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The Mind of the Market: Extending the Frontiers of Marketing Thought

by Martha Lagace

HBS Professor Gerald Zaltman makes metaphors come alive with his patented Zaltman Metaphor Elicitation Technique or ZMET, a process that draws on psychology, anthropology, neuroscience and other disciplines to delve deep into the mind of the consumer. In this interview, Zaltman talks about the imagery and inspirations behind this unusual market research tool. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.

Growing Pains: Prescriptions for U.S. Health Care

by Staff

The health care industry may look seriously ill, says HBS Professor Clayton M. Christensen, but it's merely suffering the growing pains of a natural evolution as technology forces change at both the high and low ends of the market. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.

The Right Connections

by Judith A. Ross

In attracting funding for a new venture, report HBS Professor Monica Higgins and her colleague Ranjay Gulati of Northwestern University, professional ties and company connections are even more important than a good product in inspiring the trust and loosening the wallets of potential investors. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.

Building Effective R&D Capabilities Abroad

by Walter Kuemmerle

Planning R&D facilities in the new global economy calls for a complex decision making process, based in part on whether a particular site is intended to tap local knowledge or to support a company's manufacturing and marketing abroad. HBS Professor Walter Kuemmerle offers a look at two contrasting foreign-based R&D decisions in this excerpt from his article in World View: Global Strategies for the New Economy (HBS Press). Closed for comment; 0 Comments.

Strategic Alliances

by Nancy O. Perry

Businesses and nonprofit organizations are joining together in alliances to create value for themselves and society that far surpass the sum of their parts. HBS Professor James Austin studies these new alliances and sees mutual benefits and a new business-nonprofit relationship emerging. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.

Calling All Managers: How to Build a Better Call Center

by Martha Lagace

Once viewed simply as low-cost channels for resolving customer concerns, call centers are increasingly seen as powerful service delivery mechanisms and even as generators of revenue. Research by HBS Professor Frances X. Frei and her colleagues Ann Evenson and Patrick T. Harker of the Wharton School points toward new ways of making them work. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.

From Spare Change to Real Change: The Social Sector as a Beta Site for Business Innovation

by Rosabeth Moss Kanter

U.S. companies have too often viewed the social sector as a dumping ground for their spare cash, obsolete equipment, and tired executives, but that mind-set, says HBS Professor Rosabeth Moss Kanter, has hardly created lasting change. In this excerpt from an article in the Harvard Business Review, she issues a call for corporate social innovation, an approach, says Kanter, that's more R&D than it is charity. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.

Henry Heinz and Brand Creation in the Late Nineteenth Century

by Nancy F. Koehn

H.J. Heinz founder Henry Heinz developed sophisticated brand-building strategies without the advantages of modern economic analytic technique, data and theory. HBS Professor Nancy F. Koehn shows how in this excerpt from her Business History Review article "Henry Heinz and Brand Creation in the Late Nineteenth Century." Closed for comment; 0 Comments.

What’s Your Strategy for Managing Knowledge?

by Morten T. Hansen, Nitin Nohria & Thomas Tierney

Knowledge management as a conscious practice is so new that there are few successful models for executives to use as guides. In this excerpt from their article in the Harvard Business Review, HBS Professors Morten T. Hansen and Nitin Nohria and colleague Thomas Tierney of Bain & Company reveal two key KM strategies — codification and personalization — and their use among consulting firms. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.

Bringing the Environment Down to Earth

by Forest Reinhardt

Does it pay to be green? When it comes to questions about business and the environment, says HBS Professor Forest L. Reinhardt, there are no simple yes-or-no answers. In this excerpt from his article in the Harvard Business Review, Reinhardt stresses the importance of applying traditional business principles to environmental issues. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.

The Future of the Venture Capital Cycle

by Paul A. Gompers & Josh Lerner

Despite many success stories and a rapid rise to prominence, the venture capital industry remains a mystery to most, and questions about its sustainability persist. In this excerpt from their pathbreaking book The Venture Capital Cycle, HBS Professors Paul Gompers and Josh Lerner look toward the future of this misunderstood financial intermediary. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.

Companies, Cultures and the Transformation to the Transnational

by Christopher A. Bartlett & Sumantra Ghoshal

Often overlooked in the move into the international arena, a comapny's heritage can have a major impact on how it adapts to the new environment. In this excerpt from the second edition of their pioneering book Managing Across Borders: The Transnational Solution, HBS Professor Christopher A. Bartlett and Sumantra Ghoshal examine one aspect of that heritage: the influence on a company of its nation's history, infrastructure and culture. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.

John H. Patterson and the Sales Strategy of the National Cash Register Company, 1884 to 1922

by Walter A. Friedman

John H. Patterson's sales management techniques built National Cash Register into the dominant force in its industry and had a major impact on the development of modern selling. This excerpt from Business History Review looks at one aspect of the Patterson method. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.

It Came in the First Ships: Capitalism in America

by Thomas K. McCraw

The Virginians in Jamestown, the Puritans in Massachusetts Bay, the Quakers in Pennsylvania and other early settlers of what later became the United States all brought with them elements of capitalism, precursors of the future nation's market-driven direction. In this excerpt from his article "American Capitalism" in Creating Modern Capitalism: How Entrepreneurs, Companies, and Countries Triumphed in Three Industrial Revolutions, HBS Professor Thomas K. McCraw looks at the early years of capitalism on the North American continent. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

Decoding the DNA of the Toyota Production System

by H. Kent Bowen & Steven Spear

How can one production operation be both rigidly scripted and enormously flexible? In this summary of an article from the Harvard Business Review, HBS Professors H. Kent Bowen and Steven Spear disclose the secret to Toyota's production success. The company's operations can be seen as a continuous series of controlled experiments: whenever Toyota defines a specification, it is establishing a hypothesis that is then tested through action. The workers, who have internalized this scientific-method approach, are stimulated to respond to problems as they appear; using data from the strictly defined experiment, they are able to adapt fluidly to changing circumstances. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.