Harvard Business Review

JANUARY 23, 2012

Trend lines, market sizing, and competitive benchmarks that served companies well during periods of gradual market evolution do little good in industries where new technologies create seismic shifts, demand is uncertain, and rivals emerge from left field. Industry upheaval often calls for tough choices, and consensus will not be possible.

Strategy 14

Strategy CEO Strategic Planning Consensus 14

Harvard Business Review

JULY 9, 2012

They have budget approval and consensus, up to the highest levels of the organization, to move forward on a major purchase. In our research, we found that because emerging demand opportunities require more time to develop, the sales cycle times of high performers is, in fact, longer than that of average performers.

Benchmarking 14

Benchmarking Budgeting Consensus Maturity 14

Harvard Business Review

MARCH 10, 2011

The motivation behind it, as with many, many articles published over HBR's nearly 90-year history, was to take an effective practice developed in one corner of industry and spread it to managers everywhere. Did it surprise him to find that there was so little consensus on the best way to solve the problem of assigning a cost to capital?

CAPM 13

CAPM Cost Discounted Cash Flow Cost of Capital 13

Harvard Business Review

JULY 5, 2011

It is about developing hypotheses about the future. The strategy is fuzzy, and traditional metrics can't be applied early in the process, because that which is truly new has no frame of reference nor benchmark. the company may not look so relevant in that future. For this process, it is best to take a 10-20-year perspective.

Critical Success Factor 15

Critical Success Factor Innovation Stage-Gate Succession 15

Harvard Business Review

JANUARY 11, 2011

for the quarter, just barely clearing the consensus estimates of $0.40. When what our colleagues and employees do every day becomes no more than a benchmark to beat (e.g. Later, a different boss recognized and encouraged my talent for reaching out to people, and his praise enabled me to further develop that skill. The problem?

Proposal 15

Proposal Benchmarking Consensus Morale 15

Harvard Business Review

MARCH 10, 2011

There was little consensus about cost of capital practices; instead, respondents typically deployed a plurality of techniques. Only 46 percent use the perpetuity growth model, while 27 percent develop an explicit cash flow forecast for the entire life of a project.

Cost of Capital 12

Cost of Capital CAPM Cost Discounted Cash Flow 12

Harvard Business Review

DECEMBER 17, 2014

To get everyone to agree on a realistic goal, we suggest picking a year far enough in the future that people feel safe discussing what needs to happen by that time but not so far away that uncertainty about technological or market developments would render a discussion meaningless. You can also use publicly available industry benchmarks.

Innovation 9

Innovation Company Venture Capitalist Business Model 9