Harvard Business

NOVEMBER 23, 2018

In the 2001 recession, total sales for the S&P 500 declined by 9% from its pre-recession peak to its trough 18 months later—almost a year after the recession officially ended. We’ll focus here on what the sales organization should be doing now to prepare for the next recession, with an eye toward using new digital tools.

Sales 130

Sales B2B Tools Software 130

Harvard Business

JULY 8, 2016

Customer relationship management software revolutionized how companies manage their sales pipelines. It also allowed organizations to communicate and coordinate more effectively across large sales account teams. Now a new breed of software applications is reshaping sales force management. Insight Center.

Sales 106

Sales Software Tools Data 106

Harvard Business

MAY 24, 2016

The odds are stacked against new products or services. We have diagnosed thousands of product failures over the last 30 years, and have found recurring patterns. Often new products are over-engineered with too many features, usually at too high a price. The problem with wildly successful products.

Productivity 100

Productivity Sales Development B2B 100

Epicflow

NOVEMBER 8, 2024

The capacity of HHI is superior to its competitors — a four-kilometer Ulsan shipyard with nine huge “Goliath Cranes,” 16,000 well-trained and experienced people in production, R&D, management, and administration, and the ability to manufacture any ship of any size with superb quality and the highest deadweight tonnage in the world.

Management 242

Management Cash Flow Industry Real Estate 242

Consulting Matters

APRIL 9, 2019

So it was a very significant role and we did very unique things and new to the world type products. So three different legs of a business type of knowledge from product development to high level sales to post sale services, and at a high level managing all of those things. Betsy Jordyn: Wow.

Interviews 208

Interviews How To Engineering Productivity 208

Tom Spencer

APRIL 7, 2023

Business development and sales are two of the most critical components of any successful business. They are closely related, with business development focusing on identifying new opportunities and building relationships, and sales being the process of actually closing deals and generating revenue.

Sales 88

Sales Development Research Marketing 88

Harvard Business

JUNE 2, 2016

Suppose you owned an airline and ordered an engine from Rolls-Royce or GE. A piece of machinery to meet a product need? For example, when Rolls Royce or GE provide a “power by the hour” engine solution, they are delivering an outcome and potentially more value to the customer. What are you really looking for?

Productivity 70

Productivity Company Engineering Sales 70

Harvard Business

APRIL 14, 2017

For example, our survey, which asked managers of 13 functions, from sales and marketing to procurement and finance, to indicate whether their departments were using AI in 63 core areas, found AI was used most frequently in detecting and fending off computer security intrusions in the IT department. Sponsored by Accenture.

Company 178

Company Survey Finance Engineering 178

Consulting Matters

APRIL 9, 2019

So it was a very significant role and we did very unique things and new to the world type products. So three different legs of a business type of knowledge from product development to high level sales to post sale services, and at a high level managing all of those things. Betsy Jordyn: Wow.

Interviews 189

Interviews How To Engineering Productivity 189

Harvard Business

NOVEMBER 6, 2018

One type of data scientist creates output for humans to consume, in the form of product and strategy recommendations. Data science for humans: the consumers of the output are decision makers like executives, product managers, designers, or clinicians. They are decision scientists. They are modeling scientists. What are some examples?

Data 132

Data Engineering Software Operations 132

CaseInterview.com

MAY 2, 2018

I find the prejudice against working in sales incredibly ironic. The CEO is selling the company’s product and market leadership to customers. It’s sales too. The VP of Engineering is selling her boss and colleagues on a larger staffing budget. 2) Will you decide to improve your sales skills, or not? First Name *.

Sales 76

Sales McKinsey Industry Recruitment 76

Harvard Business

AUGUST 8, 2018

If all went well, AI-powered robots would enable the company to achieve a weekly production of 5,000 Model 3 electric cars to keep up with burgeoning demand. According to CEO Elon Musk, the sophisticated robots actually slowed down production instead of speeding it up.

Engineering 130

Engineering Training Training Analysis 130

Harvard Business

MAY 23, 2016

In fact, IoT is at the peak of Gartner’s 2015 hype cycle, which suggests the next phase will be disillusionment, and it will be years before we see real productivity gains. We believe data-driven manufacturing is indeed the next wave that will drive efficient and responsive production systems. Insight Center.

Data 125

Data System Engineering Efficiency 125

Harvard Business

NOVEMBER 5, 2018

One simple and often overlooked way for larger companies to experiment is to randomize the introduction of new products across a set of markets. But the experiment also accounted for the effect that Express Pool had on existing Uber products and made clear that launching it would make good business sense.

Productivity 70

Productivity Metrics Sales Engineering 70

Harvard Business

OCTOBER 10, 2017

When Bernstein hid a set of production lines from managers’ view, the performance of employees on those lines increased by 10% to 15%. Similarly, when Starbucks baristas make your latte the same way across cafés, or when a software engineer delivers the expected features each sprint, you are witnessing tactical performance.

Metrics 136

Metrics Engineering Operations Sales 136

Harvard Business

JUNE 4, 2018

” That’s the essential design philosophy articulated by then-Netflix engineering director Xavier Amatriain five years ago, where personalizing and customizing choice is the coin of the realm. Kant Santi Nu Ta Nnth/EyeEm/Getty Images. “Almost everything we do is a recommendation.” That’s the design goal.

Engineering 73

Engineering Marketing Advertising Enterprise 73

Harvard Business

JUNE 21, 2017

Alice, an outstanding 24-year-old engineer working for a top technology company, wants to launch her own startup within the next five years, but she doesn’t yet have a venture concept. The skills most frequently mentioned as crucial during early stages include product design and development, pitching, and assembling a founding team.

Engineering 136

Engineering Survey Finance Recruitment 136

Harvard Business

MAY 17, 2016

Companies born before the internet took hold have an enormous challenge: improving their online products and services at the warp speed of their online competitors. Companies that are able to master continuous online product innovation have big advantages: Dramatic reductions in the time it takes to make critical product enhancements.

Company 124

Company Software Productivity Engineering 124

Harvard Business

SEPTEMBER 11, 2017

Along the way, I’ve talked to hundreds of founders, sales and marketing leaders, customer success VPs, and front-line reps about how to build a customer-first SaaS organization. Your #1 focus at this stage is product-market fit. Meet regularly to review common customer issues and build fixes into your product roadmap.

Metrics 132

Metrics Engineering Efficiency Operations 132

Harvard Business

MAY 25, 2016

The first use case involves predicting demand for consumer products that are in the “long tail” of consumption. Aggregated total sales is a poor proxy because firms need to distribute inventory geographically, necessitating hyperlocal forecasts. Improved pricing.

Data 132

Data Advertising Operations Case Study 132

Tom Spencer

JULY 14, 2023

While this idea is appealing and no doubt has some truth to it, it has led many entrepreneurs to develop, fund, and launch products that ultimately fail. Why waste years scaling up a product that from the outset never performed the job that customers needed doing? It has come to be known as product-market fit.

Productivity 78

Productivity Marketing Airlines Hotels 78

Harvard Business

SEPTEMBER 12, 2016

They view the process of collecting direct and more frequent feedback from these stakeholders as the first step in supporting sales representatives, account managers, operations teams and service agents in solving customers’ problems and earning more of their business. How is this different from relying on anecdote and myth?

B2B 70

B2B Sales Data Automotive 70

Harvard Business

SEPTEMBER 27, 2017

Unilever has acquired Dollar Shave Club , a young startup, for $1 billion in a move to introduce a new model of subscription sales. And at Greycroft, a venture capital firm, investor Teddy Citrin has laid out a veritable map for the further disruption of every consumer products category.

Media 140

Media Fashion Agile Sales 140

Harvard Business

MAY 9, 2016

In an era of high-stakes innovation, there is no clearer illustration of how to develop new products the right way (and the wrong way) than a tale of two car companies. How Porsche got the product right. That was heartening to the company’s executives and product designers.

Productivity 70

Productivity Development Sports Engineering 70

Management Consulted

OCTOBER 3, 2012

For instance, we examined predatory pricing in the airline industry and illegal product tying by Apple, Microsoft, and AT&T. What I found particularly fascinating was the number of variables that needed to be taken into account while making strategic decisions on governance, production or any other function.

Consulting 204

Consulting Case Interview Interviews Engineering 204

Harvard Business

DECEMBER 17, 2018

Companies are beginning to utilize their employees’ behavioral data — generally known as people analytics — to better understand and improve their sales operations , with strong results. Microsoft, where we work, is no exception, and B2B sales is one of the areas where we are seeing the most value.

Sales 73

Sales Data Enterprise Analysis 73

Epicflow

AUGUST 12, 2024

How can manufacturers ensure production efficiency and competitiveness? One of the effective solutions is digital transformation — the implementation of innovative technologies into every manufacturing aspect helps production companies enhance their capabilities, shorten products’ time to market, and satisfy customers’ demands.

Examples 130

Examples Efficiency Data Automotive 130

Harvard Business

OCTOBER 18, 2016

Killing products isn’t easy. Engineers and managers toil for months, often years, to conceive, develop, and launch new products. In our five-year study of global handset makers , we found that most firms pull products when they turn out to be obvious disasters such as the Note 7. Know the big picture.

Productivity 70

Productivity Resources Research Management 70

Consulting Success

JANUARY 15, 2018

This Silicon Valley-based previous electrical engineer with a passion for theater studied at Carnegie Mellon, then started his career in product marketing and sales before becoming a VP General Manager. He shares a number of ways that he has made this work for him, including aggressively building product.

Marketing 202

Marketing Consulting How To Culture 202

Harvard Business

SEPTEMBER 7, 2016

Our flagship products are wood-burning stoves that generate electricity from fire while reducing toxic smoke emissions by 90%. Customers have myriad channels to discover new products and shop at outdoor gear retailers to explore, evaluate, and choose what they need. Handi shop customers had never seen a product like ours.

Sales 70

Sales Marketing Development Retail 70

Harvard Business

MARCH 22, 2017

Marketers need to master data analytics, customer experience, and product design. Brocade, a data and network solutions provider, created a “customer first” program by identifying their top 200 customers, who account for 80% of their sales. But marketing, like other corporate functions, has become more complex and rigorous.

Marketing 136

Marketing Agile Fashion Sales 136

Harvard Business

JANUARY 17, 2018

Like internal combustion engines with oil, AI needs data to run. Want to know yogurt sales next week? Let’s use data on past yogurt sales. Your training data is more valuable if enhanced prediction accuracy can increase yogurt sales by $100 million rather than only $10 million. Want to know the weather tomorrow?

Data 136

Data Operations Training Training 136

Harvard Business

JUNE 7, 2017

By contrast, companies with strong basic analytics — such as sales data and market trends — make breakthroughs in complex and critical areas after layering in artificial intelligence. For example, online retailers can adjust product prices daily because they have automated the collection of competitors’ prices.

Company 136

Company Telecommunications Data Retail 136

CaseInterview.com

SEPTEMBER 9, 2021

For example, if I’m terrible at engineering, but I collaborate with an exceptional engineer, my personal weakness is irrelevant. If someone I work with is fabulous at sales but terrible at finance, when we work together, I benefit from their talent in sales, and they benefit from my talent in finance.

Finance 98

Finance Engineering Talent McKinsey 98

Harvard Business

FEBRUARY 16, 2017

Cleaning up data downstream is expensive and not scalable, because data is a byproduct of business processes and operations like marketing, sales, plant operations, and so on. The chief data and analytics officer (CDAO) of a consumer product company is struggling to manage end-user consent data. Enter the chief data officer, or CDO.

Data 105

Data Company Operations Enterprise 105

Harvard Business

JULY 14, 2016

Self-cannibalization occurs when a company chooses to proactively replace one product or process with another that is potentially worth less. Forward-looking incumbents recognize the need to cannibalize their own products, rather than leaving it to other startups, who are more than happy to take on the challenge.

Productivity 70

Productivity Company Recruitment Recruiting 70

Harvard Business

JULY 5, 2016

Turbulence erodes profitability, innovation marginalizes their current product offerings. In our experience, embracing the future as you scale requires solving what we call the Engine 1 vs. Engine 2 problem. Engine 1 is your core business, the engine that got you here. The future is not better.

Engineering 106

Engineering Company Industry Course 106