The Private Equity Firm Buying All of Fast Food
Conventional wisdom holds scale as the ultimate competitive moat. The counterintuitive reality revealed by Roark Capital’s 25-year empire is that mass aggregation can mask strategic fragility—acquiring 110,000 franchise locations may build financial assets, not defensible businesses.
McDonalds owns their real estate. Why doesn’t Starbucks?
McDonald's real estate strategy isn't universally optimal—it's contextually brilliant. The paradox: Howard Schultz deliberately rejected Ray Kroc's proven billion-dollar playbook despite identical expansion ambitions, yet both built 40,000+ location empires.
Snapchat: From $30B Industry Leader to Another Dead App
Snap's collapse reveals how product innovation without sustainable business architecture creates terminal vulnerability. The counterintuitive reality: rejecting Zuckerberg's $3 billion offer in 2013 wasn't visionary—it was strategic myopia disguised as confidence.
Beyond Meat: From $10 Billion Darling to Penny Stock
Beyond Meat's trajectory reveals how narrative capitalism collapses when product economics fail. The counterintuitive lesson: celebrity endorsement and values-aligned positioning cannot indefinitely subsidize fundamental unit economics deficiencies.
Why Every App is Getting Worse On Purpose
Platform decay isn't market failure—it's calculated extraction. The counterintuitive reality: today's worst user experiences represent optimized business models, not broken ones. Companies deliberately degrade products because friction generates more revenue than satisfaction.
The Value of Case Studies as a Teaching Tool
This video explores the history, structure, and value of using **case studies** as an effective teaching tool in fields like organizational leadership. The practice dates back to the 19th century, starting with Harvard Law School student **Christopher Langdell** as an alternative to rote memorization.
4 Key Elements of an Effective Strategic Plan
"“Rowing harder doesn't help if the boat is headed in the wrong direction.”
Simon Sinek on How to Improve Strategic Thinking
In this short clip, author and motivational speaker Simon Sinek discusses how to make strategic thinking and business strategies more accessible and easier to implement. He argues that strategies are often made "incomprehensible" by vague language and lofty goals like "being the best" or "the preeminent supplier."
What is Strategy? It's a Lot Easier Than You Think
Strategy doesn't have to be a mystery reserved for senior executives. This video, based on a simple economic model, argues that strategy is fundamentally a plan to create value.
The Complete Strategic Planning Checklist
How do you know if you have a complete strategic plan? Our strategic planning checklist will walk you through the steps starting with your mission statement, connecting your vision to your goals, and creating an overall complete plan.