Sales Forces - Publications - Faculty & Research

12 Oct 1999
Research & Ideas

A Perfect Fit: Aligning Organization & Strategy

begin with, the top team must first agree on a "statement of strategic and organizational direction" — an outline of what the company must do as a whole in order to gain competitive advantage. They then appoint an employee task View Details

Keywords: by Judith A. Ross

04 Apr 2000
Research & Ideas

The Right Way to Restructure Conglomerates in Emerging Markets

handle. It also poses practical problems. For instance, how easy is it to estimate a reliable breakup value for a business group in the middle of a fire sale and in the absence of a well-developed market for asset sales? But if... View Details

Keywords: by Tarun Khanna & Krishna Palepu

29 Apr 2008
First Look

First Look: April 29, 2008

precisely what they want their salespeople to be good at, assessing the sales force on these dimensions, and then hiring or training in order to get where they want to be. The (B) case provides rich detail... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

02 Jun 2011
What Do You Think?

Is it Time for a National Bankruptcy?

sought could include aid from one country to another, the sale of national assets, and the deferral of commitments to allow time for a work out. A sizeable minority, however, took the view that lenders, because they helped contribute to a... View Details

Keywords: by Jim Heskett

30 Aug 2016
First Look

August 30, 2016

forthcoming Journal of Marketing Research Incentives versus Reciprocity: Insights from a Field Experiment By: Chung, Doug J., and Das Narayandas Abstract—We conduct a field experiment in which we vary the sales View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

03 Mar 2008
Research & Ideas

Marketing Your Way Through a Recession

your weaker distributors and upgrade your sales force by recruiting those sacked by other companies. 6. Adjust pricing tactics. Customers will be shopping around for the best deals. You do not necessarily... View Details

Keywords: by John Quelch

05 Aug 2002
What Do You Think?

Is Platform Leadership Old Hat or the Wave of the Future?

sale to Procter & Gamble. Platform leadership requires ingenuity, a strong customer franchise, a vision of the future, and substantial resources. It is not for everyone. But is it a goal that more and more organizations should strive... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

05 Nov 2012
Research & Ideas

What Wall Street Doesn’t Understand About International Trade

on with X.” Global sales are critical to the success of most big businesses. In fact, for companies in the S&P 500, some 46 percent of sales came from outside the United States in 2011. "When nearly half... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

29 Oct 2000
Research & Ideas

Building a Powerful Prestige Brand

committed. Even if they had wanted to sell in chain stores, the Lauders could not afford the large sales force necessary to service such outlets. Because she wanted to reach women who did not necessarily... View Details

Keywords: by Nancy F. Koehn; Beauty & Cosmetics; Consumer Products; Retail

01 Jul 2008
First Look

First Look: July 1, 2008

and inside sales force have been very successful in finding and bringing in new customers, in part because of a laser-like focus on increasing its marketing ROI. As ScriptLogic looks towards its next phase... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

18 Nov 2010
Research & Ideas

GM’s IPO: Back to the Future

decision by the Bush White House to provide more than $20 billion to GM, Chrysler, and their financial subsidiaries, the auto task force put together by President Obama managed a restructuring of both companies at a breathtaking pace.... View Details

Keywords: by Staff; Auto

30 Jun 2015
First Look

First Look: June 30, 2015

that sales representatives, who were responsible for a large portfolio of imaging products, were not giving enough attention to Ultrasound. He was wondering if change in the size and compensation structure of the View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

11 Oct 2004
Research & Ideas

Four Ways to Create Lasting Change

DNA." Roberto and Levesque joined forces for the following e-mail interview with HBS Working Knowledge. Martha Lagace: As you write in your working paper, conventional management wisdom says the first step in a change initiative is... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

04 Feb 2021
Research & Ideas

Inside CEOs' Pandemic Worries: Uncertainty, Employees, and Kids

Sales forces also struggled with distancing. One CEO described how “[The] sales force conducted customer visits online, which they did not like,... View Details

Keywords: by Gamze D. Yucaoglu, Robin Abrahams, and Boris Groysberg

09 Jan 2006
Research & Ideas

What Really Drives Your Strategy?

external factors play a surprising role in strategy formulation and execution. As Gilbert explains, "A lot of our book is about understanding (a) that realized strategy is often different from intended strategy, and (b) there are View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

09 Jan 2014
Research & Ideas

Excerpt: ’Fortune Tellers’

predictions. Some forecasters built sales forces to travel from office to office in lower Manhattan or in Boston and Chicago. Others sent their representatives to Rotary Clubs and churches in smaller cities... View Details

Keywords: by Walter A. Friedman

15 Dec 2020
Research & Ideas

The Unspoken Messages of COVID-19 Restrictions

Soaring COVID-19 cases are forcing government officials to confront a critical question: Should they lock down the economy further? Whether to curb activities like indoor dining might seem like a simple choice, but the decision to ease... View Details

Keywords: by Danielle Kost; Food & Beverage

09 Feb 2016
First Look

February 9, 2016

Publisher's link: https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=50453 November 2, 2015 Harvard Business Review The Best Ways to Hire Salespeople By: Cespedes, Frank V., and Daniel Weinfurter Abstract—Companies typically spend more on hiring in View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

27 Dec 2015
Research & Ideas

The Most Popular Stories and Research Papers of 2015

healthy competition to increase patient value. Incentives versus Reciprocity: Insights from a Field Experiment (523) What are the most effective forms of sales force compensation? Findings provided by Doug... View Details

30 Oct 2005
Research & Ideas

Tuning Jobs to Fit Your Company

even though they do not control all the resources—manufacturing and service, for example—needed to achieve the desired results. There is a good reason for this discrepancy. By explicitly setting the span of accountability wider than the span of control, executives can... View Details

Keywords: by Robert Simons

Publications