Harvard Business Review

NOVEMBER 25, 2015

In a recent strategy meeting we attended with the leaders of a Fortune-500 company, the word “culture” came up 27 times in 90 minutes. So most executives manage it according to their intuition. How to Be a Company That Employees Love. It takes a careful mix of mission, management, and culture. Insight Center.

Motivation 8

Motivation Company Airlines Learning-by-Doing 8

Harvard Business Review

JULY 15, 2015

So how can companies increase their ROI of social media customer service? In our experience, the best companies are building up their social media capabilities to capture value by focusing on doing two things well: building a social media CRM to increase relevance and focusing on complete customer care.

CRM 8

CRM Company Airlines Guidelines 8

LDRLB

MAY 26, 2014

There’s even a story that Reed Hastings wanted a meeting with the people at Blockbuster to essentially give them the technology, saying let us handle your DVDs by mail and your future streaming business; you focus on the retail store. We observed this and saw lots of companies, lots of different industries doing it right and doing it wrong.

Early Adopters 60

Early Adopters Rogers Disruptive Innovation Innovation 60

Harvard Business Review

JUNE 29, 2016

Sky Futures, a third-party drone services company that specializes in such inspections, works with oil companies, such as BP, Shell, Statoil, and Conoco Philips, and has raised $9.5 Airlines Easyjet and Lufthansa have adopted drones as a tool for aircraft inspections. million in investment capital in just the past year.

Competitive Advantage 10

Competitive Advantage Company Outsourcing Analysis 10

Harvard Business Review

MARCH 30, 2017

While the announcement, made in the company’s recent annual report, seems to be a white flag of surrender, it could just be a yellow warning light. The company says it is taking action to ensure its future viability. The company must restore brand pride, alignment, and engagement throughout its ranks.

Retail 8

Retail Brand Airlines Apparel 8

Harvard Business Review

JANUARY 3, 2017

Retailers such as ALDI and Walmart have used price to position themselves against traditional competitors in their markets, pinching margins all around. Financial asset managers have been out-price-cutting one another in exchange-traded funds in a bid to gain market share. and Europe.

Price 14

Price Retail Discount Tactics 14

Harvard Business Review

MAY 28, 2018

In April 2017, United Airlines encountered public outrage when an Asian passenger was dragged out of his seat and off of an overbooked United Airlines plane. These results prompt a couple of questions for executives and managers. One, does your company hire individuals to interface with customers?

Company 8

Company Comparison Airlines Diversity 8

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

OCTOBER 4, 2018

The retail world in particular abounds with catch-phrases, habits, and commonly copied templates: “Say it with a smile.” Even if you’re a member of the company’s team, it is often better to say “I” than “we.” ” “Never say no.” ” “Sorry is a magic word.”

Analysis 14

Analysis Retail Airlines Reference 14

Harvard Business Review

APRIL 12, 2016

We see positioning in the airline industry. Australia, for instance, has three main domestic airlines: Qantas, Jetstar (Qantas’s no-frills line), and Virgin, which started out as no-frills and has since chased the business-class, high-margin segment. That’s not the story in the clothing industry.

Business Model 8

Business Model Airlines Retail Travel 8

Harvard Business Review

MAY 15, 2012

That's why I've begun to encourage senior leaders of companies, executives who run business units or departments, even mid-level managers who are responsible for a specific brand, to step back and take time (probably much longer than twenty minutes) and write their organization's obituary. Why might a company be missed?

Company 11

Company Brand Banking Long-term 11

Harvard Business Review

JUNE 8, 2015

Eighteen years ago, five airline companies—Lufthansa, Air Canada, United Airlines, Thai Airways and Scandinavian Airlines—formed an alliance with a vision to offer better services to their customers. Even when dealing with any one airline, they could enjoy access to the resources of several airlines.

Airlines 8

Airlines Hotels Operations Open-book 8

Harvard Business Review

NOVEMBER 23, 2011

If you're a retailer and you're not generating a non-stop flow of customized, interactive content, the writing's on the wall: Publish or perish. Here are four publishing approaches retailers are trying: The Mass Publisher. Mass publisher retailers create content of broad interest to their customers. Just look around.

Brand 15

Brand Retail Fashion Supply Chain 15

Harvard Business Review

FEBRUARY 8, 2012

The service companies that thrived coming out of the Great Depression — think Macy's and Disney — figured out how to take care of their customers in a climate of fear and uncertainty. It turns out winning service companies aren't great at everything. Use airline check-in kiosks for inspiration.

Airlines 15

Airlines Call Center Retail Bottom-up 15

Harvard Business Review

FEBRUARY 1, 2011

The Special Care Center does all kinds of things differently from other medical practices, including hiring full-time "health coaches" who work with the doctors but spend almost all of their time with the practice's low-income patients, helping them manage chronic illnesses and improve their lifestyles. They can learn about banking.

Training 17

Training Skills Airlines Health Care 17

Harvard Business Review

APRIL 26, 2011

And while these companies were the first to acknowledge the business benefits of delivering a great customer experience, business-to-business (B2B) organizations are increasingly getting in on the game. These customer experience management initiatives can be complex.

B2B 15

B2B Airlines Travel Stage-Gate 15

Harvard Business Review

OCTOBER 26, 2012

Welcome to problem #1 for retailers: The company knows that a potential customer has interacted with it across a lot of touch points but it has no idea that all these interactions are with Jane. Since each touchpoint yields a particular piece of data, this becomes a complex data management challenge. Be systematic.

Retail 12

Retail Loyalty Customer Loyalty ROI 12

Harvard Business Review

MAY 19, 2015

His letter announced a compensation restructuring, which accompanied a dismantling of hierarchy and the introduction of self-managed, self-organizing teams throughout the company. The purpose of a company, he proclaimed, was not to make money; it was to help its members (Stayer banned the term employee) thrive.

Management 8

Management Long-term System Delegation 8

Harvard Business Review

APRIL 2, 2014

The art of endurance can be studied in some of the world’s oldest companies. The company has been around for over 250 years. It started life as an ironworks company, pursued vertical integration by entering coal, eventually moved into pressed steel wheels before diversifying into front wheel drive technology and beyond.

Competitive Advantage 9

Competitive Advantage Airlines Telecommunications Long-term 9

Harvard Business Review

MARCH 10, 2015

Aggressive moves by airlines to migrate frequent flyer metrics from miles flown to dollars spent have caused bargain-hunting road warriors worldwide to whine about “disloyalty programs.” Airlines have clearly calculated that customers who spend more are more valuable to them than customers who fly more.

Customer Loyalty 8

Customer Loyalty Loyalty Airlines Hotels 8

Harvard Business Review

JUNE 13, 2014

Every CEO of a large company worries about the small competitor that will come from behind and change everything. Consider Southwest Airlines, which shook up the airline industry with its low-cost, high-customer service approach to air travel. What makes it work for our company? Who is that David to our Goliath?”.

Health Care 8

Health Care Innovation Airlines Retail 8

Harvard Business Review

JULY 20, 2016

After all, investment analysts at JPMorgan Chase are assigned to monitor specific industries, speak up in companies’ quarterly conference calls, help execute deals and transactions, and advise corporate clients. Only the latter strategy produces good results for both company shareholders and employees.

Long-term 8

Long-term Airlines Health Care Short-term 8

Harvard Business Review

MAY 31, 2018

The pharmaceutical company Valeant raised the price of Cuprimine — invented in 1956 and used to treat Wilson’s disease, a rare condition in which the body cannot process copper — from about $500 to about $24,000 for a 30-day supply, causing outrage from consumers. How to make your company more nimble and responsive.

CEO 8

CEO Short-term Long-term McKinsey 8

Harvard Business Review

DECEMBER 20, 2016

I’ve found that managers who fully embrace a superconsumer strategy learn more from their consumers through increased empathy. These managers are more persuasive at getting buy-in from the leaders in their organization, make better strategic decisions, and achieve more stable, more predictable, and longer-term growth.

Airlines 8

Airlines Energy Self-aware Learning Curve 8

Harvard Business Review

DECEMBER 18, 2012

People at all levels, especially management, witness the slow undoing of good customer service, product quality, or safety standards, and they don't say a thing about it. Even if it violates their own value system and the mission of the company. We ordered new stools for our kitchen from a hip furniture retailer.

Airlines 15

Airlines Retail Learning-by-Doing Quality 15

Harvard Business Review

AUGUST 7, 2018

Why is it that when a group of managers gets together for a strategic planning session they often emerge with a document that’s devoid of “strategy”, and often not even a plan ? Its other key stakeholders were distributors; customers-retail; customers-industrial/food service; consumers; and employees. The reason?

Strategic Planning 15

Strategic Planning Planning Document Airlines 15

Harvard Business Review

FEBRUARY 24, 2014

on devices that retail for less than $250. Kudos to Microsoft for not offering an across-the-board price cut – the move most companies would have made. For instance, when discount airlines started entering different markets, incumbent carriers typically panicked. Trust me, I’ve been in those harried meetings.

Discount 8

Discount Airlines Price Licensing 8

Harvard Business Review

MARCH 2, 2012

This is the "focused entry" strategy, a well-worn path in the history of successful startups (see Southwest Airlines). A focused entrant sees an opening in companies that are trying to serve everyone, but making no one truly happy. Southwest Airlines? Here companies often bring in outside consultants to validate their worldview.

Airlines 13

Airlines Banking Sharpe Price 13

Harvard Business Review

JANUARY 19, 2018

Why is that some companies have great heads of strategy who make an outstanding contribution to their companies while others don’t? Consider Staples, the office-supplies retailer, which had tumbled from being the market leader to being a third of the new leader’s size by 1992. alicemoi/Getty Images.

Strategy 8

Strategy Chief Financial Officer Short-term Chief Information Officer 8

Harvard Business Review

NOVEMBER 7, 2013

Wharton Business School professor Ian MacMillan wrote in a 1997 HBR article that companies seeking to differentiate themselves should examine every element of the customer value chain to find opportunities for improvement. In the 15 years since the article was written, this has become increasingly common practice.

Airlines 8

Airlines Banking Creativity Brand 8

Harvard Business Review

SEPTEMBER 23, 2016

Many business leaders are fond of the spurious Peter Drucker quote that “you can’t manage what you can’t measure.” For example, same-store sales or sales per square foot measure success in the retail industry, and various volume measures do it in commodity industries. Mismeasurement can lead to mismanagement.

Metrics 8

Metrics Business Model Retail Automotive 8

Harvard Business Review

APRIL 5, 2012

A district sales manager says: "These district sales rankings are unfair. Consider how market potential estimates helped a business within GE that leases over-the-road trailers to trucking, retail, and manufacturing companies. This keeps salespeople engaged and allows the company to hire and retain top sales talent.

Retail 9

Retail Incentives Tactics Pharmaceuticals 9

Harvard Business Review

SEPTEMBER 29, 2014

The late Julian Simon (better known, perhaps, for his optimistic views about population growth and resource abundance) thought up the idea for having airlines auction off overbooked seats and persuaded the Civil Aeronautics Board, which used to regulate airlines fares and entry, to permit the idea in the 1970s. This has all changed.

Strategy 12

Strategy Black-Scholes Airlines Price 12

Harvard Business Review

SEPTEMBER 29, 2017

companies probably assume that their employees have the knowledge and skills they need to carry out their jobs. One global technology company my team works with, for example, discovered that, on average, its sales employees didn’t understand or know about 22% of its product features, even though they believed they did.

Skills 8

Skills How To Learning-by-Doing Airlines 8

Harvard Business Review

FEBRUARY 4, 2015

But does the fact that it earned more money in one quarter than any company in history mean that our beloved Apple is alive and well? When Southwest Airlines started to occupy the same market space as established air carriers, the incumbents predictably focused more on business class and international routes.

Report 8

Report Disruptive Innovation Banking Insurance 8

Harvard Business Review

AUGUST 28, 2015

Companies were split into divisions, each with their own leadership. Today, a few organizations – like Medium, David Allen Consultants, and Zappos – are adopting a radically different, approach to management: holacracy. Authority flowed downwards and your rank determined your responsibility. What’s your mission?

Groupthink 8

Groupthink Agility Diversity Retail 8

Harvard Business Review

NOVEMBER 23, 2010

I also argued in my last post that the CEO has a critical and unique role to play in process improvement, enabling a companys activities to be redesigned across functions and divisions. But if board members conclude that their companys vitality depends on process improvement, what kind of CEO should they choose?

Process 15

Process CEO Insurance Banking 15