99 avsnitt • Längd: 25 min • Veckovis: Onsdag
Hand-curated insights and inspiration to unlock new ways of doing business.
The podcast HBR On Strategy is created by Harvard Business Review. The podcast and the artwork on this page are embedded on this page using the public podcast feed (RSS).
Many companies, especially in the tech world, have come to embrace the idea of growth at all costs. But according to research from Gary Pisano, professor at Harvard Business School, most firms fail to consistently increase revenues and profits over the long term, adjusting for inflation.
In this episode, Pisano explains why it’s important for leaders to think more strategically about not just the rate of growth they want to achieve but the direction they want to grow in and their method for doing so. Trying to grow too fast can be the downfall of many organizations. He shares examples of companies that have fallen into this trap, as well as those getting the balance right.
Pisano wrote the HBR article “How Fast Should Your Company Really Grow?“
Key episode topics include: Growth strategy, strategy, competitive advantage, profitability, sustainable business practices
HBR On Strategy curates the best case studies and conversations with the world’s top business and management experts, to help you unlock new ways of doing business. New episodes every week.
· Listen to the full HBR IdeaCast episode: Rethinking Growth at All Costs
· Find more episodes of HBR IdeaCast
· Discover 100 years of Harvard Business Review articles, case studies, podcasts, and more at HBR.org
]]>Imagine a company that, in a matter of weeks, can develop, prototype, build, and deliver innovative products. That’s exactly what Haier, one of the world’s largest home appliance manufacturers, achieved in 2019. When the city of Wuhan urgently needed mobile isolation wards to curb the spread of Covid-19, Haier leveraged their open digital supply chain platform to deliver in record time.
In this episode, Kasra Ferdows, an operations management professor at Georgetown University, explains how open digital platforms facilitate innovation and problem solving by making the entire supply chain more transparent to suppliers.
Key episode topics include: Supply chain management, strategy, innovation, competitive advantage, operations
HBR On Strategy curates the best case studies and conversations with the world’s top business and management experts, to help you unlock new ways of doing business. New episodes every week.
· Listen to the full HBR IdeaCast episode: Open Digital Platforms to Spur Innovation
· Find more episodes of HBR IdeaCast
· Discover 100 years of Harvard Business Review articles, case studies, podcasts, and more at HBR.org
]]>The insurance industry is centuries old and has historically been dominated by a few large incumbents. But the industry is experiencing disruption from smaller tech-driven companies—known as insurtechs—that are changing how insurance is bought and sold.
In this episode, Harvard Business School professor Lauren Cohen explores how insurtech firm Hippo is challenging traditional insurance models. He explains how Hippo is eliminating the need for insurance agents and using AI to lower prices. And he breaks down Hippo’s unique approach to targeting customers who live in riskier markets and are comfortable with digital platforms.
Key episode topics include: insurance, disruptive innovation, artificial intelligence, growth strategy, long-term growth, competitive advantage, climate change, case studies
HBR On Strategy curates the best case studies and conversations with the world’s top business and management experts, to help you unlock new ways of doing business. New episodes every week.
· Listen to the full Cold Call episode: How One Insurtech Firm Formulated a Strategy for Climate Change
· Find more episodes of Cold Call
· Discover 100 years of Harvard Business Review articles, case studies, podcasts, and more at HBR.org
]]>It’s a holy grail for many businesses—the search for sustainable competitive advantage. But Chris Zook points out that it’s elusive for most companies. He notes that less than one in 10 companies even achieve a modest level of sustained and profitable growth over a 10-year period on average.
Zook is the former head of Bain’s global strategy practice and coauthor of the book Repeatability: Build Enduring Businesses for a World of Constant Change.
In this episode, he shares three key principles that can help your organization find and maintain an enduring competitive advantage, with real-world examples drawn from IKEA, Enterprise Rent-A-Car, and Nike.
Key episode topics include: strategy, leadership, growth strategy, long-term growth, competitive advantage, case studies.
HBR On Strategy curates the best case studies and conversations with the world’s top business and management experts, to help you unlock new ways of doing business. New episodes every week.
· Listen to the full HBR IdeaCast episode: Good Strategy’s Non-Negotiables (2021)
· Find more episodes of HBR IdeaCast
· Discover 100 years of Harvard Business Review articles, case studies, podcasts, and more at HBR.org
]]>For a long time in the restaurant industry, there were two types of dining experiences: fast food or table service. But Ron Shaich, founder and former chairman and CEO of Panera Bread, managed to create an entirely new category in between the two: fast casual. That innovative idea laid the groundwork for companies like Chipotle, Sweetgreen, and beyond.
In this episode, Shaich breaks down his core strategies for successful innovation in the restaurant industry: pinpoint what your customers truly want, differentiate your offering, execute with excellence, and focus on growth. He argues that these strategies aren’t only relevant for the food industry — they can be used to scale any type of organization.
Key episode topics include: strategy, customer service, entrepreneurship, going public, growth strategy, scaling entrepreneurial ventures, strategy execution, restaurants, fast casual, panera, chipotle, sweetgreen, innovation, disruption.
HBR On Strategy curates the best case studies and conversations with the world’s top business and management experts, to help you unlock new ways of doing business. New episodes every week.
· Listen to the full HBR IdeaCast episode: Fast Casual Food Pioneer Ron Shaich Explains How to Find a Niche — and then Scale (2023)
· Find more episodes of HBR IdeaCast
· Discover 100 years of Harvard Business Review articles, case studies, podcasts, and more at HBR.org
]]>Imagine this scenario: Your company’s executive team has just announced their new master plan for growing the business. Now it’s your job, as a mid-level manager, to put it into practice. So where do you start?
In this episode, strategy consultant Andrea Belk Olson explains how to make the most of a plan that you may or may not agree with and that you may or may not have had any input into. She also has advice about the questions you should ask yourself before taking action, how to handle resistance from people you manage, and what to do if the new strategy isn’t working well.
Key episode topics include: strategy, strategy execution, growth strategy, managing people, managing up.
HBR On Strategy curates the best case studies and conversations with the world’s top business and management experts, to help you unlock new ways of doing business. New episodes every week.
· Listen to the full Women at Work episode: How to Manage: Executing Strategy (2024)
· Find more episodes of Women at Work
· Discover 100 years of Harvard Business Review articles, case studies, podcasts, and more at HBR.org
]]>In June 2022, the first ever LIV Golf event teed off outside of London. Offering players larger prizes and more flexibility, LIV Golf aimed to disrupt the sport.
In response, the PGA Tour suspended all players who participated in the LIV Golf event, escalating tensions between the two entities. This conflict culminated in LIV Golf filing an antitrust lawsuit against the PGA Tour. Then, in a surprising turn of events, the two tours announced their merger in June 2023.
University of Virginia associate professor Alexander MacKay discusses the competitive and regulatory issues at stake and whether or not the PGA Tour took the right actions in response to LIV Golf’s entry in his case, “LIV Golf.” In this episode, He explores how a dominant organization like the PGA Tour can respond to challenges from innovative competitors. He also shares lessons from the PGA Tour’s response to LIV Golf’s market entrance and explains when it makes more sense to treat a competitor as a partner rather than an adversary.
Key episode topics include: strategy, business management, antitrust laws, disruptive innovation, professional sports industry, media, entertainment, and professional sports, golf, merger.
HBR On Strategy curates the best case studies and conversations with the world’s top business and management experts, to help you unlock new ways of doing business. New episodes every week.
· Listen to the original HBR Cold Call episode: The PGA Tour and LIV Golf Merger: Competition Vs. Cooperation (2023)
· Find more episodes of Cold Call
· Discover 100 years of Harvard Business Review articles, case studies, podcasts, and more at HBR.org
]]>In the last half century, relationships between employers and their employees have evolved away from being rooted in long-term loyalty to a new paradigm of short-term alliances driven by uncertainty and competition.
Entrepreneurs and coauthors Ben Casnocha and Chris Yeh argue that the new world of work isn’t so different from the typical conditions that many entrepreneurs operate in. And if you’re a manager, you may need a new strategy to hire and retain top talent.
Casnocha and Yeh, coauthors of the book The Startup of You, explain why it’s important for your organization to build internal and external employee networks—and how to get started if you don’t already have those groups in place informally.
Key episode topics include: strategy, entrepreneurship, talent management.
HBR On Strategy curates the best case studies and conversations with the world’s top business and management experts, to help you unlock new ways of doing business. New episodes every week.
· Listen to the original HBR IdeaCast episode: Talent Strategies for the Post-Loyalty World (2013)
· Find more episodes of HBR IdeaCast
· Discover 100 years of Harvard Business Review articles, case studies, podcasts, and more at HBR.org
]]>The consulting firm McKinsey has helped its clients navigate disruption in a wide range of industries. But what can we learn from how McKinsey, itself, responded to disruption in the management consulting industry in the early aughts?
In this episode, the originator of disruptive innovation, the late Harvard Business School professor Clayton Christensen, joined former McKinsey managing partner Dominic Barton to break down how the firm shifted its internal strategy to prioritize flexibility and efficiency.
Key episode topics include: strategy, professional services, innovation, consulting, disruption.
HBR On Strategy curates the best case studies and conversations with the world’s top business and management experts, to help you unlock new ways of doing business. New episodes every week.
· Listen to the original HBR IdeaCast episode: Clay Christensen and Dominic Barton on Consulting’s Disruption (2013)
· Find more episodes of HBR IdeaCast.
· Discover 100 years of Harvard Business Review articles, case studies, podcasts, and more at HBR.org.
]]>Why did some companies thrive during the Covid-19 pandemic while others struggled?
Keith Ferrazzi, founder of the consulting firm Ferrazzi Greenlight, surveyed more than 2,000 executives to learn how they changed their operations during the pandemic. The results show that some companies had already been cultivating a kind of extreme adaptability before the pandemic. That practice helped them come out on top.
In this episode, Ferrazzi outlines the concrete steps organizations can take to cultivate the resilience and agility to stay competitive in the post-Covid-19 world.
Key episode topics include: strategy, adaptive leadership, organizational transformation, collaboration and teams.
HBR On Strategy curates the best case studies and conversations with the world’s top business and management experts, to help you unlock new ways of doing business. New episodes every week.
· Listen to the full HBR IdeaCast episode: Why Some Companies Thrived During the Pandemic (2022)
· Find more episodes of HBR IdeaCast
· Discover 100 years of Harvard Business Review articles, case studies, podcasts, and more at HBR.org
]]>Glossier launched in 2014 as an e-commerce, direct-to-consumer makeup and skincare brand aimed at millennial women. From the start, Glossier’s founder Emily Weiss built a strong digital community around the brand. But after the company received its first major round of funding, Glossier was ready to scale up its marketing spending. The challenge: How to do that while also preserving the brand’s all-important authenticity?
In this episode, Harvard Business School senior lecturer Jill Avery explains how to think about marketing when scaling a business. Drawing from her business case on Glossier, Avery breaks down how their management team incorporated paid micro-influencers to grow their brand value without undermining their credibility. She also explores how Glossier leveraged their existing community to engage new customers.
Key episode topics include: strategy, growth strategy, marketing, social media, beauty care, startup, scaling, DTC, digital marketing.
HBR On Strategy curates the best case studies and conversations with the world’s top business and management experts, to help you unlock new ways of doing business. New episodes every week.
· Listen to the original HBR Cold Call episode: Glossier Built a Cult Brand and a Digital Community, but What’s Next? (2020)
· Find more episodes of Cold Call
· Discover 100 years of Harvard Business Review articles, case studies, podcasts, and more at HBR.org
]]>What does it take to succeed as a business while doing well by your employees?
Harvard Business School professor emeritus Michael Beer has studied companies who invest in building long-term social value, and he says they offer some key lessons for other firms.
In this episode, he breaks down how these companies set their strategies for new products and services. As he explains: “One of the key disciplines they have is what we called forging a strategic identity. So what does that mean? It means that they, first of all, start the process of deciding what they’re going to do, what services or products they’re going to offer…what markets they will go into…by first asking themselves, ‘Who are we?’ They start from the inside out…rather than from the outside in.”
Michael Beer is also the coauthor of Higher Ambition: How Great Leaders Create Economic and Social Value.
Key episode topics include: strategy, leadership.
HBR On Strategy curates the best case studies and conversations with the world’s top business and management experts, to help you unlock new ways of doing business. New episodes every week.
· Listen to the full HBR IdeaCast episode: Higher Ambition Leadership (2011)
· Find more episodes of HBR IdeaCast
· Discover 100 years of Harvard Business Review articles, case studies, podcasts, and more at HBR.org
]]>
Looking at business news over the past decade (including a few HBR articles), you might assume that just about every traditional company has fallen — or will soon fall — to competitors from the tech industry.
But London Business School professor Julian Birkinshaw says that story of disruption and destruction is overblown. His research into Fortune 500 and Global 500 organizations shows that many industries haven’t been radically remade, despite the rise of a few tech giants like Amazon and Google.
Birkinshaw outlines the strategies that many incumbents, like J.P. Morgan, Disney, and Proctor & Gamble, are using to survive and thrive. He breaks down the benefits and drawbacks of four key strategies that incumbents typically use to compete with insurgents. And he explains how you can decide which strategy best fits your organization.
Key episode topics include: strategy, disruptive innovation, digital transformation.
HBR On Strategy curates the best case studies and conversations with the world’s top business and management experts, to help you unlock new ways of doing business. New episodes every week.
· Listen to the full HBR IdeaCast episode: No, Tech Start-ups Aren’t Taking Over the World (2022)
· Find more episodes of HBR IdeaCast
· Discover 100 years of Harvard Business Review articles, case studies, podcasts, and more at HBR.org
]]>If you’re a fast-growing company in an emerging economy, you need a strategy for competing in your home market in the short term. But you also need a longer-term strategy that will help you grow beyond that initial market.
John Jullens says the challenge is building both strategies simultaneously. Jullens is a longtime management consultant who specializes in corporate and business unit strategy.
He explains why so many companies in emerging markets make the mistake of focusing on execution and first mover advantage. Instead, he argues that companies need to lay the strategic foundations for long-term success early on or risk flaming out.
Key episode topics include: strategy, international business, asia, growth strategy.
HBR On Strategy curates the best case studies and conversations with the world’s top business and management experts, to help you unlock new ways of doing business. New episodes every week.
· Listen to the original HBR IdeaCast episode: Why So Many Emerging Giants Flame Out (2014)
· Find more episodes of HBR IdeaCast
· Discover 100 years of Harvard Business Review articles, case studies, podcasts, and more at HBR.org
]]>Khan Academy, the online global education nonprofit, launched in 2006 when founder Sal Khan created a few videos to help his cousin with her math homework. After a decade of growth brought Khan Academy’s user base to more than 15 million monthly visitors, Khan knew he needed expert help to formulate and lead a strategy for the organization’s future growth.
He hired Ginny Lee from Intuit to serve as Khan Academy’s COO and president. Her mandate was to redefine the organization’s priorities, create a focused strategy for growth, and continue scaling the company.
Harvard Business School professor Bill Sahlman studied the company’s growth strategy, and wrote a business case study about it. He explains why it’s so important to build a well-balanced leadership team as part of your growth strategy. He also breaks down how to create processes for everything from budgeting to giving feedback. .
Key episode topics include: strategy, leadership and managing people, operations and supply chain management, digital learning, growth strategy.
HBR On Strategy curates the best case studies and conversations with the world’s top business and management experts, to help you unlock new ways of doing business. New episodes every week.
· Listen to the original HBR Cold Call episode: Can Khan Academy Scale to Educate Anyone, Anywhere? (2019)
· Find more episodes of Cold Call
· Discover 100 years of Harvard Business Review articles, case studies, podcasts, and more at HBR.org
]]>Leadership transitions are challenging for both organizations and the leaders who must directly navigate them. But Michael Watkins says they’re also a time of incredible opportunity — especially for those leaders who understand how to handle this crucial period.
Watkins is a professor of leadership and organizational change at IMD Business School. He shares a framework for selecting a transition strategy that best matches the situation you’re facing — whether you’re building a new operation from scratch or trying to turnaround a business in crisis. Watkins also explains why it’s so important to effectively assess your new leadership context and not to rely only on transition strategies that have worked for you in the past.
Key episode topics include: strategy, strategic planning, leadership transitions.
HBR On Strategy curates the best case studies and conversations with the world’s top business and management experts, to help you unlock new ways of doing business. New episodes every week.
· Listen to the original HBR IdeaCast episode: Picking the Right Transition Strategy (2008)
· Find more episodes of HBR IdeaCast
· Discover 100 years of Harvard Business Review articles, case studies, podcasts, and more at HBR.org
]]>In 1992, Canada, Mexico, and the U.S. signed NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement, and the global business landscape began transforming.
Pankaj Ghemawat, a professor at NYU’s Stern School of Business, studies how companies have adjusted their strategies to that disruptive change — from rethinking their supply chains to learning to navigate unpredictable trade policy environments. He discusses how companies can plan for an evolving world of multi-country international supply chains and cross-border information flows.
Key episode topics include: strategy, competitive strategy, business history, globalization, technology and analytics.
HBR On Strategy curates the best case studies and conversations with the world’s top business and management experts, to help you unlock new ways of doing business. New episodes every week.
· Listen to the full HBR IdeaCast episode: Globalization: Myth and Reality (2017)
· Find more episodes of HBR IdeaCast
· Discover 100 years of Harvard Business Review articles, case studies, podcasts, and more at HBR.org
Disruptive innovation has proven to be such a powerful idea that the word “innovation” is often equated with the broader idea of market disruption. But that’s not always the case.
INSEAD strategy professor Renée Mauborgne says there is a way to create new markets without destroying jobs, companies, and communities. She calls this idea: “nondisruptive creation.”
Mauborgne explains how some entrepreneurs and companies have been able to grow billion-dollar businesses by creating new markets rather than displacing existing ones. She points to Square, which enables credit card transactions with a mobile phone or tablet, as one prime example.
Mauborgne also breaks down the key operational advantages that come with nondisruptive creation and explains how to spot a nondisruptive market opportunity and evaluate its potential.
Key episode topics include: strategy, innovation, disruptive innovation, growth strategy, entrepreneurs and founders.
HBR On Strategy curates the best case studies and conversations with the world’s top business and management experts, to help you unlock new ways of doing business. New episodes every week.
· Listen to the full HBR IdeaCast episode: Disruption Isn’t the Only Path to Innovation (2023)
· Find more episodes of HBR IdeaCast
· Discover 100 years of Harvard Business Review articles, case studies, podcasts, and more at HBR.org
]]>Enel, Italy’s state-owned power company founded in 1962, was one of Europe’s largest coal users and polluters. Now it is recognized as a leader in renewable energy services and has integrated sustainability into its business model and operations.
In this episode, former Harvard Business School senior lecturer Mark Kramer explains how Enel made that enormous strategic change — from its long-range planning to how it tackled the dreaded “innovator’s dilemma.”
Kramer studied the company’s transformation into a renewable energy leader in his case, “Enel: The Future of Energy.”
Key episode topics include: strategy, change management, leadership and managing people.
HBR On Strategy curates the best case studies and conversations with the world’s top business and management experts, to help you unlock new ways of doing business. New episodes every week.
· Listen to the original Cold Call episode: How a Coal Polluter Became a Renewable Energy Leader (2018)
· Find more episodes of Cold Call
· Discover 100 years of Harvard Business Review articles, case studies, podcasts, and more at HBR.org
]]>Creating value is table stakes for any business. But is your organization also capturing the value you create?
IMD professor Stefan Michel says that many businesses don’t actually know how. “Many companies spend a lot of time on innovating, in a sense that they create more value for customers,” he argues. “What they often miss is to think about how to capture that value.”
Michel studies marketing and strategy at the Switzerland-based business school. Through his research, he created a framework for defining the value of your innovations.
In this episode, he explains how to apply his framework — whether you’re developing new business ideas or formulating a strategy to compete with a new entrant in your market. He also discusses how value-capture works in the real world — drawing on examples from companies like Nespresso and Google.
Key episode topics include: strategy, innovation, value-based pricing, pricing, value capture, Nespresso, Google, new revenue streams, growth strategy.
HBR On Strategy curates the best case studies and conversations with the world’s top business and management experts, to help you unlock new ways of doing business. New episodes every week.
· Listen to the original HBR IdeaCast episode: Focus More on Value Capture (2014)
· Find more episodes of HBR IdeaCast
· Discover 100 years of Harvard Business Review articles, case studies, podcasts, and more at HBR.org
]]>Do you know the difference between accurate forecasting and effective forecasting?
Technology forecaster Paul Saffo says accurate forecasting is nearly impossible to do. But if you aim for effective forecasting, he notes, then at least you’re considering the full range of reasonable possibilities for the future, rather than jumping to one conclusion and preparing only for that outcome. “If you head straight towards accurate forecasting, you may end up in a much worse situation by overlooking things that eventually come to pass,” Saffo argues.
In this episode, he shares his six rules for effective forecasting—from visualizing future uncertainty to discerning patterns in past data—and explains why it’s important to be your own worst critic of your forecasts.
Key episode topics include: strategy, strategic planning, risk management, decision making and problem solving, forecasting, technology.
HBR On Strategy curates the best case studies and conversations with the world’s top business and management experts, to help you unlock new ways of doing business. New episodes every week.
· Listen to the full HBR IdeaCast episode: Six Rules for Effective Forecasting (2007)
· Find more episodes of HBR IdeaCast
· Discover 100 years of Harvard Business Review articles, case studies, podcasts, and more at HBR.org
]]>AptDeco, a peer-to-peer marketplace for used furniture, launched in New York City in 2014. Despite its complexity and high costs, the company grew quickly. Co-founders Reham Fagiri and Kalam Dennis considered several different options for scaling the business—from expanding into new markets to rebranding with a sustainability focus.
In this episode, Harvard Business School associate professor Ayelet Israeli and AptDeco co-founder Kalam Dennis discuss the path to scaling that AptDeco ultimately chose and what their experience can indicate about how to successfully scale a startup.
They focus on how to translate early failures into valuable information that can help your business move forward and grow in the long term. They also explain how to use data and analytics to improve your value proposition.
Key episode topics include: strategy, entrepreneurship, entrepreneurial business strategy, marketing, furniture, analytics, start-up, scaling, growth strategy.
HBR On Strategy curates the best case studies and conversations with the world’s top business and management experts, to help you unlock new ways of doing business. New episodes every week.
· Listen to the original HBR Cold Call episode: How to Scale a Startup Marketplace for Used Furniture (2022)
· Find more episodes of Cold Call
· Discover 100 years of Harvard Business Review articles, case studies, podcasts, and more at HBR.org
]]>Some managers develop strategy by focusing on problems in the present, and that’s especially true during a crisis.
But Mark Johnson, co-founder of the innovation consulting firm Innosight, argues that leaders should imagine the future and then work backward to build their organization for that new reality.
In this episode, he outlines the practical steps managers can take to look beyond the typical short-term planning horizon and help their teams grasp future opportunities. Johnson also shares real-world examples from Apple, Johnson & Johnson, and Intel to illustrate what can happen when leaders shift their strategic mindset to focus on the future.
Key episode topics include: strategy, innovation, decision making and problem solving, growth strategy, crisis leadership, managing teams.
HBR On Strategy curates the best case studies and conversations with the world’s top business and management experts, to help you unlock new ways of doing business. New episodes every week.
· Listen to the original HBR IdeaCast episode: To Build Strategy, Start with the Future (2020)
· Find more episodes of HBR IdeaCast
· Discover 100 years of Harvard Business Review articles, case studies, podcasts, and more at HBR.org
]]>Is your company’s existing growth formula finally reaching its limit?
Bain & Company partner Chris Zook says you may need to redefine your core business if you want to power new growth.
Zook was co-head of Bain’s Global Strategy practice for 20 years. He’s also a best-selling business author.
In this episode, he shares three warning signs that indicate your core business needs to be redefined, and he explains how to approach that transformation. In particular, he focuses on how to uncover what he calls “hidden assets” within your company that can offer future sources of growth.
Key episode topics include: strategy, competitive strategy, growth strategy, transformation.
HBR On Strategy curates the best case studies and conversations with the world’s top business and management experts, to help you unlock new ways of doing business. New episodes every week.
· Listen to the full HBR IdeaCast episode: Unleash Your Hidden Assets (2007)
· Find more episodes of HBR IdeaCast
· Discover 100 years of Harvard Business Review articles, case studies, podcasts, and more at HBR.org
]]>Many people aspire to entrepreneurship. But Bill Aulet, who has advised founders for decades, warns that it remains a high-risk endeavor.
In this episode, he outlines concrete steps anyone can take to get a new venture off the ground — including intrapreneurs within large organizations. He also breaks down some of the important trends he’s seeing in entrepreneurship, like the increasing commoditization of products and lower barriers to entry, due to technology.
Aulet is a professor of entrepreneurship at the Sloan School of Management at MIT. He’s also the author of the book Disciplined Entrepreneurship: 24 Steps to a Successful Startup.
Key episode topics include: strategy, entrepreneurship, entrepreneurs and founders, entrepreneurial business strategy, innovation, start-ups.
HBR On Strategy curates the best case studies and conversations with the world’s top business and management experts, to help you unlock new ways of doing business. New episodes every week.
· Listen to the full HBR IdeaCast episode: A Roadmap for Today’s Entrepreneurs (2024)
· Find more episodes of HBR IdeaCast
· Discover 100 years of Harvard Business Review articles, case studies, podcasts, and more at HBR.org
]]>The Super Bowl isn’t just American football’s championship game. It’s also one of the world’s biggest stages for brand messaging.
In 2024, the average 30-second Super Bowl ad cost $7 million —and that doesn’t even include production costs. So how do brand managers know if they’re getting a good return on that huge investment?
In this episode, Bentley University assistant professor of marketing Shelle Santana discusses the evolution of corporate branding, using lessons from classic Super Bowl ads, like Budweiser's iconic Clydesdale horses.
She shares how to choose the best, measurable goal for an ad campaign, while also accounting for the risks that can accompany bold storytelling—like controversy or online backlash. She also explains why some brands release their ads ahead of the game, while others don’t. (Hint: It’s about social media engagement, and ultimately expanding the ROI on your ad investment.)
Key episode topics include: strategy, brand management, sales and marketing.
HBR On Strategy curates the best case studies and conversations with the world’s top business and management experts, to help you unlock new ways of doing business. New episodes every week.
· Listen to the original Cold Call episode: Super Bowl Ads Sell Products, but Do They Sell Brands? (2019)
· Find more episodes of Cold Call
· Discover 100 years of Harvard Business Review articles, case studies, podcasts, and more at HBR.org
]]>Online influencers are an increasingly important way for companies to find new customers and drive sales. But if you’re a marketer hoping to target consumers, it’s important to understand how the social media industry works.
In this episode, Emily Hund, a researcher at the University of Pennsylvania, explains that influencers grew out of Great Recession-era job cuts that forced people in creative fields to innovate.
She offers advice for brands developing influencer marketing strategies. You’ll learn how to find the right influencer for your brand and how to measure success. Hund recommends starting with a small experiment to get familiar with the process before making a larger investment. You’ll also learn why longer-term creative relationships with influencers can produce stronger results than one-off endorsements.
Hund is the author of the book The Influencer Industry: The Quest for Authenticity on Social Media.
Key episode topics include: strategy, social media, entrepreneurship, social marketing, customer strategy, influencer marketing.
HBR On Strategy curates the best case studies and conversations with the world’s top business and management experts, to help you unlock new ways of doing business. New episodes every week.
· Listen to the full HBR IdeaCast episode: The Ins and Outs of the Influencer Industry (2023)
· Find more episodes of HBR IdeaCast
· Discover 100 years of Harvard Business Review articles, case studies, podcasts, and more at HBR.org
]]>More and more companies are turning to pricing algorithms to maximize profits. But many are unaware of a big downside.
Marco Bertini, a marketing professor at Esade Business School in Barcelona, says constant price shifts can actually hurt the perception of your brand and its products. He warns that employing AI and machine learning without considering human psychology can damage your relationship with customers.
In this episode, he outlines steps you can take to avoid these pitfalls, including some basic guardrails, overrides, and communication tactics. He also shares real-world examples of companies that are using dynamic pricing to smooth demand and provide better customer experiences.
Key episode topics include: strategy, pricing strategy, algorithms, psychology, customer experience, communication, dynamic pricing, brand, AI, machine learning, profits.
HBR On Strategy curates the best case studies and conversations with the world’s top business and management experts, to help you unlock new ways of doing business. New episodes every week.
· Listen to the full HBR IdeaCast episode: Algorithms Won’t Solve All Your Pricing Problems (2021)
· Find more episodes of HBR IdeaCast
· Discover 100 years of Harvard Business Review articles, case studies, podcasts, and more at HBR.org
]]>In 2010, Japan’s largest e-commerce platform Rakuten was rapidly expanding into global markets when CEO Hiroshi Mikitani made a surprising announcement: Rakuten’s internal language would be changing to English.
That meant that all meetings, emails, and other communications would have to be conducted in English. The company’s employees had two years to become proficient in the language or be demoted.
In this episode, Harvard Business School professor Tsedal Neeley discusses her case, “Language and Globalization: ‘Englishnization’ at Rakuten,” and explains why Mikitani introduced this new mandate and what results it achieved.
You’ll also learn about the early challenges that accompanied this enormous change, including loss of productivity and employee skepticism, as well as how the shift to English shaped Rakuten’s long-term working culture.
Key episode topics include: strategy, global strategy, globalization, cross-cultural management, language, communication, leadership, transformation, organizational culture.
HBR On Strategy curates the best case studies and conversations with the world’s top business and management experts, to help you unlock new ways of doing business. New episodes every week.
· Listen to the original HBR Cold Call episode: Language and Globalization: The Mandate to Speak English at Rakuten (2017)
· Find more episodes of Cold Call
· Discover 100 years of Harvard Business Review articles, case studies, podcasts, and more at HBR.org
]]>Managing rapid growth is a huge challenge for young businesses. Even start-ups with glowing reviews and skyrocketing sales can fail . That’s because new ventures and corporate initiatives alike must sustain profitability at scale, according to Harvard Business School senior lecturer Jeffrey Rayport.
He has researched some of the biggest stumbling blocks to long-lasting success and he explains how to successfully transition out of the start-up phase. Rayport argues that success has a lot to do with an organization’s cash flow and its ability to meet growing demand. But it also involves something he calls “profit market fit,” which is when an enterprise becomes financially sustainable.
Key episode topics include: strategy, start-ups, entrepreneurial business strategy, customer strategy, growth, scaling, demand, cash flow, sustainable business.
HBR On Strategy curates the best case studies and conversations with the world’s top business and management experts, to help you unlock new ways of doing business. New episodes every week.
· Listen to the full HBR IdeaCast episode: Why Some Start-Ups Fail to Scale (2022)
· Find more episodes of HBR IdeaCast
· Discover 100 years of Harvard Business Review articles, case studies, podcasts, and more at HBR.org
]]>What do LEGO, GoPro, and CarMax have in common?
Wharton professor David Robertson says they all have a similar strategy for growth that involves building families of complementary innovations around a core product or service. It’s an approach to innovation that’s neither disruptive nor incremental, but rather somewhere in the middle. And Robertson argues it’s a strategy that any company, no matter the industry, should consider.
In this episode, you’ll learn how to use customer feedback to identify a product or service that can anchor a family of complementary innovations as well as how to prepare for common challenges.
Robertson is the author of The Power of Little Ideas: A Low-Risk, High-Reward Approach to Innovation.
Key episode topics include: strategy, innovation, growth strategy.
HBR On Strategy curates the best case studies and conversations with the world’s top business and management experts, to help you unlock new ways of doing business. New episodes every week.
· Listen to the full HBR IdeaCast episode: Low-Risk, High-Reward Innovation (2017)
· Find more episodes of HBR IdeaCast
· Discover 100 years of Harvard Business Review articles, case studies, podcasts, and more at HBR.org
]]>It’s an idea that’s a non-starter at many organizations: collaborating with a competitor. But Yale School of Management professor Barry Nalebuff says leaders who refuse to consider teaming up with other companies—even when there are clear mutual benefits—may be leaving value on the table.
In this episode, you’ll learn how companies like Apple, Ford, Google, and others have analyzed and capitalized on what Nalebuff calls “co-opetition” opportunities. You’ll also learn how to think strategically about which tasks work well for these collaborations and how to mitigate your organization’s risk through time-tested tools like contracts, performance guarantees, and conditional penalties.
Key episode topics include: strategy, negotiation strategies, competitive strategies, co-opetition, collaboration.
HBR On Strategy curates the best case studies and conversations with the world’s top business and management experts, to help you unlock new ways of doing business. New episodes every week.
· Listen to the original HBR IdeaCast episode: When to Team Up with Your Competition (2020)
· Find more episodes of HBR IdeaCast
· Discover 100 years of Harvard Business Review articles, case studies, podcasts, and more at HBR.org
]]>As the chair and CEO of Sodexo, the France-based food services and facilities management company, Sophie Bellon leads one of the largest employers in the world, with front-line workers in nearly 50 countries. Managing that workforce—and the supply chains that enable them to do their jobs—is a complex undertaking that involves balancing both global strategy with local execution.
In this episode, Harvard Business Review executive editor Alison Beard sits down with Bellon to discuss her approaches to talent management, environmental sustainability, and supply chain resilience—all while driving future growth.
Key episode topics include: strategy, growth strategy, talent management, operations and supply chain management, supply chain management, environmental sustainability, food and beverage sector.
HBR On Strategy curates the best case studies and conversations with the world’s top business and management experts, to help you unlock new ways of doing business. New episodes every week.
· Learn more about HBR’s “Future of Business” virtual conference (November 2023)
· Find more Harvard Business Review live events
· Discover 100 years of Harvard Business Review articles, case studies, podcasts, and more at HBR.org
]]>In early 2015, Microsoft’s senior leaders were facing a set of difficult decisions. The firm had been struggling to innovate and grow as fast as its competitors. Now they were considering new opportunities that would yield higher growth but lower margins — like shifting away from perpetual licensing to focus on subscription sales.
Harvard Business School professor Fritz Foley studied this period of transformative change at Microsoft for a business case study he wrote. In this episode, he shares how Microsoft’s leaders analyzed different options and worked to get both investors and employees on board with new ideas about growth. He also explains how the company’s risk-averse culture evolved in order to execute such a huge transformation.
Key episode topics include: strategy, growth strategy, business models, corporate governance.
HBR On Strategy curates the best case studies and conversations with the world’s top business and management experts, to help you unlock new ways of doing business. New episodes every week.
· Listen to the original Cold Call episode: The Transformation of Microsoft (2018)
· Find more episodes of Cold Call
· Discover 100 years of Harvard Business Review articles, case studies, podcasts, and more at HBR.org
]]>It’s a dilemma facing more and more brands: Should your business sell on Amazon?
It’s the most visited e-commerce platform in the U.S. and the dominant retailer in 28 other countries. But that reach comes at a price. Harvard Business School associate professor Ayelet Israeli says there are downsides for many Amazon sellers, like costs, competition, and the lack of data.
In this episode, Israeli offers a scorecard that can help you decide, step by step, whether or not the Amazon marketplace is right for your business.
Key episode topics include: strategy, innovation, leadership, scaling, Jeff Bezos, long-term thinking, customer focus.
HBR On Strategy curates the best case studies and conversations with the world’s top business and management experts, to help you unlock new ways of doing business. New episodes every week.
· Listen to the full HBR IdeaCast episode: Why Companies Decide to Sell on Amazon—or Not (2022)
· Find more episodes of HBR IdeaCast
· Discover 100 years of Harvard Business Review articles, case studies, podcasts, and more at HBR.org
]]>Companies of every size across the world are basing more of their work around projects than at any time in the past. But research shows that nearly two-thirds of those efforts fail.
Antonio Nieto-Rodriguez, who has studied projects and project management for decades, argues that at least some of the blame for these failures lies with executives who misunderstand the fundamentals of projects and fail to dedicate enough of their time to those they sponsor.
In this episode, Nieto-Rodriguez explains how to get better outcomes from project-based work. He also discusses how to frame projects, structure organizations around them, and avoid common pitfalls.
Key episode topics include: strategy, project management, operations strategy, organizational change.
HBR On Strategy curates the best case studies and conversations with the world’s top business and management experts, to help you unlock new ways of doing business. New episodes every week.
· Listen to the full HBR IdeaCast episode: The Future of Work Is Projects—So You’ve Got to Get Them Right (2021)
· Find more episodes of HBR IdeaCast
· Discover 100 years of Harvard Business Review articles, case studies, podcasts, and more at HBR.org
]]>Booking.com was founded by a Dutch university student in 1996. It grew slowly for almost a decade. By 2011, the company was generating more than a billion dollars in profits annually — making it the most financially successful digital travel market at the time. The secret to that accelerating growth was the company’s use of large-scale testing and experimentation.
In this episode, Harvard Business School professor Stefan Thomke explains how the company created and sustained a culture of innovation that challenged conventional assumptions about management and process.
Key episode topics include: strategy, experimentation, innovation, travel, digital, platform.
HBR On Strategy curates the best case studies and conversations with the world’s top business and management experts, to help you unlock new ways of doing business. New episodes every week.
· Listen to the original Cold Call episode: At Booking.com, Innovation Means Constant Failure (2019)
· Find more episodes of Cold Call
· Discover 100 years of Harvard Business Review articles, case studies, podcasts, and more at HBR.org
]]>So much has been written about how to future-proof a strategy. But Peter Scoblic says that too many companies still rely on short-sighted strategies that don’t effectively plan for different potential future scenarios.
Scoblic is a co-founder and principal of the consultancy Event Horizon Strategies. In this episode, he explains how thoughtful and ongoing scenario-planning exercises can help organizations decide which investments will allow them to thrive — even in a crisis. He also shares how to balance short-term factors with longer term modeling and why it’s so important to ensure that your planning team is truly diverse. As he says, “This is a case where diversity absolutely matters, in all senses of the word, because what you want is to get people to think outside of the box. It’s very difficult to do that if you don’t recognize the box that you’re in.”
Key episode topics include: strategy, strategic planning, crisis management, scenario panning, modeling.
HBR On Strategy curates the best case studies and conversations with the world’s top business and management experts, to help you unlock new ways of doing business. New episodes every week.
· Listen to the full HBR IdeaCast episode: Future-Proofing Your Strategy with Scenario Planning (2020)
· Find more episodes of HBR IdeaCast
· Discover 100 years of Harvard Business Review articles, case studies, podcasts, and more at HBR.org
]]>As the CEO of one of the largest energy holding companies in the U.S., Lynn Good is leading Duke Energy’s aggressive transition to renewables and net zero emissions. It’s a complex undertaking that involves short-term planning and long-term advances in technology as well as managing a wide range of stakeholders.
In this episode, HBR editor-in-chief Adi Ignatius sits down with Good to discuss her strategy for Duke’s clean energy transition. They discuss how to make incremental adjustments to strategy as new technologies emerge. Good also explains how and how often she tests her assumptions, and why she nurtures collaborations both within the energy industry and beyond it.
Key episode topics include: strategy, innovation, growth strategy, environmental sustainability, energy and natural resources sector, clean energy, transition, Duke Energy, technology, renewable energy, change management.
HBR On Strategy curates the best case studies and conversations with the world’s top business and management experts, to help you unlock new ways of doing business. New episodes every week.
· Learn more about HBR’s “Future of Business” virtual conference (November 2023)
· Find more Harvard Business Review live events
· Discover 100 years of Harvard Business Review articles, case studies, podcasts, and more at HBR.org
]]>When it comes to solving complicated problems, the default for many organizational leaders is to take their time to work through the issues at hand. Unfortunately, that often leads to patchwork solutions or problems not truly getting resolved.
But Anne Morriss offers a different framework. In this episode, she outlines a five-step process for solving any problem and explains why starting with trust and ending with speed is so important for effective change leadership. As she says, “Let’s get into dialogue with the people who are also impacted by the problem before we start running down the path of solving it.”
Morriss is an entrepreneur and leadership coach. She’s also the coauthor of the book, Move Fast and Fix Things: The Trusted Leader’s Guide to Solving Hard Problems.
Key episode topics include: strategy, decision making and problem solving, strategy execution, managing people, collaboration and teams, trustworthiness, organizational culture, change leadership, problem solving, leadership.
HBR On Strategy curates the best case studies and conversations with the world’s top business and management experts, to help you unlock new ways of doing business. New episodes every week.
· Listen to the full HBR IdeaCast episode: How to Solve Tough Problems Better and Faster (2023)
· Find more episodes of HBR IdeaCast
· Discover 100 years of Harvard Business Review articles, case studies, podcasts, and more at HBR.org
]]>In today's global economy, what are the factors that go into choosing a production location?
In this episode, Harvard Business School professor Willy Shih draws on his case study about China-based automotive glass maker Fuyao to discuss this core strategic question. The company must decide between two options to fulfill its upcoming contracts: its new Ohio factory or its factory based out of Tianjin, China. Unlike the Ohio factory, the Chinese factory produces below the cost target, but it also incurs extensive shipping costs and requires a far greater amount of inventory holding.
Shih explains how to account for product life cycles and the length of your inventory pipelines when selecting a manufacturing location. He also discusses how to assess other possible risks that could cause delays or increase production costs—like customs delays and labor strikes.
Key episode topics include: strategy, cross-cultural management, global strategy, operations and supply chain management, China, shipping, production planning, inventory pipeline.
HBR On Strategy curates the best case studies and conversations with the world’s top business and management experts, to help you unlock new ways of doing business. New episodes every week.
· Listen to the original HBR Cold Call episode: China-based Fuyao Glass Considers Manufacturing in the U.S. (2020)
· Find more episodes of Cold Call
· Discover 100 years of Harvard Business Review articles, case studies, podcasts, and more at HBR.org
]]>The secret to success for many Silicon Valley tech companies isn’t necessarily that they’re ultra-nimble startups, or that they’re led by tech-savvy geniuses. Andy McAfee says their success often has more to do with a specific type of corporate culture that focuses on finding unconventional solutions to hard business problems.
McAfee is a principal research scientist at the MIT Sloan School of Management, and he’s the author of The Geek Way: The Radical Mindset That Drives Extraordinary Results.
In this episode, he explains why business leaders need to think more like geeks and explains why it’s important to center your culture on company norms, rather than organizational structure. He also offers tips for finding that delicate balance between human judgement and data-driven insights.
Key episode topics include: strategy, technology, start-ups, innovation, competitive strategy, Silicon Valley.
HBR On Strategy curates the best case studies and conversations with the world’s top business and management experts, to help you unlock new ways of doing business. New episodes every week.
· Watch the original HBR New World of Work episode: How the Geeks Rewrote the Rules of Management (2023)
· Find more episodes of the New World of Work series on YouTube
· Discover 100 years of Harvard Business Review articles, case studies, podcasts, and more at HBR.org
]]>
In the 1990s and 2000s, video game developer Epic Games had a string of mid-size successes. But the release of Fortnite Battle Royale in 2017 changed the company’s path forever.
The game was a blockbuster. By 2019, Fortnite had registered more than 250 million users, with 10 million concurrent users. But Fortnite’s phenomenal success raised a new question for Epic: How could they turn this singular hit into a series of growth opportunities?
In this episode, Harvard Business School associate professor Andy Wu explains why Epic monetized Fortnite through micro-transactions within the game, rather than charging a fee for the game itself. He also discusses how Epic’s creation of a platform, the Epic store, and a premium subscription service built on Fortnite’s success and helped to distinguish their brand from other free-play games.
Key episode topics include: strategy, growth strategy, R&D, strategy execution, video games, fortnite, epic games.
HBR On Strategy curates the best case studies and conversations with the world’s top business and management experts, to help you unlock new ways of doing business. New episodes every week.
· Listen to the original Cold Call episode: Fortnite Was a Blockbuster for Epic Games, What’s the Encore? (2020)
· Find more episodes of Cold Call
· Discover 100 years of Harvard Business Review articles, case studies, podcasts, and more at HBR.org
]]>So much has been written about Amazon’s outsized growth. But Harvard Business School professor Sunil Gupta says it’s the company’s unusual approach to strategy that has captured his scholarly attention. Gupta has spent years studying Amazon’s strategy and its founder and former CEO Jeff Bezos.
In this episode, Gupta shares how Amazon upended traditional corporate strategy by diversifying into multiple products serving many end users, instead of having a narrow focus.
He argues that some of Amazon’s simplest business strategies — like their obsession with customers and insistence on long-term thinking — are approaches that companies, big and small, can emulate.
Key episode topics include: strategy, innovation, leadership, scaling, Jeff Bezos, long-term thinking, customer focus.
HBR On Strategy curates the best case studies and conversations with the world’s top business and management experts, to help you unlock new ways of doing business. New episodes every week.
· Listen to the full HBR IdeaCast episode: How Jeff Bezos Built One of the World’s Most Valuable Companies (2020)
· Find more episodes of HBR IdeaCast
· Discover 100 years of Harvard Business Review articles, case studies, podcasts, and more at HBR.org
]]>In 1995, the late and legendary Harvard Business School professor Clayton Christensen introduced his theory of “disruptive innovation” right here in the pages of the Harvard Business Review. The idea inspired a generation of entrepreneurs and businesses, ranging from small start-ups to global corporations.
Three decades later, debates have emerged around how the theory should be applied — especially within technology start-ups that have driven so much economic growth since 2000.
In this episode, Harvard Business Review editor Amy Bernstein and a panel of expert scholars discuss the legacy of disruptive innovation, and how the common perception of disruption has drifted away from its original meaning.
Expert guests include:
· Harvard Business School senior lecturer and director of the Forum for Growth and Innovation Derek van Bever
· Columbia Business School professor Rita McGrath
· Harvard Business School professor Felix Oberholzer-Gee
Key episode topics include: strategy, competitive strategy, business history, disruptive innovation, Clay Christensen, innovator’s dilemma.
HBR On Strategy curates the best case studies and conversations with the world’s top business and management experts, to help you unlock new ways of doing business. New episodes every week.
· Listen to the full HBR IdeaCast episode: 4 Business Ideas That Changed the World: Disruptive Innovation (2022)
· Find more episodes of HBR IdeaCast
· Discover 100 years of Harvard Business Review articles, case studies, podcasts, and more at HBR.org
]]>In February 2013, U.S. Airways announced that it would merge with American Airlines to create the world’s largest airline. During the acquisition, then-CEO Doug Parker and his board had transformative decisions to make.
How should two large corporations merge their operations? Which members of each company’s C-suites should stay? How fast should they move on these changes? Parker knew that these strategic decisions would send important signals to employees, customers, and competitors.
In this episode, Harvard Business School senior lecturer David Fubini breaks down the strategy underlying this historic airline industry merger. He explains how Parker approached each of these strategic decisions — especially in areas, like culture and operations, where American and U.S. Airways had huge differences.
Key episode topics include: strategy, corporate governance, mergers and acquisitions, operations strategy, aerospace sector, airlines, leadership.
HBR On Strategy curates the best case studies and conversations with the world’s top business and management experts, to help you unlock new ways of doing business. New episodes every week.
· Listen to the original HBR Cold Call episode: How to Lead through a Merger: U.S. Airways and American Airlines (2021)
· Find more episodes of Cold Call
· Discover 100 years of Harvard Business Review articles, case studies, podcasts, and more at HBR.org
]]>Is your growth strategy working consistently?
Strategy expert Ken Favaro says creating and sustaining growth isn’t rocket science. However, you do have to understand the difference between “organic” growth and “inorganic” alternatives, which come through a merger or acquisition.
Favaro is the chief strategy officer at BERA Brand Management. Formerly he was a senior partner at Booz & Company—now part of PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC).
In this episode, he argues that it’s important to focus on creating incentives for organic growth within your organization. He also explains why you should avoid typecasting your business units as “cash cows” or “growth engines” if you want them to achieve ongoing growth.
Key episode topics include: strategy, operations and supply chain management, growth strategy.
HBR On Strategy curates the best case studies and conversations with the world’s top business and management experts, to help you unlock new ways of doing business. New episodes every week.
· Listen to the original HBR IdeaCast episode: Growth Isn’t Rocket Science (2012)
· Find more episodes of HBR IdeaCast
· Discover 100 years of Harvard Business Review articles, case studies, podcasts, and more at HBR.org
]]>For more than a century, the pharmaceutical company Roche has been headquartered in Basel, Switzerland. It’s one of more than a dozen pharmaceutical companies that have long been based there.
Howard Yu, Lego Professor of Management and Innovation at IMD Business School in Switzerland, discusses how this industrial cluster is a unique example of enduring competitive advantage. He explains how these companies offer a counter-narrative to the pessimistic view that you can’t stay ahead of the competition for long.
In this episode, you'll learn how these historic companies began as makers of chemical dyes and later evolved into microbiology. You’ll also learn how to repackage your company’s existing knowledge to pioneer new products and services. And you’ll learn why persistence and experimentation over the long term are prerequisites for innovation.
Key episode topics include: strategy, innovation, competitive strategy, pharmaceutical industry, competitive strategy.
HBR On Strategy curates the best case studies and conversations with the world’s top business and management experts, to help you unlock new ways of doing business. New episodes every week.
· Listen to the full HBR IdeaCast episode: How Some Companies Beat the Competition… For Centuries (2018)
· Find more episodes of HBR IdeaCast
· Discover 100 years of Harvard Business Review articles, case studies, podcasts, and more at HBR.org
]]>So, you’ve successfully scaled your start-up and you’re growing into a mature company. What, if anything, should you retain from those early days?
Harvard Business School professor Ranjay Gulati says the most successful organizations have one thing in common: a soul. “Soul” goes beyond culture, purpose, or even the founder. It’s about having three things: strategic business intent, a strong connection to customers, and a stellar employee experience. Gulati argues that if you don’t preserve these elements as you scale, you’ll lose what makes your company special.
In this episode, he explains how to define the specific problem your company solves, with plenty of real-world examples from Netflix, Apple, and Warby Parker. You’ll also learn how to bring the voice of customers into your organization and ensure that your employees feel connected to them.
Key episode topics include: strategy, entrepreneurship, organizational culture, start-up, scaling.
HBR On Strategy curates the best case studies and conversations with the world’s top business and management experts, to help you unlock new ways of doing business. New episodes every week.
· Listen to the full HBR IdeaCast episode: Finding (and Keeping) Your Company’s Soul (2019)
· Find more episodes of HBR IdeaCast
· Discover 100 years of Harvard Business Review articles, case studies, podcasts, and more at HBR.org
]]>We all know Silicon Valley’s mantra: fail fast, fail often. But when is it OK to fail in the real world?
Harvard Business School professor Amy Edmondson says it depends on how and why you fail. She’s an expert on psychological safety and the author of the book, Right Kind of Wrong: The Science of Failing Well.
In this episode, she explains the difference between good and bad types of failures. One has to do with experimentation, while the other is rooted in inattention or lack of training. Edmondson also explores the downsides of not experimenting enough because your team fears failure.
Key episode topics include: strategy, psychology, business failures, psychological safety, experimentation.
HBR On Strategy curates the best case studies and conversations with the world’s top business and management experts, to help you unlock new ways of doing business. New episodes every week.
· Watch the original HBR New World of Work episode: It's OK to Fail, but You Have to Do It Right (2023)
· Find more episodes of the New World of Work series on YouTube
· Discover 100 years of Harvard Business Review articles, case studies, podcasts, and more at HBR.org
]]>Think of CEOs who have made strong rates of return for investors and built durable businesses. What strategies do you associate with their success?
Investor and author William Thorndike studied eight CEOs who outperformed the market and their peers. The group included big names, like Warren Buffet and Katharine Graham, but also other leaders who are virtually unknown today. One example is Henry Singleton, an MIT-educated electrical engineer who led Teledyne Technologies from 1960 to 1986.
Thorndike noticed that these eight iconoclastic leaders all took a similar approach to capital allocation. They focused on investing their companies’ profits to repurchase their own stock when prices were optimal. But they generally avoided very large acquisitions, accruing debt, and paying dividends.
In this episode, you’ll learn how effective capital allocation strategies, like the ones used by these leaders, can generate wealth for shareholders.
Thorndike is the author of The Outsiders: Eight Unconventional CEOs and Their Radically Rational Blueprint for Success.
Key episode topics include: strategy, strategic planning, entrepreneurship, operations and supply chain management, leadership, capital allocation, debt, dividends, stock buybacks, acquisitions.
HBR On Strategy curates the best case studies and conversations with the world’s top business and management experts, to help you unlock new ways of doing business. New episodes every week.
· Listen to the full HBR IdeaCast episode: How Unusual CEOs Drive Value (2014)
· Find more episodes of HBR IdeaCast
· Discover 100 years of Harvard Business Review articles, case studies, podcasts, and more at HBR.org
]]>In 2020, Kwame Spearman left his consulting job in New York City to take over an iconic independent bookstore, the Tattered Cover Book Store in Denver, Colorado—his hometown.
Spearman saw an opportunity to reinvent the local business to build a community space after the pandemic. But to keep the store successful, he had figure out how to compete with online retailers and big box stores, amid technological change and shifting business models.
In this episode, Harvard Business School associate professor Ryan Raffaelli is joined by Spearman to discuss his case, “Kwame Spearman at Tattered Cover: Reinventing Brick-and-Mortar Retail.” He and Spearman explain how to set sustainable wages for employees and why community engagement is a key part of the store’s strategy for growth.
Key episode topics include: strategy, leadership, marketing, innovation, retail and consumer goods, books, wages, community engagement.
HBR On Strategy curates the best case studies and conversations with the world’s top business and management experts, to help you unlock new ways of doing business. New episodes every week.
· Listen to the original HBR Cold Call episode: Reinventing an Iconic Independent Bookstore (2022)
· Find more episodes of Cold Call
· Discover 100 years of Harvard Business Review articles, case studies, podcasts, and more at HBR.org
]]>Does your company have a strategy for working with investors?
Whether your company is big or small, IBM’s former CEO Sam Palmisano says it’s essential to build relationships with your shareholders before there’s a specific problem to address.
In this episode, you’ll learn how to communicate with your investors to meet their needs — without needing to change your strategy. When Palmisano was leading IBM, he offered investors detailed multi-year projections of revenue growth, rather than quarterly outlooks. This approach helped to keep the company’s focus on the long term. As he describes, “We needed to give [investors] something that worked for us and our management system and our strategy, but also was simpler and clearer so they could decide what investments they would like to make.”
You’ll also learn how Palmisano approached his role as CEO in shareholder meetings in order to send the right message to both shareholders and employees.
Key episode topics include: strategy, leadership, growth, growth strategy, economics, investors, Wall Street, shareholders, IBM.
HBR On Strategy curates the best case studies and conversations with the world’s top business and management experts, to help you unlock new ways of doing business. New episodes every week.
· Listen to the full HBR IdeaCast episode: How to Manage Wall Street (2014)
· Find more episodes of HBR IdeaCast
· Discover 100 years of Harvard Business Review articles, case studies, podcasts, and more at HBR.org
]]>Efficiency is usually something businesses strive for, but is it possible to be too efficient?
Roger Martin is professor emeritus at the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto. He warns that an obsession with eliminating inefficiencies in U.S. companies has come with social and economic costs. He sees those downsides in everything from staffing to wages and even corporate debt levels. But he argues that it’s not too late for businesses to change their priorities.
In this episode, Martin helps leaders understand how to shift their thinking to connect excess resources in the shorter term with a positive outcome: long-term resilience. Martin also explains why it’s important to avoid the strategy trap of setting and meeting singular goals.
Key episode topics include: strategy, business and society, operations and supply chain management, efficiency, corporate debt, wages, staffing, inequality, goals.
HBR On Strategy curates the best case studies and conversations with the world’s top business and management experts, to help you unlock new ways of doing business. New episodes every week.
· Listen to the full HBR IdeaCast episode: When Efficiency Goes Too Far (2020)
· Find more episodes of HBR IdeaCast
· Discover 100 years of Harvard Business Review articles, case studies, podcasts, and more at HBR.org
]]>When Hubert Joly became CEO of Best Buy in 2012, online retailers like Amazon were exploding in popularity, and Best Buy was facing a sea change.
But Joly famously turned around the struggling electronics retailer by changing the organization’s holistic strategy. He prioritized fair pay for workers, opportunities for employees to advance, and working with consumers, the larger community, and even competitors.
In this episode, you’ll learn how Joly re-defined Best Buy’s purpose and aligned incentives with that larger strategy. You’ll also learn how he found mutually beneficial ways for the company to work with competitors and suppliers, including Amazon, the e-commerce giant that once threatened the company’s survival.
Key episode topics include: strategy, business management, corporate social responsibility, leadership and managing people, retail strategy, leading through change, leadership transition, innovation, customer service.
HBR On Strategy curates the best case studies and conversations with the world’s top business and management experts, to help you unlock new ways of doing business. New episodes every week.
· Listen to the full HBR IdeaCast episode: Best Buy’s Hubert Joly on Walking the Talk of Stakeholder Capitalism (2021)
· Find more episodes of HBR IdeaCast
· Discover 100 years of Harvard Business Review articles, case studies, podcasts, and more at HBR.org
]]>Careem launched as the “Uber of the Middle East” in Dubai in 2012, with a mission to make life and work better for drivers in the region.
Despite technical, cultural, and financial challenges, Careem eventually became the Middle East’s first unicorn start-up, valued at more than a billion dollars. It was acquired by Uber in 2019 for $3.1 billion.
In this episode, Harvard Business School professor Shikhar Ghosh discusses his case, “Careem: Raising a Unicorn.” He explains how the company scaled its operations and expanded from Dubai into Africa and South Asia. That growth required many small and large innovations—from creating their own localized version of Google maps to forging relationships with local and national governments.
Key episode topics include: strategy, growth strategy, innovation, technology, ride share, startup, Middle East, scaling, recruiting.
HBR On Strategy curates the best case studies and conversations with the world’s top business and management experts, to help you unlock new ways of doing business. New episodes every week.
· Listen to the original HBR Cold Call episode: Careem: Riding the First Unicorn in the Middle East (2018)
· Find more episodes of Cold Call
· Discover 100 years of Harvard Business Review articles, case studies, podcasts, and more at HBR.org
]]>Have you ever put a lot of time and energy into strategy work, but instead of finding clarity, ended up even more overwhelmed by conflicting priorities?
Harvard Business School professor Felix Oberholzer-Gee says it doesn’t have to be this way. He argues that all companies should simplify and focus on two value drivers: customer satisfaction and employee satisfaction.
In this episode, he offers step-by-step guidance for implementing a value-based strategy in your organization, using a “value map.” He also explains why it’s important to separate financial planning from strategic planning.
Key episode topics include: strategy, creativity, design thinking, Starbucks, Apple, aesthetics, design, customer centricity, consumer research, competition.
HBR On Strategy curates the best case studies and conversations with the world’s top business and management experts, to help you unlock new ways of doing business. New episodes every week.
· Listen to the full HBR IdeaCast episode: Streamlining Your Company’s Strategy (2021)
· Find more episodes of HBR IdeaCast
· Discover 100 years of Harvard Business Review articles, case studies, podcasts, and more at HBR.org
]]>The Swedish furniture maker IKEA found huge success producing quality furniture at affordable prices. But in 2017, the company was at a crossroads. Its beloved founder had died, and the exponential rise of online shopping posed a new challenge.
In this episode, Harvard Business School professors Juan Alcacer and Cynthia Montgomery break down how IKEA developed, selected, and embraced new strategic initiatives, while fortifying its internal culture. They studied how IKEA made big changes for the future and wrote a business case about it.
They explain how the company reworked its franchise agreements to ensure consistency among its global stores. They also discuss how IKEA balanced global growth with localization, developing all-new supply chains.
Key episode topics include: strategy, growth strategy, disruptive innovation, emerging markets, leadership transition, competitive strategy, company culture, succession.
HBR On Strategy curates the best case studies and conversations with the world’s top business and management experts, to help you unlock new ways of doing business. New episodes every week.
· Listen to the original HBR Cold Call episode: IKEA Navigates the Future While Staying True to Its Culture (2021)
· Find more episodes of Cold Call
· Discover 100 years of Harvard Business Review articles, case studies, podcasts, and more at HBR.org
]]>Do you know who your “superconsumers” are, and why they’re so important for your strategy decisions?
Growth strategy expert Eddie Yoon says they’re your most passionate, most valuable customers—not just because they spend more than average, but because their insights can help you improve your products and services.
“You start with superconsumers and ask them to figure out what would need to be true for you to pay double the price of what I sell you now today,” he explains. “If you ask any regular consumer, they’d say, ‘no way would I let you do that.’ But a superconsumer would say, ‘well, if you did this, this, and this; I would actually pay three times as much for it.’ Start with the passionate core, and let them do your work for you.”
In this episode, you’ll learn how to define your superconsumers and use their insights to attract new users to your products and services, with plenty of real-world examples, from Velveeta cheese to vitamins and video games.
Yoon is the author of the book Superconsumers: A Simple, Speedy, and Sustainable Path to Superior Growth.
Key episode topics include: strategy, growth strategy, customer experience, product development.
HBR On Strategy curates the best case studies and conversations with the world’s top business and management experts, to help you unlock new ways of doing business. New episodes every week.
· Listen to the full HBR IdeaCast episode: What Superconsumers Can Teach You (2016)
· Find more episodes of HBR IdeaCast
· Discover 100 years of Harvard Business Review articles, case studies, podcasts, and more at HBR.org
]]>Rohit Gera had turned his family’s boutique real estate development firm into a dynamic housing solutions innovator for urban Indian families. But as he prepared to retire, Gera had to decide who would take over for him. Should he define a strategy for future growth and pick a successor who would enact it? Or should he identify his replacement and allow them to set the company’s new strategy? And should Gera’s replacement come from within his family or not?
In this episode, Harvard Business School senior lecturer Christina Wing is joined by Gera to discuss her case, “Gera Developments: Leadership at a Crossroads.” She and Gera explain how to select a growth strategy for the future. They also discuss best practices for ensuring a successful leadership transition in a family business.
Key episode topics include: strategy, growth strategy, family business, leadership, leadership transitions, real estate, India, succession.
HBR On Strategy curates the best case studies and conversations with the world’s top business and management experts, to help you unlock new ways of doing business. New episodes every week.
· Listen to the original HBR Cold Call episode: A Family Business at a Crossroads: Scaling and Succession (2021)
· Find more episodes of Cold Call
· Discover 100 years of Harvard Business Review articles, case studies, podcasts, and more at HBR.org
]]>In 2023, TikTok became the fourth largest social network by number of users, behind Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram. Meanwhile, competition in the market for short-form videos intensified. Instagram introduced Reels and YouTube launched Shorts—innovations that imitated TikTok’s approach.
In this episode, Harvard Business School professor Felix Oberholzer-Gee discusses imitation as a competitive strategy among the leading social networks. Standard business strategy emphasizes the need to differentiate your product or service from competitors. However, as these social networks have shown, imitation can sometimes lead to better financial performance. The question is: When is imitation useful and when does it become detrimental?
This is the final episode in a special series highlighting the four best strategy episodes of 2023, curated from across Harvard Business Review’s podcasts.
Key episode topics include: strategy, social media, competitive strategy, organizational change.
HBR On Strategy curates the best case studies and conversations with the world’s top business and management experts, to help you unlock new ways of doing business. New episodes every week.
· Listen to the original HBR Cold Call episode: As Social Networks Get More Competitive, Which Ones Will Survive? (2023)
· Find more episodes of Cold Call
· Discover 100 years of Harvard Business Review articles, case studies, podcasts, and more at HBR.org
]]>As interest rates have risen in recent years, venture capital funding has dried up. How can founders grow their companies in this new environment?
In this episode, a founder who grew a $600 million company using just $10,000 of his own money, shares his strategy. Mike Salguero is the CEO and founder of the meat subscription service ButcherBox. He explains how he formulated a growth strategy that had a laser focus on costs and creatively leveraged the marketing power of influencers.
This is the third episode in a special series highlighting the four best strategy episodes of 2023, curated from across Harvard Business Review’s podcasts.
Key episode topics include: strategy, entrepreneurship, entrepreneurial finance, fundraising, selling entrepreneurial ventures, venture capital, pricing strategy, customer strategy, marketing.
HBR On Strategy curates the best case studies and conversations with the world’s top business and management experts, to help you unlock new ways of doing business. New episodes every week.
· Listen to the full HBR IdeaCast episode: Why Entrepreneurs Don’t Need Venture Capital to Scale (2023)
· Find more episodes of HBR IdeaCast
· Discover 100 years of Harvard Business Review articles, case studies, podcasts, and more at HBR.org
]]>In 2023, the auto industry went through huge changes in pursuit of lower carbon emission. Some automakers, like Ford, Mercedes, and General Motors, announced their plans to stop selling vehicles with internal combustion engines. The reaction from investment analysts was overwhelmingly positive, despite the fact that the production of electric vehicles (EVs) actually increases emissions in the supply chain.
In contrast, BMW decided to pursue a more flexible decarbonization strategy. Their plans include gasoline and diesel-fueled internal combustion engines, plug-in hybrid EVs, and battery EVs. The goal is to reduce lifecycle emissions across BMW’s supply chain, their production, and tailpipe emissions.
In this episode, Harvard Business School assistant professor Shirley Lu explains how BMW analyzed its sustainability goals alongside market-based risks to formulate their decarbonization strategy. She also discusses how the company’s leadership presented their strategy to skeptical stakeholders.
This is the second episode in a special series highlighting the four best strategy episodes of 2023, curated from across Harvard Business Review’s podcasts.
Key episode topics include: strategy, environmental sustainability, climate change, operations and supply chain management, financial performance measurement, transportation and distribution.
HBR On Strategy curates the best case studies and conversations with the world’s top business and management experts, to help you unlock new ways of doing business. New episodes every week.
· Listen to the original HBR Cold Call episode: BMW’s Decarbonization Strategy: Sustainable for the Environment and the Bottom Line (2023)
· Find more episodes of Cold Call
· Discover 100 years of Harvard Business Review articles, case studies, podcasts, and more at HBR.org
]]>ChatGPT dominated news headlines in 2023. But generative AI isn’t just a hack to boost productivity. Many businesses are exploring its potential to create new products and services, which requires entirely new strategic work.
In this episode, HBR’s editor in chief, Adi Ignatius, speaks to Microsoft’s head of strategy Chris Young and Harvard Business School professor Andy Wu, an expert in growth and innovation strategy. They lay out Gen-AI’s emerging value chains and break down the competitive risks and tradeoffs that businesses should consider as they experiment with this new technology.
This is the first episode in a special series highlighting the four best strategy episodes of 2023, curated from across Harvard Business Review’s podcasts.
Key episode topics include: strategy, leadership, AI and machine learning, automation, technology and analytics, disruptive innovation, digital transformation.
HBR On Strategy curates the best case studies and conversations with the world’s top business and management experts, to help you unlock new ways of doing business. New episodes every week.
· Listen to the full HBR IdeaCast episode: How Generative AI Changes Strategy (2023)
· Find more episodes of HBR IdeaCast
· Discover 100 years of Harvard Business Review articles, case studies, podcasts, and more at HBR.org
]]>Pencil-maker Faber-Castell has been in business since 1761, but it is still innovating and adopting new technology.
In this episode, Harvard Business School associate professor Ryan Raffaelli discusses his case, “Faber-Castell.” He explains how the company balances stewardship of its brand with innovation and evolution, and how leaders decide when—and when not to—adopt new technologies. Plus, he breaks down Faber-Castell’s “generational” approach to formulating strategy to sustain their business for the longer term.
Key episode topics include: strategy, product development, innovation, family businesses.
HBR On Strategy curates the best case studies and conversations with the world’s top business and management experts, to help you unlock new ways of doing business. New episodes every week.
· Listen to the original HBR Cold Call episode: Faber-Castell Doubles Down on the Pencil (2017)
· Find more episodes of Cold Call
· Discover 100 years of Harvard Business Review articles, case studies, podcasts, and more at HBR.org
]]>When companies cut costs, they tend to trim spending across the board. But Cesare Mainardi, former CEO of global management consultancy Booz & Company, says that cost cutting should be a careful, strategic process.
In this episode you’ll learn how to ensure that your company’s strategic capabilities aren’t negatively affected by necessary cuts. You’ll also learn how top leadership can work with teams to understand the trade-offs involved in reducing costs.
Mainardi is now a business strategy author and professor. He’s the author of the book, Cut Costs, Grow Stronger: A Strategic Approach to What to Cut and What to Keep.
Key episode topics include: strategy, costing, reducing costs, leadership.
HBR On Strategy curates the best case studies and conversations with the world’s top business and management experts, to help you unlock new ways of doing business. New episodes every week.
· Listen to the full HBR IdeaCast episode: How to Cut Costs – Strategically (2009)
· Find more episodes of HBR IdeaCast
· Discover 100 years of Harvard Business Review articles, case studies, podcasts, and more at HBR.org
]]>Are you considering a refresh of your brand? Roger Martin says you should probably rethink that.
“When you rebrand, the [consumer’s] subconscious is saying ‘whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, where's that thing we were comfortable with?’ And in some sense, it puts you back to square one. You're now competing to establish a new habit,” he explains.
Martin is the former dean of the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto — and one of the world’s leading thinkers on strategy.
In this episode, he explains how customer habits build “cumulative advantage” for brands — and why that’s so important, yet fragile. Martin also offers real-world examples of brand updates gone wrong (and right) —from laundry detergents to social media platforms and even the iPhone.
Key episode topics include: strategy, brand management, marketing, consumer behavior, cumulative advantage, Tide, Instagram.
HBR On Strategy curates the best case studies and conversations with the world’s top business and management experts, to help you unlock new ways of doing business. New episodes every week.
· Watch the original HBR Quick Study episode: Think Twice Before Updating Your Brand (2022)
· Find more episodes of the HBR Quick Study series on YouTube
· Discover 100 years of Harvard Business Review articles, case studies, podcasts, and more at HBR.org
]]>Jorge Quintanilla Nielsen started the private asset management firm Capital SAFI in 2007 — and planned to expand from Bolivia across South America. As a private firm, Capital SAFI isn’t required to have a board, but he knew that governance would be one of the main aspects potential partners would evaluate.
In this episode, Harvard Business School professor V. G. Narayanan discusses his case, “Building the Governance to Take Capital SAFI to the Next Level.” He explains how Nielsen selects board members and holds them accountable in their roles. He also discusses how Capital SAFI’s board guides the firm’s growth, risks, and overall strategy.
Key episode topics include: strategy, corporate strategy, corporate governance, sustainable business practices, boards, investment management, growth strategy, global growth, assessing risk.
HBR On Strategy curates the best case studies and conversations with the world’s top business and management experts, to help you unlock new ways of doing business. New episodes every week.
· Listen to the original HBR Cold Call episode: Corporate Governance and Growth Strategy at Capital SAFI (2022)
· Find more episodes of Cold Call
· Discover 100 years of Harvard Business Review articles, case studies, podcasts, and more at HBR.org
]]>Do you have good AI? That’s “aesthetic intelligence” — not artificial intelligence.
Pauline Brown, former chairman of North America for the luxury goods company LVMH, argues that great leaders need to develop “aesthetic intelligence” to stand out among competitors. They need to understand how their products or services can “elicit true delight.”
“When you look at the research, the vast majority of reasons that anyone will buy one product over another is based on how that product or service makes the person feel,” she tells IdeaCast host Alison Beard.
In this episode, you’ll learn from companies—like Starbucks, Airbnb, and, of course, Apple—that successfully use aesthetics to set their products apart. You’ll also learn why it’s important for leaders or founders—not customers—to define and maintain a company’s aesthetic principles. Brown is the author of the book Aesthetic Intelligence: How to Boost It and Use It in Business and Beyond.
Key episode topics include: strategy, creativity, design thinking, Starbucks, Apple, aesthetics, design, customer centricity, consumer research, competition.
HBR On Strategy curates the best case studies and conversations with the world’s top business and management experts, to help you unlock new ways of doing business. New episodes every week.
· Listen to the full HBR IdeaCast episode: To Truly Delight Customers, You Need Aesthetic Intelligence (2019)
· Find more episodes of HBR IdeaCast.
· Discover 100 years of Harvard Business Review articles, case studies, podcasts, and more at HBR.org.
]]>Many founders try to emulate startups that have already become successful. But Thales Teixeira says that approach, which often involves trying to do too much, too quickly, can lead to failure.
In this episode, you’ll learn how to find customers who aren’t being served by existing businesses and how to work with early adopters to improve your product and service. You’ll also learn when to focus on developing your technology and when to make key hires — with real-world examples from Uber, Airbnb, and Netflix.
Thales Teixeira is a former associate professor at Harvard Business School, where he taught a course in e-commerce and digital marketing. He’s now the co-founder of digital disruption consultancy Decoupling and the author of the book, Unlocking the Customer Value Chain: How Decoupling Drives Customer Disruption.
Key episode topics include: strategy, customer service, disruptive innovation, entrepreneurship, early adopters, scaling, digital disruption, digital marketing, founders, e-commerce.
HBR On Strategy curates the best case studies and conversations with the world’s top business and management experts, to help you unlock new ways of doing business. New episodes every week.
· Listen to the full HBR IdeaCast episode: The Right Way to Get Your First 1,000 Customers (2019)
· Find more episodes of HBR IdeaCast
· Discover 100 years of Harvard Business Review articles, case studies, podcasts, and more at HBR.org
]]>As the former CEO of PepsiCo, Indra Nooyi played an important role in shaping the company’s global strategy. She shifted PepsiCo’s focus to healthier products, worked to improve sustainability, and perhaps most notably: introduced design thinking into the company’s innovation process.
“It’s a fine line between innovation and design. Hopefully design leads to innovation, and innovation demands design,” Nooyi tells Harvard Business Review editor-in-chief Adi Ignatius.
In this episode, you’ll learn how Nooyi thinks about the relationship between innovation and design — and why she says that “design” is about more than just creating eye-catching packaging. You’ll also learn how design thinking shifted the culture at PepsiCo to ultimately make the company’s operations more centralized and coordinated.
Key episode topics include: strategy, change management, design thinking, food and Beverage sector, sustainability, innovation, culture shift, global strategy, user experience, design, packaging.
HBR On Strategy curates the best case studies and conversations with the world’s top business and management experts, to help you unlock new ways of doing business. New episodes every week.
· Listen to the full HBR IdeaCast episode: PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi on Design Thinking (2016)
· Find more episodes of HBR IdeaCast
· Discover 100 years of Harvard Business Review articles, case studies, podcasts, and more at HBR.org
]]>Direct-to-consumer (DTC) businesses play an outsize role in disrupting industries. Think of eyeglasses and Warby Parker or mattresses and Casper. But after that initial disruption, industry competitors often adapt.
Harvard Business School professor Len Schlesinger and Matt Higgins, the co-founder and CEO of private investment firm RSE Ventures, studied the teledentistry company SmileDirectClub and wrote a case study about its challenges as it scaled.
In this episode, they break down how SmileDirectClub invested in strategic innovation and ultimately moved beyond DTC channels in order to thrive.
Key episode topics include: strategy, business models, entrepreneurs and founder, strategy execution, scaling, direct-to-consumer, DTC, innovation, dental care, disruption, retail strategy, growth strategy.
HBR On Strategy curates the best case studies and conversations with the world’s top business and management experts, to help you unlock new ways of doing business. New episodes every week.
· Listen to the original HBR Cold Call episode: SmileDirectClub Looks Beyond Direct-to-Consumer Marketing (2020)
· Find more episodes of Cold Call
· Discover 100 years of Harvard Business Review articles, case studies, podcasts, and more at HBR.org
]]>Who are your primary customers? Harvard Business School professor Robert Simons says that’s the most important question of your strategy –— and the hardest to answer.
Simons says that many firms make the mistake of defining their customers too broadly. To succeed, you have to target your resources at the people who really drive the most value.
“Resources are limited…and the more people we call customers, the more we’re diffusing resources and attention over all kinds of different entities and constituents that are not really at the core of the business,” he explains.
In this episode, you’ll learn how to accurately define your primary customers — using factors like your firm’s culture, your core capabilities, and where you get the most profit. You’ll also learn how to allocate resources for secondary and tertiary customers.
Key episode topics include: strategy, customer experience, competitive strategy, resources, profits, value, core customers.
HBR On Strategy curates the best case studies and conversations with the world’s top business and management experts, to help you unlock new ways of doing business. New episodes every week.
· Listen to the original HBR IdeaCast episode: Identify Your Primary Customer (2014)
· Find more episodes of HBR IdeaCast
· Discover 100 years of Harvard Business Review articles, case studies, podcasts, and more at HBR.org
]]>What can we learn from fast-moving companies—like Amazon, Google, and Alibaba—about how to organize to promote strategic growth?
University of Michigan business professor Dave Ulrich went inside these companies to study how their internal structure keeps them nimble, innovative, and market-oriented.
“That mental model of what an organization is, it’s about power, it’s about control, it’s about clarifying decision rights,” he tells IdeaCast host Curt Nickisch. “I think that mental model of an organization as a control system has basically got to shift.”
In this episode, Ulrich outlines three key capabilities that these newer companies have developed: monitoring the marketplace, sharing that intelligence company-wide, and innovation.
Key episode topics include: strategy, innovation, business management, market intelligence, Google, Alibaba, technology, uncertainty, flux, agile.
HBR On Strategy curates the best case studies and conversations with the world’s top business and management experts, to help you unlock new ways of doing business. New episodes every week.
· Listen to the full HBR IdeaCast episode: How Companies Like Google and Alibaba Respond to Fast-Moving Markets (2019)
· Find more episodes of HBR IdeaCast
· Discover 100 years of Harvard Business Review articles, case studies, podcasts, and more at HBR.org
]]>Wolters Kluwer started in the 1830s as a publishing house. But the Dutch multinational corporation has grown into a global, information services company and now earns more than 90 percent of its revenue from digital products.
“We had to move quickly and we had to do a certain set of strategic things, or the company might not survive,” chair and CEO Nancy McKinstry tells IdeaCast host Curt Nickisch.
In this episode, McKinstry discusses how she successfully shifted the company’s strategy to focus on digital products through strategic investments in product innovation. She also emphasizes the importance of patience, as consumers slowly adopted new products and services.
Key episode topics include: strategy, leadership, strategy execution, business management, digital transformation, innovation, product development, information services, timing.
HBR On Strategy curates the best case studies and conversations with the world’s top business and management experts, to help you unlock new ways of doing business. New episodes every week.
· Listen to the full HBR IdeaCast episode: How One CEO Successfully Led a Digital Transformation (Dec 2019)
· Find more episodes of HBR IdeaCast
· Discover 100 years of Harvard Business Review articles, case studies, podcasts, and more at HBR.org
]]>OXXO was the dominant convenience store chain in Mexico—until its chief rival doubled in size almost overnight.
In this episode, Harvard Business School professor Tatiana Sandino explains how OXXO CEO Eduardo Padilla responded to this strategic challenge. Instead of opening more stores as quickly as possible, he focused on improving the company’s culture and operations. The company implemented management systems across its locations and then used those systems to gain new economies of scale.
Key episode topics include: strategy, competitive strategy, operations strategy, organizational culture, Mexico, growth, agile, multi-unit organizations.
HBR On Strategy curates the best case studies and conversations with the world’s top business and management experts, to help you unlock new ways of doing business. New episodes every week.
· Listen to the original HBR Cold Call episode: Under Pressure, OXXO Rethinks the Convenience Store (Dec 2019)
· Find more episodes of Cold Call
· Discover 100 years of Harvard Business Review articles, case studies, podcasts, and more at HBR.org
]]>To many people, strategy is a total mystery. But Harvard Business School professor Felix Oberholzer-Gee says strategy doesn’t have to be complicated if you focus on creating value.
“Strategy’s simple. It’s a plan to create value,” he explains. “The way a company plans to create that value, that's the strategy of the company.”
In this episode, you’ll learn how to focus on two key value drivers: customer satisfaction and employee satisfaction. You’ll also learn where profits come in and how to visualize the value you create.
Key episode topics include: strategy, competitive strategy, creating value, profit, value stick, willingness to pay, willingness to sell, Best Buy, Hubert Joly, turnaround.
HBR On Strategy curates the best case studies and conversations with the world’s top business and management experts, to help you unlock new ways of doing business. New episodes every week.
· Listen to the original HBR Quick Study episode: What Is Strategy? It’s a Lot Simpler Than You Think (Feb 2022)
· Find more episodes of the HBR Quick Study series on YouTube
· Discover 100 years of Harvard Business Review articles, case studies, podcasts, and more at HBR.org
]]>Major strategy shifts need time to play out. Customers have their habits, employees are used to doing things a certain way, and fine-tuning a plan takes time in the market.
But what if you don’t have the luxury of waiting years to know if your strategy really is working?
“The question…is whether the strategy is flawed or whether we just haven’t given it enough time to take hold with customers,” says Harvard Business School senior lecturer Jill Avery, who wrote the fictionalized case study discussed in this episode—loosely based on Ron Johnson’s tenure at JC Penney.
In the case, a fictitious struggling retail chain is attempting to attract younger customers and boost its declining revenue, but early results aren’t good. Now the Board is pressuring the new CEO to walk back his changes, and he’s arguing that short-term losses are necessary to unlock longer term profitability.
“This is a retailer in trouble, as JC Penney was at the time of Ron Johnson’s tenure there. And radical change is probably necessary to turn these retailers around,” Avery notes. “[But] how much leeway do we have both financially and strategically to see our decisions play out over a multi-period time, to see if they’re actually working?”
If you’re struggling to make strategic decisions and accurately assess their success, this episode is for you.
Key episode topics include: strategy, customer experience, pricing strategy, strategy execution, retail and consumer goods, rebranding, experiments, change leadership, Ron Johnson, JC Penney.
HBR On Strategy curates the best case studies and conversations with the world’s top business and management experts, to help you unlock new ways of doing business. New episodes every week.
· Listen to the original HBR IdeaCast episode: Case Study: Reinvent This Retailer (April 2015)
· Find more episodes of HBR IdeaCast
· Discover 100 years of Harvard Business Review articles, case studies, podcasts, and more at HBR.org
]]>As technology changes everything, how can existing businesses create innovation and change from within?
Harvard Business School fellow Karen Mills studied how one 200-year-old regional bank in the U.S. used intrapreneurship to develop a completely automated small business lending product to compete with online lenders.
Mills breaks down the case study of Eastern Bank’s strategy for innovation—from its early partnership with a fintech entrepreneur to its eventual spinoff of Numerated, the online lending platform it developed in-house.
Mills is the author of Fintech, Small Business and the American Dream.
Key episode topics include: strategy, business management, competitive strategy, operations and supply chain management, financial service sector, fintech, banking, disruptive innovation.
HBR On Strategy curates the best case studies and conversations with the world’s top business and management experts, to help you unlock new ways of doing business. New episodes every week.
· Listen to the original HBR Cold Call episode: Using Fintech to Disrupt Eastern Bank from Within (2018)
· Find more episodes of Cold Call
· Discover 100 years of Harvard Business Review articles, case studies, podcasts, and more at HBR.org.
]]>When was the last time you practiced your critical thinking skills? Helen Lee Bouygues, an expert in business transformation, says many business problems are really about simple errors in critical thinking.
“People believe that critical thinking is something that we do every day and it comes very natural,” she tells IdeaCast host Curt Nickisch. “But in reality, critical thinking is not only extremely important for success in life, but it’s also something that needs to be learned and practiced.”
In this episode you’ll learn how to practice your critical thinking skills. Bouygues outlines three key components of critical thinking: questioning your assumptions, reasoning through logic, and diversifying your thought process.
Key episode topics include: strategy, strategy formulation, decision making and problem solving, managing yourself, critical thinking, managing emotions, strategic decisions.
HBR On Strategy curates the best case studies and conversations with the world’s top business and management experts, to help you unlock new ways of doing business. New episodes every week.
· Listen to the full HBR IdeaCast episode: Improve Your Critical Thinking at Work (2019)
· Find more episodes of HBR IdeaCast.
· Discover 100 years of Harvard Business Review articles, case studies, podcasts, and more at HBR.org.
]]>Innovation is a challenge for large incumbent companies. Their long-term success depends on exploring new innovations that stretch the organization beyond its core businesses. But these new opportunities must draw on the company’s existing strengths and leadership position.
Harvard Business School senior lecturer Derek van Bever and former lecturer Stephen P. Kaufman studied global brewing company Molson Coors, as it prepared to enter the cannabis beverages business in 2019.
“The unknowns were unknowns — they were unknowable,” Kaufman tells Cold Call host Brian Kenny. “You need to have a theory, rather than to look for data. And this is much tougher than what we often see — major companies getting into a market that a startup has already proven exists. This is a place where no market exists.”
Molson Coors initially planned to slowly test a few products in a small market to see if there might be a viable business. But ultimately the company decided to take a more aggressive and expensive strategy, with the aim of seizing first-mover advantage. Kaufman and van Bever explain how Molson Coors formulated that strategy.
Key episode topics include: strategy, global strategy, budgets and budgeting, business ethics, disruptive innovation, joint ventures, food and beverage sector, beer, cannabis, market opportunity, first-mover advantage, incumbent, product development, new markets, managing risk, scope creep, Canada.
HBR On Strategy curates the best case studies and conversations with the world’s top business and management experts, to help you unlock new ways of doing business. New episodes every week.
· Listen to the original HBR Cold Call episode: Should Global Beer Company Molson Coors Enter the Cannabis Beverages Business? (2021)
· Find more episodes of Cold Call
· Discover 100 years of Harvard Business Review articles, case studies, podcasts, and more at HBR.org.
]]>Free products and services are everywhere – from buy-one-get-one-free offers to free office software like Canva and Google docs, and, yes, this very podcast. If your revenue strategy does not include give aways, these free goods and services can put extra pressure on your business. How can you compete?
Brigham Young University professor of strategy David Bryce studied give-away strategies across 26 different product markets. He says that companies make two key mistakes when they try to compete with a free entrant: responding too quicky with their own free offering or not responding at all.
“Really, the challenge becomes how do established companies think about their own systems in ways that make those systems not become obstacles to launching free but really become facilitators,” he explains.
In this episode, you’ll learn which key factors to consider as you decide how to compete with a free entrant. You’ll also learn how to refine your own product mix and consider which of your customers to target with free products.
Key episode topics include: strategy, competitive strategy, giveaways, rebates, third-party pay, bundles, advertising revenue, growth, customers.
HBR On Strategy curates the best case studies and conversations with the world’s top business and management experts, to help you unlock new ways of doing business. New episodes every week.
· Listen to the original HBR IdeaCast episode: When Competitors Give Away the Store (2011)
· Find more episodes of HBR IdeaCast
· Discover 100 years of Harvard Business Review articles, case studies, podcasts, and more at HBR.org.
]]>What role does timing play in strategic thinking — for an organization's growth, but also for you and your career? New York Times best-selling author Daniel Pink says it can play a big part in how successful your strategy will be.
“I think people underestimate timing,” he tells Dear HBR hosts Alison Beard and Dan McGinn. “We’re very intentional in our lives about what we do. But when it comes to when we do things, we don’t take it seriously enough. We’re not intentional. And it has a material effect at very many levels of peoples’ work lives.”
In this episode, taped live in Washington, D.C., Pink discusses what to do when your company is slow to seize a market opportunity or the right career opportunity arrives at the wrong time. Whether an opportunity is for your company, your team, or your own career, timing really is everything.
Key episode topics include: career planning, decision making and problem solving, psychology, timing, merger, enterprise software, start-ups, when to quit.
HBR On Strategy curates the best case studies and conversations with the world’s top business and management experts, to help you unlock new ways of doing business. New episodes every week.
· Listen to the original Dear HBR episode: Perfect Timing (Live) (Nov 2019)
· Find more episodes of Dear HBR
· Discover 100 years of Harvard Business Review articles, case studies, podcasts, and more at HBR.org
]]>En liten tjänst av I'm With Friends. Finns även på engelska.