Harvard Business Review

SEPTEMBER 13, 2012

An impatient marketing or finance manager would, on the sly, secure some extra budget money and hire a contractor to build a little database that tracked mailing addresses or top-line financials. Slowly but surely, as the little database grew bigger and bigger, the manager would wedge the cost into her operating budget.

Supply Chain 15

Supply Chain CIO Budgeting Project 15

Harvard Business Review

FEBRUARY 2, 2016

You’ll often find customer relationship management within marketing, budgeting within finance, supply-chain management within operations, outsourcing within procurement, training within HR, and new product development within R&D. Some of the first business functionaries were railroad telegraph operators who managed schedules.

Development 8

Development Supply Chain Incentives Outsourcing 8

Harvard Business Review

SEPTEMBER 8, 2017

These efforts have enabled operational efficiencies, cost reductions, and greater agility, preparing companies for the next phase of digital transformation: driving growth. This is a break from the traditional paths of finance, sales, and operations to the top spot. Over: CMOs take over new responsibilities.

CEO 8

CEO Marketing Span of Control Sports 8

Harvard Business Review

JUNE 26, 2013

With the swipe of a credit card, the customer support team can move to Zendesk or Desk.com; the HR team lives on Workday; the business intelligence group moves to GoodData or Domo; the finance team logs into Netsuite; the marketing department orbits around Marketo and Salesforce''s marketing cloud. Why is this?

Supply Chain 8

Supply Chain Competitive Advantage Information Technology How To 8

Harvard Business Review

FEBRUARY 9, 2011

We call these people Cost Center Consumers, and they come in two flavors. Divas: These are high maintenance consumers who drive costs up after purchase. They tie up your call centers, incur costly returns, and generate other costs that occur below the gross margin line, which is harder to see.

P&L 14

P&L Supply Chain Retail Price 14

Harvard Business Review

FEBRUARY 8, 2018

The complex calculations of the field known as Operations Research were enabled by mainframe computing. The cloud is also a common repository for the collection and analysis of new data, and the place where an increasing number of artificial intelligence operations, like image and speech recognition, are conducted.

Management 12

Management Software BPM Technology 12

Harvard Business Review

SEPTEMBER 12, 2014

Who at your company will be put in charge of turning buildings operations from a cost center to a revenue center? And many companies also face additional energy-related costs from their commercial vehicles, of which there are over 12 million in operation in the U.S. Operational Improvements.

Energy 8

Energy Resources Cost Center Budgeting 8