A Profile in Values-Driven Leadership: Jeffrey Hollender, co-founder of Seventh Generation - Hollender lived (and died?) with values at Seventh Generation

Recently Jeffrey Hollender, co-founder of Seventh Generation and sustainability pioneer, was told to pack his bags and hit the road by the company’s powers that be. While a letter from Seventh Generation’s Chairman, Peter Graham, hints that the “managerial complexities” had exceeded Hollender’s capabilities one wonders what the real reasons were behind the sudden and unexpected departure of the man who labored tirelessly to build such a powerful brand.

A New Look at Strategic Planning - Has the old tried-and-true SWOt analysis become obsolete?

I have been through a number of strategic planning processes. Most of them include some variation of the traditional SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) and the final product is usually a large, nicely bound, strategic plan. Upon completion, after a sigh of relief that the work is done, the plan typically hits the bookshelf or desk drawer and it’s rarely revisited until the next planning cycle begins 12 months later. In some cases parts of the plan have been obsolete before we even had a time to print it out because of the rapid changes happening in the business and the market.