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Must Finance and Strategy Clash?
Finance and investing Magazine ArticleMarketers and finance people seldom see eye to eye. The makers say, “This product will open up a whole new market segment.” Finance people respond, “It’s a bad investment. The IRR is only 8%.” Why are they so often in opposition? The financial criteria used to decide if a project will be profitable are entirely […] -
Marketing Performance—What Do You Expect?
Project management Magazine ArticleA good plot, good friends, and full of expectation; an excellent plot, very good friends. Shakespeare, King Henry IV, Part I Special Report When trying to assess performance, there is no business function top executives worry about more than marketing. Most of them look at the marketers in their companies as something between vacuum-cleaner salespeople […] -
An Agile Approach to Budgeting for Uncertain Times
Finance & Accounting Digital ArticleThe pandemic is making the annual process even more challenging. -
Straight from Hollywood: The Project-Based Workforce
Talent management Digital ArticleA number of years ago, when my colleagues and I first began our research on how companies were preparing for the changing demographics of the workforce, we were amazed to find 85-year-old aerospace engineers successfully at work! From a company perspective, the reasons for this were straightforward — the industry was then already faced with […] -
Learning Across Lines: The Secret to More Efficient Factories
Technology & Operations Magazine ArticleIn the quest to reduce waste on production lines, managers often find that the harder they work at improving their manufacturing processes, the more elusive... -
A Film Director’s Approach to Managing Creativity
Managing people Magazine ArticleWhen someone mentions a film unit, most people think of location shooting—depending on their generation it’s either Robert Shaw duelling the shark off Martha’s Vineyard or John Wayne and the U.S. cavalry charging through Death Valley! But, in fact, most major films are made in a series of predictable phases, of which shooting is only […] -
When Tracking Projects, Ignore Your Accountants
Project management Digital ArticleThey’re probably using the wrong numbers. -
Why Cross-Functional Collaboration Stalls, and How to Fix It
Leadership & Managing People Digital ArticleResearch shows that 78% of leaders report "collaboration drag" - too many meetings, too much peer feedback, and too much time spent getting buy-in from... -
How to Prioritize Your Company’s Projects
Project management Digital ArticleThe wrong priorities lead to bad decisions. -
Pull the Plug on a Project with an Uncertain Future? (HBR Case Study and Commentary)
Organizational Development Magazine ArticleIn this fictional case, Alex, a real estate developer, is at a crossroads in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic. His company is a year away from completing... -
Is Vertical Integration Profitable?
Marketing Magazine ArticleVertical integration, or the lack of it, can have a significant impact on business performance. While some observers claim that adequate vertical integration can be crucial to survival, others blame excessive integration for causing corporate failure. Examples of the reasons behind moves toward integration and of their success or failure aren’t hard to find: In […] -
Meetings That Work: Plans Bosses Can Approve
Business communication Magazine ArticleWith his business under severe pressure, a group vice president went into his annual strategic-plan meeting with top management carrying nothing more than a large, pencil-draft spread sheet. He brought along no plan document, no overhead slides, and none of his operating staff. But using that simple spread sheet, he identified the difficult options facing […] -
Technology as a Competitive Weapon
Decision making and problem solving Magazine ArticleWhy is it one company may pursue a technological advance and later reap rewards in the marketplace while another may pump as many resources into a similar project and never make it to the marketplace? The author of this article has studied nine companies that have R&D investments to see how those that use technology […] -
10 Emotions That Are Undervalued in the Workplace
Finance & Accounting Digital ArticleIn addition to being powerful tools of persuasion and influence, emotions ground us in our humanity and give us important data about our environments. -
Managing Innovation: Controlled Chaos
Managing people Magazine ArticleWorld technological leadership, some say, is passing from the United States to our international rivals in Europe and the Far East. Critics of corporate America point out that many new products and services originate overseas—especially in Japan—and blame our large bureaucratic organizations for stifling innovation. The innovations that do arise here, according to these observers, […] -
The Hidden Indicators of a Failing Project
Project management Digital ArticleIt’s easy to measure time and budget; it’s not so easy to measure business outcomes and whether you’re on the right track to meet them. -
New Year’s Resolution: Do Experiments, Not Projects
Strategy execution Digital ArticleRecently, I asked some business executives for their top three IT wishes. Across the board, their responses echoed a common plea: “I wish IT projects would come in on time and on budget.” Funny thing is – this very reasonable sounding request is actually quite unreasonable. You see, we are no longer simply automating existing […] -
The Experience Trap
Technology & Operations Magazine ArticleWhen companies put seasoned managers in charge of important projects, they don't expect missed deadlines, budget overruns, and rampant defects. However,... -
Just Trying to Help (HBR Case Study and Commentary)
Organizational Development Magazine ArticleEvery year, at the annual summit of Ralston Crane's marketing group, Chief Marketing Officer Ruth McViney homes in on an important organizational objective.... -
4 Factors That Will Help Project Managers Fulfill AI’s Potential
Project management Digital ArticleSuccess will ultimately depend on whether people have the right skills and mindset.
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Colberts Inc. (A)
Technology & Operations Case Study11.95View Details The senior director of supply chain management for Colberts Inc. (Colberts) had made tremendous strides. She had been among a select few senior directors... -
Integrated Project Delivery at Autodesk, Inc (C)
Technology & Operations Case Study5.00View Details Describes Autodesk's engagement in Integrated Project Delivery-a new model of risk management, inter-firm teamwork, and multi-objective (aesthetic, cost,... -
Insight Robotics Limited: A Start-Up with a Happy Problem
Innovation & Entrepreneurship Case Study11.95View Details IRL develops products that provide fully automatic detection, reporting and prediction of unwanted incidents (e.g., forestry wildfires) and help authorities... -
Beauregard Textile Co.
Strategy & Execution Case Study11.95View Details The sales manager and controller have to decide on a price for a textile that lost significant market share as a result of a recent price increase. Information... -
Southport Minerals, Inc.
Finance & Accounting Case Study11.95View Details Examines how the attractiveness of an investment project can be enhanced by making financing and operating decisions which either manage investment returns... -
Delhi Metro - Airport Express Line
Strategy & Execution Case Study11.95View Details The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) suggested the construction of a dedicated express metro line from the city centre to the airport, which had just... -
OneBlood and COVID-19: Building an Agile Supply Chain
Global Business Case Study11.95View Details The blood supply chain is under pressure from COVID-19. How should the 3rd largest blood bank in the US, OneBlood, respond? Is adopting an agile supply... -
Applied Materials
Technology & Operations Case Study11.95View Details Describes three subsequent generations of product development effort at an equipment firm supplying the semiconductor industry. The firm is partway into... -
Reson: Making Development Teams Accountable for Short Project Cycles
Leadership & Managing People Case Study11.95View Details A/S, a Danish company specializing in underwater acoustics and ultrasonics, needs to rethink how it manages new product development. Reson's R&D is working... -
Economy Shipping Co. (Abridged)
Finance & Accounting Case Study11.95View Details Shipping company must choose among several mutually exclusive investment projects. -
Harvard Business Essentials: Time Management: Increase Your Personal Productivity and Effectiveness
25.00View Details Time is the one thing no manager has enough of. Through goal setting, prioritizing, delegation, and other proven techniques, this guide helps managers... -
Up, Up, and Away! Event Planning and Production in Las Vegas
Leadership & Managing People Case Study11.95View Details Event producer Dan Nelson is faced with a crisis involving a punctured sprinkler water line and a 1.5-ton forklift stuck in the resulting mud during set... -
TCS: Agility at Scale-Managing Change
Management Case Study11.95View Details The head of Agile Initiative Network (AIN) at TCS, an India based multinational IT services-consulting-business solutions enterprise, has been mandated... -
Shanghai Bell--The Collaborative Product Commerce Systems (CPC)
Technology & Operations Case Study11.95View Details The research and development improvement manager at Shanghai Bell has just gotten out of a meeting with top management on strategic initiatives suggested... -
Ospedale Papa Giovanni XXIII: Fixed-Price or Public-Private Partnership?
Leadership & Managing People Case Study11.95View Details In September 2014, a real estate and procurement expert was preparing his notes for an upcoming strategic meeting with the management team of the Regional... -
BAE Automated Systems (A): Denver International Airport Baggage-Handling System
Technology & Operations Case Study11.95View Details Describes the events surrounding the construction of the BAE baggage-handling system at the Denver International Airport. It looks specifically at project... -
KOODESIGN: Fast Tracking a Product Design Project
Management Case Study11.95View Details During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Larry Koo, the co-founder and creative lead of KOODESIGN, needed to come up with a plan to complete... -
JUMBO Group: Transformation Recipe for Building and Scaling a Smart F&B Business
Management Case Study11.95View Details It has been a bumpy few years since 2020 for JUMBO Group CEO and Executive Director Ang Kiam Meng. JUMBO Group, like many other firms in the food and... -
From Pitchfork To Fork: Vertical Integration at Otrada Group (Russia)
Strategy & Execution Case Study11.95View Details As a French engineer, nothing predestined Patrick Hoffmann to ever launch and lead a small pig empire in Russia. What had started out as an ambitious... -
IIF and QuaTeams Creating a Custom CRM
Technology & Operations Case Study11.95View Details IIF (Institute of International Finance) was eight months into the customized development of a customer relationship management system (CRM) by a small...
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How to Make Decisions Amid Chaos (HBR Special Issue)
Leadership & Managing People Magazine Issue19.95View Details Harvard Business Review Special Issues are timely, single-theme collections of HBR articles written by some of the world's leading management scholars... -
Colberts Inc. (A)
Technology & Operations Case Study11.95View Details The senior director of supply chain management for Colberts Inc. (Colberts) had made tremendous strides. She had been among a select few senior directors... -
Integrated Project Delivery at Autodesk, Inc (C)
Technology & Operations Case Study5.00View Details Describes Autodesk's engagement in Integrated Project Delivery-a new model of risk management, inter-firm teamwork, and multi-objective (aesthetic, cost,... -
Must Finance and Strategy Clash?
Finance and investing Magazine ArticleMarketers and finance people seldom see eye to eye. The makers say, “This product will open up a whole new market segment.” Finance people respond, “It’s a bad investment. The IRR is only 8%.” Why are they so often in opposition? The financial criteria used to decide if a project will be profitable are entirely […] -
Marketing Performance—What Do You Expect?
Project management Magazine ArticleA good plot, good friends, and full of expectation; an excellent plot, very good friends. Shakespeare, King Henry IV, Part I Special Report When trying to assess performance, there is no business function top executives worry about more than marketing. Most of them look at the marketers in their companies as something between vacuum-cleaner salespeople […] -
Insight Robotics Limited: A Start-Up with a Happy Problem
Innovation & Entrepreneurship Case Study11.95View Details IRL develops products that provide fully automatic detection, reporting and prediction of unwanted incidents (e.g., forestry wildfires) and help authorities... -
An Agile Approach to Budgeting for Uncertain Times
Finance & Accounting Digital ArticleThe pandemic is making the annual process even more challenging. -
Beauregard Textile Co.
Strategy & Execution Case Study11.95View Details The sales manager and controller have to decide on a price for a textile that lost significant market share as a result of a recent price increase. Information... -
Southport Minerals, Inc.
Finance & Accounting Case Study11.95View Details Examines how the attractiveness of an investment project can be enhanced by making financing and operating decisions which either manage investment returns... -
Straight from Hollywood: The Project-Based Workforce
Talent management Digital ArticleA number of years ago, when my colleagues and I first began our research on how companies were preparing for the changing demographics of the workforce, we were amazed to find 85-year-old aerospace engineers successfully at work! From a company perspective, the reasons for this were straightforward — the industry was then already faced with […]