Innovation Excellence

FEBRUARY 8, 2017

But this cost-cutting craze is at odds with many apparel companies' long-term focus on being or becoming market leaders. With a hypersensitivity towards profit margins, too often companies justify outsourced manufacturing with lower costs and better-looking accounting numbers.

Outsourcing 57

Outsourcing Apparel Long-term Succession 57

Steve Farber

OCTOBER 25, 2016

And that’s a good thing to keep in mind if you want to help build an innovative culture. And we know his latest venture, men’s sports apparel startup, Qor (pronounced “core”), is already achieving over 30% yearly growth in part because it’s replicating the Athleta culture of caring. Know your culture.

Apparel 40

Apparel Energy Workshop Sports 40

Harvard Business Review

JULY 8, 2016

The American textile and apparel industries, for example, will tell you that the evidence can be found in the blood on the floor — their blood, on what used to be their floor. Experts continue to debate whether Chinese businesses are truly disruptive. For some industries in the West, this question appears a bit ridiculous.

Business Model 14

Business Model Innovation Company Apparel 14

Harvard Business Review

DECEMBER 5, 2012

With the Winter holiday shopping season, fashion apparel retailer Zara has been the focus of media attention — the New York Times recently profiled the innovative fast fashion business model pioneered by Zara, while Elizabeth Cline's book on the costs of fast fashion has climbed up the sales charts.

Business Model 12

Business Model Innovation First-mover Advantage Apparel 12

Harvard Business Review

MARCH 21, 2018

That’s because the “loyalty era” of marketing, as we’ve known it, is waning. market alone, companies are losing $1 trillion in annual revenues to their competitors because they are not consistently relevant enough. In fact, consumer research we’ve worked on at Accenture shows that in the U.S.

Loyalty 15

Loyalty Marketing Maslow Apparel 15

Harvard Business Review

DECEMBER 17, 2014

How much does your company need to invest in innovation? Identifying this so-called “growth gap” is critical, because the bigger the gap, the more a company needs to look beyond its current offerings, markets, and business models to find growth opportunities. By reaching new customers in current markets?

Innovation 13

Innovation Company Venture Capitalist Business Model 13

Harvard Business Review

DECEMBER 20, 2011

While "running out" isn't really the right phrase, it's clear that delivering many commodities to market is getting harder and more expensive (we don't dig for oil a mile under the ocean for the heck of it). Markets have a remarkable way of sorting the wheat from the chaff. trillion market for clothes and shoes.

Supply Chain 17

Supply Chain Apparel P&L Long-term 17

Harvard Business Review

NOVEMBER 6, 2012

Entrepreneurs and innovators are supposed to be happily self-directed. Speaking out primes the market, builds anticipation, helps a radical idea sound familiar, and for those whose name becomes associated with the idea, thought leadership offers entree to circles of potential future backers and supporters. Build collective clout.

Entrepreneur 20

Entrepreneur Cooper Apparel Bureaucracy 20

Harvard Business Review

MAY 6, 2015

The fear of getting Netflix-ed or Uber-ized is spurring big companies to dial up their investment in innovation. But as investment increases, many companies are struggling with a challenging question: how do you know whether your chosen innovation strategy is actually bearing fruit? Number of projects in the innovation pipeline.

Metrics 8

Metrics Innovation Company Stage-Gate 8

Harvard Business Review

MAY 8, 2012

Right now, the market price of carbon is very low, so Microsoft is charging a small amount per ton. Pricing carbon on your own, without a real market in place, is hard, which is why there are so few examples of companies doing it. Even so, they will collect north of $10 million, which is enough to buy offsets.

Price 16

Price P&L White Paper Energy 16

Harvard Business Review

JUNE 3, 2015

But it’s less well known that efficiency is a problem for startups too, whose processes also become less flexible as they focus on efficiencies in their quest to move up market. Intriguingly, some start-ups are coming up with characteristically innovative ways to tackle the problem. The size of the apparel market only in the U.S.

Apparel 8

Apparel Strategy Insourcing Efficiency 8

Harvard Business Review

DECEMBER 17, 2013

But as I’ve done for the last 4 years, I’ll attempt to summarize some of the latest stories about the big environmental and social pressures on business, and how some innovative companies are dealing with them. The clean tech markets keep growing fast: three of the world’s biggest economies — the U.S.,

Supply Chain 14

Supply Chain Energy McKinsey Apparel 14

Harvard Business Review

MAY 16, 2018

Imagine, for example, being promised a culture of innovation only to have every new idea you put forward dismissed. Take outdoor apparel retailer Patagonia. They can benefit greatly from assessing the distance between their recruitment marketing and the actual employee experience. Let Your People Do the Talking.

Reputation 15

Reputation Brand How To Attrition 15

Harvard Business Review

JANUARY 28, 2014

Henry Ford understood this, paying the workers at Ford more than their counterparts at other industrial companies, reasoning that helping to expand the new middle class was a way to expand the market for Ford’s product. As with other sustainability issues, the social and business consequences are inseparable. Take an Interest.

Golden Parachute 15

Golden Parachute Apparel Trends Short-term 15

Harvard Business Review

AUGUST 4, 2017

A D2C initiative can involve one platform or many, depending on things like image, objectives, target audience, and what’s feasible in a given market. At Procter & Gamble, for instance, technology says it’s time to remind parents about Pampers, while analytics says that direct marketing is the best way to do it.

Retail 8

Retail Brand Apparel Discount 8

Harvard Business Review

MARCH 12, 2014

Marketing. With leading companies such as American Apparel, Bloomingdale’s, Verizon Wireless, Swatch, and London City Airport already onboard with location analytics, it will become commonplace in venues — especially for major brands — over the next several years and a major competitive gap for those that don’t adopt the practice.

Retail 12

Retail Customer Intimacy Apparel Wireless 12

Harvard Business Review

MAY 12, 2015

Style one: Market-driven CMOs who capitalize on the voice of customers. Market-driven CMOs are great listeners. Fara Howard , VP of global marketing for the shoe and apparel firm Vans, describes her brand as “an intuitive brand that leads with its heart.” Market driven CMOs listen to customers.

Leadership Styles 8

Leadership Styles Leadership Brand Audience 8

Harvard Business Review

MAY 22, 2018

The automotive industry is being disrupted by electric vehicles and self-driving cars, just as home appliances is being disrupted by the Internet of Things and smart appliances, home entertainment by on-demand content providers, and apparel by online personal stylists such as Stitch Fix and Trunk Club. Data-Driven Marketing.

Automotive 8

Automotive Brand Technology White Paper 8

Harvard Business Review

FEBRUARY 13, 2017

So you look at past projects, gather and analyze relevant market data, make predictions about how much revenue you’ll be able to generate, decide what resources you’ll need, and set milestones to reach your targets. You’re working on a new venture and you know you’ve got to create a plan to execute it. Not so fast.

Planning 12

Planning Benchmarking Project Competitive Advantage 12

Harvard Business Review

JUNE 17, 2016

Consider the sports apparel company Under Armour. In everything it does, the company pays as much attention to its growth engine — its ability to manage innovation and launch consistently valuable products — as in any particular garment or device it sells. Where are the markets with opportunities?

Company 8

Company Engineering Apparel Marketing 8

Harvard Business Review

AUGUST 2, 2013

Others gain new responsibilities in strategy, M&A integration, or innovation. One company had three simultaneous mobile marketing initiatives, conducted by different groups, using different tools and vendors. If your company has wildly different digital marketing activities for each brand or region, you know what I mean.

CIO 9

CIO Technology Apparel Information Technology 9

Harvard Business Review

JUNE 16, 2015

But our work with a community of senior executives in the Bay Area suggests that today’s market leaders are following the advice of Yogi Berra: “When you come to a fork in the road, take it.” ” Faced with hard choices, innovators find ways to transcend the tradeoffs. But these days every company has to go fast.

Chief Operating Officer 8

Chief Operating Officer Marketing Apparel Porter 8

Harvard Business Review

OCTOBER 8, 2015

And a large part of its success is tied to how it leverages technology in its products—and in its marketing. For example, Tesla did away with car dealers and moved customer interactions to an engaging web platform that contains all the information a prospective buyer would need, like car performance data and market comparisons.

Brand 8

Brand Apparel Software Content 8

Harvard Business Review

DECEMBER 6, 2013

Here, Try Some Nixon and Kimchi: How the Garment Industry Came to Bangladesh Planet Money I admit it: The reference to Nixon and kimchi in the headline got me to read it, but this piece on how Bangladesh came to be a world center for apparel manufacturing held my interest. Then, with the introduction of the iPhone, they didn''t.

CTO 8

CTO Apparel Ryan Proposal 8

Harvard Business Review

OCTOBER 28, 2014

As the two markets homogenized into a general mass American market, focused mail-order retailers like Sears and Montgomery Ward saw sales and profits drop. Wood and Sears, Roebuck, excerpted in HBR in 1985, rural America was becoming less isolated and more like urban America. We felt defeated and powerless.”.

Retail 12

Retail Quinn Real Estate Apparel 12

Harvard Business Review

APRIL 15, 2015

These purpose driven supers felt an extraordinarily deep level of emotion for the retailer brand at levels typically associated powerful lifestyle brands in apparel and luxury goods. There are in fact Super Geos — local markets with high concentrations of supers — of both types of supers that exist in pockets across the U.S.

Price 8

Price Brand Retail Apparel 8

Harvard Business Review

SEPTEMBER 4, 2015

The last few weeks have brought news of turmoil in China, including currency devaluations, an economic slowdown, and a stock market plunge. My evidence is a series of separate surveys conducted by different organizations, including the MIT Forum for Supply Chain Innovation. PMI was 51.1 in August and 52.7 in August from 52.3

Supply Chain 8

Supply Chain Survey Price Apparel 8

Harvard Business Review

NOVEMBER 19, 2015

For every Apple, there is an Atari, for every Fuji a Polaroid, and for every Zara an American Apparel. Fast forward a few years, and lower growth means fewer interactions with new, demanding customer groups and less inspiration to innovate. Eventually the company is likely to be out of touch with changing market requirements.

Company 8

Company Succession Maturity Long-term 8

Harvard Business Review

AUGUST 14, 2015

Reflecting this broader viewpoint, the company began to expand its market footprint, by, for instance, investing in a start-up that planned to sell furniture via the internet. When the brand does “good things,” such as introduce a highly innovative new product, a deposit is put into the brand bank account.

Brand 8

Brand Banking Strategy Apparel 8

Harvard Business Review

FEBRUARY 27, 2017

In emerging markets, billions of people have moved out of extreme poverty. Meanwhile, business was free to focus on generating growth, productivity, innovation, and, ultimately, societal wealth. For all of the uncertainty and anxiety in headlines today, the world is a much better place than it has ever been. Essential background.

Globalization 8

Globalization Supply Chain Human Capital Long-term 8

Harvard Business Review

DECEMBER 23, 2015

Besides possibly saving humanity, the deal has another big upside — it signals to financial markets and businesses that the low carbon economy is worth investing in. Multi-trillion-dollar markets are in play and there will be many more winners than losers. Companies line up like never before for climate action.

Supply Chain 8

Supply Chain Apparel Energy Price 8

In the CEO Afterlife

MARCH 18, 2015

This can mean expanding product lines, entering new markets and geographies, line extending brands, acquiring new businesses, creating projects, and adding layers of management to manage the self-created complexity. With 60% of annual sales coming from innovative new products, it is clear that LEGO has not been idle.

Apparel 100

Apparel Brand Franchising Competitive Advantage 100

Harvard Business Review

DECEMBER 20, 2016

I’m talking about the superconsumers who are inside your organization, working at every level: the fashionista who works in the mail room at the headquarters of an apparel company, or the finance manager who works for a pork brand and who eats three pounds of bacon in any given week. So find them, ask questions, and let them help you.

Airlines 8

Airlines Energy Self-aware Learning Curve 8

Harvard Business Review

DECEMBER 18, 2017

In the age before the digital revolution, marketers used to tell customers about a product and then work through a traditional step-by-step purchase funnel. With over 500 million dedicated fans, it also happens to be one of the most innovative franchises when it comes to fan engagement. ” Read More from Microsoft.

Sports 8

Sports Brand Content Industry 8

Harvard Business Review

JULY 30, 2018

It turns out that the word “innovation” is not a Harry Potter-esque magical incantation that, once spoken, renders companies more inventive, creative, and entrepreneurial. It can be emblazoned on the door to a new innovation center in Silicon Valley. Yes, even Toys R Us had a head of innovation.).

Innovation 15

Innovation Company Budgeting Survey 15

Harvard Business Review

DECEMBER 15, 2010

They make a deliberate choice about their "way to play" in the market, guided primarily by what those companies do uniquely well: their distinctive capabilities. Most important, they avoid markets, products or services that require new or disparate capabilities, and thus threaten the company's focus.

Succession 16

Succession Retail Merchandising Supply Chain 16

Harvard Business Review

FEBRUARY 8, 2016

If I asked you to picture the consumer luxury market, you might imagine jewels, sports cars, watches, premium drinks, high-end shoes and apparel, and so on. But according to a new report, 2016 Predictions for the Luxury Industry: Sustainability and Innovation , that sustainability gap is closing fast.

Brand 8

Brand Supply Chain Apparel Tourism 8