, few people understand that our world is more…
Continue reading "The New Risk: Tight Interconnectivity"To forecast the future, marketing leaders often look to the past. But the past isn’t always a very reliable gauge of future conditions. For proof, we need to look back to a day-in-the-life of a turkey, and implications of not preparing for possible “extreme” events around the corner.
First, let…
Continue reading "Of Risk Control and Thanksgiving Turkeys"The global financial crisis of 2008 and beyond has shaken countries, markets, and individuals, in turn causing increased pessimism, angst and even anger. And yet, for those wishing for things to “return to normal”, a new survey argues that we’re in the “new normal”. What are the lasting impacts of…
Continue reading "The Great Recession: Things Are Different Now"“Inventory is bad, inventory is evil,” finance and operations professors intone across business schools worldwide. And every B-school graduate knows companies should balance enough inventory to meet customer needs while accommodating shifting preferences. That said, companies face a paradox;…
Continue reading "Is Inventory Still Evil?"Will tomorrow be like today? In planning assumptions for budgeting and forecasting, most marketers believe that events of tomorrow, next week and next year will be much like this year, or years past with just slight deviation. However a review of the global and economic landscape (in a wild 2008)…
Continue reading "Don’t Forget The Turkey!"Mathematical modeling is helping companies across the globe forecast more accurately, optimize supply chains, assess risk, and keep customers from churning to competitors. However, recent market conditions (i.e. credit crisis) have shown that while models can provide an “air of certainty”, solely…
Continue reading "Can Mathematical Modeling Be Trusted?"