Harvard Business Review

NOVEMBER 25, 2013

In our experience, companies that adopt this marketing analytics approach can unlock 10–20 percent of their marketing budget to either reinvest in marketing or return to the bottom line. CMOs need to start building this relationship by having a clear understanding of what CFOs expect. The opportunity is enormous.

CFO 8

CFO Short-term Long-term Benchmarking 8

Harvard Business Review

MAY 28, 2018

After digesting all of this data, Albert identified and bought more than 6,400 keywords to improve performance across RedBalloon campaigns in the first 24 hours of operation. As a result, the conversion rate from Facebook campaigns managed by Albert increased by 750% in Albert’s first year of operation. Not Albert.

Retail 8

Retail Audience Budgeting Advertising 8

Harvard Business Review

MARCH 23, 2015

They’re essentially asking the company to take the cash it has generated through its business operations and spend it on something with an uncertain future return. Several years ago, when I was serving as the company’s CFO, one of founders came to me and said, “Joe, I would like to buy a new three-dimensional printer.”

Finance 8

Finance NPV CFO ROI 8

Harvard Business Review

APRIL 13, 2012

Many people assume it's all about moving to a "pay-as-you-go" (PAYG) model and while this is certainly a big piece of it, it also involves operating versus capital expenses, subscriptions to services, and customers paying for outcomes (not technology). Why should a toy or cosmetics company own and operate multiple data centers?

CFO 15

CFO Operations Budgeting Technology 15

Harvard Business Review

APRIL 18, 2014

The project budget paid for the software and not a lot more. However, cash flow from operations had shifted from positive to negative, the company’s cash pile was dwindling, and the new product would demand R&D investment. Then it cut general and administrative expenses and sales staff to contain operating losses.

CFO 8

CFO Venture Funding IPO Retail 8

Harvard Business Review

JULY 8, 2013

You may have to be selfless, give up some of your budget. Certainly we know that heads of finance and HR tend to move around a lot more because the skills are very transferrable, and in fact it looks better for an HR executive or CFO to show a breadth of industry. They don''t necessarily know what a great CFO really looks like.

CEO 10

CEO CFO COO Industry 10

Harvard Business Review

MAY 8, 2014

Operational meltdowns can devour a midsized company’s cash. To use a different company example, one growing financial services firm’s new CFO learned this in 2004. The CFO couldn’t understand why. If the CFO has a realistic budget, it’s much easier for a midsized company to borrow money.

Crisis 8

Crisis CFO GAAP Banking 8

Harvard Business Review

DECEMBER 17, 2015

For example, Cesar Bocanegra started as VP for operations, then asked to take on human resources as well. Good Shepherd’s CFO, Greghan Fischer, for example, saw strong potential in Yan Li, a quietly competent member of her finance team. Fischer had Li practice leading budget meetings and provided feedback.

Development 8

Development Mentor COO CFO 8

Harvard Business Review

AUGUST 30, 2012

A few years ago, the chief operating officer launched a customer quality initiative to improve six core processes and assigned executives to "own" each process. But in the budgeting process, the initiative got little funding. Some point to politics in the C-Suite, especially to competition between the COO and CFO.

Company 8

Company COO CFO Insurance 8

Harvard Business Review

SEPTEMBER 11, 2015

Today, many high-profile companies— Cisco , Google , IBM , Samsung , Siemens , Disney , Volkswagen and Deutsche Bank , to name a few—contain such roving consulting groups to help solve the most critical strategy and operations problems throughout the business. We call everybody within the company a “client.”

Consultative 8

Consultative Team How To McKinsey 8

Harvard Business Review

SEPTEMBER 25, 2013

Managers who advance in their careers primarily by excelling at operational work go on doing operational work long after they could delegate those duties to other people. One of my students, a mid-sized company CFO, told me that every budget season he personally went through all the budgets to identify inefficiencies.

Porter 10

Porter Delegation Learning-by-Doing Project 10

Harvard Business Review

JANUARY 28, 2015

If it’s all about the operations then you lose sight of the customer. Rather than measuring marketing KPIs or operations KPIs, focus instead on the more customer-oriented journey KPIs, such as lifetime margin. Once the drivers of the costs of the journey are understood, marketing can work with operations to address them.

COO 8

COO Planning Metrics Call Center 8

Harvard Business Review

OCTOBER 6, 2015

It’s not feasible to lower prices across the board to match the web (“Our prices are the same as Amazon”) since Internet retailers typically have lower operating costs. Budget-conscious customers are on the lookout for deals. What does this mean for brick-and-mortar retailers? in the most recent quarter.

Discount 8

Discount Retail Price B2C 8

Harvard Business Review

JULY 21, 2016

When the CEO assigns ownership of analytics, that executive will command bigger budgets and more time on the board agenda and will oversee a powerful new pool of resources. As one financial services CFO told us, “Our mental models were so rigid that even how we thought about data itself needed to be challenged.

CEO 8

CEO Competitive Advantage ROI CFO 8

Harvard Business Review

JULY 21, 2016

Outside executive team meetings, new committees proliferate (HR, health & safety, budget, etc.) Another formed an “OpsComm” which eased tensions by giving more air time to operations executives who felt their issues were not thoroughly addressed in the broader executive team meetings. One executive I met had 37.5

Execution 8

Execution Team Committee COO 8

Harvard Business Review

JANUARY 16, 2015

If you were operating based on rational self-interest one could argue that you would buy as many tickets as possible. CSO, CFO, CIO, IT, Ops (Practice Leaders): Typically, these decision makers run cost centers as opposed to generating revenue. Imagine you’ve been offered a way to purchase $1 lottery tickets for a penny each.

P&L 8

P&L Due Diligence CIO COO 8

Harvard Business Review

JANUARY 15, 2016

The second leader is Jennifer, a leader in operations with a team that had recently doubled in size after an acquisition. He also saw how Sheila, his CFO, was going to be a critical expert for the group in a year where costs and budgets were coming to the forefront. You and Your Team. Improving Yourself.

Safe Harbor 8

Safe Harbor Goal Class Self-aware 8

Harvard Business Review

NOVEMBER 28, 2012

A week earlier, in an effort to close his budget deficit, Palacios had proposed a substantial tax increase on ash extracted from the islands, which is used in facial masks and other beauty products. Bennett, an operations manager, spoke up from the back of the room. territory for 15 years. What if we moved to another island?

Case Study 14

Case Study Press Release Proposal Cooper 14

Harvard Business Review

APRIL 9, 2015

“Introduce yourself, and take a little time to get to know people, how they operate, and how they act.” “When we have to be tough, when we can’t bend, it’s because our budget has been cut or we’ve got to hit our targets for the next quarter,” says Wheeler. Make small talk.

Supply Chain 8

Supply Chain How To Price Case Study 8

Harvard Business Review

JANUARY 27, 2016

” “What sort of budget increase are you suggesting we ask for?” ” Ken turned to his CFO, expecting a reaction, and got one: “Respectfully, Mari-san, I would be extremely uncomfortable putting a request of that size to management. That’s the only way we’ll get to quicker turn times.”

Case Study 8

Case Study Airlines COO CFO 8

Harvard Business Review

SEPTEMBER 21, 2015

Lotta Tindal, the chief marketing officer for the Dutch hospitality group Ervaring Hotels & Resorts, hadn’t wanted to come to the presentation, but Gerard Bakker, Ervaring’s CFO, had twisted her arm. But Lotta wasn’t yet ready to gamble a significant portion of her marketing budget on it.

Case Study 8

Case Study Travel Hotels NPV 8

Harvard Business Review

DECEMBER 8, 2016

Listening, Derek Melis, his friend and CFO, was relieved. And although senior managers’ remuneration was tied to Contect’s overall sales and operating profits, the head office had relatively little control over the 30,000 projects the company had underway at any given time. Now Vera was getting worked up.

Case Study 8

Case Study Decentralization CFO Construction 8