Expert insights. Personalized for you.
Financial markets are not working for charities and social enterprises today. As a result, charities and social enterprises do not have the cushion of external financing to manage their various capital requirements. Like any small business, they need working capital to balance out the peaks and troughs of their business cycle. Sometimes they need bridging capital to pay for projects that are being grant-funded upon completion. MORE
Their fast-growing companies work in almost every industry, from online retail to manufacturing to professional services, and together they have created more than 200,000 jobs and generated revenues of more than $5B in 2011. The firm is looking to raise funding from venture capital firms so that it can further grow. Should he plow cash into increasing the pay of the disadvantaged people he employs, or build his working capital? MORE
But the economic toolbox that works for big companies isn’t the same one that works for small ones. If policymakers hope to be successful in their efforts to promote entrepreneurs and small businesses, they need to know what works – in short, they need a “Playbook” for small business job creation. In the past, economic development has prioritized big businesses. In fact, we know a lot about what works from observing this recent experimentation. MORE
They enable both the buyer and supplier to improve their working capital by making it possible for the former to extend its payables and at the same time accelerate payment to the latter. The use of FinTechs allows suppliers to access funding at the multinationals firm’s lower cost of capital.). The supplier gives the buying firm a discount on the invoice amount at the buyer’s lower cost of capital. MORE
As more people depended on him, he spent his working capital, and the business failed. When I founded the nonprofit African Institution of Technology , I initially focused on helping African entrepreneurs or artisans, especially those with only primary education, develop new skills and market opportunities. Organizations that move into developing nations to help small technical businesses, must help those businesses manage their finances. MORE
In this month's HBR, Professor Clayton Christensen and I have an article that describes how to develop core business strategy in the face of disruption. That 5% margin might come not from scale, but from the absence of stores, retail employees, and reduced working capital requirements. Best Buy is a company on the brink. It's being attacked from every angle. Apple and Microsoft are driving computer shoppers to their own stores. MORE
Based on extensive research and providing a wealth of exercises, tools, and company examples from many industries – including Amazon.com, Walmart, Pfizer, Inditex (Zara), Itaú Unibanco, and Procter & Gamble – The Essential Advantage helps you construct a strategically coherent company in which the pieces reinforce each other instead of working at cross-purposes. Is it more important to consider capabilities when you develop a strategy now than it was, say, five years ago? MORE
The principal recommendations are: Retail banking should be ring-fenced inside separate subsidiaries; All banks (retail or otherwise) should have an equity or other loss-absorbing capital capacity of 17-20% of their assets; Depositors would rank higher than other creditors in the event of insolvency; Make sure that a sale of 600 odd branches of Lloyd's bank produces a viable new U.K. MORE
They had to work in sequence, meaning they had to streamline the operation first — before they could launch their new growth effort. The underlying trouble had been McDonald’s working from an inside-out perspective: what fit with its current infrastructure and operations. Each was set loose to develop or acquire products to satisfy those markets. Product development Customers Digital ArticleJustin Case/Getty Images. MORE
For some, it refers to venture capital-backed startups and their kin; for others, to any small business. At a new venture's outset, its founders control only their own human, social, and financial capital. With most high-potential ventures, however, founders must mobilize more resources than they control personally: the venture eventually will require production facilities, distribution channels, working capital, and so forth. Entrepreneurship Venture capital MORE
What do you think causes millions of people to miss work and school in developing economies? private-sector development division of the World Bank — studying how small and medium-sized businesses can play a role in developing economies — Scharpf, now a 34 year-old graduate of Harvard's graduate schools of business and government, happened to overhear a local colleague complaining that her employees often missed work because they were menstruating. MORE
To borrow a telecom industry metaphor, a deal with a customer is the “last mile” in connecting any strategy with business development efforts and marketplace results. Financing needs are driven by the cash on hand and the working capital required to conduct and grow the business. When formulating a strategy, markets and segments are important categories to consider. But a market never buys anything. Only customers buy. MORE
Many, if not most, businesses need money to develop, survive, and grow. Thus, a stable and sufficient net working capital should exist within these companies’ financial accounts. Net Working Capital: A Brief Overview. Calculating Net Working Capital. MORE
But in past weeks, it seems that the movie in Asia has been on fast-forward around global development and financing. Here is a brief synopsis of what we missed: Under Chinese stewardship, a new and potentially disruptive player in the development banking landscape, the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), which was initially proposed in 2013 by President Xi Jingping, gathered steam. billion of subscribed capital) or the Asian Development Bank ($162.8 MORE
It is great if you know what makes you work on your idea. And if you get hold of that idea, start hiring a dedicated team of developers to give your idea a shape. A blueprint: Sketch all that comes to your mind and pen down every minute detail that you will work on. MORE
In 1973/4 I participated in an Overseas Fellowship at General Motors Institute (now Kettering University) in a work/study cooperative programme in Flint, Michigan, which was the birthplace of GM. Gordon Berridge: Did you have a mentor at Rio Tinto, if so, how important was that person to you and your development? billion), development and sustaining capital expenditure (reduced by a two-thirds), and divested a significant number of non-core businesses (4.7 MORE
China's National Development Reform Commission estimates that since 2004, the cost of growing cereals in the country has risen by as much as 10% per annum. Such farmers will be able to invest in mechanized methods of production, and to generate working capital to use better seeds and other inputs Trouble is, the consolidation of land holdings could take a generation, or more, to happen since many families will be reluctant to trade away their land use rights. MORE
Think about what’s talked about in the endless meetings that happen at work. Participants talk about stock price, earnings per share, revenue, gross margins, sales, operating cash flow, working capital, and the like. It could even be the self-knowledge that comes from reflecting on your personal development or the values that you hold important. Developing your unique potentials. Personal Development Measurements priorities success Values well-being MORE
They have virtually no access to capital markets and little flexibility to experiment at various stages of growth. There are $700 billion of foundation assets, and 10 million people working for non-profits. Yet there are massive inefficiencies in capital allocation. Compare that to the world of venture capital. We believe we are on the threshold of a major change not unlike the early days of the modern venture capital industry. Social enterprise Venture capita MORE
Among the firms we identified as focused on the long term, average revenue and earnings growth were 47% and 36% higher, respectively, by 2014, and market capitalization grew faster as well. and historic lows in new capital investment. Ambitious work has even attempted to quantify economic growth foregone due to cuts in R&D expenditure driven by short-termism, putting it in the range of about 0.1% It started with developing a proprietary Corporate Horizon Index. MORE
The concept is fairly straightforward: The parties define the result up front, agree on a baseline, work out how confident the organization is in delivering the result, and then specify the expectation and payment in the contract. The UK’s Department for International Development uses “results-based” aid to improve the educational outcomes of young girls in Africa and Asia. When PbR Doesn’t Work. Making PbR Work. Samuel Castro. MORE
It's a common assumption that offering more features or developing high-quality products and services is expensive, and that the products of these labors can command premiums. But it's this set of beliefs that explains why Western companies fail to succeed in emerging markets where middle class consumers demand good quality at low prices, and why these companies struggle to develop value-for-money products for their home markets during slow growth times like these. MORE
The heart of differentiation therefore is your company’s ability to develop and promote distinctive products, services, and branded experiences on a consistent basis. It became easier and easier for small enterprises to gain customer reach and awareness (along with working capital). But it didn’t quite work out that way. Become a remarkable capability innovator, designing and developing your own practices that give you prowess no one else matches. MORE
Everyone who is a part of a business expects to work for a company who cares. There is an increasingly competitive marketplace for top talent out there and companies are desperate to recruit people who have charisma, brains and talent for the role that they work in. When you need cash fast for your business because you decide an impromptu meal out for your team is needed, you would do everything you can to get it purely to show your gratitude for the work that they put in. MORE
These card networks were allowed to charge their members just enough to cover cost and provide working capital. Standard Setting Organizations (SSOs) are multisided platforms that help members reach agreements over a standard (For example, mobile carriers, handset makers, chip providers and many others have to agree on a common standard — like 4G — for what they do to work together.) Product development Social platforms Technology Digital Article MORE
As more people depended on him, he spent his working capital, and the business failed. When I founded the nonprofit African Institution of Technology , I initially focused on helping African entrepreneurs or artisans, especially those with only primary education, develop new skills and market opportunities. Organizations that move into developing nations to help small technical businesses, must help those businesses manage their finances. MORE
We know that when IT projects fail, it is usually not because the technology didn’t work (although this can sometimes be the case), but because the changes required at an organizational and employee level weren’t managed effectively. If those linkages cannot be developed, then those investments should not be pursued. Sustaining changes are permanent changes to working practices, processes, or relationships that will cause the benefits to be delivered. MORE
The third category is of the most interest because it concerns factors that the divested business’s (new) management and new owners do control: the quality of the business strategy and operational decisions after divestment, as well as the capital made available for follow-on investments. MORE
Capitalize on your Assets — Don’t assume your assets are money. For Harper, it was deciding to franchise her business as a practical way to expand, when she could not get working capital, plus be assured of an ownership base that would strictly follow her dictates. Develop Win-Win strategies to Benefit All– Harper needed to expand, but had limited capital and the banks were not rushing to lend to her (like today). Guest Post by Jane Plitt. MORE
Male entrepreneurs are the beneficiaries of the overwhelming majority of venture capital investments. Typical statements portraying men as growth-ambitious and in need of financing include: “ His major problem is to find enough financial capital for the investments to grow. ” This notion is also evident in statements about women’s lack of personal financial capital: “She doesn’t even have any savings to use for investments.” MORE
Strategy Driven
SEPTEMBER 28, 2020
Many, if not most, businesses need money to develop, survive, and grow. Thus, a stable and sufficient net working capital should exist within these companies’ financial accounts. Net Working Capital: A Brief Overview. Calculating Net Working Capital.
Lead Change Blog
MAY 10, 2019
Think about what’s talked about in the endless meetings that happen at work. Participants talk about stock price, earnings per share, revenue, gross margins, sales, operating cash flow, working capital, and the like. It could even be the self-knowledge that comes from reflecting on your personal development or the values that you hold important. Developing your unique potentials. Personal Development Measurements priorities success Values well-being
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Harvard Business Review
APRIL 20, 2015
But in past weeks, it seems that the movie in Asia has been on fast-forward around global development and financing. Here is a brief synopsis of what we missed: Under Chinese stewardship, a new and potentially disruptive player in the development banking landscape, the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), which was initially proposed in 2013 by President Xi Jingping, gathered steam. billion of subscribed capital) or the Asian Development Bank ($162.8
Women on Business
AUGUST 24, 2011
Capitalize on your Assets — Don’t assume your assets are money. For Harper, it was deciding to franchise her business as a practical way to expand, when she could not get working capital, plus be assured of an ownership base that would strictly follow her dictates. Develop Win-Win strategies to Benefit All– Harper needed to expand, but had limited capital and the banks were not rushing to lend to her (like today). Guest Post by Jane Plitt.
Strategy Driven
DECEMBER 14, 2020
It is great if you know what makes you work on your idea. And if you get hold of that idea, start hiring a dedicated team of developers to give your idea a shape. A blueprint: Sketch all that comes to your mind and pen down every minute detail that you will work on.
Strategy Driven
JANUARY 25, 2018
Everyone who is a part of a business expects to work for a company who cares. There is an increasingly competitive marketplace for top talent out there and companies are desperate to recruit people who have charisma, brains and talent for the role that they work in. When you need cash fast for your business because you decide an impromptu meal out for your team is needed, you would do everything you can to get it purely to show your gratitude for the work that they put in.
N2Growth Blog
AUGUST 1, 2016
In 1973/4 I participated in an Overseas Fellowship at General Motors Institute (now Kettering University) in a work/study cooperative programme in Flint, Michigan, which was the birthplace of GM. Gordon Berridge: Did you have a mentor at Rio Tinto, if so, how important was that person to you and your development? billion), development and sustaining capital expenditure (reduced by a two-thirds), and divested a significant number of non-core businesses (4.7
Harvard Business
AUGUST 28, 2018
They had to work in sequence, meaning they had to streamline the operation first — before they could launch their new growth effort. The underlying trouble had been McDonald’s working from an inside-out perspective: what fit with its current infrastructure and operations. Each was set loose to develop or acquire products to satisfy those markets. Product development Customers Digital ArticleJustin Case/Getty Images.
Harvard Business
MAY 19, 2016
The heart of differentiation therefore is your company’s ability to develop and promote distinctive products, services, and branded experiences on a consistent basis. It became easier and easier for small enterprises to gain customer reach and awareness (along with working capital). But it didn’t quite work out that way. Become a remarkable capability innovator, designing and developing your own practices that give you prowess no one else matches.
Harvard Business
SEPTEMBER 5, 2016
The concept is fairly straightforward: The parties define the result up front, agree on a baseline, work out how confident the organization is in delivering the result, and then specify the expectation and payment in the contract. The UK’s Department for International Development uses “results-based” aid to improve the educational outcomes of young girls in Africa and Asia. When PbR Doesn’t Work. Making PbR Work. Samuel Castro.
Harvard Business Review
MARCH 28, 2016
These card networks were allowed to charge their members just enough to cover cost and provide working capital. Standard Setting Organizations (SSOs) are multisided platforms that help members reach agreements over a standard (For example, mobile carriers, handset makers, chip providers and many others have to agree on a common standard — like 4G — for what they do to work together.) Product development Social platforms Technology Digital Article
Strategy Driven
MARCH 18, 2011
Based on extensive research and providing a wealth of exercises, tools, and company examples from many industries – including Amazon.com, Walmart, Pfizer, Inditex (Zara), Itaú Unibanco, and Procter & Gamble – The Essential Advantage helps you construct a strategically coherent company in which the pieces reinforce each other instead of working at cross-purposes. Is it more important to consider capabilities when you develop a strategy now than it was, say, five years ago?
Harvard Business
JUNE 3, 2016
We know that when IT projects fail, it is usually not because the technology didn’t work (although this can sometimes be the case), but because the changes required at an organizational and employee level weren’t managed effectively. If those linkages cannot be developed, then those investments should not be pursued. Sustaining changes are permanent changes to working practices, processes, or relationships that will cause the benefits to be delivered.
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Harvard Business
MARCH 15, 2018
Male entrepreneurs are the beneficiaries of the overwhelming majority of venture capital investments. Typical statements portraying men as growth-ambitious and in need of financing include: “ His major problem is to find enough financial capital for the investments to grow. ” This notion is also evident in statements about women’s lack of personal financial capital: “She doesn’t even have any savings to use for investments.”
Harvard Business
FEBRUARY 7, 2017
Among the firms we identified as focused on the long term, average revenue and earnings growth were 47% and 36% higher, respectively, by 2014, and market capitalization grew faster as well. and historic lows in new capital investment. Ambitious work has even attempted to quantify economic growth foregone due to cuts in R&D expenditure driven by short-termism, putting it in the range of about 0.1% It started with developing a proprietary Corporate Horizon Index.
Harvard Business Review
NOVEMBER 23, 2010
As more people depended on him, he spent his working capital, and the business failed. When I founded the nonprofit African Institution of Technology , I initially focused on helping African entrepreneurs or artisans, especially those with only primary education, develop new skills and market opportunities. Organizations that move into developing nations to help small technical businesses, must help those businesses manage their finances.
Harvard Business Review
DECEMBER 7, 2010
It's a common assumption that offering more features or developing high-quality products and services is expensive, and that the products of these labors can command premiums. But it's this set of beliefs that explains why Western companies fail to succeed in emerging markets where middle class consumers demand good quality at low prices, and why these companies struggle to develop value-for-money products for their home markets during slow growth times like these.
Harvard Business Review
NOVEMBER 23, 2010
As more people depended on him, he spent his working capital, and the business failed. When I founded the nonprofit African Institution of Technology , I initially focused on helping African entrepreneurs or artisans, especially those with only primary education, develop new skills and market opportunities. Organizations that move into developing nations to help small technical businesses, must help those businesses manage their finances.
Harvard Business Review
SEPTEMBER 12, 2011
The principal recommendations are: Retail banking should be ring-fenced inside separate subsidiaries; All banks (retail or otherwise) should have an equity or other loss-absorbing capital capacity of 17-20% of their assets; Depositors would rank higher than other creditors in the event of insolvency; Make sure that a sale of 600 odd branches of Lloyd's bank produces a viable new U.K.
Harvard Business Review
JANUARY 22, 2013
Financial markets are not working for charities and social enterprises today. As a result, charities and social enterprises do not have the cushion of external financing to manage their various capital requirements. Like any small business, they need working capital to balance out the peaks and troughs of their business cycle. Sometimes they need bridging capital to pay for projects that are being grant-funded upon completion.
Harvard Business Review
OCTOBER 28, 2011
China's National Development Reform Commission estimates that since 2004, the cost of growing cereals in the country has risen by as much as 10% per annum. Such farmers will be able to invest in mechanized methods of production, and to generate working capital to use better seeds and other inputs Trouble is, the consolidation of land holdings could take a generation, or more, to happen since many families will be reluctant to trade away their land use rights.
Harvard Business Review
JANUARY 17, 2013
They have virtually no access to capital markets and little flexibility to experiment at various stages of growth. There are $700 billion of foundation assets, and 10 million people working for non-profits. Yet there are massive inefficiencies in capital allocation. Compare that to the world of venture capital. We believe we are on the threshold of a major change not unlike the early days of the modern venture capital industry. Social enterprise Venture capita
Harvard Business Review
JANUARY 10, 2013
For some, it refers to venture capital-backed startups and their kin; for others, to any small business. At a new venture's outset, its founders control only their own human, social, and financial capital. With most high-potential ventures, however, founders must mobilize more resources than they control personally: the venture eventually will require production facilities, distribution channels, working capital, and so forth. Entrepreneurship Venture capital
Harvard Business Review
FEBRUARY 24, 2015
The third category is of the most interest because it concerns factors that the divested business’s (new) management and new owners do control: the quality of the business strategy and operational decisions after divestment, as well as the capital made available for follow-on investments.
Harvard Business Review
DECEMBER 10, 2012
In this month's HBR, Professor Clayton Christensen and I have an article that describes how to develop core business strategy in the face of disruption. That 5% margin might come not from scale, but from the absence of stores, retail employees, and reduced working capital requirements. Best Buy is a company on the brink. It's being attacked from every angle. Apple and Microsoft are driving computer shoppers to their own stores.
Harvard Business Review
FEBRUARY 17, 2012
What do you think causes millions of people to miss work and school in developing economies? private-sector development division of the World Bank — studying how small and medium-sized businesses can play a role in developing economies — Scharpf, now a 34 year-old graduate of Harvard's graduate schools of business and government, happened to overhear a local colleague complaining that her employees often missed work because they were menstruating.
Harvard Business Review
DECEMBER 15, 2015
To borrow a telecom industry metaphor, a deal with a customer is the “last mile” in connecting any strategy with business development efforts and marketplace results. Financing needs are driven by the cash on hand and the working capital required to conduct and grow the business. When formulating a strategy, markets and segments are important categories to consider. But a market never buys anything. Only customers buy.
Harvard Business Review
MAY 27, 2015
But the economic toolbox that works for big companies isn’t the same one that works for small ones. If policymakers hope to be successful in their efforts to promote entrepreneurs and small businesses, they need to know what works – in short, they need a “Playbook” for small business job creation. In the past, economic development has prioritized big businesses. In fact, we know a lot about what works from observing this recent experimentation.
Harvard Business Review
JANUARY 9, 2013
Their fast-growing companies work in almost every industry, from online retail to manufacturing to professional services, and together they have created more than 200,000 jobs and generated revenues of more than $5B in 2011. The firm is looking to raise funding from venture capital firms so that it can further grow. Should he plow cash into increasing the pay of the disadvantaged people he employs, or build his working capital?
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