Prism articles
Issue 2, 2008
Global dominance through the emerging middle segment
Wilhelm Lerner, Kurt Baes and Petter Kilefors
The rise of emerging markets in the coming decades will have huge implications for companies. Any multinational company that aims to be a global leader must know how to capture a significant share of ...
Bringing business models down to earth
Herman Vantrappen, Henri de Bodinat and Michael Ungerath
The term "new business model" has an enticing ring to it, as it refers to a new and supposedly better way of making money. Ryanair, McDonald’s, IKEA and Amazon are examples that come to mind ...
New business models for mobile operators
Ansgar Schlautmann, Klaus von den Hoff and Nejc Jakopin
Just a few years ago, mobile network operators dominated their industry. The mobile phone ecosystem was in effect closed, and the network operators controlled not only the networks but also the ...
Product carbon footprinting - How to stay ahead in a carbon-constrained world
Peter J. Nieuwenhuizen, Philip W. Beall and Davide Vassallo
The climate debate has moved beyond the question of whether climate change is happening. The issue is no longer whether there should be limitations on carbon emissions, but when and how these ...
Back to basics - again
Herman Vantrappen and Yusuke Harada
Five years ago, after the bursting of the previous stock market bubble, the Prism article "Back to Basics" took a close look at the rules of the game followed by companies that have achieved ...
Understanding customer needs as the driving force for innovation
Interview with Stefan Leser
Service, individuality, quality and reliability have turned us into one of the leading travel organizers worldwide.
Issue 1, 2008
Black Swan events - Should you be concerned?
Philip W. Beall, Rodolfo Guzman, David Lyon, Geoff Stevens and Eleonor Kramarz
The discovery of black swans in Western Australia was a shock for scientists. Today those unexpected birds have become a symbol for the disruption of the bell curve that is used for most forms of ...
Innovation for top-line growth through product lifecycle management
Per I. Nilsson, Daniel Roos and Charles Boulton
Innovation is the holy grail of today’s business. But most companies are still dissatisfied with their innovation approach. They wonder whether they spend too little or too much on innovation. In ...
Private Equity: Strategies for creating value in a difficult market
Matthew Walsh, Nathan Shklyar and Petter Kilefors
The credit crunch and the subprime crisis have changed the landscape for private investors. But that doesn’t have to mean the end of the road for private equity. Good private equity firms have kept ...
Biomimicry: from curiosity to commercial reality
Cindy Dekeyser, Peter J. Nieuwenhuizen and Edouard Croufer
"Nature imitates art", argued Oscar Wilde, but today’s scientists imitate nature. This article examines the remarkable field of biomimicry, in which nature’s ingenious solutions to problems that have ...
"The customer is the determining factor"
Interview conducted by Peter Nieuwenhuizen and Victor Hanenburg
In this exclusive interview, Harri Kerminen, president and chief executive of Kemira, provides an insight into the participatory culture of the Finnish global chemicals group and reveals his thoughts ...