Shanghai train central station

Shanghai train central station from José Ferreiro

Lessons in Strategy

There is no one perfect strategy... That is why building up strategic thinking capability is so vital!

• TESCO built on founder Jack Cohen's "pile it high, sell it cheap" formula and willingness to experiment.

• SCHWEPPES cultivated "alternative coalitions" of managers who worked behind the scenes to anticipate changes.

• SMITH & NEPHEW overcame political infighting to develop respect between executives for different strategic viewpoints.

• PROCTER & GAMBLE taught executives that "strategic thinking capability" was essential to adapt to a shifting context.

Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) takes cloud computing tips from amazon

Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has developed a private cloud to support its application development process, using Amazon best practices. The project has enabled RBS to determine running costs of its IT infrastructure and provide service-based pricing. The self-service cloud, which is available through a portal, allows developers to provision Red Hat Linux, SQL Server 2008 R2 and Windows Server 2008 to deploy servers for their applications. The service is being used by more than 100 teams. Adoption within RBS is being spread by word of mouth.

Source: www.ComputerWeekly.com