“Uhlaner put in place a Growth and Performance Planning Process that starts with agreement by Ballmer’s leadership team on a set of… — Harvard Business School Press Copy Share Image
“When is the urgency rate high enough? From what I have seen, the answer is when about 75% of a company’s management… — Harvard Business School Press Copy Share Image
“We needed a greater sense of urgency.” So the management team decided that field managers would not be eligible for promotion unless… — Harvard Business School Press Copy Share Image
“They determine that effective marketing calls for people skilled in segmentation, targeting, and positioning. Once companies hire marketers with those skills, Marketing… — Harvard Business School Press Copy Share Image
“The key distinction between a traditional and a customer-cultivating company is that one is organized to push products and brands whereas the… — Harvard Business School Press Copy Share Image
“Acquisition opportunities tend to emerge spontaneously, the result of changes in management at a target company, the actions of a competitor, or… — Harvard Business School Press Copy Share Image
“In one midsize European company, the first pass at a vision contained two-thirds of the basic ideas that were in the final… — Harvard Business School Press Copy Share Image
“very few companies (less than 10%, according to our survey) have any sort of rigorous or disciplined process for responding to changes… — Harvard Business School Press Copy Share Image
“The profit lure of mass production obviously has a place in the plans and strategy of business management, but it must always… — Harvard Business School Press Copy Share Image
“Focus on Companywide Issues. During strategy discussions, focus on issues spanning multiple business units. Example:” — Harvard Business School Press Copy Share Image
“To compete in an aggressively interactive environment, companies must shift their focus from driving transactions to maximizing customer lifetime value.” — Harvard Business School Press Copy Share Image
“no amount of technology can really improve the situation as long as companies are set up to market products rather than cultivate… — Harvard Business School Press Copy Share Image
“leaders who do undertake a voyage of personal understanding and development can transform not only their own capabilities but also those of… — Harvard Business School Press Copy Share Image
“One company that manufactured resins used in exterior paints discovered this firsthand. By researching the needs of commercial painting contractors—a key customer… — Harvard Business School Press Copy Share Image
“The measurement system cost more than $4 million per year, but the company made such significant progress in building customer loyalty that… — Harvard Business School Press Copy Share Image
“Executives are doers; they execute. Knowledge is useless to executives until it has been translated into deeds. But before springing into action, the executive… — Harvard Business School Press Copy Share Image
“The use of “war games” is a powerful antidote to the lack of thinking about competitors’ reactions to proposed moves. 11.” — Harvard Business School Press Copy Share Image
“If thinking is an intellectual response to a problem, then the absence of a problem leads to the absence of thinking.” — Harvard Business School Press Copy Share Image
“Business-unit managers should remain involved in corporate-level strategy planning that affects their units. But a focus on issues rather than business units better aligns… — Harvard Business School Press Copy Share Image
“More than anything else, this disconnect—between the way planning works and the way decision making happens—explains the frustration, if not outright antipathy, most executives… — Harvard Business School Press Copy Share Image
“Uhlaner put in place a Growth and Performance Planning Process that starts with agreement by Ballmer’s leadership team on a set of strategic themes—major… — Harvard Business School Press Copy Share Image
“Stockdale Paradox This finding is named after Admiral James Stockdale, winner of the Medal of Honor, who survived seven years in a Vietcong POW… — Harvard Business School Press Copy Share Image
“Management must think of itself not as producing products but as providing customer-creating value satisfactions. It must push this idea (and everything it means… — Harvard Business School Press Copy Share Image
“Worried that you’re not a born leader? That you lack charisma, the right talents, or some other secret ingredient? No need: leadership isn’t about… — Harvard Business School Press Copy Share Image
“Is that not what consumer research is for—to find out before the fact what is going to happen? The answer is that Detroit never… — Harvard Business School Press Copy Share Image
“By embracing decision-focused planning, companies will almost certainly find that the quantity and quality of their decisions will improve.” — Harvard Business School Press Copy Share Image
“they’ve also changed the nature of top management’s discussions about strategy—from “review and approve” to “debate and decide,” — Harvard Business School Press Copy Share Image
