Harvard Business Review

MARCH 21, 2017

Walmart has held a low-price leadership position from its start. But the company has elected to make neither its new pricing capabilities nor its long-standing low prices part of its marketing efforts for e-commerce.

IT Strategy 11

IT Strategy Strategy Core Competence Price 11

The Empowered Buisness

JANUARY 2, 2014

Is over-emphasizing positive thinking in your company’s culture, actually creating negativity without you even knowing it? A good example is the obsession with positive thinking within organizations. I am in favor of developing a mindset and culture that focuses on positivity, as long as it is authentic. Don’t get me wrong.

Company 135

Company Organization Cost Self-aware 135

Harvard Business Review

JUNE 10, 2015

Before long, Blockbuster was gaining nearly half of all new subscribers in the online rental market. Liaison officer positions—previously neglected—were now only given to top performers. In the Blockbuster case, a successful CEO was faced with a disruptive threat and came up with a successful market strategy.

IT Strategy 8

IT Strategy Strategy Operations Resistance 8

Harvard Business Review

JULY 2, 2015

Many companies start their search for global growth in an alphabet soup of emerging-market groupings such as the BRIC , CIVETS , MINT , Next 11 , and so on. There are several flaws in using such acronyms as the basis for entering overseas markets. However, the sources of demand in each country differ, which will affect your strategy.

Marketing 8

Marketing Benchmarking Globalization Construction 8

Harvard Business Review

FEBRUARY 5, 2016

The past year has been difficult for many markets in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). However, although some of our clients have been facing difficulties resulting from the current environment, primarily because of currency pressures, many others are continuing to see strong growth, even in troubled markets such as South Africa and Angola.

GDP 8

GDP Politics Marketing Bottom-up 8

Harvard Business Review

JULY 18, 2011

By that he means that all the things a business does — not just its logo and visuals, but also its strategy, call to action, customer service, communications with customers, and people — combine to determine what it stands for. Dan's smart observation is that "Brand is everything, and everything is brand."

Brand 15

Brand Positioning Marketing Productivity 15

Harvard Business Review

MARCH 17, 2011

That's because the key variable in a team's prospects isn't just its skill level, but its region and seeding — its position in the brackets — that determine its odds of advancing toward the championship. For years much of Braun's marketing efforts had been aimed at 40-50+ year old men. Perfection" positioning.

Management 15

Management Retail Brand Merchandising 15

Harvard Business Review

APRIL 8, 2015

Profit maximization (short-term): A shipping company increases freight rates by 50% to benefit from a capacity shortage in the market, even though doing so will strike customers as exploitative and damage loyalty. Positioning: A watch company prices different brands along a predefined, brand-led price corridor.

Balanced Scorecard 8

Balanced Scorecard Company Price KPI 8

Harvard Business Review

NOVEMBER 2, 2017

Before the iPhone was introduced, in 2007, Nokia was the dominant mobile phone maker with a clearly stated purpose — “Connecting people” — and an aggressive strategy for sustaining market dominance. Nokia was so immersed in executing its strategy that it lost sight of its purpose. Insight Center.

Strategy 13

Strategy Company How To Supply Chain 13

Harvard Business Review

DECEMBER 15, 2015

When formulating a strategy, markets and segments are important categories to consider. But a market never buys anything. 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. Only customers buy.

Strategy 8

Strategy Team Discount ROIC 8

Harvard Business Review

MAY 16, 2016

Strategic alignment, for us, means that all elements of a business — including the market strategy and the way the company itself is organized — are arranged in such a way as to best support the fulfillment of its long-term purpose. Strategy is how the business will achieve it. The fall can come quickly.

Banking 14

Banking Strategy Film Operations 14

Harvard Business Review

FEBRUARY 12, 2014

For me, IKEA’s success is mostly due to the clarity of its strategy. Most businesses try to build their market around what they offer. For the consumer, IKEA has a clear positioning in their minds and is sharply contrasted with other value. This case and other great business strategies underscore how critical that is.

Strategy 13

Strategy Document Comparison Retail 13

Harvard Business Review

MAY 28, 2014

But in the meantime, Google’s choices in marketing and distributing its new product get to the heart of the tension between new opportunities and existing strategy. In March, it announced a major partnership with Luxottica , the world’s largest eyewear company, a move clearly aimed at the mainstream market.

Strategy 10

Strategy Early Adopters Innovation Proposal 10

Harvard Business Review

DECEMBER 27, 2017

Among the 75% of employees with disabilities who say they have market-worthy ideas, 48% say their ideas went ignored by people with the power to act on them, 57% feel stalled in their careers, and 47% feel they would never achieve a position of power at their company, no matter how high-performing or qualified they are.

Compliance 8

Compliance Chief Operating Officer Innovation Survey 8

Harvard Business Review

FEBRUARY 1, 2011

My last post talked about how a little-known company , Grace Manufacturing, took a flexible and opportunistic approach to its strategy when its core business faltered. In the 1950's, the American market was quite small and dominated by entrenched players such as Harley Davidson, Indian, and imports like Triumph and Moto Guzzi.

Strategy 15

Strategy Automotive Short-term Marketing 15

Harvard Business Review

MARCH 28, 2016

Kodak invested the rich proceeds from this critical intellectual property in creating a strong position in the digital-image-production technology — printers, papers, and inks — that was disrupting its historic analog business. 4 in the inkjet-printer market, where it joined the likes of HP, Lexmark, and Canon.

Company 8

Company How To Technology Strategy 8

Harvard Business Review

MARCH 10, 2017

We’ll focus on how the software helps to clarify three situations: design of the sales coverage model, alignment of sales resources to market opportunity, and identification and widespread adoption of the behaviors with the strongest positive influence on sales performance. Refining Sales Team Structure and Roles.

Software 10

Software Metrics CRM B2B 10

Harvard Business Review

SEPTEMBER 6, 2017

New innovations will change the basis of competition in many markets and alter the sources of advantage for most companies. Business-critical roles — that is, the jobs that are central to differentiating a company from its competitors and successfully executing its strategy — will also change.

Company 12

Company Insurance Engineering Software 12

Harvard Business Review

JUNE 2, 2014

If your company puts you in charge of developing a foreign market or a new line of business, your challenges are in many ways similar to those facing a startup. It is a fight that every manager is familiar with, but nowhere is the challenge bigger than when the existing strategy is not aligned with the demands of the situation you are in.

Innovation 11

Innovation Conflict of Interest Strategy System 11

Harvard Business Review

NOVEMBER 17, 2015

Companies that separate the roles of CEO and chairman and appoint strong outsiders to the latter position may have one advantage: they are more likely to benefit from strong governance. Meanwhile, Dr. Piech was obsessed with achieving dominant global market share, which included a larger presence in the U.S.

CFO 8

CFO Crisis Mass Marketing IPO 8

Harvard Business Review

DECEMBER 8, 2017

After you’ve been fired, getting back into the job market can be difficult. How should your résumé reference the previous position, or should you even include it? And how can you go into the application process feeling positive about your prospects? In writing, focus on the positive. What the Experts Say.

How To 8

How To Letter Learning-by-Doing PR 8

Harvard Business Review

DECEMBER 2, 2013

Caught up in administrative activities such as managing employee records and planning company picnics, human resources departments can too easily lose sight of their primary function: Making sure the organization has the needed human capital to implement its strategy. HR is no longer limited to being transaction-oriented, as it once was.

Company 8

Company Human Resources Human Capital Engineering 8

Harvard Business Review

NOVEMBER 6, 2017

Verizon would not have been able to so quickly and successfully change its strategy without being willing to question and overhaul traditional organizational structures. The Gap Between Strategy and Execution. Big strategies need local options. Insight Center. Sponsored by the Brightline Initiative.

Execution 8

Execution Strategy COO CEO 8

Harvard Business Review

NOVEMBER 22, 2017

For every company wrestling with evolutions in its strategy, success depends as much on matching the operating model to those evolutions as it does on the soundness of the strategy itself. For individuals, they make sure that difference-making talent is in mission critical positions.

Strategy 8

Strategy Company Banking Apparel 8

Harvard Business Review

MAY 27, 2015

The type of capital required and its source depends on the type of business, its stage of life, and its strategy for the future. In some areas and sectors, the market provides all the capital needed. For example, the market for bank credit for small businesses has been tight, particularly for loans under $150,000.

Entrepreneur 8

Entrepreneur Policies Banking Innovation 8

Harvard Business Review

JANUARY 18, 2012

When Palmisano retired this month, the media chronicled his success by focusing on IBM's 21% annual growth in earnings per share and its increase in market capitalization to $218 billion. In contrast, IBM kept laser-like focus on building the global organization to execute its strategy, and financial results followed.

Globalization 15

Globalization Golden Parachute Short-term Long-term 15

Harvard Business Review

NOVEMBER 29, 2011

I first noticed Commerce back in the late '90s, when it was developing a reputation for creativity and had a stock-market value of $400 million. The term it used to describe its strategy was "retailtainment" — making it fun for customers to do business in an industry that was devoid of personality.

Banking 18

Banking Retail Open-book Creativity 18

Harvard Business Review

AUGUST 9, 2016

Almost every organization today is putting customer experience (CX) at the core of its strategy, aiming to provide products and services that meet customers at every touch point. Read more from Google Analytics 360 Suite: Rethinking Marketing Measurement from the Ground Up. Does Your Company Have a Data Science Strategy?

Marketing 9

Marketing Content Insurance Brand 9

Harvard Business Review

JULY 28, 2015

Marketers tend to like big, bold actions that grab attention and spew off metrics. To market a product or an idea, you have to change minds, and that takes time and a lot of careful work. The arc of history is long—the length of a career, rather than a marketing campaign. Great brands operate the same way.

Brand 8

Brand Marketing Sharpe Learning-by-Doing 8

Strategy Driven

JANUARY 24, 2011

Execution Gap Maker #2: Nokia Nokia’s share of the worldwide market for mobile phones continued to slip in 2010. Why was this once-dominant player unable to execute and maintain its market position? So what happened? It appears Nokia was not able to coordinate decisions and activities across departments or levels of management.

Execution 67

Execution Company 360-Degree Feedback Cooper 67

Harvard Business Review

AUGUST 22, 2011

They were internally focused, their speed-to-market was down, and they couldn't find a good balance between serving customers well while making healthy margins. The result was slow progress against the company strategy and an inability to profitably deliver on the value proposition. Build behavior based on market and customer insights.

Strategy 15

Strategy Education Content Storytelling 15

Harvard Business Review

MAY 18, 2011

HP finds itself in a complicated position. He blamed the Japan earthquake, the anemic PC market, and a troubled services organization. While HP was once the technology leader that could do no wrong, market watchers are now concerned that the company does not have a clear strategy to overcome its problems.

Software 12

Software Technology Intellectual Capital Marketing 12

Harvard Business Review

MARCH 13, 2017

Look closely, and you’ll find that most companies have stretched their brands and product portfolios to customers and markets in which they are undifferentiated and profits are weak. For example, large biopharma companies compete in many categories and tend to accumulate an array of follower positions.

Zero Based Budgeting 13

Zero Based Budgeting Organization Budgeting How To 13

Harvard Business Review

OCTOBER 10, 2018

Capitec gets many things right in terms of its strategy, including its market positioning, internal operations, and organizational culture. Moreover, in advance, you can never be entirely sure that your original market choices will play out and will generate sufficient income by themselves. Resisting revenue temptations.

Banking 8

Banking Industry Bottom-up Resistance 8

Harvard Business Review

SEPTEMBER 13, 2013

This delightful tour through the history and marketing of the “amber restorative” is a blueprint for how to use our aspirational desires to sell us lots and lots of stuff — all over the world. But are there any times when rivalry can actually push us in positive ways?

Class 8

Class Health Care Supply Chain Globalization 8

Harvard Business Review

JUNE 10, 2014

Yet, its strategy for almost three decades has largely been that of a sustainer, not a disruptor. It has built and defended its competitive position by reinforcing its Windows/Office franchise. Its specific tactics have evolved over time, but the basic strategy has remained the same. Let’s examine a few examples. Absolutely.

Innovation 8

Innovation Disruptive Innovation Venture Capitalist Depreciation 8

In the CEO Afterlife

JUNE 8, 2016

Years later, it took on bigger players by introducing new innovative packaging to the market, and subsequently carving out a double-digit share when few thought it could be done. competitors are entering the market. Within two years, the brand went from a small share to 25% of the Canadian market,” notes Bell.

Brand 100

Brand Brand Management Advertising Management 100