Competitive Strategy

Starting in the late 1990s, a series of television shows with a novelistic sweep, many of them produced by cable channels, have redefined the medium; at the same time, technology has given audience members new ways to engage with each other and their favorite shows. As AMC’s executive vice president of marketing, Linda Schupack '92 has had the job of selling two of the biggest hits of TV’s second golden age: Mad Men and Breaking Bad. She talked to Yale Insights about creating great marketing for great stories.

The global luxury goods market recovered quickly from the financial crisis due in large part to growth in emerging markets, especially China. Chanel CEO Maureen Chiquet YC ’85 discusses how she shepherds the quintessentially French company in a fast-moving global market that may be transcending national identity.

Organizations that don’t conform to the norms of their market category are penalized with higher prices, according to new research co-authored by Professor Amandine Ody-Brasier.

Can laws created to rein in the monopolies of the industrial age still work in the information age? After spending a year as the top antitrust economist at the U.S. Department of Justice, Professor Fiona Scott Morton describes the state of antitrust regulation today.

Long-term thinking often gets lost in solving short-term problems, but the most successful companies make corporate strategy a top priority.

How can business leaders cultivate the broad understanding and strategic agility they need to build successful organizations? Charles Hill, an accomplished diplomat and co-founder of the Studies in Grand Strategy course at Yale, talks about how ideas from great thinkers—from Herodotus to Clausewitz—can improve business decision making.

The days of U.S. boycotts of South Africa are long gone. The country is an economic powerhouse in Africa and a key economic partner for the U.S. In four years as U.S. ambassador to South Africa, Donald Gips ’89 worked to increase investment and trade flows between the countries.

The Federal Reserve’s policy of open-ended quantitative easing emphasizes short-term tactics over longer-term strategy, writes Stephen Roach. “The focus, instead, should be on accelerating the process of balance-sheet repair, while at the same time returning monetary and fiscal policy levers to more normal settings.”

As legislators negotiate comprehensive immigration reform, Professor Mushfiq Mobarak explains, in a commentary in the New York Times, the importance of skilled foreign workers in sustaining the United States’ comparative advantage in science and innovation.

A recent online discussion with three experienced private equity professionals provided a survey of the industry’s development over the last decade, as well as advice for those interested in moving into the field. The participants were Peter M. Schulte ’83, Dan O’Connell ’80, and Sally Rocker ’81. The discussion was moderated by Andrew Metrick, Yale SOM Deputy Dean for Faculty Development & Michael H. Jordan Professor of Finance and Management.