New York — IBM wants to buy Sun and is prepared to pay a hefty premium. Whatever this deal’s value to IBM, it cannot be anything to do with Sun’s operational integrity because that has declined as markedly over the last ...READ»
New York — Some of the world’s biggest companies are about to blow
one of the most exceptional growth opportunities in history. Seventy
million light vehicles are sold annually, demand is rising steadily
worldwide, the ...READ»
Tokyo — NBC’s Beijing Olympics coverage was over
the top, with more coverage over the air, on its cable networks, and
online than in all the years since the 1960 Olympics, combined. But
here’s the shocker: despite streaming ...READ»
New York — Talk about asymmetric innovation, today the big story was Microsoft hiring comedian Jerry Seinfeld for $10 million to help rebuild its stodgy image in what the Wall Street Journal called its “Battle to Beat Apple.” ...READ»
New York — Our new CORPORATE INNOVATION PROJECT shows what types of innovation are accretive and why. Look at the commercial aircraft business. Airlines are being killed by today’s fuel costs and many are reconsidering ...READ»
New York — The Wall Street Journal gave a big spread to Sharp’s $9 billion bet on LCD manufacturing today. But Sharp has had a NORTH RIVER MANAGEMENT GRADE F since we began collecting data on it in 1996 and is deep in ...READ»
New York — Chrysler is a victim of a huge problem that plagues Japanese industry and which our new CORPORATE INNOVATION PROJECT is designed to obviate: a fatal lack of demand management. The lack of demand management in Japan ...READ»
New York — Here is an intriguing tale of two innovators. Apple gets a NORTH RIVER MANAGEMENT GRADE A+ and Microsoft gets an A-. Since 1999, Apple has seen sales grow by four times and stock by fifteen times. Microsoft, ...READ»
Tokyo – I’m often asked here what it would take to become a top player in the $400 billion global market for cellphones. Motorola’s troubles offer a once in a decade chance to displace a large supplier and the tools of NRV’s ...READ»
The collapse of the U.S. automotive industry is, without question, one of the greatest tragedies of the age. Hundreds of thousands have lost jobs already and hundreds of thousands more will follow them in the coming years.
What ...READ»
New York — It may seem tasteless to say there is good news from China,
given all its suffering from last week’s catastrophic earthquake, but
there is good news. Wal-Mart, which gets my North River Management Grade A,
will ...READ»
New York — The real question in the acquisition of EDS by Hewlett-Packard is, can a NORTH RIVER MANAGEMENT GRADE B company make the acquisition of a Grade D company accretive? Experience says it cannot. At an operational level, ...READ»
New York — In my December, 2006 North River Advisor, Airbus, I warned that Airbus’
continued weaknesses while global demand for fuel-efficient, jumbo
commercial airliners explodes would attract a powerful new ...READ»
The following chart is based on a June 15, 1994 meeting I had with Dick Jalkut, then president of NYNEX Telecommunications. Dick said that his biggest problem was his outside plant. “It is too expensive to maintain,” he told ...READ»
To get my NORTH RIVER MANAGEMENT GRADE A and ensure profitable growth, more companies are using a “thin” propritary fabric that turns the Edison Model on its head.
These firms have adapted to market forces by ...READ»
Osaka, Feb 18, 2008 — Thirteen years after Sean White and I published The Total Quality Corporation which showed how companies can make money by going green, McKinsey last week announced to the world that companies can make ...READ»
New York, May 1, 2008 — Panasonic is on a tear. Never in history has a $90 billion a year company gone from a NORTH RIVER MANAGEMENT GRADE F to B-, let alone done it in six years. This is one of the most astonishing performances ...READ»
