Harvard Business Review

MARCH 1, 2017

This view differs substantially from the relentless focus on efficiency that has characterized management thinking for most of the last three decades, but it is absolutely essential if companies are going to spur innovation and reignite profitable growth. Let me explain.

Efficiency 8

Efficiency Productivity Products Company 8

Harvard Business Review

APRIL 11, 2013

Under Johnson''s leadership, Penney''s share price plunged by half and the company lost $4 billion in sales. Pundits have ascribed Johnson''s debacle to hubris, incoherent pricing, drive-by leadership, overpromising, reckless haste, inept deal-making (ask Terry Lundgren ), and failing to listen to customers. It''s true.

Merchandising 14

Merchandising Retail Gordon Price 14

Harvard Business Review

NOVEMBER 15, 2017

Pioneers of new business models, such as Alibaba and Amazon, are launching innovations in rapid succession, such as voice ordering and real-time pricing, while simultaneously building scale and driving down costs. Danita Delimont/Getty Images. Few industries are being disrupted as drastically as the retail industry.

Retail 15

Retail Chief Executive Officer Supply Chain Operations 15

Harvard Business Review

JANUARY 27, 2017

At some of the world’s most successful enterprises — Google, Netflix, Amazon, Alibaba, Facebook — autonomous algorithms, not talented managers, increasingly get the last word. Elite MBAs (Management by Algorithm) are the new normal. Top management would have to trust its computationally brilliant bidding software.

Outsourcing 8

Outsourcing Software CAPEX Competitive Advantage 8

Harvard Business Review

MAY 5, 2016

Aggravated and depressed by the decline of their core memory business in the 1980s, Intel’s top management struggled for strategic clarity. ” That clean-sheet perspective emboldened Intel’s leadership to abandon memory and focus on microprocessors. How best to draw actionable inspiration from Grove?

Levitt 8

Levitt Disaggregation Kaizen Call Center 8

Harvard Business Review

APRIL 1, 2016

At the MIT Leadership Center, I recently spoke with another leader, Guy Wollaert, chief exploration officer at Loggia Strategy & Design, about similar experiences he encountered at another highly visible brand, Coca-Cola. Successful leadership isn’t just about the leader, it’s about the team.

Diversity 8

Diversity Retail Discount Brand 8

Harvard Business Review

AUGUST 11, 2015

Mauro Porcini is PepsiCo’s Chief Design Officer—the first to hold the position—where he oversees design-led innovation across all the company’s brands under CEO Indra Nooyi. That’s where our work is really about innovation. I strongly believe that design and innovation are exactly the same thing.

Organization 8

Organization Brand Six Sigma Innovation 8

Harvard Business Review

SEPTEMBER 4, 2015

Innovation is widely regarded as important to long-term business performance. We’ve found that CEOs of big pharmaceutical companies, for example, are more likely to have a background as company lawyers, salespeople, or finance managers, than one in medicine or pharmaceutical R&D.

CEO 8

CEO Innovation Pharmaceuticals Merchandising 8

In the CEO Afterlife

NOVEMBER 4, 2012

As fast as we could pin an idea on the wall, some red-faced account manager in a bad suit would run away with it. But even artists have to eat, and the fuel of commerce and industry is innovation and novelty. Economically I probably helped shift some merchandise. Let’s trade. Will work for food!” as the street-beggars sign says.

Advertising 265

Advertising Creativity Industry Bottom-up 265

Harvard Business Review

MARCH 8, 2011

All too soon, however, the demands of managing the near-term business take over. The surest way to build a company whose leadership will outlast your own is to focus your attention on the few essential things that your company can do better than anyone else. How thoroughly must they transform the company to make this happen?

Merchandising 15

Merchandising Budgeting Pharmaceuticals CEO 15

Harvard Business Review

JUNE 26, 2017

Rarely do people point to encouraging employees to disagree with their managers, as Amazon does, or firing top performers, as Jack Welch did at GE. I’m not just talking about the obvious problem of managers who treat their employees poorly.

Brand 8

Brand Company Operations Merchandising 8