Vertical integration at sea: MSC’s port acquisition attempt triggers competition concerns
6 June 2025 — CK Hutchison’s decision to sell a majority stake in its global ports business to MSC has raised widespread concerns across the shipping and logistics industry. The deal, which would significantly expand MSC’s port presence worldwide, could disrupt competitive balance and tighten control over global trade routes.
Increasing agility in decision-making to improve competitiveness
3 October 2018 — Corporations must increasingly be agile and timely decisions are critical to initiate changes. Complex organizational structures, management by consensus and unstructured decision-making processes hinder agility in decision-making.
Driving cost consciousness in product development with a light design-to-cost approach
26 September 2025 — Companies often face limited cost visibility and late procurement involvement, making savings hard to achieve. A lighter design-to-cost approach offers quick wins, builds awareness, and paves the way to the full process adoption.
Bringing agility to a traditional PMO to thrive in volatile situations
21 March 2024 — The program management office (PMO) has long been essential for large-scale programs and transformations. In this article, we provide a blueprint for integrating the latest best practices, with the advances in agile and lean methodologies, into a traditional PMO setup.
Managing complex programs – standardize and decentralize for efficiency and agility
28 March 2016 — In complex projects and programs, the choice of operating model (structure, processes and tools) is a key driver of success and execution efficiency. This article presents the evolution of a particularly complex technology program from a top-heavy organization to an agile “divisional” (self-contained) structure.
Securing strategy implementation through iterative operating model design
21 September 2012 — One of the most common debates in management literature is whether the strategy or the operating model should deserve more focus. The answer is usually something in between – strategy alone does not determine a successful company, but an operating model does not do that either. The trick lies in designing the equilibrium between these two; ensuring that the strategy is implemented through a good operating model design.
A successful turnaround requires structured thinking and rigorous execution on all fronts
5 January 2010 — Based on our work with SME companies, we have come across multiple paths that lead to a need for a drastic transformation – turnaround. We have noticed that managers are lacking tools and a process to complete a successful turnaround. In this article we introduce a systematic approach which is complemented with analytical tools and framework to manage a turnaround.
China ambitions in cruise sets their agenda for the full value chain
6 September 2021 — China has been actively moving towards the upstream of the value chain with ambitious plans, leaving the industry pondering what will happen next. In this article we try to shed some light on the implications.