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Manage to Meet Your Customers’ Needs

thoughtLEADERS, LLC

In the prior mass markets era, companies had homogeneous markets, so they needed to plan and coordinate only at the executive level, with the rest of the company’s managers focusing on their respective functional specialties. Today’s markets are rapidly becoming highly fragmented, reflecting diverse customer needs.

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India Remakes Global Innovation

Harvard Business Review

In prior blog posts, we have described how Western multinationals such as Xerox and GE are embracing polycentric innovation by sourcing more R&D capabilities from emerging markets such as India and China and integrating them into a synergistic global innovation network. Decentralize and empower global R&D units.

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The $2,000 Car

Harvard Business Review

We call this phenomenon reverse innovation — any innovation that is adopted first in the developing world, and then later in the developed world. Surprisingly, such innovations defy gravity and flow uphill from the poor to the rich. Reverse innovation will become more and more common. Phase 2: Glocalization.

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An Inside View of How LVMH Makes Luxury More Sustainable

Harvard Business Review

The companies that are most vocal about environmental and social issues tend to be big, mass-market brands — well-known retailers , consumer products giants , and tech firms that are telling a new story to consumers who increasingly care about sustainability. These companies can’t ignore sustainability.