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To optimize a portfolio of brands, companies can use a five-step approach. First, managers decide on the brands to review. Second, they analyze all of the brands on the resulting short list with respect to each one's contribution to the company. Third, they assess the brands according to current market performance (traction) and future prospects (momentum). Fourth, the brands are classified along those three dimensions (contribution, traction and momentum), allowing managers to identify both challenges and opportunities. The process enables companies to sort their brands into different categories: power (a brand that needs to be defended ferociously and deployed judiciously), sleeper (a brand that with a little fast tracking can build into a power brand), slider (a valuable brand that has lost momentum, is slipping backwards and needs immediate intervention to prevent meltdown), soldier (a solid brand that contributes quietly without the need for much management attention), black hole (a brand that sucks up resources and may or may not ever pay out), rocket (a brand that is on its way to power-brand status), wallflower (a small, underappreciated brand with very loyal customers, often underpriced and undermarketed) and discard (a brand that should have been mothballed years ago). Lastly, the objectives for each individual brand are tied together into an overall plan, which will include any changes to the roster, brand architecture and resource allocation.

People often talk about business competition as if it’s a short race: Get to market first and you are bound to win. Indeed, the importance of first-mover advantage has been drummed into the heads of many business executives, and some have almost been brainwashed to think that speed is everything. But when a new technology like the Internet threatens to transform an industry, the companies that are quickest to respond aren’t necessarily the ones that reap the greatest benefits. In fact, choosing a fast strategy can lock them into a set of decisions that actually hurt them in the long run. Instead, organizations that choose the right strategy for the entire race & #8212; both for the early and late stages & #8212; will come out ahead. Specifically, we have found that companies that respond quickly by launching a spinoff usually have difficulty achieving true staying power in the market. For enduring success, incumbent companies are better off creating a group that is & #8212; or will eventually be & #8212; integrated within their organizations. Only then will they be able to tap fully into their numerous strengths and assets, leveraging their incumbent’s advantage.

Nearly half of M&A deals fail. A new framework can help leaders spot the risks before they become corporate divorces.

Companies can profit by reviving and reimagining past technologies to meet today’s consumer needs.

Analogical thinking helps leaders see problems in new ways by importing structures from distant, unrelated domains.

Employees who are anxious about change can regain their footing by being given a measure of control over how they work.

Amid external upheaval, effective leaders focus on flexibility, innovation, communication, and attentiveness to silence.

A virtual board doesn’t replace your real relationships but amplifies them, creating a hybrid brain trust.

AI’s ability to create value rests on the philosophy determining how and what it learns.

A new way of quantifying the value of time goes beyond productivity to measure time’s subjective value to individuals.