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“What business are you in?” Theodore Levitt, 1925-2006. First to market doesn’t make you the winner, the best offering does. A growing…
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The other day when I was looking trough the archived articles in Harvard Business School’s Working Knowledge, I happened on a piece published on December 17, 2008 entitled ‘Ted Levitt Changed My Life.’ The author was Julia Hanna, associate editor (at the time) of the HBS Alumni Bulletin.
More The classic product lifecycle theory predicts that prices fall as competitors enter. Well, do all prices fall? Similarly, many pundits like to talk about first-mover advantage. Well, does it really exist?
An examination of e-reader market demonstrates some serious flaws in a cursory acceptance of these premises. In this article, we look at the price and product evolution of the Amazon Kindle, Sony Reader, Barnes & Noble Nook, and Apple iPad to demonstrate some finer nuances of the product lifecycle.
More “All I Really Need to Know I learned in Kindergarten.” Robert Fulghum “Say you’re sorry when you hurt someone.” Toyota should have…
More Toyota clearly belongs in the team picture of the worst of failures – and will probably pay dearly in the end. However, making the mistake is not the biggest problem , it is how the crisis is managed that transcends the crisis and transforms a mere crisis into a marketing disaster.
More The beginning of a new decade is the best possible benchmark. It is the perfect time to evaluate current business practices, set…
More Going into the great recession, many commentators suggested and corporations undertook across the board price cuts. Many, but not all. Nordstrom took a different route. The results of their approach are in: better customer attraction, better profits, better post-recession positioning.
In this article, we will examine some key strategic decisions made by Nordstrom which enabled their counter-trend approach to triumph over the oft quoted “best practices”.
More “In an authentic world failure is something you embrace. It’s almost a noble pursuit. I come from that world—it supported me in…
More Recently I attended an event where Dan Cathy, President and Chief Operating Officer for Chick-fil-A in Chicago, speech. During the talk Dan evangelized the values of Chick-fil-A which include treating customers and employees with respect. Dan also stated that “We distinguish our product based on the value we provide rather than price.” Though I had never stepped foot in a Chick-fil-A restaurant, that comment tripped me off to the fact that I was about to experience a story about a unique entrepreneurial enterprise known as Chick-fil-A!
More The game in business markets has changed. The opportunity landscape has shifted from the stalwarts of North American and Europe to the onetime turbulent and unstable emerging markets. Furthermore, the pricing power that shrank to the ether is returning to the tangible as markets return to growth.
These are bold claims and require bold reengineering of corporate strategy. Before you the reader consider these to be audacious statements from an ill informed outsider on unimportant and irrelevant industries, let me provide the evidence.
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