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Your Whole Company Needs to Be Distinctive, Not Just Your Product

Harvard Business

To them, the unit of differentiation is an individual product, service or brand. The heart of differentiation therefore is your company’s ability to develop and promote distinctive products, services, and branded experiences on a consistent basis. But in 2015, CostCo shifted its affiliation to Citigroup’s Visa.

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A Study of 16 Countries Shows That the Most Productive Firms (and Their Employees) Are Pulling Away from Everyone Else

Harvard Business

The corporate landscape has become increasingly unequal, with the most productive firms thriving and the least productive ones failing to keep up. And second, we are able to link it to firms’ productivity and several measures of labor market policies. The Most Productive Firms Are Pulling Ahead, Across Industries.

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Do Your Customers Actually Want a “Smart” Version of Your Product?

Harvard Business

Our products work with apps or without apps. In 2012, an estimate of a trillion internet-connected devices (by 2015!) What Customers Actually Did With Smart Products. Our residential products don’t require an app to do their job; instead, they come with a variety of control options, an app among them.

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How Do I Deal with Constant Cancellations?

David A Fields

Text and images are © 2015 David A. Consultants Consultative Selling Relationships communication Consultative selling partnering productivity relationships' You can see more discussion of this question by joining the Solo Consultant’s Network on LinkedIn. Fields, all […].

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Research: Why Ratings on Everything from Wine to Amazon Products Improve Over Time

Harvard Business

Ratings made by critics, judges, and evaluators determine a range of outcomes, from the seemingly trivial (which wine you pick for dinner or which products you buy from Amazon) to the more consequential (which athletes win Olympic gold or which students get into top universities). Ratings play an enormous role in our lives.

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Should You Pre-Package or Customize Your Offerings?

David A Fields

A question I was asked: Do you recommend building customized solutions based on each prospect’s problem or having specific products to sell? Text and images are © 2015 David A. I’m struggling with how to balance this. What is your answer to this consultant?

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How Gatorade Invented New Products by Revisiting Old Ones

Harvard Business

The idea of creating a fresh new product, the prospect of increasing market share with brand new offerings, or the vision of disrupting some slow-moving incumbent with a radical new technology – these have an inherently strong appeal for companies keen for growth. What’s more, legacy products seem to be at a natural disadvantage.