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What the Best Nonprofits Know About Strategy

Harvard Business Review

While most for-profit companies start with product and then subsequently segment customers based on profit potential (higher lifetime value and lower acquisition costs), the most successful nonprofits commit first to reaching an underserved population, which often includes higher acquisition costs and lower lifetime value.

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Blonde Joke on Starbucks

In the CEO Afterlife

Marketing 101 says, “Never try to be all things to all people,” but at Wall Street’s urging, zealous marketers keep trying to break that golden rule. From the very beginning, Howard Schultz understood and appreciated that a strategy is strengthened when a particular market segment is sacrificed for a greater cause.

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Three Questions that Will Kill Innovation

Harvard Business Review

A big insurance company I know of wants to design a radical new future, so they have committed significant resources to large-scale innovation. They might not win over a market segment with their invention — but they will have gained invaluable insights.

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Three Cases of Better Corporate Philanthropy

Harvard Business Review

To do this, Goldman used its competencies in understanding markets, convening needed expertise and business networks. As Nike's Senior Portfolio Manager Adam Day says, "The global development sector had overlooked the enormous potential of investing in adolescent girls to reduce global poverty.

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How Discrimination Leads To A Motherhood Penalty In The Labor Market

The Horizons Tracker

“Across labor market segments, mothers appear to be similarly disadvantaged at the hiring stage.” . “The findings demonstrate that discrimination is not limited to women with college degrees in time-intensive professional occupations,” the researchers say. ” The tip of the iceberg.

Marketing 107
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Use Your Sales Force’s Competitive Intelligence Wisely

Harvard Business Review

They might expect the salesperson who receives it to offer better terms, for example, or to provide greater levels of effort and commitment. Cultivating a rich source of intelligence on competitors’ projects and products, as well as any new market segments they’re targeting, gives you time to be strategic in your responses.

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Cure Your Company's Allergy to Change

Harvard Business Review

So it appointed leaders to run market segments with profit and loss responsibility, and put pressure on them to change the product mix and improve profitability. Executives at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan went into the field to gather input and communicate their commitment to change.