Increase, Decrease, or Shift Investments in Projects

Companies with healthy balance sheets are positioned to make strategic investments during a downturn to threaten competitors and emerge from the business cycle in a much stronger market position. Can you raise the capital to invest or shift in-flight investments using a severe portfolio review? Now may be the time to invest. ...

... "Although now is the time to take a close look at your IT projects, an economic downturn can be exactly when IT investment should take place. " ...

Via Accounting Web: IT Strategy and Recessionary Actions

Brutal IT Strategy

Financial industry achieves competitive advantage through brutal IT strategy that "kills the competition and takes no prisoners". ...

... "The front office is conducting the war and IT is one of their assets to be deployed on the battlefield and make something work better, cheaper or across a wider geographic area. " ...

Via ComputerWeekly: Banking IT strategy

IT Vendor Green Ranking

ABI Research did nice job with this green vendor ranking, looking for the vendors to "eat their own dog food" by implementing sustainable practices internally as well as offering green products as services. HP edges out the competition, but it is good to see the large vendors making strong moves in this area. ...

... "Hewlett-Packard emerged as the winner in ABI Research’s Innovation category, which measures how green a vendor’s products are. It was a very close contest because of the extensive efforts both IBM and Cisco have been making in this market. " ...

Via ABI Research: The Greenness of Data Center Equipment Vendors

Holistic Strategy Looks Beyond Competition to a Different Place

I like Oren's thoughts on differentiating your company from the competition with a visionary business strategy. I think the same applies to formulating an IT strategy --> asking yourself how will this IT strategy differentiate the enterprise in its market? ...

... "That's a given for corporate survival. But when an organization's strategy revolves around its competition, you can bet that the strategy will be more defensive and reactive than groundbreaking ... " ...

Via Oren Harari: Essence of Strategy

Enabling Growth: Interesting Insights into China Market

Interesting insights on China market from Bain and Co. Consumers are moving up-market, while local and multinational players adjust and adapt to capture the higher growth market segments, through operational efficiency and quality improvement. ...

... "The result: China's middle market is growing faster than the premium and low-end segments combined, and accounts for nearly half of all revenues in some product categories such as televisions and washing machines. " ...

Via Bain & Company: China Battleground