How well does our system work? You can use the numerical index to check our blogs from the last big recession.
Much of the world suffered a severe recession from 2008 to 2011. During that time, we wrote more than 250 blogs using publicly available information and our Strategystreet system to project what would happen in various companies and industries who were living in those hostile environments. In 2022, we began to update each of these blogs to see what later took place and to check the quality of our conclusions. To date, we have completed the first 175 of our original blogs. You can use these updated blogs to see how well the Strategystreet system works.
A company can lose a customer’s business without ever learning there was a bid. That is an Invitation Failure, and it is the more damaging way to lose. Customers decide, long before they shop, who is worth asking, and two things decide it: Function and Reliability. A product that has been discontinued cannot be invited, and a reputation that has been damaged will not be. In 2008, only 41% of car buyers would consider a Ford or Chevrolet, while Toyota was invited nearly 59% of the time. Toyota’s lead has lasted: a 2026 Kelley Blue…
Read MoreGovernment regulation of prices allows customers to enjoy lower prices… In theory. In practice, regulation increases supplier costs and reduces supply, even in the face of increasing demand. Over the long-term, prices either meet supplier costs or suppliers withdraw. In any case, customers as a group face more limited choice. Here is the story of two government initiatives to reduce prices for consumers. Posted 3/31/08 There were two items of interest in recent press reports. Both suggest something about our fundamental beliefs in our economic system. The first instance occurred in California. The State Insurance…
Read MoreIn March 2008, individual investors were paying premium prices for hotel rooms in buy-to-let condo-hotel deals in London and New York — prices set to exploit demand, not to reflect what it actually cost to build the rooms. I called it a bad trade. The market didn’t wait long to prove the point: prices collapsed within a few years, and the same mechanism is still at work today, just showing up as rising costs instead of falling prices. Here’s the full arc — an 18-year case study in what happens when buyers show up at…
Read MoreThe story in this blog illustrates several important facets of competition in difficult markets. It demonstrates how market share is gained and lost even while industry leaders think they are competing well. It shows us that in tough markets the primary reason for market share movement is failure by an incumbent supplier. It also demonstrates how a relatively small competitor can become an industry powerhouse, first, by its own innovation and, second, by its competitors’ failures. Posted 3/10/08 Sprint Nextel appears to be in real trouble. A recent Wall Street Journal article offered a…
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