Harvard Business Review

JUNE 2, 2011

With peers in a few CEO roundtables, I've heard things like: "I plan on hiring 3 biz dev people to get $345K per headcount in revenues." We manage the measurable, rather than the things that create meaning that fuels creativity, that enables innovative thinking and that helps any company to outpace the market. Maybe yes, maybe no.

Hamel 16

Hamel Customer Loyalty Creativity Cost Center 16

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 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

MARCH 5, 2012

Government in its entirety is a cost-center to society, so we desperately need to create not just jobs, but private sector jobs. Increasingly, your "natural market" is not defined by geography. That means that the jobs you can get may not be like the jobs you had. A job is not a job is not a job. Build your network.

Cost Center 12

Cost Center Entrepreneur Fashion Learning-by-Doing 12

Tanveer Naseer

NOVEMBER 10, 2015

One of your most promising managers has just led a two-year late-to-market death march on a brand extension that has launched and failed. You have lost market share, customer service complaints are up, and your own boss is pissed off. Your competitor is getting nothing but a disingenuous cost center.

Performance Review 100

Performance Review Review Learning-by-Doing Document 100

Harvard Business Review

DECEMBER 6, 2016

As marketing continues to shift and improve, we’ve come to rely on IT to provide expertise on current technology and, perhaps more importantly, to provide a road map that shows where technology will lead, where integration is critical, and how to make the best use of increasingly sophisticated tools. This means being more strategic.

Marketing 8

Marketing Banking Technology System 8

Harvard Business Review

FEBRUARY 8, 2018

Client-server technology begat enterprise resource planning systems, and the consequent system-wide visibility that was required for what we call business process management (BPM). Pearson uses Kubernetes to develop, deploy and manage new kinds of online learning systems in developing markets like India and Mexico.

Management 13

Management Software BPM Technology 13