The German drugstore Schlecker will be leaving the Dutch market. The price fighter faces decreasing revenue and decided to close all stores. Recently we have seen quite some companies aiming at price competition close their doors. Although it always has been argued that this strategy is not sustainable, it is interesting that it becomes clear […]

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One of the interesting fields of innovation today is business model innovation. Although technological innovations raise most interest and have the highest impact, business model innovation is the lever to business success in most cases. Examples like Google, Easyjet and IKEA prove that innovative business models can generate sustainable business success. In the module on […]

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Ever since the work of Peter Senge (1990) the concept of the Learning Organization remains the Holy Grail of management in contemporary business. This is merely due to the ever increasing pressure to keep reinventing products & services, business models and operational processes. Critique of Senge’s work was that it was too abstract to implement in organizations with rather vague […]

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Last week I read an interesting article by Mirjam van Praag about training as development aid for entrepreneurs in Developing Countries. She describes an approach that combines microfinance for these entrepreneurs with training in business administration. This is not only lifting the success rate of the entrepreneurs, but it also reduces the risks for financials […]

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This week I formally kicked off for my ultimate corporate learning experience: the start of my own company. This milestone is set with the registration at the Chamber of Commerce today. In September 2007 we (me and two partners) will be in business with Atrivision. We will focus on the link between organisation, learning and technology […]

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