The Same Bet Twice: How Corning Cut the Budget and Kept the Capability
The business that almost destroyed Corning in 2001 is now its largest again. What saved it was not research spending, which it cut by 45%, but where it moved the scientists.
Invented Here, Captured Elsewhere: The Difference Between Inventing and Profiting.
Xerox invented the personal computer and earned almost nothing from it. Filings from eight companies show why: value goes to whoever owns what the invention needs, not who spends most on R&D.
The Partners: How Xerox Fumbled and Fujifilm Reinvented.
Xerox invented the future and lost it; Fujifilm lost its core and rebuilt. Two partners, two books.
Shimano: Freewheeling
He chose the freewheel—not the frame, wheel or saddle—the hardest component to manufacture well. The logic was simple: the most difficult part gives you the right to make everything around it. Quality, price and service became the founding creed.
The Hidden Economics of Ecosystem Lock-In
The strategy behind Shimano’s ~70% share, Apple’s 2.5 billion devices and Nespresso’s resilience after patents expired is the same: ecosystem lock-in. It creates real advantage, but rarely a permanent one. John Deere’s FTC fight shows where that advantage can go too far.
Technology Starts the Race. Ecosystems Decide the Winner.
Ron Adner mapped the ecosystem. Richard Foster mapped the curve. Read together, they see what neither sees alone.
Toyota: The Machine Nobody Could Copy — Until It Had to Copy Itself
For seventy-five years, Toyota's operating system has been studied, copied, and celebrated, yet never truly replicated. Today, certification scandals, a ¥6 trillion buyout, China's rapid rise, and new leadership test whether Toyota can carry that system into electrification and the next generation.
The Metrics That Lie: Why Measurement Decays, and What Holds It in Place
"What gets measured gets managed" is management's most repeated—and most misunderstood—phrase. Every metric is a proxy for a value, and every proxy drifts as it is optimized. The executive's task is not choosing metrics but continually realigning them with the purpose they were meant to serve.
The Book That Named Lean, and the Book That Explained It
Two books shaped how the world understands Toyota: "The Machine That Changed the World" (1990) and "The Toyota Way" (2004). Together they defined the operating system behind Toyota's success and remain the clearest account of industrial competitiveness in an era of reshoring and AI.
Starbucks and the Aristocracy Trap: Too Big to Smell the Coffee?
Between 2023 and 2025, Starbucks' operating income fell by 51%. China market share collapsed from over 40% to 14%. Six consecutive quarters of US same-store sales declined. This is not a story about bad execution.
What Survives: The Seven Factors of Corporate Longevity
Corporate longevity is the exception, not the rule. The median publicly traded US company lasts only about a decade, and size offers no protection.
Two Empires, One Lesson
Joël Glenn Brenner's The Emperors of Chocolate remains the only narrative business journalism of the American confectionery industry written from the inside...