Harvard Business Review

SEPTEMBER 13, 2012

An impatient marketing or finance manager would, on the sly, secure some extra budget money and hire a contractor to build a little database that tracked mailing addresses or top-line financials. Slowly but surely, as the little database grew bigger and bigger, the manager would wedge the cost into her operating budget.

Supply Chain 15

Supply Chain CIO Budgeting Project 15

Harvard Business Review

JANUARY 4, 2018

The ABU was set up as a centralized profit center with ambitious targets and with direct reporting to the chief operations officer; most often, similar units are organized as cost centers with no specific targets. This setup fosters focus on high-yield projects, actionable analytics, and speed of execution.

Company 8

Company Chief Operating Officer Incentives Project 8

Harvard Business Review

JUNE 2, 2011

Yet most organizations still operate much as they did in the industrial age. We manage the measurable, rather than the things that create meaning that fuels creativity, that enables innovative thinking and that helps any company to outpace the market. Nilofer Merchant is a corporate advisor and speaker on innovation methods.

Hamel 15

Hamel Customer Loyalty Creativity Cost Center 15

Harvard Business Review

FEBRUARY 2, 2016

You’ll often find customer relationship management within marketing, budgeting within finance, supply-chain management within operations, outsourcing within procurement, training within HR, and new product development within R&D. When functional boundaries prevail, there is no construct for managing capabilities.

Development 8

Development Supply Chain Incentives Outsourcing 8

Harvard Business Review

NOVEMBER 30, 2017

Many of the small and midsize manufacturers that did manage to survive kept going by cutting costs, which has led to stagnant wage growth. manufacturers do source from domestic suppliers, they tend to regard them purely as a cost center. In some instances, the end results were firm closures and lost jobs.

Supply Chain 8

Supply Chain McKinsey Incentives Bottom-up 8

Harvard Business Review

OCTOBER 1, 2013

From where we sit, both sides have legitimate beefs: IT complains that, despite the increasing penetration of technology into every nook and cranny of the business , it doesn’t have a seat at the table and no one understands how difficult their jobs are given the constraints under which they operate. Information & technology IT management'

Information Technology 8

Information Technology Technology Cost Center Constraint 8

HR Digest

JANUARY 5, 2022

And if not, what are the ways and means of creating a culture where employees are united by curiosity, knowledge, innovation and a shared sense of purpose. The HR Digest: What is Bosch’s secret sauce to being recognized as one of the “Best Workplaces for Innovators?”. Bosch takes great pride in its Business Resource Groups (BRGs).

Human Resources 52

Human Resources Education Resources Innovation 52