Archives

unsplash default post photo-350px

Immigrants Fueling American Entrepreneurial Successes

By James T. Berger September 1, 2016

In “Immigration and Entrepreneurship” in the New York Times (July 1, 2013), author Catherine Rampell writes: “One of the key economic arguments underpinning the immigration overhaul is that immigrants create jobs — not only because they spend money, but because they tend to be unusually entrepreneurial and innovative and so create job opportunities for the people around them.”

More
unsplash default post photo-350px

Pricing Done Right

By Tim J. Smith, PhD August 3, 2016

Pricing Done Right provides a roadmap for improving pricing practices within any market-oriented firm. It provides a framework for managing pricing decisions in any organization. It clarifies the best practices for defining the organizational culture, architectural hierarchy, and routines for getting pricing done right.

More
unsplash default post photo-350px

How Can the Music Industry Bridge the Gap Between Physical and Digital Experiences?

By Kyle T. Westra August 3, 2016

We’re visual creatures, too. Whereas programs like iTunes and Spotify will display album art, it’s not the same experience as standing before a rack of albums. Similarly with books, despite all of the advantages of e-readers, they have not captured the experience of examining a wall of books. Digital is great, but, unsurprisingly, there are features of the physical world that still have a certain primacy for, well, physical beings:

More
unsplash default post photo-350px

Why Business Communication Is All About Great Story-Telling

By Anirban Sengupta August 3, 2016

“The truth isn’t the truth until people believe you, and they can’t believe you if they don’t know what you’re saying, and they can’t know what you’re saying if they don’t listen to you, and they won’t listen to you if you’re not interesting, and you won’t be interesting unless you say things imaginatively, originally, freshly.”

More
unsplash default post photo-350px

B2B and B2C Ecommerce Trends Witnessed at Internet Retailer 2016

By David Dalka August 3, 2016

Adrienne Hartman, Director of Ecommerce & Customer Insights at J.J. Keller & Associates talked about how B2B Ecommerce cannot be solved only by software alone. (I agree with her) She also talked about using Google Manufacturing Center. She encourages you to ask, “How well can buyers use your site?” It is clear that her words come from an employee of an organization with a strong culture.

More
unsplash default post photo-350px

Will Culling Low Margin Items Actually Destroy Profits? An Exploration into Economies of Scope

By Tim J. Smith, PhD July 3, 2016

Firms often sell low margin items because customers seek the low margin items and, when buying, buy higher margin items as well. These low margin items can make sense through their enablement of the firm to profit from economies of scope. Killing low margin items can make sense in some cases, but other cases doing so will kill the firm.

More
unsplash default post photo-350px

How to Stop Discounting Practices of Salespeople from Destroying Your Profits

By Tim J. Smith, PhD July 3, 2016

Neither revealing the company’s cost structure to front line salespeople, nor managing sales performance metrics and salespeople’s compensation with constantly varying variable costs isn’t strategically beneficial or managerially realistic. Alternatively, profit sharing plans have been used, but they don’t reward individual performance, just team performance.

More
unsplash default post photo-350px

Tesla’s Software Upsell

By Kyle T. Westra July 3, 2016

What Tesla has changed for the automotive industry is now that upselling process can continue long after the purchase of the vehicle. If you buy a S60 then get a better-paying job with a longer commute, you can choose to upgrade with essentially no additional cost to serve for Tesla. And spacing out the payments for the vehicle and later the capacity may make the original vehicle purchase more palatable for the consumer.

More
unsplash default post photo-350px

Will Bid for the Presidency Destroy the Trump Brand?

By James T. Berger July 3, 2016

Politico writes: “But as Trump the candidate has ascended, hitting the top of the polls and staying there thanks to a series of controversial statements and a groundswell of Republican populist support, the opposite has happened to Trump the brand.”

More
unsplash default post photo-350px

Profit-Based Incentives: Doable and Valuable through Alignment of Goals

By Tim J. Smith, PhD June 7, 2016

While deal points are a powerful tool, implementing them requires careful thought. List prices, sales kickers, commission rates, and various approximations through product groupings have to be determined to create a workable plan. And, once a workable plan is defined, sales managers may determine that sales territory realignment is furthermore in order.

More