Publications

11 Aug 2003
Research & Ideas

Cheap, Fast, and In Control: How Tech Aids Innovation

different levels: technical (can it work?), production (can it be produced?), need (does it address customer needs?), and market (is it big enough to justify the investment?). So managers need to assess at... View Details

Keywords: by Wendy Guild

19 Feb 2018
Sharpening Your Skills

Amazoned: Is Any Industry Safe?

Made-up Holiday The company is throwing itself a party where all its Prime customers get the gifts. How Independent Bookstores Have Thrived in Spite of Amazon.com Independent bookstores managed to survive... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Retail

December 2013 (Revised January 2015)
Case

Barbara Krakow Gallery

By: Jose Alvarez and Nyssa Liebermann

The Barbara Krakow Gallery is a successful contemporary art gallery located in Boston. It utilizes a very rare "no haggle pricing" strategy and extended sales cycle when selling pieces to collectors. Though it remains profitable and very respected, the size and scope... View Details

21 Nov 2016
Research & Ideas

It Matters That Your CEO Doesn't Know Much About Sales

senior executives specializing in everything except sales. “The number of executives reporting to the CEO in the average S&P 500 company has doubled in the last 20 years,” says Frank V. Cespedes, a senior lecturer in the Entrepreneurial View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

01 Mar 2025
News

Venture: Time Heals All

Assembling a nursing schedule for a hospital ward can be surprisingly difficult—a little like playing three-dimensional Tetris, says Ilana Springer Borkenstein (MBA 2022). “It is a really challenging, tedious task.” Nurse managers must take into consideration a host of... View Details

Keywords: Amy Crawford; Illustration by Klaus Kremmerz; Ambulatory Health Care Services; Health, Social Assistance

March 9, 2023
Article

Linking Growth and the Frontline

By: Frank V. Cespedes, Jay Galeota and Michael Wong

Most strategies are about growing the business. But about one quarter of companies do not grow at all and, even before the pandemic, only one in eight achieved more than 10% revenue growth annually, according to data from S&P Global regulatory filings. One reason is a... View Details

Keywords: Growth and Development Strategy; Customer Focus and Relationships; Competency and Skills

Read Now

22 Feb 2010
Op-Ed

Tragedy at Toyota: How Not to Lead in Crisis

plans for resolution have been Toyota's substitute for crisis response. As accounts pour in about declining quality, the company parades out relatively unknown mid-level managers to quell the firestorm. It won't work. "You live by... View Details

Keywords: by William George; Auto

July 1994
Background Note

Note on Retail Organizations

By: David E. Bell

Describes a typical organizational structure for retailers and discusses duties of various individuals such as buyer, category manager, etc. View Details

Keywords: Customers; Managerial Roles; Organizational Structure; Retail Industry

05 Jun 2014
Research & Ideas

Fixing the ‘I Hate Work’ Blues

customers will report a much higher level of responsiveness. The executives will make better informed, more thoughtful decisions about the business because they are so much closer to their markets and the people doing the work. Bill... View Details

Keywords: by Bill George

November 1993 (Revised November 1994)
Case

Molding the Impossible: the NYPRO/Vistakon Disposable Contact Lens Project

By: Clayton M. Christensen

NYPRO, Inc., one of the world's leading manufacturers of plastic injection-molded products, is asked by the Vistakon Division of Johnson & Johnson to manufacture molds that Vistakon will use to produce disposable contact lenses. The required dimensional tolerances for... View Details

Keywords: Customer Relationship Management; Engineering; Management Practices and Processes; Product Development; Production; Groups and Teams; Manufacturing Industry; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry

May 2002 (Revised May 2002)
Case

Tim Blanchard at Jones Mendel & Co.

By: John J. Gabarro

Tim Blanchard struggles to balance all the demands facing him as a partner of a consulting firm. He must decide how to serve clients, mentor his people, provide strategy and direction to the high-tech group, and spend time with family. A rewritten version of an earlier... View Details

Keywords: Customer Focus and Relationships; Managerial Roles; Work-Life Balance; Consulting Industry

2021
Working Paper

CRM and AI in Time of Crisis

By: Michelle Y. Lu and Navid Mojir

A crisis can affect the incentives of various players within a firm’s multi-layered sales and marketing organization (e.g., headquarters and branches of a bank). Such shifts can result in sales decisions against the firm’s best interests. Motivated by the backlash to... View Details

Keywords: CRM; Artificial Intelligence; AI; B2B Marketing; Decision Authority; Crisis Marketing; Intra-organizational Conflict; COVID-19 Pandemic; Customer Relationship Management; Technological Innovation; Decision Making; Strategy; Health Pandemics; Crisis Management; AI and Machine Learning

Keywords: Management of Companies and Enterprises; Management of Companies and Enterprises; Management of Companies and Enterprises; Management of Companies and Enterprises; Management of Companies and Enterprises; Management of Companies and Enterprises; Management of Companies and Enterprises; Management of Companies and Enterprises

SSRN

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01 Sep 2009
News

Ready for Launch

have our first customers and revenue by early fall, when we plan to start actively raising our first round of financing.” Family support: Michelle “My entire family is supportive. My sister came to the final presentation. Her son, who is... View Details

October 1995
Teaching Note

Procter & Gamble: Improving Consumer Value Through Process Design TN

By: F. Warren McFarlan

Teaching Note for (9-195-126). View Details

Keywords: Customer Value and Value Chain; Customer Focus and Relationships; Distribution Channels; Information Technology; Value Creation; Logistics; Management Practices and Processes; Consumer Products Industry

25 Oct 2017
Research & Ideas

Will Machine Learning Make You a Better Manager?

increasingly using ML to manage many aspects of their business operations. “There’s been an explosion,” Teodorescu says. “It’s becoming less of a field in itself and more and more of a tool for people in other fields to use.” In a new... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Information Technology

04 Apr 2019
Cold Call Podcast

Can Mark Zuckerberg Rebuild Trust in Facebook?

very narrow slice. They know exactly the kind of customer they're looking at and they can go at them. Of course, this was subject then to other influences like the Russian influences, but I just felt that this goes way beyond Cambridge... View Details

Keywords: Re: Andi Wang

September 2020 (Revised July 2022)
Teaching Note

Algorithmic Bias in Marketing

By: Ayelet Israeli and Eva Ascarza

Teaching Note for HBS No. 521-020. This note focuses on algorithmic bias in marketing. First, it presents a variety of marketing examples in which algorithmic bias may occur. The examples are organized around the 4 P’s of marketing – promotion, price, place and... View Details

Keywords: Marketing; Race; Ethnicity; Gender; Diversity; Prejudice and Bias; Decision Making; Ethics; Customer Relationship Management; Retail Industry; Technology Industry; Apparel and Accessories Industry; United States