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March 2003
Background Note

Linking Customer Management Effort to Profits

By: Das Narayandas

Describes the link between a vendor's customer management effort and customer profitability. View Details

Keywords: Profit; Customer Relationship Management

29 Aug 2018
What Do You Think?

What Should Harley-Davidson’s Management Do?

CasPhotography What Can the Harley-Davidson Case Teach Us About Managing in a Politicized Environment? The advice to Harley-Davidson’s management from respondents of this month’s column is to (1) ensure that... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett; Auto

August 2013
Background Note

A Note on Knowledge Management in Professional Services Firms

By: Robert G. Eccles, Ana Kreacic and Penelope Rossano

Knowledge management is a subject of broad interest, especially in "knowledge industries" and "knowledge economies." It is also a topic filled with frustration on the part of practitioners and the level of resource commitment to this function waxes and wanes. This note... View Details

Keywords: Knowledge Management

March 2022 (Revised March 2022)
Module Note

Managing Customers in the Digital Era

By: Eva Ascarza

The last two decades have witnessed incredible technological advances that have transformed the ways customers connect with each other and enabled firms to track customers in multiple ways through various channels to personalize (and automize) their offerings at... View Details

Keywords: Customer Relationship Management; Customer Focus and Relationships; Technological Innovation

06 Mar 2013
What Do You Think?

Who Should Manage Our Work Time?

Summing Up Who Will Save Us From Our Work Habits? We have a problem in the workplace. Some of it is being forced upon us by forces in society. Some of it is of our own making. But we face increasing challenges in managing our work time... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

Research Summary

Managing Multiple Identities at Work

By: Lakshmi Ramarajan

Peoples’ work identities, which are often a deep source of meaning for them, may conflict with or complement cultural, familial, or personal identities they value. A central focus of Professor Ramarajan’s work is understanding, on the individual level, how these... View Details

02 May 2011
Research & Ideas

Casino Payoff: Hands-Off Management Works Best

ensure that the casinos' best customers return to play another day. “It's not absolute freedom—it's freedom within a framework" —Francisco de Asís Martinez-Jerez And it turns out that casino hosts are ideal subjects to gain insight into an ongoing question debated for... View Details

Keywords: by Dennis Fisher; Entertainment & Recreation

April 2009
Supplement

Merck: Managing Vioxx (E)

By: Robert L. Simons, Kathryn Rosenberg and Natalie Kindred

Keywords: Leadership; Decision Choices and Conditions; Customer Focus and Relationships; Pharmaceutical Industry

September – October 2011
Article

Manage the Culture Cycle

By: James L. Heskett

Organizational culture—the shared assumptions, values, and behaviors that determine "how we do things around here"—can be measured and shaped. In organizations with large numbers of customer-facing employees, it can account for up to half of the difference in operating... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Culture; Value; Behavior; Retention; Customer Focus and Relationships; Change Management; Learning; Innovation and Invention; Labor

26 Mar 2006
Research & Ideas

The Office of Strategy Management

causes of this disconnect between strategy and performance. We have learned that most organizations do not have a strategy execution process. Many have strategic plans, but no coherent approach to manage the execution of those plans.... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

April 2009
Supplement

Merck: Managing Vioxx (G)

By: Robert L. Simons and Natalie Kindred

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Leadership; Customer Focus and Relationships; Pharmaceutical Industry

January 1995 (Revised October 1995)
Case

Citibank: Global Customer Management

By: Michael Y. Yoshino and Thomas W. Malnight

Describes Citibank's worldwide operations, which include activities in developing and developed markets. The bank's structure also varies across markets and regions, varying from autonomous national affiliates to an industry/product-based structure in its domestic U.S.... View Details

Keywords: Customer Focus and Relationships; Global Range; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Multinational Firms and Management; SWOT Analysis; Emerging Markets; Banking Industry; United States

04 May 2007
What Do You Think?

How Do Managers Think?

a scientific method in solving problems . Managers focus on making decisions with little information, not through a rigorous review of the details." According to Gerald Nanninga, "A big difference... View Details

Keywords: by Jim Heskett

June 1994 (Revised August 1994)
Case

Cunard Line Ltd.: Managing Integrated Marketing Communications

By: Stephen A. Greyser

Cunard, the world's oldest luxury line company, is confronted with several key issues involving its marketing and marketing communications strategy. One concerns the balance between image/positioning advertising and short-term-oriented promotional... View Details

Keywords: Advertising Campaigns; Marketing Communications; Marketing Strategy; Product Positioning; Consumer Behavior; Organizational Structure; Identity; Balance and Stability; Shipping Industry

March 1990 (Revised July 1991)
Case

Digital Equipment Corp.: Complex Order Management

By: Janice H. Hammond

Describes the proposed creation of a low end 3000 configuration workstation using Digital's competitive advantage of offering a la carte configuration capability and ability to build different options for customers. Disadvantages of this 3000 configuration workstation... View Details

Keywords: Customer Focus and Relationships; Cost; Management Practices and Processes; Distribution; Competitive Advantage