First Friday Book Synopsis

NOVEMBER 25, 2013

Bob''s blog entries De Beers Ford Motor Company Harvard Business Review Press How and why downstream [comma] customer-led activities and preferences will dominate the competitive landscape in the future Infosys Niraj Dawar the locus of activities that add value (those the customer is willing to pay for) the locus of competitive advantage the primary fixed costs in the business Tilt: Shifting Your Strategy from Products to Customers Toyota Motor Company Walmart

Review 73

Review Fixed Costs Competitive Advantage Books 73

Women on Business

FEBRUARY 1, 2011

Corporate budgeting used to be simple: review fixed costs once a year, control variable expenses as much as possible, calculate the ROI on capital expenditures and relax until the end of the fiscal year. The goal was clear and easily quantified (though not so easily achieved): maximize profit. Smart organizations are adding three elements to

Budgeting 148

Budgeting ROI Fixed Costs Review 148

Strategy Driven

MAY 17, 2019

Contractors need to devise ways to cut costs in order to remain profitable. With increased competition, the need to cut costs has become important now more than ever. Eliminating people is not the right way to cut costs. Cost Audit. Actual material costs.

Cost 81

Cost Strategy Hammer Fixed Costs 81

Strategy Driven

MARCH 31, 2020

This is a time to share the challenges regarding fixed costs, debt, obligations and the cost of doing business.

Crisis 70

Crisis Fixed Costs Social Capital Uncertainty 70

Strategy Driven

NOVEMBER 28, 2018

From rising living costs to increased healthcare requirements, going into the future without planning on how you are going to afford it is a mistake. The best way to reduce costs is to minimize your life.

Strategy 76

Strategy Budgeting Real Estate Fixed Costs 76

Strategy Driven

NOVEMBER 28, 2019

Lowering costs is one of these and whilst negotiating with suppliers , understand that you probably hold the upper hand. The same rules apply to employees, as both of these elements are fixed costs that are going to heap pressure onto your business.

Tips 70

Tips Fixed Costs Marketing Price 70

Harvard Business Review

JULY 2, 2014

It’s a simple calculation to determine how many units must be sold at a given price to cover one’s fixed costs. Assume she must incur a fixed cost of $25,500 to produce and sell a kite. These costs might cover the software needed to design the kite and be sure it is sufficiently aerodynamic, the fee paid to a graphic designer to design the look and feel of the kite, and the development of promotional materials used to advertise the kite.

Fixed Costs 17

Fixed Costs Analysis Price Cost 17

Harvard Business Review

OCTOBER 13, 2017

Many leaders look at profit margin, which measures the total amount by which revenue from sales exceeds costs. Knight warns that it’s “a term that can be interpreted and used in many ways,” but the standard definition is this: When you make a product or deliver a service and deduct the variable cost of delivering that product, the leftover revenue is the contribution margin. You might think of this as the portion of sales that helps to offset fixed costs.

Fixed Costs 13

Fixed Costs Cost Productivity Products 13

Harvard Business Review

JULY 2, 2014

It’s a simple calculation to determine how many units must be sold at a given price to cover one’s fixed costs. Assume she must incur a fixed cost of $25,500 to produce and sell a kite. These costs might cover the software needed to design the kite and be sure it is sufficiently aerodynamic, the fee paid to a graphic designer to design the look and feel of the kite, and the development of promotional materials used to advertise the kite.

Fixed Costs 12

Fixed Costs Price Cost Analysis 12

Ask Atma

MAY 5, 2012

As this float collapses, what used to take longer to figure out, costing a great deal, can now be determined faster and much cheaper. 4) Costs – what is your cost per sale/customer? Pro-rated fixed costs. Variable costs.

Business Model 98

Business Model Ries Agility Attrition 98

CO2

JANUARY 2, 2011

It is useful to distinction between three motivations for creating partnerships: Optimization and economy of scale, Reduction of risk and uncertainty, Acquisition of particular resources and activities) Cost Structure – The business model elements result in the cost structure. (It It is useful to to distinguish between two broad classes of business models Cost Structures: cost cost-driven and value-driven from the following categories Cost-driven, Value-driven.

Business Model 114

Business Model Executive Coaching Execution Blog 114

Strategy Driven

OCTOBER 24, 2019

In house logistics are not only ineffective to do on large scale and over long distance but also cost a small fortune. Your startup business may not be ready for the ballooning costs of establishing a full scale ecommerce with deliveries.

Fixed Costs 14

Fixed Costs Reputation Efficiency Fashion 14

Strategy Driven

JULY 31, 2019

Have columns for unit sales, unit costs, pricing, one that multiplies units times price to calculate sales, and one for sales costs. This allows you to demonstrate gross margin: sales revenue less sales costs. Remember: Sales – cost of sales = gross margin.

Finance 14

Finance Planning Fixed Costs Cost 14

Harvard Business Review

NOVEMBER 30, 2018

Capital-intensive factories have a high-fixed-cost, low-variable-cost operating model. If you greatly reduce the production volume, the cars that do come out have to absorb more of the fixed costs, and that eventually sends the product into a profitability death spiral.

Restructuring 10

Restructuring Fixed Costs Outsourcing Consensus 10

Harvard Business Review

OCTOBER 29, 2015

drink costs only $1 more than the “small” 30 oz. Yet, in her new book Soda Politics , Marion Nestle showed that the deal is less generous than it seems when you realize that the larger drink only costs $0.21 Size is perhaps the most neglected marketing tool.

Price 16

Price Constraint Fixed Costs Cost 16

Harvard Business Review

JUNE 22, 2015

Marketers often have to make the call on whether a certain marketing investment is worth the cost. “Breakeven quantity is the number of incremental units that the firm needs to sell to cover the cost of a marketing program or other type of investment,” says Avery.

Payback Period 16

Payback Period Price Fixed Costs Advertising 16

Harvard Business Review

MAY 2, 2013

for instance, even insured patients pay an average of 20% of drug prices out-of-pocket, meaning these drugs can cost a patient $20,000 a year. The key components that lead to a solution are as follows: Understand the dynamics of a high fixed cost/low variable cost industry.

Discount 16

Discount Price Pharmaceuticals Fixed Costs 16

Harvard Business Review

DECEMBER 21, 2011

Within the first year of our effort net sales increased 27 percent while fixed costs were reduced by 40 percent. Not all fixed cost reductions were people. In light of today's economic volatility and uncertainty every aspect of business is being re-examined for its value in creating and sustaining profitable growth. I've worked in human resources for over 25 years, the past six with Newell Rubbermaid, and this is not a new endeavor for me.

Offshoring 17

Offshoring Outsourcing Construction Fixed Costs 17

Harvard Business Review

AUGUST 31, 2018

By cutting the fixed costs of computing — avoiding the need to hire IT staff, servers, and hardware — even the smallest firm can satisfy large and unexpected computing needs. Ansgar Schwarz/EyeEm/Getty Images.

Agility 16

Agility Fixed Costs Software Survey 16

Harvard Business Review

AUGUST 16, 2011

ACSOI essentially measures Groupon's profits before subtracting its subscriber-acquisition costs and stock option-based compensation. Secondly, expecting a business to be profitable quickly forces it to keep its fixed costs low. Because a business's cost structure determines which customers it finds profitable, keeping these fixed costs low preserves strategic options for the company when it is choosing which customers to target. "Alright, you caught us.

Christensen 17

Christensen Metrics IPO Merchandising 17

Harvard Business Review

AUGUST 11, 2011

However many big projects become inflexible, travelling on rails to a fixed destination. Management has made promises to senior executives about what a project will achieve, and fixed costs have built up because they looked prudent in comparison to planned revenues. Some new products under this umbrella, like the Mr. Clean Magic Eraser, were breakthrough hits, but they probably cost a good deal to develop.

Airlines 16

Airlines Fixed Costs Hedge Travel 16

Harvard Business Review

MARCH 28, 2011

The other is the persistent feeling that supply chains represent a cost. Most companies focus on minimizing costs rather than maximizing flexibility, which would entail making large investments in supply chains. What would happen to their costs if the renminbi's value rises overnight from RMB 6.5 Companies keep costs down by building supply chains that generate economies of scale. It discovered that although costs did fall, the delivered price to customers rose.

Supply Chain 17

Supply Chain Fixed Costs Cost Price 17

Harvard Business Review

SEPTEMBER 4, 2013

For example, a decade ago, it''s unlikely that small-business owners would have told you that they needed a flexible way to host data and applications, one that preferably turned the fixed cost of computer hardware into a variable cost of renting capacity. That''s not as exotic a bet as you''d imagine when you consider that just about every business owner is always looking for increased flexibility and opportunities to make fixed costs variable.

Fixed Costs 12

Fixed Costs Trends Industry Health Care 12

Harvard Business Review

MARCH 22, 2013

However, the model separates subscriber revenue from the cost of the network. Congestion, rather than raw usage, is the key driver of this phenomenon; given that the Internet Service Provider network is largely a fixed-cost asset.

Decentralization 22

Decentralization Fixed Costs GDP Efficiency 22

Harvard Business Review

MARCH 16, 2017

remains home to a considerable number of “climate skeptics,” who clearly impact the politics around the issue, as they are unlikely to support costly actions such as carbon taxes intended to mitigate the challenge of climate change. A drug company must incur a large fixed cost to do the basic research, so it has strong incentives to predict what the demand for the drug will be if its research succeeds.

Aggregate Demand 13

Aggregate Demand Incentives Real Estate Simon 13

Harvard Business Review

AUGUST 12, 2015

Placing ads next to content helps websites recover the sizeable fixed costs of creating content. But ad blockers cut off this revenue stream and make it difficult to offset even the running cost of storing and delivering content to visitors.

Advertising 16

Advertising Content Fixed Costs Guidelines 16

Harvard Business Review

NOVEMBER 15, 2018

This was because their expenses grew faster than their revenues, despite cost-cutting initiatives. Cost reduction requires an honest and thorough reassessment of everything the health system does and ultimately, a change in the organization’s operating culture.

Franchising 16

Franchising Outsourcing Bureaucracy Pharmaceuticals 16

Harvard Business Review

MAY 28, 2018

For its part, Nikon focused on cost optimization opportunities and balance sheet management when communicating to value-oriented investors and on long-term structural changes when communicating to growth-oriented investors. Directly influenced by investor input, Nikon developed a restructuring plan that would carry a onetime cost of ¥48 billion ($460 million) but generate ¥20 billion ($190 million) in annual savings. Heini Wehrle/BIA/Minden Pictures/Getty Images.

ROIC 13

ROIC ROE CFO Restructuring 13

Harvard Business Review

JUNE 4, 2015

Since theme parks are high fixed cost/low variable cost entities, revenue from discount-enticed new customers is virtually all profit… free money. The Walt Disney Company is reportedly considering implementing surge pricing at its various theme parks.

Discount 16

Discount Price Hotels Fixed Costs 16

Harvard Business Review

MAY 21, 2015

The costly and complex operations of transporting energy have made utilities natural monopolies, while regulatory barriers and the high fixed costs of building and maintaining regional electrical grid infrastructure have also kept much competition at bay.

Transportation 16

Transportation Software Real Estate Price 16

Harvard Business Review

MAY 19, 2015

That gave it a steadier cash flow to cover the costs of its large fixed cost investments, but did not eliminate the unused capacity of plants dedicated to one kind of product. Conglomerates, at least in the United States, have a checkered history.

Outsourcing 16

Outsourcing Learning Curve Engineering Transportation 16

Harvard Business Review

JULY 12, 2018

Cost-plus pricing is a lot like the romance novel genre, in that it’s widely ridiculed yet tremendously popular. Almost every manager I know will claim they hate pricing based only on costs. Yet cost-plus pricing remains the most widespread pricing method, used to price everything from a bottle of beer in a bar to multibillion-dollar infrastructure projects. The idea behind cost-plus pricing is straightforward. Cost-Plus Pricing Has Justifiable Drawbacks.

Price 12

Price Tactics Retail Transportation 12

Harvard Business Review

NOVEMBER 12, 2012

By making the fixed cost of payroll inherently more variable under differing business conditions, you can make your company more resilient and agile, while also treating your employees exceptionally well. In a recent blog post , we cited some alarming numbers: 40% of workers are planning to look for a new job within the next six months, and 69% say they're already passively looking. As employers, those figures are frightening.

Long-term 14

Long-term Fixed Costs Agility Commitment 14

Harvard Business Review

MAY 8, 2012

Skype , for example, competes with fixed-line carriers by offering free mobile Skype calls. Bharti's innovative business model converted fixed costs in capital expenditure to a variable cost based on usage of capacity. Through the outsourcing arrangements, Bharti dramatically lowered its costs while ensuring high quality for customers, since vendors had world-class competencies in their domains.

Outsourcing 14

Outsourcing Wireless Telecommunications Core Competence 14

Harvard Business Review

OCTOBER 5, 2017

It could be because “software development typically requires large upfront fixed costs,” meaning that firms that are already pretty large are the ones who can afford to invest in it.

Industry 13

Industry Document Software Fixed Costs 13

Harvard Business Review

MAY 13, 2016

Imagine eliminating all of the redundancies in fixed costs. The nonprofit sector has limbs.

NGO 16

NGO Budgeting Diversity Fixed Costs 16

Harvard Business Review

MARCH 22, 2013

However, the model separates subscriber revenue from the cost of the network. Congestion, rather than raw usage, is the key driver of this phenomenon; given that the Internet Service Provider network is largely a fixed-cost asset.

Decentralization 16

Decentralization Fixed Costs GDP Efficiency 16

Harvard Business Review

JUNE 25, 2013

Almost 80 years ago, Ronald Coase won the Nobel Prize in Economics for an essay that suggested that we do this for the sake of scalable efficiency — it costs less to coordinate activity within a firm than across independent entities.

Drucker 17

Drucker Decentralization Outsourcing Globalization 17

Harvard Business Review

FEBRUARY 6, 2018

The introduction of Amazon Prime , which provides two-day delivery on many Amazon orders for a fixed annual fee, represented a huge shift in Amazon’s early business model. The absence of fixed costs for customers attracted small and innovative web developers. jamie jones/Getty Images. It is clear from some of its recent moves that Amazon sees the 18% of U.S. GDP dedicated to health care as fertile ground for expansion.

Health Care 15

Health Care Retail GDP Pharmaceuticals 15

Harvard Business Review

JUNE 24, 2013

If you are inside a big company, profit-draining ventures are typically early sacrifices in corporate cost-cutting exercises. How will you generate enough transactions to cover the fixed costs involved in running your business?

Venture Capitalist 16

Venture Capitalist Supply Chain Christensen Fixed Costs 16

Harvard Business Review

DECEMBER 1, 2017

Colin was sure his revenues would exceed costs within a year, but the large clients he expected never materialized. So not only were the current fees too weak to support his fixed costs, but future clients were turned off by his apparently excessive tastes. To address those cost overruns, Colin subleased some space, cancelled a redundant and very expensive trading service, and let one person go. The costs soon proved much greater than expected.

Hedge 11

Hedge Core Competence Fixed Costs Price 11

Harvard Business Review

DECEMBER 10, 2012

She had carefully prepared a business plan based on expected participants per class, price, available classes per week, and all her anticipated costs. Regardless, a financing component adds another fixed cost. "Leverage" is one of the more interesting and difficult concepts to fully grasp in all of finance, but it's important for anyone that borrows or plans to borrow money to understand. Much of the confusion stems from the contrasting meanings embedded in the same word.

Financial Leverage 17

Financial Leverage Film Class Fixed Costs 17

Harvard Business Review

MARCH 18, 2013

We didn't want to burden the organization with fixed costs. Almost everything had to be free, and the few things we paid for had to be scalable so that the unit costs would eventually approach zero.

Budgeting 16

Budgeting Software Film Entrepreneur 16