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Shutting Down Stores Doesn’t Have to Be Bad for Business

Harvard Business Review

When The Gap recently announced its plans to close 175 of its 675 stores in North America, it joined a number of other retail chains — including Staples, Office Depot, Target, and Radio Shack — that have been or soon will be shuttering a slew of outlets for one reason or another.

Retail 8
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How to Quantify Sustainability’s Impact on Your Bottom Line

Harvard Business Review

For slaughterhouses and retailers (Brazilian operations), we also projected positive benefits: $20 million to $120 million (0.01% to 0.1% We set about investigating the financial costs and benefits of the uptake of sustainable and deforestation-free beef by ranchers, slaughterhouses, and retailers in Brazil. of revenues).

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What U.S. CEOs Should Do with the Money from Corporate Tax Cuts

Harvard Business Review

A few have announced year-end bonuses ( AT&T, Comcast ) or wage increases ( some retailers ). The cost of capital is at historic lows, averaging below 6% for most large U.S. Indeed, for most companies, the value of accelerating growth greatly exceeds the value of returning capital to shareholders.

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How Banks Can Compete Against an Army of Fintech Startups

Harvard Business Review

It’s been more than 25 years since Bill Gates dismissed retail banks as “dinosaurs,” but the statement may be as true today as it was then. Other sectors of retail lending have not fared much better. Banks’ cost of capital is typically 50 basis points or less.

Banking 14
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The Case for Investing More in People

Harvard Business Review

In The Good Jobs Strategy , Zeynep Ton, a professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management, demonstrates how the best retail companies align their customer value proposition with their operations strategy and their approach to human capital. Higher investment in wages does not need to come at the expense of customers and shareholders.

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6 Digital Strategies, and Why Some Work Better than Others

Harvard Business Review

Based on our recent worldwide survey of 2,000 incumbent companies across all major industries and countries, we estimate that the average return on incumbent digital initiatives is below 10% — barely above the cost of capital.

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Why Data Breaches Don’t Hurt Stock Prices

Harvard Business Review

During the 2013 holiday season shopping period, Target was the object of then the biggest cyber attack on a retailer. In the third quarter of 2014, Home Depot showed a 21% increase in earnings per share. Credit and debit card data of 40 million customers and personal information of about 70 million were said to be affected by the breach.

Price 8