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What U.S. E-Commerce Can Learn from Its Global Copycats

Harvard Business Review

When it comes to e-commerce across the globe, I''ve noticed a very interesting trend. Every new market I look at seems to have an Amazon-style copycat — a website that looks, functions, and sells products a lot like a well-known online retailer. We were unable to capitalize on first mover advantage.

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Business Model Innovation is the Gift that Keeps on Giving

Harvard Business Review

The model is designed to enable fast response to fashion trends, which allows Zara to ensure that its store shelves are always stocked with the trendiest clothes. In contrast, consider the following: Pfizer's blockbuster drug Viagra was patented in 1996, and went on the market in 1998. We have long been fans of the Zara business model.

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Growing, or Not, in an Age of Permanent Volatility

Harvard Business Review

In a recent Accenture study involving 1000 CFOs and CMOs across eight industries and a dozen countries in developed and emerging markets, 85 percent of executives expected their companies to grow at a rate equal to or significantly greater than global growth forecasts. Why is a growth market that "lifts all boats" so tough to imagine?

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Best Practices for Leading via Innovation

Harvard Business Review

Toyota's decade-long investment in its Prius sub-brand ultimately succeeded in strengthening the company's reputation as a respected product innovator while allowing Toyota to capture first-mover advantage in the fast-growing hybrid category. Enable organizational agility. Broaden perspectives.

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What Investors Need to Know About Zimbabwe After Mugabe

Harvard Business Review

This is promising for a market formerly dubbed the “breadbasket of Africa.” ” Once one of Africa’s most developed markets – with a solid education system, good infrastructure, and a relatively large middle class – decades of mismanagement have cost Zimbabwe. . billion a decade later.

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Why We Shouldn’t Worry About the Declining Number of Public Companies

Harvard Business Review

stock exchanges has declined by almost 50% from its peak in 1996, despite dramatic increase in aggregate market capitalization. Many conjectures have been offered to explain this controversial trend. This trend, we claim, is the single largest cause for decline in listed firms.

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What Groupon and LivingSocial Cannot Offer

Harvard Business Review

LivingSocial is not the first to create a compelling coupon offer. That honor goes to the market leader, Groupon. Now, thousands of companies are jumping on the latest trend trying to generate buzz for their products. million units sold in a single day ). At least that is the conventional wisdom.