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The 2024 Nobel Prize in Economics Goes To…..
The Nobel in Econ (a/k/a The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel) for 2024 was awarded a few days ago to Daron Acemoglu and Simon Johnson of MIT and to James Robinson of the University of Chicago. Here at Adam Smith, Esq., we try to... read more +On Being a Splendid Gray
In our third and final installment of the Maroons/Grays segmentation analysis, we presented this: Here’s a simplistic way of thinking about the two types of firms and the consequences for each of strong or of weak management. Maroons Grays Superbly run Steady as she...
Do Laterals Create or Destroy Value?
Ask almost any Managing Partner or office leader this question and odds are about 98% that the answer you'll get is, "It depends." Indeed. We wish there were reliable, consistent, industry-wide data on laterals' success ratios, but we've never seen it or even heard...
Maroons & Grays: Part 3
Let's open this third and final installment with the #1 question we're most frequently asked about this model: Can one firm excel at being both a Maroon and a Gray? No. Or in the very best of circumstances, it's extremely hard to do and it's usually done not well. In...
Maroons & Grays: Part 2
At the end of installment #1, we promised you we'd discuss what happens if you apply Porter's famous "five forces" to the Maroons and the Grays. Shall we? Insight from Porter’s “Five Forces” In 1979, Harvard Business School Professor Michael Porter published his...
Happy Birthday, Adam Smith!
Born June 5, 1723, Kirkcaldy, Scotland. Today he would be 296.