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Academia Isn't a Safe Haven for Conversations About Race and Racism
Leadership & Managing People Digital ArticleHow so-called progressive spaces silence people of color. -
How to Penetrate the US Market
Marketing Digital ArticleAccounting for almost 30% of world GDP, the United States is the world’s largest and most demanding market for almost everything from oil to microprocessors to premium coffee. Companies around the world aspire to do business in the US, or at least with US companies in their home markets. By doing so, they learn much […] -
How Businesses Have Successfully Pivoted During the Pandemic
Strategy & Execution Digital ArticleA look at what's worked and why. -
Bed Bath & Beyond’s Persistent Coupons and the Return of Thrifty Consumers
Pricing strategy Digital ArticleBig-box stores need to offer discounts — and make customers earn them. -
Conflicted Consumers
Organizational Development Digital ArticleHow green are consumers in the U.S.? On one level, we haven't really changed all that much. Many pundits argue persuasively that without the rapid rise... -
How Brands Can Follow Through on the Values They're Selling
Leadership & Managing People Digital ArticleA roadmap for effective advocacy. -
Expose Your Company’s Blind Spots
Customer experience Digital ArticleIs your company unintentionally keeping your most senior people from getting the feedback they most need? It can easily happen as an unintended consequence of success. Consider these situations: Senior executives at car companies drive only the newest models: For decades, the top executives at America’s leading automobile manufacturers always drove models fresh from the […] -
Data Privacy Rules Are Changing. How Can Marketers Keep Up?
Technology & Operations Digital ArticleAnalytics and automation technologies make it easier than you might expect. -
Why Do Companies Succumb to Price Fixing?
Government policy and regulation Magazine ArticleWhen Ben Franklin wrote Poor Richard’s Almanac and the words, “A little neglect may breed great mischief,” he did not have price fixing in mind. To the 47 executives in companies in the folding-box industry convicted of price fixing, however, the words seem tailored to fit. In those companies convicted under antitrust laws in 1976, […] -
Making the Business Case for Your Marketing Budget
Sales & Marketing Digital ArticleHow CMOs can move beyond short-term metrics and convince their colleagues that long-term growth requires patience. -
In 2009, Match the Urge to Purge with a Zest to Invest
Recessions Digital ArticleIt’s become the mantra of the moment: “A crisis is a terrible thing to waste.” Leaders everywhere are struggling to make sense of the worldwide economic crisis, to learn lessons that will guide them and their companies going forward. My worry is that too many leaders are learning the wrong lessons — they are becoming […] -
“Actually,” She Said, “He Works for Me.”
Consumer behavior Digital ArticleSurprised by a gender stereotype? React calmly, directly, and move on. -
When People Pay Attention to Video Ads and Why
Marketing Digital ArticleContext is key. -
How to Fight Discrimination in AI
Technology & Operations Digital ArticleTackling one of the toughest questions about algorithmic bias. -
Go Downstream: The New Profit Imperative in Manufacturing
Business models Magazine ArticleNow that providing services is more lucrative than making products, the old foundations for success in manufacturing are crumbling. Smart manufacturers are creating new business models to capture profits at the customer’s end of the value chain. -
How to Pay Your Sales Force
Motivating people Magazine ArticleUsing the results of a survey of 380 companies in 34 industries, this author examines three basic types of compensation plans: salary, commission, and combination (salary plus commission). Most companies in the study favored a combination plan, but such plans have some disadvantages to offset their obvious attractiveness. The author sets out the possible reasons […] -
Look to Consumers to Increase Productivity
Personal productivity Magazine ArticleWhen productivity is a problem in manufacturing, managers turn to the R&D department or operations for help. In services, however, especially ones where there is a lot of contact with the customer, such in-house groups cannot by themselves improve productivity. Because services involve the customer in production, are labor intensive, and are time-bound, consumer behavior […] -
Online Shopping and the Problem with Pictures
Marketing Digital ArticleWhat if the thing that gets online shoppers to buy a product is also the thing that makes them dissatisfied with the product when it arrives? In a recent research project, I tested this hypothesis using the pictures of products that accompany the online shopping experience. Images are the crux of online shopping. Good pictures […] -
How the Rift Between Sales and Marketing Undermines Reps
Sales & Marketing Digital ArticleThe fourth article in a four-article series. Read the first, second, and third entries. It's no secret that sales and marketing executives don't always... -
The Twelve Sales Metrics that Matter Most
Sales & Marketing Digital ArticleA recent survey shows what numbers sales managers should watch.
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A&M/Octone Records: All Rights or Nothing?
Sales & Marketing Case Study11.95View Details In April 2008, after successfully transitioning Octone Records to Universal Music Group and relaunching the label as A&M/Octone Records, president and... -
From Correlation to Causation
Technology & Operations Case Study8.95View Details To make sound business decisions, managers must be comfortable with the concepts of correlation and causation. This background note provides an overview... -
Gucci: Staying Relevant in Luxury over a Century
Sales & Marketing Case Study11.95View Details This case describes the journey of Gucci, a hundred-year-old luxury fashion brand, and how over the years it has reinvented its designs and marketing... -
Why Can't I Use My iPhone at Work?: Managing Consumerization of IT at a Multi-National Organization
Leadership & Managing People Case Study11.95View Details As IT innovations in the last years emerged on the consumer market, employees are more experienced in the private than in the corporate use of innovative... -
Comfort Class Transport: Does Customer Service Need an Overhaul?
Technology & Operations Case Study8.95View Details The general manager of a chauffeured limousine transport company is concerned about underperformance at the company's customer service call center. The... -
SAP: Branding in the Digital Age
Sales & Marketing Case Study11.95View Details By 2017, digital, social, and mobile technologies were rapidly changing the way many of SAP's traditional customers did business over the last decade.... -
PENTLAND GROUP: A FAMILY OF BRANDS
Leadership & Managing People Case Study11.95View Details Three generations of the Rubin family gathered around the dinner table for their usual Friday evening get-together. It was a perfect opportunity to discuss... -
Astralis Group: Determining a Brand Strategy
Strategy & Execution Case Study11.95View Details After launching a Danish esports company in July 2019, and going public in December 2019 with multiple brands associated with different games, the Astralis... -
MINI USA: Finding a New Advertising Agency (A)
Sales & Marketing Case Study11.95View Details Selling an intangible like advertising services is a difficult task. The first step is to understand how brands buy these services. What are they looking... -
Terry's Group: Designing Novelty Chocolates, Epilogue
Sales & Marketing Case Study5.00View Details Supplements the case. -
Executive Compensation at Talent Partners
Finance & Accounting Case Study11.95View Details Talent Partners' CEO was very successful at growing the business and establishing its leadership position. He was compensated with a mix of salary and... -
IBM Corp.: "Make It Your Business" (B)
Finance & Accounting Case Study5.00View Details Reveals the system changes that IBM adopted. Designed as an in-class handout after discussion of the (A) case. -
Managing the Copy-Testing Process
Sales & Marketing Case Study8.95View Details The note describes various methodologies and philosophies of advertising copy test. Additional material this might be used with: Managing Spending Balance... -
Birth of the Swatch
Sales & Marketing Case Study11.95View Details In 1993, the Swatch is the best-selling watch in history. Traces the history of the watch industry up to the early 1980s, when the Swatch was introduced.... -
Materials Technology Corp.
Technology & Operations Case Study11.95View Details Materials Technology Corp. (MTC) is an MIT-based start-up company that identified an initial product market for its advanced materials-processing technology... -
Arcelor: Undervaluation: Threat or Opportunity?
Finance & Accounting Case Study11.95View Details Arcelor believes its shares are undervalued and has to decide whether to buy back stock via a repurchase tender offer or via an open market repurchase.... -
The Scotts Company: Note to the (A) Case: What Happened in 2000-2003
Technology & Operations Case Study5.00View Details Case (A) describes how a major player in the agricultural chemicals industry struggles to transform a fragmented group of newly acquired businesses into... -
Volt Lines: Leading a B2B Service Provider through a Crisis (B)
Sales & Marketing Case Study5.00View Details Supplement to case 523037 Volt Lines was a next-generation transportation service in Istanbul, Turkey. The company was trying to disrupt the traditional... -
Simulation as a Decision Aid
Strategy & Execution Case Study8.95View Details A brief introduction to simulation--what it is, why it's used, etc. Meant to set context for a first class on simulation. A rewritten version of an earlier...
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Academia Isn't a Safe Haven for Conversations About Race and Racism
Leadership & Managing People Digital ArticleHow so-called progressive spaces silence people of color. -
How to Penetrate the US Market
Marketing Digital ArticleAccounting for almost 30% of world GDP, the United States is the world’s largest and most demanding market for almost everything from oil to microprocessors to premium coffee. Companies around the world aspire to do business in the US, or at least with US companies in their home markets. By doing so, they learn much […] -
A&M/Octone Records: All Rights or Nothing?
Sales & Marketing Case Study11.95View Details In April 2008, after successfully transitioning Octone Records to Universal Music Group and relaunching the label as A&M/Octone Records, president and... -
How Businesses Have Successfully Pivoted During the Pandemic
Strategy & Execution Digital ArticleA look at what's worked and why. -
Bed Bath & Beyond’s Persistent Coupons and the Return of Thrifty Consumers
Pricing strategy Digital ArticleBig-box stores need to offer discounts — and make customers earn them. -
Conflicted Consumers
Organizational Development Digital ArticleHow green are consumers in the U.S.? On one level, we haven't really changed all that much. Many pundits argue persuasively that without the rapid rise... -
From Correlation to Causation
Technology & Operations Case Study8.95View Details To make sound business decisions, managers must be comfortable with the concepts of correlation and causation. This background note provides an overview... -
Gucci: Staying Relevant in Luxury over a Century
Sales & Marketing Case Study11.95View Details This case describes the journey of Gucci, a hundred-year-old luxury fashion brand, and how over the years it has reinvented its designs and marketing... -
Why Can't I Use My iPhone at Work?: Managing Consumerization of IT at a Multi-National Organization
Leadership & Managing People Case Study11.95View Details As IT innovations in the last years emerged on the consumer market, employees are more experienced in the private than in the corporate use of innovative...