Harvard Business Review

AUGUST 5, 2016

Under this financing structure, the company contracts to buy kilowatts, not the turbines and panels. So the PPA terms that retailers and tech companies sign have not worked for the heavy guys. They held about 40 meetings with companies that had bought renewable energy and with big project developers. Get early buy-in.

Energy 8

Energy Industry Finance CFO 8

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. The result?

Supply Chain 15

Supply Chain CIO Budgeting Project 15

Harvard Business Review

AUGUST 2, 2017

In the same way, investments in landmark digital projects that significantly enhance customer experience can help launch wider digital transformations. Even with the project’s delays and costs , city planners confronted the fact that the old infrastructure just wouldn’t fit the area’s transportation demands.

Planning 8

Planning Agility System Retail 8

Harvard Business Review

APRIL 6, 2018

In this case let’s make the business Dan Murphy’s, Australia’s largest liquor retailer with a national footprint. Now to ensure implementation, a strategic planning team must identify some project- or program-level actions. Strategic planning is a journey, not a project. Plans require on-going adjustment.

Strategic Planning 12

Strategic Planning Planning Objective Seminar 12

Harvard Business Review

DECEMBER 21, 2011

My team would have people with deep functional knowledge and skills (strategy, sales, marketing, finance, and information technology) to align surrounding processes. Consider Lowe's , America's second-largest home improvement retailer worldwide, with revenue of $49 billion and more than 1,700 stores.

Six Sigma 14

Six Sigma Skills Team Compliance 14

Harvard Business Review

NOVEMBER 23, 2010

Operations : Approaches problems practically; stands firm on issues, perseveres; maintains a standard of consistency and quality; provides stable leadership and supervision; develops detailed plans and procedures; implements projects in a timely manner; keeps financial records straight.

Process 15

Process CEO Insurance Banking 15

Harvard Business Review

JUNE 12, 2018

Telecom operators often provide the backbone communication networks required to run systems and applications. Companies that want to serve them directly often have to think outside the box when it comes to financing. In other cases, smart city projects present opportunities to generate advertising revenue and branding.

Real Estate 8

Real Estate Company Transportation B2C 8

Harvard Business Review

APRIL 23, 2014

There is a lot at stake here for GE’s operations strategy. At their training center in Louisville, they bounced ideas and product prototypes off of retail salespeople who came to learn about GE’s products. Vic Roos, Lead Purchasing Program Manager, explained, “We let a finance guy in the room. and compete successfully.

Ries 8

Ries Waterman Finance Learning-by-Doing 8

Harvard Business Review

NOVEMBER 23, 2010

He started very well, but as soon as his cash flow improved, financial burdens from family systems stifled his operations. When artisans have no understanding of their cash flows, they fail prey to spending a big percentage of their working capital, without meaning to, on non-business issues that usually cripple their operations.

Books 13

Books Guidelines Banking Telecommunications 13

Harvard Business Review

APRIL 19, 2016

manufacturers, wholesalers, and retailers, according to a leading technology industry analyst. In some industries, 3D printing is projected to reach the mainstream in three to ten years. Are there operations you would shed? trillion in inventories held by U.S. As an example of the complications ahead, let’s look at taxes.

Supply Chain 8

Supply Chain Execution Analysis Technology 8

Harvard Business Review

FEBRUARY 8, 2013

The men and women who choose this path have diverse expertise and job responsibilities: marketing, leadership development, communications, operations, new business development, purchasing. Some have decades of experience in their industry. Some are recent graduates. What all have in common is a vision about possibilities.

Real Estate 8

Real Estate Constraint Entrepreneur Restructuring 8

Harvard Business Review

APRIL 29, 2015

MedStar operated nine hospitals, but realized that its long-held objective of increasing revenue and profits at those venues was unsustainable, given the outcries over runaway medical costs. These new ventures would operate separately from the core hospital assets and would compete in new ways in the health care marketplace.

Strategy 8

Strategy Long-term Health Care Insurance 8

Harvard Business Review

FEBRUARY 29, 2012

You might simply Pinterest the elements you liked, including information about your space or noise limitations ("One-bedroom apartment on busy street in New York," or "suburban space that needs stuff protected from little kids"), and then have a retailer give you a personalized, optimal configuration. Big Isn't Enough.

Porter 15

Porter Mass Marketing Supply Chain Retail 15

Harvard Business Review

DECEMBER 13, 2013

Professionals from the banking, finance, investing, and accounting worlds. Technology, marketing, retail, HVAC, construction, and manufacturing pros. Earlier this year, we projected that sales will hit $6 billion by 2018. There will be retail marijuana chain stores a la Starbucks and cannabis-infused beverage brands like Coke.

Industry 8

Industry Retail Banking Brand 8

Harvard Business Review

JANUARY 23, 2018

For example, the California Data Collaborative is a data pooling effort among a coalition of water utilities, cities, and water retailers to create an integrated, California-wide platform to provide accurate technical analysis and better inform water policy and operational decision making. Data collaboration is not a zero-sum game.

Company 8

Company Policies Media Analysis 8

Harvard Business Review

JANUARY 27, 2017

In reality, “handoffs” and transitions prove to be significant operational problems. At one American retailer, an autonomous ensemble of algorithms replaced the entire merchandising department. Data scientists in business process algorithmization scenarios are project managers.

Outsourcing 8

Outsourcing Software CAPEX Competitive Advantage 8

Harvard Business Review

OCTOBER 6, 2016

The bank has since fired 5,300 employees for the illegal behavior and eliminated retail bank sales goals entirely. Instead, he called this an operations and compliance issue, perhaps not realizing that both of those functions influence corporate culture. Even now, Stumpf adamantly refuses to hear criticism of the bank’s culture.

Banking 9

Banking Committee Leadership Ethics 9

Harvard Business Review

SEPTEMBER 9, 2014

Pricing pressure is more intense in retail, less so in areas like top-branded luxury goods or highly differentiated machinery. Madhavan: For many years, CEOs and executives have focused on improving the bottom line through cost cutting, finding efficiencies in operations and the supply chain. Externally, the reasons vary by industry.

Price 9

Price Productivity Products Simon 9

Harvard Business Review

JUNE 26, 2013

With the swipe of a credit card, the customer support team can move to Zendesk or Desk.com; the HR team lives on Workday; the business intelligence group moves to GoodData or Domo; the finance team logs into Netsuite; the marketing department orbits around Marketo and Salesforce''s marketing cloud.

Supply Chain 8

Supply Chain Competitive Advantage Information Technology How To 8

Harvard Business Review

FEBRUARY 17, 2016

This frugal solution is built around affordable and easy-to-use medical devices that can be operated by nurses in rural clinics. Compte Nickel charges a flat annual maintenance fee of just 20 Euros (compared to 180 Euros charged by retail banks). Yet, over 5 billion people worldwide don’t have internet access.

Cost 8

Cost Globalization Innovation Banking 8

Harvard Business Review

MAY 8, 2017

Some companies that made the list were obvious choices; for example, the biggest online retailer now gets most of its profit from cloud services (Amazon). While Amazon has expanded its core retailing platform into new categories, such as food and streaming content, in parallel it has built the world’s largest cloud computing enterprise.

Franchising 13

Franchising CEO Business Model Strategy 13

Harvard Business Review

NOVEMBER 29, 2010

The staggering capital requirements of todays projects — think billion dollar semiconductor factories — dwarf those of yesteryear. The staggering capital requirements of todays projects — think billion dollar semiconductor factories — dwarf those of yesteryear.

Banking 15

Banking Crisis Merton Guidelines 15

Harvard Business Review

FEBRUARY 7, 2014

As an organization or project grows, and as its challenges change, it not only needs to recognize new priorities, it needs to delete or deemphasize old ones. Just a couple of weeks ago, BuildDirect received $30 million in additional financing led by Venture Capital firm Mohr Davidow. The average order size is 1,500 pounds.

Venture Capitalist 8

Venture Capitalist Brainstorming Proposal CEO 8

Harvard Business Review

NOVEMBER 30, 2010

His most recent books are Competing on Analytics: The New Science of Winning and Analytics at Work.

Guidelines 14

Guidelines Education Telecommunications Emotional Intelligence 14

Strategy Driven

FEBRUARY 4, 2011

Tactics deemed as ’standard operating procedure’ for some companies were exposed and ridiculed by others. Operational Statistics. Retailers make 70% of their earnings in the fourth quarter of each year. people steal $20,000 from coin-operated machines. Formerly sainted icons went down in disgrace.

Ethics 76

Ethics Cost Crisis Learning-by-Doing 76

Harvard Business Review

SEPTEMBER 12, 2014

Who at your company will be put in charge of turning buildings operations from a cost center to a revenue center? And many companies also face additional energy-related costs from their commercial vehicles, of which there are over 12 million in operation in the U.S. Operational Improvements. Take lighting, for example.

Energy 8

Energy Resources Cost Center Budgeting 8

Harvard Business Review

SEPTEMBER 12, 2014

Who at your company will be put in charge of turning buildings operations from a cost center to a revenue center? And many companies also face additional energy-related costs from their commercial vehicles, of which there are over 12 million in operation in the U.S. Operational Improvements. Take lighting, for example.

Energy 8

Energy Resources Information Technology Cost Center 8

Harvard Business Review

MAY 31, 2011

Compared to 18 months ago, a strong majority of workers (61%) are collaborating on more projects outside their immediate or nominal work group; that's more than three and a half times as many as those that are not (17%). With the next it might emphasize process discipline to implement a strategy targeting operational excellence.

Team 12

Team Short-term Proposal Uncertainty 12

Harvard Business Review

FEBRUARY 8, 2013

Business units come and go, but finance, HR, IT, marketing, legal, and R&D are forever. For example, Walmart doesn't succeed just because of a strong operations group. Many of these teams will dissolve once the project is over, and their members may not work together again. Permanent cross-functional teams tend to fare better.

Supply Chain 8

Supply Chain Real Estate Short-term Merchandising 8

Harvard Business Review

NOVEMBER 24, 2015

Stakeholders ranging from your supply chains to customers that walk into retail storefronts increasingly prefer to do business with companies that pursue cost-effective sustainability. Investing in such systems today can insulate companies from rising retail prices for grid electricity, eventually saving billions of dollars per year.

Management 8

Management Payback Period Energy Supply Chain 8

Harvard Business Review

MAY 20, 2014

The debates ( pro and con ) around these projects have brought data journalism out of its niche in digital media conferences and trade publications into the limelight. One of the main sources of data for this project is a handpicked collection of news articles going back as far as 1988, maintained by one journalist.

Offshoring 8

Offshoring Media Analysis Project 8

Strategy Driven

MARCH 28, 2016

It took years for Apple to gain traction despite offering what critics consider to be a superior operating system. It began as a small direct sales operation, with no plan for national distribution. When word of mouth grew, no retailers had the DVD to meet the demand. Then, there is 50 Shades of Grey.

Productivity 50

Productivity Products Marketing Strategy Budgeting 50