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How GE Stays Young

Harvard Business Review

That includes learning from the outside and striving to adopt certain start-up practices, with a focus on three key management processes: (1) resource allocation that nurtures future businesses, (2) faster-cycle product development, and (3) partnering with start-ups. Product development: g etting closer to customers and moving faster.

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How to Get People to Collaborate When You Don’t Control Their Salary

Harvard Business Review

My analyses show that “smart collaboration” — that is, collaboration targeted at the right opportunities — nearly always pays out, but only after people spend time developing the underlying relationships and processes. Many people and companies start the investment, but quit before seeing the returns.

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Why We Need to Update Financial Reporting for the Digital Era

Harvard Business Review

Business students have traditionally considered net present value, payback period, and hurdle rates as necessary tools to determine which project to select. Digital companies, however, consider scientists’ and software workers’ and product development teams’ time to be the company’s most valuable resource.

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Accelerating Customer Adoption at the Bottom of the Pyramid

Harvard Business Review

While much has already been written about this challenge in the developed world, there are also some important lessons to be learned from the Bottom of the Pyramid (BoP). Instead, we have developed a simple demonstration unit that runs off of a small water jug. Develop a portable demonstration that addresses these concerns.

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An Inside View of How LVMH Makes Luxury More Sustainable

Harvard Business Review

Charles Gibb, Belvedere’s CEO, says it made a strategic choice to invest in this project, even though it had a longer payback period than normal. Belvedere’s distillery in Poland shifted from oil to gas for energy generation and added heat recovery systems to capture wasted energy.

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How to Better Manage Your Company’s Utility Bills

Harvard Business Review

In our experience, well-designed retrofits can deliver 20%-50% energy savings with fast payback periods. Wind and solar developers want your business. Many leading companies, including Wal-Mart , InterContinental Hotels , and many others are already seeing improvements to their bottom line from the solar/battery approach.