Harvard Business Review

DECEMBER 27, 2011

As 2011 comes to a close, the editors of HBR.org are taking a look back at the most popular blog posts of the year to find out what most preoccupied you, our readers. HBR's 11 Most Popular Blog Posts of 2011. Four Destructive Myths Most Companies Still Live By. On Social Media Becoming Social Business. Don't bother.

Blog 16

Blog Silverman Govindarajan Letter 16

Strategy Driven

NOVEMBER 1, 2010

StrategyDriven effective executives, efficient employees Home About The StrategyDriven Organization Our Company Our Contributors Karen K. And not only are brands more vulnerable to shoppers’ unpredictable whims, but tools like social media mean that consumers also have more control. Juliano Howard T. Dickens Jr.

Brand 67

Brand Globalization Banking Long-term 67

Harvard Business Review

JANUARY 3, 2011

Companies that demonstrate strategic coherence — think Wal-Mart and Coca-Cola — earn a market premium in terms of higher earnings and greater shareholder value. The big question for many leaders as they look toward 2011 is: "How can my company be one of them?". There's no doubt about it; numbers don't lie.

Strategy 15

Strategy Fixed Assets Competitive Advantage Long-term 15

Harvard Business Review

DECEMBER 29, 2011

Our most-read slideshow in 2011 was " Difficult Conversations: Nine Common Mistakes." The Good Company: Then and Now. We took a look at the (really) big picture with a chronology of how our definition of "good business" has changed over the last century, from company towns to wartime production to triple bottom lines.

Video 15

Video Porter Customer Loyalty Charisma 15

Strategy Driven

JANUARY 21, 2011

StrategyDriven effective executives, efficient employees Home About The StrategyDriven Organization Our Company Our Contributors Karen K. One retail CTO summed it up well at a recent SAS event when he said, “We don’t want to just struggle through and be hanging by our fingertips when the economy recovers. Juliano Howard T. Dickens Jr.

Real Estate 66

Real Estate Magazine Rogers Long-term 66

Harvard Business Review

FEBRUARY 17, 2012

Within hours of Verizon's announcement of a new $2 "convenience fee" for one-time payments, 130,000 people had signed an online protest petition and the FCC had expressed its concern to the media. These episodes show how difficult it is for companies to mess with pricing. Thus, if wholesale prices go up, retail prices do too.

Price 13

Price Retail Press Release Banking 13

Harvard Business Review

APRIL 25, 2014

Many midsized companies dream of joining the Fortune 500 someday or of becoming the next General Electric, Microsoft, or Amazon. This lack of adaptability is not a problem in most small companies. This lack of adaptability is not a problem in most small companies. Take Instagram, the San Francisco-based social media company.

Operations 8

Operations Company Supply Chain Short-term 8

Harvard Business Review

JUNE 27, 2012

Tim Cook took over as CEO in 2011. Employees on the factory floor and in the retail stores are on the move, and it's not a completely positive journey. Wages and working conditions, particularly in China, have and will continue to receive intense media scrutiny. Neither bode well for the future. Fault Line #1: At the Top.

Supply Chain 15

Supply Chain Retail PR Industry 15

Harvard Business Review

FEBRUARY 29, 2012

But instead of spending hours in Best Buy or on Amazon comparing configurations and assembling the parts you needed, you could signal what you wanted and a company would create it for you. While social media doesn't shift Porter's model , the social era surely does. But the social era can — and will — be more than that.

Porter 17

Porter Mass Marketing Supply Chain Retail 17

Harvard Business Review

FEBRUARY 7, 2013

It is how some investors justify putting sky-high valuations on companies that are growing, but not yet making any money. On the other hand, there's Groupon, once lauded as the " fastest-growing company ever." Its stock price peaked weeks after the company went public in 2011 and is down about 80% since.

Quality 10

Quality Metrics Diversity Retail 10

Harvard Business Review

JANUARY 4, 2013

Faced with the recession, and the growing dominance of Amazon and other online retailers, many American malls are becoming ghost towns. Stores are closing — especially big ones — and new retailers aren’t stepping up to fill the empty spaces. Some CEOs Still Disregard Social Media (CIO Insight). SAY IT AIN'T SO.

CIO 8

CIO Real Estate Retail Reputation 8

Harvard Business Review

JANUARY 20, 2015

The market exit will stop Target’s continued losses in Canada and help the company focus on its strategic initiatives in the U.S. What caused the retailer’s problems in Canada, and what are the lessons learned? To entice shoppers to switch, Target had to differentiate itself from all the other discount retail choices.

Retail 8

Retail Merchandising Discount Price 8

Harvard Business Review

MARCH 8, 2012

The Indian government sponsored the introduction of 3G services in 2011 with a $30 billion spectrum auction. Fueling this explosion is a fact of national culture: Indians love media. hours of media and entertainment a day, while 70 percent of the national population spends money on content, both online and off.

Venture Capitalist 14

Venture Capitalist Entrepreneur Conference Franchising 14

Harvard Business Review

SEPTEMBER 9, 2015

While the contractions in business activity along global supply chains will cause companies to cut capital investments and inventories, we should remember that this is only the first leg of the phenomenon. Consequently, although companies should cut costs now, they should be on the lookout for the quick rebound that is likely to follow.

Supply Chain 8

Supply Chain Retail Crisis Operations 8

Harvard Business Review

JUNE 3, 2013

billion Tumblr deal pay off when she said that the 14,000-employee company would work very hard to ensure it didn''t "screw it up" by imposing Yahoo!''s Our research (discussed in detail in a 2011 Harvard Business Review article one of us coauthored) distinguished between two basic types of acquisitions. That''s a problem.

Advertising 8

Advertising Business Model Audience Retail 8

Harvard Business Review

OCTOBER 20, 2015

This popularity has enabled Heineken to raise admission prices by more than 60 percent since 2009 and increase retail sales per capita by 100 percent from 2009 to 2014. The Coca-Cola Company has seen similar success with its World of Coca-Cola in Atlanta. How leading companies connect with customers. Consumers opt in.

Brand 8

Brand Storytelling Trout Retail 8

Harvard Business Review

DECEMBER 2, 2013

Already in 2011 the Chinese spent more time on the Internet than watching TV , while in the U.S. The first set is related to what is happening in the offline world there: Existing media are weak. In fact, More than 40% of Chinese e-commerce shoppers first saw information about a product on a social media site before buying it.

Advertising 12

Advertising Retail Media Price 12

Harvard Business Review

APRIL 4, 2014

In the aftermath of the US financial crisis in 2008, companies from North America and Europe rushed into China, seeking to grow both sales and profits. Around the same time, the French beauty company, L’Oréal, said it would stop selling its flagship brand, Garnier, in the country. And Western Internet companies such as Yahoo!,

Supply Chain 9

Supply Chain Retail Chemicals Marketing 9

Harvard Business Review

JULY 17, 2015

Some executives may be reluctant to admit – perhaps for sentimental or political reasons — that their brand is sucking out more value from the company than it creates. But as Netflix and online media channels developed, Blockbuster was no longer unique in fulfilling that purpose, and the way it fulfilled it became anachronistic.

Brand 8

Brand Merchandising Retail Real Estate 8

Harvard Business Review

MARCH 3, 2011

Not long ago, I had the pleasure of visiting the resplendent headquarters of Hearst Corporation, the privately-held media empire that owns Good Housekeeping magazine — and its famous Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval. But, in 2011, ours is a different world, which made me wonder: Were these Hearst facilities artifacts of a by-gone era?

Productivity 13

Productivity Products Retail Telemarketing 13

Harvard Business Review

FEBRUARY 18, 2014

The announcement late last week of Comcast’s $45 billion merger with Time Warner Cable set off a predictable frenzy of hyperventilating by much of the technology media and self-appointed consumer advocacy groups. Among newer companies, Netflix has already dispatched physical video giants such as Blockbuster. Many of us do.

Technology 8

Technology Content Information Technology Retail 8

Harvard Business Review

FEBRUARY 14, 2012

"This business model is right for a company selling Purina Dog Chow, circa 1970.". Facebook, KickStarter, Kiva, Twitter, and other companies thriving in the social era are operating by the rules of the Social Era. But too many major companies — Bank of America, Sony, Gap, Yahoo, Nokia — that need to get it, don't.

Banking 16

Banking Business Model Supply Chain Mass Marketing 16

Harvard Business Review

JULY 24, 2017

On July 1, 2011, the Australian Government amended the Corporations Act introducing the “two-strikes” rule. Among the crowd are some of the nation’s largest companies – CSL, Woodside Petroleum, AGL Energy, Boral, and Goodman Group. If so, how? One approach can be seen playing out in Australia.

Execution 8

Execution Banking CEO Morale 8

Harvard Business Review

DECEMBER 13, 2013

I should know: Many of my former colleagues, friends, and family members mentioned these stereotypes in 2011 when I accepted a job helping launch a new publication covering the business aspects of this emerging sector. As a long-time business journalist in the mainstream media, my professional and personal reputation was on the line.

Industry 10

Industry Retail Banking Brand 10

Harvard Business Review

SEPTEMBER 28, 2015

What other company incites such a frenzy when it releases an updated version of its product? The recent iPhone 6S release went as expected: winding lines of eager consumers at Apple stores and fevered media coverage. There’s a strategy here that other companies can learn from. You have to hand it to Apple.

Planning 8

Planning Wireless Price Discount 8

Harvard Business Review

MARCH 29, 2012

billion , entrepreneurial companies with technology at their core have disrupted entire industries and threatened or eliminated incumbents. A 2011 IBM study of over 3,000 CIOs revealed that CIO-CEO alignment is stronger than ever, with traditional companies aggressively investing in technology innovation.

Technology 14

Technology Venture Capitalist CIO ROI 14

Harvard Business Review

AUGUST 14, 2013

The reality is that most revenue on the internet comes from either advertising or selling a service, and both are perceived as intrusions in the conversational environment of social media. Facebook and Twitter, designed for communicating and sharing personal stories, naturally put people in a social mindset.

Retail 8

Retail Content Tools Sample 8

Harvard Business Review

OCTOBER 6, 2016

The bank has since fired 5,300 employees for the illegal behavior and eliminated retail bank sales goals entirely. According to Stumpf’s testimony, a board committee became aware of the fraud “at a high level” back in 2011. of deposit accounts could be fraudulent. ” Deterrents to speaking up.

Banking 10

Banking Committee Leadership Ethics 10

Harvard Business Review

DECEMBER 1, 2010

Even before Google bid $6 billion to buy Groupon, the online coupon startup, earlier this week, the media and businesses alike were trying to make sense of this innovative new promotional tool. Forbes anointed Groupon " the fastest growing company. For many firms, the first strategy can make some sense. Avoid devaluing your product.

Discount 15

Discount Price Tactics Budgeting 15

Harvard Business Review

JUNE 20, 2014

But she also realized that the company needed to develop greater marketing muscle to drive a commercial transformation. She also took the unusual step of installing three CMOs who could help provide detailed insights into three of the main business groups of the company. As she put it, “Our markets are going through dynamic change.

CEO 8

CEO Marketing Hotels Long-term 8

Harvard Business Review

OCTOBER 21, 2013

The company already had a demo center outside London and a slick tradeshow setup to showcase how these work together in an effective system. A food company, for example, outfits vehicles with entire kitchens to demonstrate the most effective and creative ways to use its specialty food ingredients in food service operations.

B2B 8

B2B B2C Education Travel 8

Harvard Business Review

JANUARY 28, 2013

Now in its fourth decade, Star Wars is consistently among the top-five licensed toy brands, bringing in retail sales of more than $3 billion in 2011. "It Nor, from the selling side, is it just about big companies like Lego. Another beneficiary is The Cartoon Network, which has 2.2 This stuff isn't all just for kids, either.

Franchising 8

Franchising Licensing Merchandising Film 8

Strategy Driven

JANUARY 24, 2011

StrategyDriven effective executives, efficient employees Home About The StrategyDriven Organization Our Company Our Contributors Karen K. What did 2010 look like for you and your company? But there’s only one that really matters: Did your company effectively execute its plans and initiatives? Juliano Howard T. Dickens Jr.

Execution 68

Execution Company 360-Degree Feedback Cooper 68

Harvard Business Review

AUGUST 11, 2014

Even though we cannot say for certain the extent to which new businesses generate middle class jobs, we do know that company founders come from the middle class themselves. In contrast, loans to larger firms have risen every year since hitting bottom in 2011, and are now up about 4% since that low point.

Technology 9

Technology Banking Class Real Estate 9

Terry Starbucker

DECEMBER 27, 2009

Sometimes I find that the salesperson is almost annoyed to have to put down their preferred media long enough to say hello. Its probably unrealistic that an owner/founder of a company will find an employee, much less several, that is as committed as he. I think that is the key to great customer service. Del, I had a GREAT vacation!

Open-book 311

Open-book Price Blog Learning-by-Doing 311

Harvard Business Review

DECEMBER 16, 2010

They'll increasingly be a source of, and resource for, innovation differentiation in 2011, if not for your organization, then for the firm you most dread competing against. Whether Google Demo Slam or Sprint's App Competition , digital media has become an innovation battleground for customers, clients, prospective partners, and young talent.

Innovation 16

Innovation Supply Chain Business Simulation Advertising 16

Harvard Business Review

DECEMBER 20, 2011

These drivers underpin a number of stories from 2011, but a few new themes came out as well. Here's the rest of my top 10 stories, with callouts for companies and examples that typify the trend. Coca-Cola was not alone in facing increasing costs in 2011; one of my clients, Kimberly-Clark, took an earnings hit from record pulp prices.

Supply Chain 15

Supply Chain Apparel P&L Long-term 15