Publications

Summer 2020
Article

Accelerating Innovation Through a Network of Ecosystems: What Companies Can Learn from One of the World's Largest Networks of Accelerator Labs

By: Elizabeth J. Altman and Frank Nagle

A United Nations agency with a sweeping mission and sprawling global presence may not appear to be the most likely place where companies can learn new techniques for accelerating innovation — but appearances can be deceiving. The United Nations Development Programme... View Details

Keywords: Accelerator Labs; Business Ecosystems; Networks; Innovation and Invention

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November 1986 (Revised June 1987)
Case

Fieldcrest Division of Fieldcrest Mills, Inc.: Compensation System for Field Sales Representatives

Focuses on the compensation plan for Fieldcrest sales representatives. Management is reviewing the structure of the plan and must decide how to establish compensation goals and guidelines for the following year so that sales efforts are allocated among products and/or... View Details

Keywords: Markets; Competitive Strategy; Compensation and Benefits

Educators

February 1993 (Revised September 1994)
Case

Hewlett-Packard Imaging Systems Division: Sonos 100 C/F Introduction

By: Frank V. Cespedes and Marie Bell

The marketing manager for the Imaging Systems business unit (ISY) at Hewlett-Packard Medical Products Group is considering channel strategy and channel management issues raised by the upcoming introduction of a new cardiac imaging product. Product marketing's plans... View Details

Keywords: Marketing Channels; Product Marketing; Product Launch; Market Entry and Exit; Distribution Channels; Sales; Competitive Strategy

Educators

01 Mar 2024
News

Case Study: Testing the Waters

Illustration by Christina Spano Endurance training was nothing new to Lauren Picasso (MBA 2014), who’d raced through her younger years as a cross-country runner and swimmer. In 2017, when she was director of marketing at Jet.com and looking for a physical challenge,... View Details

Keywords: Jen McFarland Flint; Food and Beverage Stores; Retail Trade

May 2017
Case

Promontory, Inc.

By: Frank V. Cespedes and Amy Handlin

Promontory, Inc. is a small, privately owned firm in the promotional products (specialty advertising) industry. After starting the firm two years ago with the intention of pursuing a high-quality/high-price strategy, the CEO is seeking methods of increasing sales... View Details

Keywords: Salesforce Management; Marketing Strategy; Customization and Personalization; Business Model; Sales; Advertising Industry

Educators

July 2017
Article

The Four Stages to Becoming an Excellent Front-Line Sales Manager

Sales occupations account for more than 10% of the total U.S. labor force, and that official estimate is almost certainly low: In an increasingly service economy, many people who do business development for a living are not listed as “sales” for reporting purposes.... View Details

Keywords: Salesforce Management

01 Oct 1997
News

Graduate's Gift Honors HBS Friend

business, community development, and philanthropic activities, recalled their early days as students at HBS. Initially leery of the gregarious Anderson, de Rothschild said that he soon became fascinated by his stories about starting... View Details

Keywords: Nancy O. Perry

April 2021
Article

Today's Surgeon Compensation Models Fall Short: Aligning Incentives to Create More Equitable and Value-based Compensation Models

By: Susanna Gallani, Mary Witkowski, Lauren Haskins, Haley Jeffcoat, Vinita Mujumdar and Frank Opelka

Modern medicine is undergoing a transformation that involves innovative surgical approaches, increased medical treatment options, clinical care pathways that require collaboration beyond hospital walls, and health data captured by electronic health records and other... View Details

Keywords: Physician Compensation; Surgeons; Health Care and Treatment; Business Model; Compensation and Benefits

21 Oct 2014
First Look

First Look: October 21

Publications October 2014 Harvard Business Review Press Aligning Strategy and Sales: The Choices, Systems, and Behaviors That Drive Effective Selling By: Cespedes, Frank V. Abstract—There are many books that provide strategy advice and... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

2019
Working Paper

Why Do User Communities Matter for Strategy?

By: Sonali K. Shah and Frank Nagle

User communities represent a unique organizing structure for the exchange of ideas and knowledge. They are organizations composed primarily of users working collaboratively, voluntarily, and with minimal oversight to freely and openly develop and exchange knowledge... View Details

Keywords: Strategic Management; Knowledge Sharing; Collaborative Innovation and Invention; Organizations; Knowledge Use and Leverage; Strategy

SSRN

2020
Article

Why Do User Communities Matter for Strategy?

By: Sonali K. Shah and Frank Nagle

In this essay, we explore how strategic management research and practice could benefit from considering the benefits and challenges obtainable through working with user communities. User communities represent a unique organizing structure for the exchange of ideas and... View Details

Keywords: User Communities; Innovation; Open Source; Collaboration; Cooperative Strategy; Knowledge Sharing; Strategy; Collaborative Innovation and Invention

2013
Working Paper

Digital Dark Matter and the Economics of Apache

By: Shane Greenstein and Frank Nagle

Researchers have long hypothesized that spillovers from government, university, and private company R&D contribute to economic growth, but these contributions may be difficult to measure when they take a non-pecuniary form. The growth of networking devices and the... View Details

Keywords: Measurement and Metrics; Internet and the Web; Performance Productivity; Applications and Software; Economic Growth; Research and Development

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25 Oct 2016
First Look

October 25, 2016

September–October 2016 European Business Review What Senior Executives Should Know About Sales By: Cespedes, Frank V. Abstract—Business is more complex, data more abundant, and more specialists are needed to stay up-to-date with... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

2012
Article

Exploring Re-Identification Risks in Public Domains

By: Aditi Ramachandran, Lisa Singh, Edward Porter and Frank Nagle

While re-identification of sensitive data has been studied extensively, with the emergence of online social networks and the popularity of digital communications, the ability to use public data for re-identification has increased. This work begins by presenting two... View Details

Keywords: Safety; Analytics and Data Science; Social and Collaborative Networks

20 Jul 2016
News

To Increase Sales, Get Customers to Commit a Little at a Time

01 Aug 1998
News

High Honors

Ralph M. Barford (MBA '52) Frank Batten (MBA '52) David J. Dunn (MBA '61) Ann M. Fudge (MBA '77) Ellen R. Marram (MBA '70) Robert F. McDermott (MBA '50) Martin V. Marshall (MBA '47, DCS '53), Henry R. Byers Professor of Business... View Details

September 2016
Article

Communicating Value in Healthcare Using Radar Charts: A Case Study of Prostate Cancer

By: Nikhil G. Thaker, Tariq N. Ali, Michael E. Porter, Thomas W. Feeley, Robert S. Kaplan and Steven J. Frank

Question: Can we create a value-based tool to visualize the outcomes and cost of various treatments that could facilitate patient-centered decision making?

Summary Answer: We developed a standardized value framework by using radar charts to visualize and... View Details

Keywords: Decision Making; Health Care and Treatment; Health Industry

May 2023
Article

Where Sales Technology (Really) Helps

Interest in Sales Enablement (SE), the catch-all term for attempts to increase sales productivity with AI and other technologies, is driven by multiple factors. One is the declining costs of the tools. Also, selling is now data-hungry work and not just in tech sectors.... View Details

December 16, 2021
Article

Avoid a One-Size-Fits-All Approach to Sales Coaching

Coaching sales reps is about clarifying relevant behaviors and whether the issue is motivation or ability. Some reps may work hard, but lack certain capabilities while others demonstrate capability but seemingly lack motivation or effort. Good coaching helps to clarify... View Details

Keywords: Salesforce Management; Training; Competency and Skills; Motivation and Incentives

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