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. Business units come and go, but finance, HR, marketing, IT, legal, and R&D seem to last forever.

Development 8

Development Supply Chain Incentives Outsourcing 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

SEPTEMBER 12, 2014

Who at your company will be put in charge of turning buildings operations from a cost center to a revenue center? They can expensively purchase power from other sources at times of high demand, but it’s often better for them to avoid such peaks by reducing consumption when needed. New Sources of Revenue.

Energy 8

Energy Resources Information Technology Cost Center 8

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? They can expensively purchase power from other sources at times of high demand, but it’s often better for them to avoid such peaks by reducing consumption when needed. New Sources of Revenue.

Energy 8

Energy Resources Cost Center Budgeting 8

Harvard Business Review

FEBRUARY 8, 2018

Likely outcomes of the move to cloud include changing how products are designed; closer collaboration between the corporate IT department and other business units, including sales, finance and forecasting; and more customer interaction, even to a point of jointly developing products with their consumers.

Management 12

Management Software BPM Technology 12