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Video

Too many projects

4 min.

May 2019

If “the essence of strategy is choosing what not to do,” as Michael Porter famously said in a seminal HBR article, then the essence of execution is truly not doing it. That sounds simple, but it’s surprisingly hard for organizations to kill existing initiatives, even when they don’t align with new strategies. Instead, leaders keep layering on initiatives, which can lead to severe overload at levels below the executive team.

IMD Professor Michael D. Watkins, along with Rose Hollister, recently carried out research for the article, Too Many Projects. Their research indicated the seven causes of initiative overload, as well as provided a step-by-step process to guide leaders.

In this new IMD Research and Knowledge video series, IMD faculty explore the surprising results from recently-published influential, research-based articles, and spell out the main learning points for business leaders.

If you think your organization is taking on too many initiatives and suffering as a result, you are almost certainly right.

Watch the video and find out what you can do about it.

Contact

Research Information & Knowledge Hub for additional information on IMD publications

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Optimizing omnichannel assortments and inventory provisions under the multichannel attraction model

By Andrey Vasilyev Sebastian Maier and Ralf W. Seifert
in European Journal of Operational Research August 2025, vol. 324, no. 3, pp. 799-813, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejor.2025.01.035

Summary

Contact

Research Information & Knowledge Hub for additional information on IMD publications

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General Management

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First-time CEO pitfalls, and how to avoid them - IbyIMD

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Contact

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Available Languages English

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Reference IMD-2681

Organization Hewlett-Packard

Industry Information Technology

Available Languages English

Contact

Research Information & Knowledge Hub for additional information on IMD publications

Related topics

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Browse all topics

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