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An HBR Refresher on Breakeven Quantity

Harvard Business Review

. “It’s one of the more popular ways that managers calculate marketing ROI,” says Avery, pointing out that other common ones include calculating the investment payback period, calculating an internal rate of return, and using net present value analysis. ” The company sells each pair of flip flops for $24.00.

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Walmart Broadens ROI for Green Power

Harvard Business Review

When addressing the company's aspirational goal of using 100% renewable energy, Bedore said two noteworthy things. For example] the longer term payback on solar helps us get to scale down the road.". When it comes to green projects, this narrowly-defined measure of "payback" is particularly destructive.

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How to Get People to Collaborate When You Don’t Control Their Salary

Harvard Business Review

Both these efforts help the payback period arrive sooner, making collaboration a smarter investment for the next wave of people. The bars in the chart below, for example, show how much your sales force increases revenue per client when people work across boundaries to sell multiple services. Drive down collaboration costs.

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How GE Stays Young

Harvard Business Review

For example, GE incubated an energy storage company (“ Durathon ”), which has gone from the lab to a $100 million business in five years. People in finance at GE, typically focused on return on investment and payback periods, love FastWorks because they get a better throughput of ideas. Partnering: getting ideas from start-ups.

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Accelerating Customer Adoption at the Bottom of the Pyramid

Harvard Business Review

Whether your goal is to tap this enormous, underserved market for a revolutionary new product, or to impact as many people as possible with a novel healthcare intervention , the question is the same. Making drip irrigation more affordable and appropriate for these farmers has been one of my main goals in founding Driptech.