Harvard Business Review

JANUARY 4, 2018

The ABU was set up as a centralized profit center with ambitious targets and with direct reporting to the chief operations officer; most often, similar units are organized as cost centers with no specific targets. This setup fosters focus on high-yield projects, actionable analytics, and speed of execution. Support from the top.

Company 8

Company Chief Operating Officer Incentives Project 8

Harvard Business Review

JUNE 4, 2014

Similarly, when another company needed to reduce its expenses, the pain was spread like peanut butter across the different cost centers because the senior management team couldn’t reach a decision about where to focus — which meant that areas with growth potential lost as much muscle as those with less opportunity.

Construction 9

Construction Cost Center Committee Licensing 9

Harvard Business Review

DECEMBER 25, 2013

Service at American Express, he argued, should not be treated as just a cost center; rather, it offered an opportunity to invest in building the sort of warm relationships between American Express and its customers that the venerable company’s brand had always been based on. Teams shared with and learned from one another.

Call Center 9

Call Center Attrition Cost Center Learning-by-Doing 9

Harvard Business Review

MARCH 13, 2013

Leading enterprises and centers are already making shifts in terms of governance by elevating the organizational reporting of the offshore delivery centers, enhancing leadership skills and redefining the performance contracts of the leadership teams to drive greater business value.

Offshoring 8

Offshoring Cost Benchmarking Operations 8

Harvard Business Review

FEBRUARY 2, 2016

On the other hand, they are set up as cost centers and service bureaus, mandated to meet the needs of all their constituents as rapidly as possible under the ceiling of their budget. Unfortunately, many cross-functional teams fall far short of delivering effective and efficient solutions. Adapted from. Strategy That Works.

Development 8

Development Supply Chain Incentives Outsourcing 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

OCTOBER 12, 2011

But surveys show that more than 25% of firms still think of IT as a cost center, 53% of CIOs' time is focused on cost control, and 54% of companies outsource their IT services. It's easy to fall into the Kodak trap, especially in austere times when there's almost overwhelming pressure to cut costs.

CIO 9

CIO Outsourcing Cost Center Film 9

Harvard Business Review

OCTOBER 14, 2015

Medication adherence is a team sport. Patients have many reasons for not taking their medications, including lack of understanding of the treatment, misperceptions about asymptomatic conditions, cultural beliefs, drug costs, therapy complexity, and cognitive and logistical challenges. Retail health care is good for health systems.

System 8

System Health Care Retail Cost 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 8, 2017

CMOs need to define a broader vision for marketing as the orchestrator of the customer experience and prove that marketing is not a cost center but a revenue generator. This requires a new set of skills for many CMOs, particularly around leading transformative change.

CEO 8

CEO Marketing Span of Control Sports 8

HR Digest

JANUARY 5, 2022

Without the traditional opportunities to interact with our teams in-person, we’ve had to learn to adapt in many ways, such as adopting video communication tools, virtual whiteboards for innovation, and the like. We’ve also had to learn to make an even more concerted effort to preserve our culture of innovation through internal collaboration.

Human Resources 52

Human Resources Education Resources Innovation 52

Tanveer Naseer

NOVEMBER 10, 2015

It needs to center on step by step improvement in how an individual is doing against goals, how a team is advancing by virtue of an individual’s progress, how innovation is being served by attitudes and decisions on a daily basis, and how an individual’s achievements are translated into outcomes valued by an employer.

Performance Review 100

Performance Review Review Learning-by-Doing Document 100

Harvard Business Review

FEBRUARY 8, 2018

“It’s already changing organizations, by moving IT from a cost center to something with a place at the table in a lot of different meetings,” said Chris Jackson, head of cloud platforms at Pearson, a global learning company. “It forces our internal teams to think about innovating faster,” said Mr. Jackson.

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? The effective “facilities management” team of the future will have all of these capabilities. These examples are not hypothetical capabilities; these are now real options for companies.

Energy 8

Energy Resources Cost Center Budgeting 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? The effective “facilities management” team of the future will have all of these capabilities. These examples are not hypothetical capabilities; these are now real options for companies.

Energy 8

Energy Resources Information Technology Cost Center 8

Harvard Business Review

MAY 31, 2012

For one, it’s a cost center. While the sales team is out driving real revenue, what are marketers doing but conceptualizing, positioning, and spending huge wads of dough on market research? Yes, marketing faces a steep uphill battle its quest for a seat at the table of valued corporate functions.

Supply Chain 13

Supply Chain Real Estate ROI CFO 13

Harvard Business Review

DECEMBER 6, 2016

While many teams within your organization contribute to your success, one that cannot be overlooked or understated is the relationship with your IT group. At SAS, we’ve learned to embrace the IT team as our partner. We simply didn’t have expertise on our team to maintain these systems. Make IT your business partner.

Marketing 8

Marketing Banking Technology System 8

Harvard Business Review

FEBRUARY 22, 2012

Virtual work teams form as needed to coordinate curriculum intersection points using Skype and other online tools. Typically an in-house cost center, service is usually viewed as a necessary evil and constantly targeted for "efficiency." These experts are highly briefed on the purpose and goals of the SU organization.

Participative 15

Participative Decentralization Globalization Cost Center 15

LDRLB

NOVEMBER 12, 2012

HR is an enigmatic profession, as the authors write, “the sad reality is—even in today’s enlightened age of recognizing the value of people to the business—too many top executives still view HR as a non-strategic cost center instead of a core, profit-contributing function.”

Ulrich 137

Ulrich Metrics Report Storytelling 137

Harvard Business Review

DECEMBER 18, 2012

Unilever has received over 1,000 ideas and is "pursuing 6 to 7 percent of these with internal teams." Announcements on waste may not be exciting, but they demonstrate how companies can turn a cost center into a source of profit.

Supply Chain 10

Supply Chain Constraint P&L Energy 10