Strategy Driven

JANUARY 24, 2020

There was a time when the entry of an online alternative in a market would scare the hell out of small offline retailers. The consumer behavior was changing and the prices were getting aggressively competing; it was not easy for small retailers to keep up with their online counterparts. Take Amazon for example.

Supply Chain 75

Supply Chain Retail Software Marketing 75

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. In the upper left quadrant are the multi-year rollouts, like large Enterprise Resource Planning or supply chain modernization endeavors.

Supply Chain 15

Supply Chain CIO Budgeting Project 15

Harvard Business Review

MAY 31, 2017

Automating finance. This lets organizations reduce the amount of work outsourced to service centers and frees up finance staff to focus on strategic tasks. Smoother supply chains. Machine learning enables contextual analysis of logistics data to predict and mitigate supply chain risks.

Process 11

Process Company Supply Chain Software 11

Harvard Business Review

APRIL 30, 2015

These are the dry cleaners, restaurants, car repair operations, and local retailers that are part of the fabric of our daily lives. An important but less well-documented type is comprised of an estimated 1 million small businesses that are part of commercial and government supply chains (referred to as suppliers).

Supply Chain 8

Supply Chain Rivkin Venture Capitalist Policies 8

Harvard Business Review

APRIL 1, 2016

Right behind it are media, finance, and professional services, all of which have far more sophisticated digital capabilities than the rest of the economy. Burberry, for example, has set the bar among retailers by seamlessly integrating social media and immersive experiences into its physical stores.

Industry 8

Industry Benchmarking Supply Chain Health Care 8

Harvard Business Review

DECEMBER 6, 2010

Today, the guild mentality persists within companies, where functions such as marketing, sales, finance, IT, human resources and R&D all have their own area of special expertise. If the products are hits, that's even better; because it "owns the shelf," there's a direct link back to innovation and marketing.

Operations 13

Operations Competitive Advantage Supply Chain Retail 13

Harvard Business Review

SEPTEMBER 9, 2014

HBR: Is new products’ high rate of failure really a pricing problem, or does it reflect a more fundamental innovation problem? Of course, the pricing is always what signals the problem, but behind that it is how the innovation process is set up. They let evidence and facts drive innovation processes.

Price 10

Price Productivity Products Simon 10

Harvard Business Review

FEBRUARY 9, 2011

They do this by building consumer P&Ls through cross-functional teams across marketing, sales, supply chain and finance, much like some companies have built account and product P&Ls. Redbox, the innovator whose DVD dispenser machine rents DVDs for $1 per day, had also grown quite rapidly.

P&L 14

P&L Supply Chain Retail Price 14

Harvard Business Review

JANUARY 27, 2017

His group’s data science, procurement, and supply chain teams crafted algorithmic ensembles that, by all measures and simulations, would save hundreds of millions. The bad news: Petabytes of new data and algorithmic innovation assure that “autonomy creep” will relentlessly challenge human oversight from within.

Outsourcing 8

Outsourcing Software CAPEX Competitive Advantage 8

Harvard Business Review

DECEMBER 16, 2010

These six ideas emerged in 2010 as powerful "innovation invitations" and seem sure to intensify in power and influence. 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. That's right. Contestification.

Innovation 15

Innovation Supply Chain Business Simulation Advertising 15

Harvard Business Review

FEBRUARY 19, 2015

Apple fanboys and Samsung’s “Next Big Thing”ers would hoot with derisive laughter if The Wall Street Journal or Financial Times reported that GM or Ford planned to rewrite the rules of smartphone innovation. Apple demonstrably understands design, UX, and global supply chain alignment in ways few organizations ever have.

Automotive 8

Automotive Supply Chain Disruptive Innovation Retail 8

Harvard Business Review

FEBRUARY 8, 2013

Business units come and go, but finance, HR, IT, marketing, legal, and R&D are forever. It has sophisticated functions that together manage user-generated content, the in-depth tracking of consumer buying behavior, and the innovation of new features based on the resulting insights. Permanent cross-functional teams tend to fare better.

Supply Chain 8

Supply Chain Real Estate Short-term Merchandising 8

Harvard Business Review

SEPTEMBER 6, 2013

Lululemon, the upscale retailer of yoga clothing, is doing great. For years, the creative side of the company was the top priority, leaving things like finance, IT, and HR to suffer (yes, they tried to run their operations on spreadsheets). The authors also say Lululemon should probably pay more attention to its supply chain.

Supply Chain 8

Supply Chain Company Crisis Crisis Management 8

Harvard Business Review

JUNE 20, 2017

While consumer spending has proven resilient, with same-store retail sales rising 6% YOY in April , most multinational corporations are developing contingency plans to mitigate risks to their businesses and reassessing the country’s role in their global market portfolio and supply chains. Renegotiating NAFTA.

Supply Chain 8

Supply Chain Depreciation Uncertainty Marketing 8