Customer Focus - Publications - Faculty & Research

01 Sep 2015
News

Case Study: Golden Ticket

active.com) tend to focus on participants rather than attendees, and the larger ticketing companies such as Ticketmaster have shown no interest in breaking into smaller markets with thinner margins. The Question: G8 Rocket’s near-term... View Details

28 Sep 2015
Research & Ideas

Six Lessons from Mobile Money Ventures in Developing Countries

money service, Oi Paggo, but ultimately decided to re-launch the service under a different model. Regulations that are too strict can stifle innovation. In Sri Lanka, the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) initially required all mobile money View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Financial Services; Telecommunications

01 Mar 2014
News

Faculty and Alumni Books for March 2014

a short, traditional text with a living website and cover such fundamental topics as accounting and tax, mortgages, capital markets, REITs and more. It also addresses the 2008 financial crisis and its impact on the real-estate profession. View Details

05 Jun 2014
Research & Ideas

Fixing the ‘I Hate Work’ Blues

highly bureaucratic, multilayered organizations that companies are using to execute their plans. There is so much pressure to realize short-term results that middle managers are consumed by making this month's numbers rather than building teams that View Details

Keywords: by Bill George

06 Oct 2003
What Do You Think?

Is “the Innovator’s Solution” to Sustained Corporate Growth an Unnatural Act?

two books, they present evidence that successful, dominant firms are particularly vulnerable to competitors introducing disruptive technologies, those that offer customers less product capability for much less money. Among the reasons... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

Profile

James Reinhart

Reinhart and his team shifted their focus to children’s clothing, they had an epiphany. “We started with men’s and women’s shirts,” Reinhart explained in a TechCrunch interview. “It was a great story but not a great... View Details

04 May 2020
Research & Ideas

Predictions, Prophets, and Restarting Your Business

awareness of cybersecurity issues. Combined with the ability to block ads, the growing costs of acquiring customers online, the experience of “Zoombombing,” and controls on consumer data by EU regulators and others, it’s unclear how much... View Details

Keywords: by Frank V. Cespedes

01 Mar 2006
News

Faculty Books

developing innovative products and services. He discusses the full range of activities required: learning about customer needs; managing experimentation and problem-solving; product-development process design and improvement; and... View Details

Keywords: Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools; Educational Services

22 Feb 2010
Op-Ed

Tragedy at Toyota: How Not to Lead in Crisis

subject himself to intense questioning by regulators and the media. Then he should make a personal commitment to every Toyota customer to repair the damage, including buying back defective cars. 7: Go on offense; View Details

Keywords: by William George; Auto

May 2024
Supplement

gWorks (A)

By: Richard S. Ruback and Royce Yudkoff

In January of 2019, Joe Heieck, CEO of gWorks, was deciding whether to proceed with his acquisition of Data Tech, that was a business roughly the same size as gWorks. gWorks, which provided geospatial software to small city and rural county governments, was acquired by... View Details

Citation

Purchase

01 Sep 2012
News

An Intellectual Capital: Some Influential HBS Ideas, at a Glance

In “Marketing Myopia” in HBR, Ted Levitt (below) famously asks “What business are you in?” and insists that customer focus be paramount. 1977 Abraham Zaleznik raises a provocative, game-changing question in... View Details

Keywords: Professor Elton Mayo: Professor Fritz Roethlisberger; George M. Moffett Professor of Agriculture and Business, Professor Emeritus Ray A. Goldberg; Professor Abraham Zaleznik; Professor Alfred Chandler; Professor Michael Porter; Professor Robert S. Kaplan; Professor Michael C. Jensen; Professor C. Roland Christensen; Professor Robert Menton; Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools; Educational Services

13 Nov 2020
News

New Virtual Classrooms Expand Digital Learning

classroom experience has everything to do with the level of interactivity between faculty and students, and these virtual classrooms provide a better online experience.” Students log in from their respective computers all over the world and, through a View Details

20 Nov 2019
News

From the Ground Up

books, notebooks, pencils, and that kind of thing. “So we turned our focus away from being more generally involved in the community to specifically focusing on schoolchildren and trying to solve the problem for the children who just... View Details

Keywords: Beverage and Tobacco Product Manufacturing; Manufacturing

23 Mar 2015
Research & Ideas

It’s Called ‘Price Coherence,’ and It’s Surprisingly Bad for Consumers

restrictions imposed by the intermediaries, who want consumers to focus less on price differences and more on the benefits of value-added services that they provide, such as distribution, one-stop shopping, easy scheduling, payment... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Retail; Air Transportation; Food & Beverage; Entertainment & Recreation

11 Sep 2000
Research & Ideas

Riding the Internet Fast Track

professor Tom Eisenmann, who also serves on the board of OneMain.com, one of the nation's ten largest Internet service providers, and on the advisory boards of many Internet start-ups. Eisenmann's definition of the get-big-fast strategy includes three criteria: massive... View Details

Keywords: by Peter Jacobs

25 Aug 2022
News

Open Market

into account a lot of different inputs. Once you’re able to identify what you’re building and who you’re building it for, then you can focus on execution. We consider a few things when we’re executing, including asking ourselves: Have we... View Details

Keywords: Dan Morrell; illustration by Keith Negley; Securities, Commodities, and Other Financial Investments; Finance

29 Aug 2018
Blog Post

From the Classroom to the Workplace: How I Applied Learnings to my Internship

interesting to note how culturally sensitive Zalando has to be as a company due to operating so closely to the customer in so many different countries. It often feels like Europe can be treated as one country, but for a digital disruptor... View Details

Keywords: Consumer Products / Retail

Profile

Tessa Vacher-Desvernais

Vuitton Moët Hennessy Group. “I was passionate about compelling and aspirational stories,” says Tessa. Fascinated by their galvanizing power, she wanted to build brands. The customer journey and emotional experience encouraged her to... View Details

Keywords: Retail/Hospitality; Financial Services

12 Oct 1999
Research & Ideas

Confronting the Challenges that Face Bricks-and-Mortar Stores

can print out customized shopping lists complete with recipes, coupons, and suggestions for replenishment purchases. Retailers can tailor their services in any number of ways using the available technology--if they View Details

Keywords: by Raymond Burke; Retail

03 Jan 2017
Research & Ideas

5 New Year's Resolutions You Can Keep (With the Help of Behavioral Science Research)

order and devour a pepperoni pizza at midnight, try tackling next week’s grocery list instead. Researchers from Harvard Business School and the Analyst Institute evaluated a year's worth of customer orders from an online grocer. Their... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

Publications