Harvard Business Review

MARCH 10, 2015

Nurturing customer loyalty requires a better understanding of its nature, and the nature of loyalty depends on the economics of the business: loyalty to automobiles and mobile phones is qualitatively and quantitatively different than loyalty to hotels and airlines. Who is truly more valuable to an airline or hotel chain?

Customer Loyalty 8

Customer Loyalty Loyalty Airlines Hotels 8

Harvard Business Review

JANUARY 29, 2018

For the former, we examined the presence and market penetration of disruptor companies; we also considered incumbents’ financial performance. For the latter, we measured incumbents’ operational efficiency, commitment to innovation, and defenses against attack. Supermarkets are a case in point.

Industry 8

Industry Fixed Assets Retail Market Penetration 8

Harvard Business Review

MARCH 15, 2016

The idea is to fast-forward a project, so you can see what the end result might look like and how the market will react. Sprints make an excellent commitment device — when you gather a team, clear the calendar, and schedule customer interviews, you commit to making progress. The sprint corrects these problems.

Consensus 8

Consensus Hotels Project Fast Follower 8

Harvard Business Review

JUNE 22, 2016

But all assets are not created equal, especially as the technological landscape changes. In today’s market, tech platforms enable IP and relationships to scale rapidly, and at near-zero cost. Even when these firms rely on physical assets, like cars for Uber, they own the technology, not the physical asset.

Intangible Assets 9

Intangible Assets Business Model How To Intellectual Capital 9

Harvard Business Review

SEPTEMBER 14, 2011

The first experience involved extensive field visits to India and China as part of work with a multinational company looking to boost growth in those markets. Our team collectively spent about 100 days across the two markets, visiting urban areas, rural areas, homes, retail locations, hospitals, and more.

Innovation 10

Innovation Disruptive Innovation Christensen Hotels 10

Harvard Business Review

JUNE 2, 2014

Afterwards, the hotel concierge furiously worked three phones to get taxi cabs to appear for the 15 people who were waiting with growing impatience. This is important, because companies that adhere as closely as possible to the patterns of disruption have the greatest chance to create explosive growth and transform markets.

Disruptive Innovation 8

Disruptive Innovation Disintermediation Business Model Innovation 8

Harvard Business Review

FEBRUARY 8, 2017

Airbnb has nearly doubled its user base every year since 2012 and is now worth $30 billion — nearly as much as Marriott International, the world’s largest hotel chain. The explosive growth of ride sharing is a big reason why Hertz reported dismal quarterly results in November 2016, leading to a 23% drop in its market value.

Innovation 8

Innovation Bureaucracy IPO Bottom-up 8

Harvard Business Review

JANUARY 28, 2015

It is the same card he used to buy the plane ticket and book the hotel. Coordinating the infrastructure, technology, and messaging in a way that appears seamless and fluid to the customer is, to be blunt, a logistical nightmare. Based on this data, operations recommended marketing cease actively trying to acquire these customers.

COO 8

COO Planning Metrics Call Center 8

Harvard Business Review

MAY 8, 2017

In a study of S&P 500 and Global 500 firms, our team found that those leading the most successful transformations, creating new offerings and business models to push into new growth markets, share common characteristics and strategies. The same was true of Adobe’s Shantanu Narayen. The result was the Booking.com platform.

Franchising 14

Franchising CEO Business Model Strategy 14

Harvard Business Review

APRIL 14, 2011

There were about 10 people involved — the CEO and his direct reports — and we met for two days offsite, in a hotel, so we wouldn't be distracted. A problem in marketing might be assigned to the head of operations. I still remember the meeting that finally drove me to change how I run meetings. A strategy offsite.

CFO 15

CFO CEO Hotels Strategy 15

Harvard Business Review

MAY 20, 2011

Put simply, the new coupon industry is following a path common to so many new markets, with a leader with initial success, a flurry of entrants (at last count some 400 competitors) and, finally, a big shakeout. Of course, Groupon could be left standing after the shakeout, as Amazon and eBay were in days of old. But even that is not unique.

Retail 15

Retail Discount Hedge Airlines 15

Harvard Business Review

JUNE 16, 2011

You have to commit to a big problem to make a big impact. That's what a team of management innovators did in an earlier M-Prize-winning hack, Late Night Pizza: Extending Hackathons Beyond Technology. Some ways in to the truly juicy challenges: Look for the intractable tradeoffs. Now imagine how it might. The Management 2.0

Management 12

Management Short-term How To Strategic Planning 12

Harvard Business Review

FEBRUARY 16, 2018

While India remains a formidably challenging market, there are at least three reasons why global firms cannot overlook India without consequences. India has been increasing its spending on infrastructure such as airports, new cities, hotels, ports, roads, bridges, hospitals, and power plants.

Globalization 8

Globalization CAGR Class Marketing 8

Harvard Business Review

NOVEMBER 20, 2017

Too many companies still follow a “Plan-then-Do” approach to strategy: The organization works tirelessly to create its best forecasts about the future market and competitive landscape. Take Dell Technologies, for example. Caesars Entertainment has built test-and-learn into its marketing investments.

Execution 8

Execution Strategy Contingency Plans Company 8