Publications

Program

Aligning Strategy and Sales

sales recruitment, development, compensation, and performance management systems support corporate strategy Coordinate sales activities across different sales groups and... View Details

September–October 2016
Article

What Senior Executives Should Know About Sales

By: Frank V. Cespedes

Business is more complex, data more abundant, and more specialists are needed to stay up-to-date with functional best practices. As a senior executive, you can worry all you want about disruption, but you need a salesforce aligned with strategy to do something about... View Details

Keywords: Salesforce Management; Management Teams

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October 2014
Article

Putting Sales at the Center of Strategy

By: Frank Cespedes

Research indicates that relatively few firms execute their strategies effectively, and, on average, companies deliver just 50% to 60% of the financial performance that their strategies promise. One reason is a disconnect between strategic goals and field implementation... View Details

Find at Harvard

March 2000 (Revised February 2005)
Case

Hewlett Packard--Computer Systems Organization: Selling to Enterprise Customers

By: Das Narayandas and Robert C. Dudley

In late 1996, Manuel Diaz, head of Worldwide Sales for Hewlett-Packard's (HP) Computer Systems Organization (CSO), is reviewing the results of an audit of HP's enterprise customer management approach with the objective of identifying market and organizational... View Details

Keywords: Accounting Audits; Transformation; Customer Relationship Management; Cost vs Benefits; Marketing Strategy; Sales; Computer Industry

18 Nov 2002
Research & Ideas

Enterprising Women—a History

to entrepreneurship, she said. In 1972 women owned 4 percent of all American businesses; by 1991, that figure had climbed to 38 percent. This is not a trivial accomplishment; these women-owned enterprises were responsible for $4 trillion... View Details

Keywords: by Laura Linard

2021
Book

Sales Management That Works: How to Sell in a World That Never Stops Changing

By: Frank V. Cespedes

Selling is changing, but the impact on sales of megatrends like ecommerce, big data, and AI is often misunderstood and not supported by empirical data. Managers who fail to separate fact from hype will make decisions based on bad assumptions and, in a competitive... View Details

Keywords: Sales; Strategy; Salesforce Management; Change; Adaptation

21 Nov 2016
Research & Ideas

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

to any firm’s strategy and legacy capabilities. It’s leadership’s responsibility to adapt. “I’m certainly not arguing that every senior executive should be a shadow sales VP,” says Cespedes, “but all in the C-suite should truly understand... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

December 2007 (Revised April 2008)
Exercise

The Elcer Products Transaction: Confidential Information for RubyFibre Enterprises

By: James K. Sebenius

In a six-party negotiation exercise, the TNDA Corp. plans to sell Elcer Products Division to one of four potential buyers (industrial, financial, U.S., German). This case contains confidential information for the RubyFibre Enterprises management role. Challenges... View Details

Keywords: Negotiation

September 2009
Case

Culinarian Cookware: Pondering Price Promotion

By: John A. Quelch and Heather Beckham

In November of 2006, senior executives at Culinarian Cookware were debating the merits of price promotions for the company's premium cookware products. The VP of Marketing, Donald Janus, and Senior Sales Manager, Victoria Brown, had different views. Janus felt price... View Details

Keywords: Profitability Analysis; Consumer Marketing; Brand Equity; Pricing Policies; Sales Promotions; Small ＆ Medium-sized Enterprises; Decisions; Goals and Objectives; Price; Marketing Strategy; Consumer Behavior; Management Teams; Sales; Brands and Branding; Consumer Products Industry

September 1999
Case

Project Dreamcast: Serious Play at Sega Enterprises Ltd. (A)

By: Stefan H. Thomke and Andrew Robertson

Focuses on the ongoing competitive battles in the global home video game market that is estimated to exceed $15 billion by 1999 in the United States and Japan alone. Describes how Sega Enterprises has redesigned its development processes to create a revolutionary... View Details

Keywords: Games, Gaming, and Gambling; Competitive Strategy; Technological Innovation; Growth and Development Strategy; Partners and Partnerships; Product Development; Business Growth and Maturation; Market Entry and Exit; Sales; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; Computer Industry

31 Aug 2016
News

Novartis Taps Biosimilar Experience in Europe to Snag U.S. Sales

June 2001
Supplement

Privatization of Anatolia National Telekom, The: Note on Valuation of Privatizing Enterprises in Emerging Markets

Anatolia National Telekom is a multiparty negotiation simulation patterned after the Turkish government's aborted attempt to privatize its state-owned telecommunications monopoly, Turk Telekom, in late 1997. Provides participants with an opportunity to identify and... View Details

Keywords: Negotiation; Privatization; Emerging Markets; State Ownership; Telecommunications Industry; Turkey

14 Dec 2016
Blog Post

Career Paths: From Finance to Social Enterprise

thought business school would be my savior, prior to applying to business school, I ended up being “rescued” by an international opportunity to work in Chile at a non-profit called Endeavor that mentors and supports high-impact entrepreneurs in emerging markets. After... View Details

23 Jul 2001
Research & Ideas

How the Giants of Enterprise Seized the Future

The distinguishing characteristic of the giants of enterprise is that they live in the future. And the future for them is not some fantasy world where trees grow in the sky. It is real—it has a concrete existence in their minds. Why?... View Details

Keywords: by Richard S. Tedlow

13 May 2013
Blog Post

Leveraging the HBS platform to enter social enterprise

spending virtually all of undergrad involved in the public sector, I decided to try something totally different after my graduation in 2011. So, I moved to New York City and began working in Foreign Exchange Sales at Credit Suisse. The... View Details

Keywords: Nonprofit / Government

January 2008 (Revised August 2012)
Case

Retail Sales of Health Insurance: Blue Cross Blue Shield of Florida

By: Regina E. Herzlinger and Grady Clouse

The BCBS of Florida is contemplating whether to enter the consumer-driven health care market and if so, whether to target such groups—and individuals—and in which of its geographic markets, and how. View Details

Keywords: Health Care and Treatment; Nonprofit Organizations; Strategy; Insurance; Insurance Industry; Florida