Harvard Business Review

OCTOBER 6, 2014

Troubles at Tesco, the UK’s leading retailer, are mounting. If round after round of profit warnings was not enough – group operating profits fell 20% between 2011 and 2013 and are likely to fall another 30% in 2014 — the company recently announced it had overstated its first-half profit by about $400 million. How did this happen?

Retail 9

Retail Merchandising Discount Price 9

Harvard Business Review

JUNE 8, 2018

That “little” privately-held business has grown tremendously since its launch and currently has more than 90 physical retail locations and a highly successful eCommerce business. Like many competitors in the apparel industry, Vineyard Vines has kept their operations lean in order to preserve operating margins.

Retail 8

Retail Apparel Engineering Audience 8

Harvard Business Review

MARCH 21, 2017

It has also been acquiring e-commerce niche players, including Shoebuy and outdoor gear retailer Moosejaw, and digital technology companies, such as search experts Adchemy and cloud platform OneOps. Walmart has perhaps the best physical distribution and retail network in the world. It needs to be competitive on digital channels, sure.

IT Strategy 8

IT Strategy Strategy Core Competence Price 8

Harvard Business Review

DECEMBER 10, 2015

The assumption is that a merger will make it easier to achieve economies of scale, develop a large but narrow network of preferably healthy patients, establish data registries, and integrate expensive technology. Five main factors make our clinical partnerships work: Joint operating committees that meet regularly. Only time will tell.

Health Care 8

Health Care Committee Balanced Scorecard Discount 8

Harvard Business Review

AUGUST 11, 2014

The company simply straddled the two channels, without creating any operating linkages across them. This would have involved combining its unmatched store network with elements of online book retailing. But the average discount on full-time MBA tuition at high-ranking private U.S. They say yes; I say no..

Christensen 13

Christensen Education Discount Class 13

Harvard Business Review

JULY 17, 2015

Others may simply see no alternative to trying to keep the brand going at any cost, even if that means aggressive discounting, cheap licensing, or other tactics that erode long-term brand value. But by the 1990’s, big box retailers had taken over the market and the Service Merchandise brand no longer offered meaningful differentiation.

Brand 8

Brand Merchandising Retail Real Estate 8

Harvard Business Review

OCTOBER 24, 2017

These have forced AirBnB, Tesla, and Uber to make costly concessions to their operating practices or to exit certain markets altogether. The petition was seen as instrumental in getting the city council to adopt new regulations which permitted Uber to operate legally. How can new firms overcome the regulations that protect incumbents?

Licensing 8

Licensing Proposal Retail Long-term 8

Harvard Business Review

JUNE 7, 2016

Operations in a Connected World. Some retailers and manufacturers—in the apparel, footwear, and electronics industries—have launched programs to make their customers interested in preserving their products and preventing things that still have value from going to the landfill. Insight Center. Sponsored by Accenture.

Company 8

Company Apparel Incentives Retail 8

Harvard Business Review

OCTOBER 28, 2014

It’s not been a great year for venerable retailer Sears, which is reputed to be closing 130 retail stores and laying off more than 5,000 employees. Why shop there for tools or appliances rather than at Home Depot, Harbor Freight Tools, Kam Appliances, or some other big-box, discount, or specialty store?

Retail 8

Retail Quinn Real Estate Apparel 8

Harvard Business Review

APRIL 7, 2011

In 1974, hundreds of thousands of Australians with a bank account in good standing received a piece of plastic in the mail: a credit card, known as a Bankcard , launched and operated by a consortium of Australian banks. It was a bold move and the flow of credit quickly got the attention of retailers who moved to wide credit card acceptance.

Banking 14

Banking eBook Price Retail 14

Harvard Business Review

APRIL 26, 2017

It’s been more than 25 years since Bill Gates dismissed retail banks as “dinosaurs,” but the statement may be as true today as it was then. Other sectors of retail lending have not fared much better. This amounts to putting a toe in the water, while keeping current operations relatively separate and pristine.

Banking 9

Banking Stage-Gate Credit Scoring Competitive Advantage 9

Harvard Business Review

MARCH 14, 2017

Loyalty programs have proliferated across travel, retail, financial services, and other economic sectors. IBM, for example, is partnering with startup Loyyal to develop blockchain infrastructure for loyalty and rewards programs. The average U.S. What shape are blockchain-based loyalty networks likely to take?

Loyalty 9

Loyalty Customer Loyalty Travel Hotels 9

Harvard Business Review

MAY 13, 2014

Companies such as Opower and My Energy have developed these data systems, and they can now point to studies that show the combination of data and social pressure reduces home energy use. Putnam Investments has developed a “How Do I Compare?” How Data Visualization Answered One of Retail’s Most Vexing Questions.

Discount 8

Discount Energy Motivation Wilde 8

Harvard Business Review

DECEMBER 14, 2016

Consumer markets in the developing world are an enormous but still-untapped opportunity for companies seeking new sources of growth. billion rural consumers and about 3 billion of them live in developing countries in Asia and Africa. The Philippines is a nation of small retailers. By its sheer size, it has huge potential.

Marketing 8

Marketing Brand Cost Retail 8

Harvard Business Review

APRIL 17, 2017

Industry players have realized the marketing and cost-saving potential, too: automaker BMW powers the plant where it manufactures the i3 and i8 electric vehicles with a 10 MW wind park, and discount retailer Aldi Süd has installed photovoltaic panels on 1,000 supermarkets.

Energy 8

Energy Decentralization Industry Power 8

Harvard Business Review

JULY 8, 2014

Setting such goals is important, of course, but you first need to develop trust. And the small win is the shortest way towards developing trust: it helps partners to learn about one another and develop informal rules of collaboration. They tend to focus instead on mobilizing their stakeholders around big, audacious goals.

Company 8

Company Construction Seminar Long-term 8

Harvard Business Review

MAY 3, 2018

There was no need to make a telephone call to a distant operator; all the farmer needed to do was log in and order. Farmers, alone for hours on end in the fields driving their tractors, looked forward to calling the operator to place their orders. AgriCo’s online platform failed dramatically. They enjoyed the company.

Simon 8

Simon Call Center Motivation Metrics 8

Harvard Business Review

MARCH 17, 2016

The allure of discounting and the adrenaline rush of a price war seem irresistible, but they are delusions that have nothing to do with a low-price position. Don’t engage in over-the-top discounting that trains customers, both in B2C and B2B markets, to buy cleverly on price and price alone. Don’t start price wars.

Price 8

Price Airlines Govindarajan Advertising 8

Harvard Business Review

APRIL 25, 2014

They also tend to de-emphasize direct discounts, such as rebates and product offerings. While this may seem counterintuitive, this approach frees up sales reps from more administrative tasks, such as order management and developing sales collateral, to devote more of their time to customers. They keep sales costs low.

Marketing 9

Marketing ROI B2B Team 9

Harvard Business Review

OCTOBER 1, 2012

Opportunities may range from improving core operations to creating new lines of business — even in the same industry. In the case of a retailer we studied, data and analytics were part of a difficult battle for market share.

Strategy 8

Strategy Committee Retail Information 8

Harvard Business Review

SEPTEMBER 8, 2016

Founded in the 1930s, Lego developed a repeatable model that allowed it to grow for decades. Since Knudstorp took over, Lego’s revenues have increased by 400%, and its operating profit margin has increased from -21% to 34%. By 1993 the company had $1.3 billion in revenue. The results were amazing.

Company 8

Company How To Business Model Engineering 8

Harvard Business Review

MAY 6, 2013

They began grouping clients by practice and focused sales associates on developing industry trends and insights. Beside each operator was a large pile of partially assembled furniture. The team realized that to increase share-of-wallet, they needed to shift their perspective. Look for unorthodox opportunities.

Disruptive Innovation 8

Disruptive Innovation Hotels B2C Price 8

Harvard Business Review

MARCH 24, 2016

Credit cards, Facebook, and your iPhone are all, each in its own way, carefully tended marketplaces that bring together various groups to transact: Visa cardholders and retail merchants, Facebook advertisers and the social network’s members, iOS app designers and iPhone users. It would have been devastating.

Venture Capitalist 8

Venture Capitalist Long-term Marketing Travel 8

Harvard Business Review

JANUARY 5, 2017

Like marketers, politicians obsess over messaging (what journalists would call “content”) and a few key metrics that historically have determined success: amount of television advertising, number of “foot soldiers,” intensity of get-out-the-vote operations, and voter demographics. Two developments bear noting.

Media 9

Media Advertising Fixed Costs Content 9