Dan Herman

Are you an MBA Clone? I challenge you to read my article titled: "Test Yourself: Are You an MBA Clone?". Take the short test and find out if you are an MBA Clone. If you've been diagnosed as one, I strongly suggest that you consider de-cloning, ASAP. De-cloning is possible, painless and very lucrative.

Standardization in MBA programs results in a similarity in the professional approach and managerial thinking of their graduates. Thus, many executives today turn into "MBA clones." In our hyper-competitive markets, MBA clones pose an imminent and tangible threat to the competitiveness of the companies they work for. What about you? Do you have the symptoms?

The comforting secret is that you don't need to be different in everything in order to succeed, only in certain things.

Once your Blue Ocean Strategy works, sooner or later someone will copy or even improve your already successful model, and your ocean will become red again. The critical question is: what can be done which is immune from imitations? Apparently the principle is simple. Introducing the Unfair Advantage.

The brand strategy is the translation of the competitive strategy into a language of promises made to the consumer.