The Horizons Tracker

SEPTEMBER 8, 2024

According to a study from the Smeal College of Business, marketing stands out as a highly effective strategy for early-stage business-to-business (B2B) startups seeking growth. Interestingly, early-stage B2B startups emerged as the least inclined to undertake systematic marketing, despite being the segment most likely to benefit from it.

B2B 52

B2B Marketing B2C Sample 52

N2Growth Blog

OCTOBER 25, 2010

magazine’s offering of information, products, services, and online tools for business or management. Kmax Blog Links Evan Carmichael – www.evancarmichael.com B2B Yellow Pages Directory B2BYellowpages.com is a leading Internet directory of resources useful to small businesses. Inc.com Inc.

Directory 170

Directory Blog Brand Magazine 170

Strategy Driven

NOVEMBER 27, 2020

That’s why it’s important to work the right way, with strong B2B relationships and effective outsourcing strategies. For example, a media service provider can have an enormous positive influence over your operations. But how do you choose the right one? Do you want access to intricate user analytics?

Outsourcing 89

Outsourcing Media B2B Reputation 89

Strategy Driven

DECEMBER 18, 2020

Your customers won’t consider the magnitude of your operations when going through your website. This is one reason why 64% of the B2B marketers outsource their demanding copy needs. Hence, it is imperative to invest in a good copywriter to improve your overall brand image.

Engineering 131

Engineering Advertising B2B Outsourcing 131

Strategy Driven

SEPTEMBER 18, 2020

Today’s digital landscape means businesses need a robust IT infrastructure to operate. With outsourced IT managed services, for example, you’ll can ensure your systems are secure, functional and up to date for a fraction of the cost of hiring your own team. Wide Range of Knowledge. Results Driven.

Outsourcing 80

Outsourcing B2C CRM B2B 80

Strategy Driven

FEBRUARY 21, 2020

Streamlined Operations Will Save You Money. These streamline operations will allow you to not only better serve your customers, but will save you money as well. We offer help from all angles, including formatting and executing business strategies, management and organizational programs, and more. Ready to get started?

Budgeting 66

Budgeting B2C B2B Price 66

The Horizons Tracker

OCTOBER 23, 2021

In this article, I’ll share those lessons and hopefully give helpful insight on how to keep your company off the operating table. My role is often to help management teams breathe, step out of the detail, look at the big picture, and support them to impartially analyze whether we need to change something. Objective diagnosis.

Price 80

Price B2C Objective B2B 80

Strategy Driven

APRIL 7, 2021

Among these is the question of what kind of business are you actually going to operate in terms of its business structure and its function and purpose within your chosen industry. First of all, you might want to consider operating as a manufacturer within a particular niche. Manufacturer. Distributor.

Business Model 65

Business Model Franchising Retail Company 65

Strategy Driven

SEPTEMBER 2, 2021

The right facilities and automation can boost productivity, accuracy, and financial management. Modern tech features can range from cloud-based software and file management to factory equipment. Your Approach To Operations Is Key. You don’t have to be a tech-based business to appreciate the value of modern tech to your venture.

Brand 111

Brand Audience USP B2C 111

Strategy Driven

JUNE 5, 2014

As data-driven marketers are taking full advantage of collecting, organizing, and analyzing demand management, many are adopting the classic marketing waterfall model from leading experts such as Sirius Decisions. In 2013, the Marketing Sherpa B2B Analytics Study revealed that 63% do nothing or occasionally leverage data to gain any insight.

Marketing 50

Marketing B2B Due Diligence Benchmarking 50

Strategy Driven

SEPTEMBER 18, 2019

If you are operating a start-up, you may face problems with managing the cash flow of your business efficiently and may have to rely on working capital loans. Instead, they pay for the operational costs of a business and is a good indicator of the short-term health of the business. Conclusion.

Working Capital 11

Working Capital Credit Scoring Long-term Short-term 11

Innovation Excellence

JULY 12, 2020

David Ross teaches innovation, entrepreneurship, and investment at Carnegie Mellon University Africa, and serves as the founding manager of the Industry Innovation Lab and managing director of Stratera Capital. He recently chatted with Nicolas Bry of Orange Africa about how to boost corporate open innovation initiatives in Africa.

Innovation 60

Innovation Open-book Market Penetration Entrepreneur 60

Strategy Driven

APRIL 1, 2020

After all, there are over 30 million small businesses operating around the United States. Banner stands make a perfect B2B promo-item. Succeeding in business can be an uphill battle. That stacks up to a huge degree of competition. The result? They’re sure to be put to use. Better still, they’ll be super cheap to produce and distribute.

Brand 75

Brand Apparel Stress B2B 75

Strategy Driven

JULY 30, 2018

However, as your business begins to really gain in profitability, and you decide to invest that back into your operation each year, it’s not hard to see how purchasing your own business assets might become a great long-term cost-saving scenario. Is it time that you did this? Merchandising.

Merchandising 51

Merchandising Long-term B2B Construction 51

Strategy Driven

JULY 12, 2017

You managed to come up with a product that was not only worth creating, but that was actually able to be made – so give yourself a pat on the back. Using a combination of marketing, sales, and operations, that can be easily arranged. Well, even though it may not feel like it now, you’ll be glad to know that the hard part is over.

Productivity 50

Productivity Products Supply Chain Brand 50

Strategy Driven

APRIL 10, 2019

Since good private label manufacturers only operate B2B (and don’t compete with their customers B2C), they can offer a wide range of products and unique product customization options. Buying private label products from an experienced private label manufacturer makes extending a product range more cost-effective.

Productivity 50

Productivity Products Brand B2C 50

Harvard Business Review

MAY 24, 2017

Today’s executives spend a lot of time managing the balance sheet, despite the fact that it doesn’t represent their company’s scarcest resource. Financial capital is abundant but carefully managed; human capital is scarce but not carefully managed. How can we manage human capital better? Measure it.

Human Capital 15

Human Capital Management Company ROCE 15

Harvard Business Review

APRIL 26, 2011

And while these companies were the first to acknowledge the business benefits of delivering a great customer experience, business-to-business (B2B) organizations are increasingly getting in on the game. These customer experience management initiatives can be complex. These customer experience management initiatives can be complex.

B2B 15

B2B Airlines Travel Stage-Gate 15

Harvard Business Review

MAY 10, 2018

While there’s less buzz around business-to-business markets, these innovations are changing the game in B2B as well, even in old-line industries selling what might be considered commodity products. For a deep dive into the elements, see our related HBR article “ The B2B Elements of Value ”).

B2B 8

B2B Chemicals Venture Funding Engineering 8

Harvard Business Review

MAY 18, 2018

B2B companies are struggling with a loss of control over the customer experience (CX) today. With their future growth prospects at stake, B2B executives must determine how to improve CX—while ceding more of the experience to their partners. B2B leaders know that customer experience is the gateway to growth.

B2B 8

B2B Strategy Company Content 8

Harvard Business Review

AUGUST 24, 2012

Companies in all varieties of B2B markets have moved beyond selling products and services to offering complete "solutions" to their customers. Alstom keeps trains ready to run each morning for railroad operators rather than just selling the rolling stock to them. B2B customers regard a solution as something that helps their business.

B2B 15

B2B Business Objectives Focus Group Marketing 15

Harvard Business Review

SEPTEMBER 12, 2016

Decision making at big B2B companies is often skewed by anecdote and myth: A worried report from the most vocal salesperson about a competitor’s latest move; a customer complaint that happened to be fielded by a senior executive. Anecdotes gain that stature because managers often lack timely, reliable information.

B2B 8

B2B Automotive Engineering Follow-up 8

Harvard Business Review

APRIL 2, 2015

B2B marketers, on the other hand, have shied away from the idea, instead approaching selling as a rational, numbers-driven process where the best value proposition wins. To find out what might motivate a customer to take on this mobilizer role, CEB surveyed over 4,000 individual customer stakeholders involved in a B2B purchase.

B2B 8

B2B Consensus B2C Customer Loyalty 8

Harvard Business Review

APRIL 18, 2011

The role exists in B2B and B2C firms as diverse as Allstate, Dunkin' Brands, USAA, Philips Electronics, FedEx, the Cleveland Clinic, and SAP. About one quarter of these CCOs formerly held operations positions. Three-fourths of those we examined sit on the executive management team within the company.

B2C 15

B2C B2B Forrester Budgeting 15

Harvard Business Review

JULY 31, 2012

While B2C companies have become adept at mining the petabytes of transactional and other purchasing data that consumers generate as they interact online, B2B sales organizations have only recently begun to use big data to inform overall strategy and tailor sales pitches for specific customers in real time. Yet the payoff is huge.

B2B 15

B2B Chemicals Analysis B2C 15

Harvard Business Review

APRIL 25, 2014

Digital channels have upended the well-trod ruts of sales and marketing organizations — already, nearly a third of all B2B purchases are done digitally. All of this increased complexity means sales leaders must rethink how they source leads, manage pipelines, and sell more effectively. They use as many channels as they can.

Marketing 15

Marketing ROI B2B Team 15

Harvard Business Review

APRIL 30, 2012

Instant, 24/7, 365 days/year operation — the first such remittance solution without the need for cards of any kind, money moves from account to account instantly using mobile as the channel. B2B Mobile Banking. Balakrishnan, Chief Operating Officer of NPCI. NPCI's key innovations are: Person-To-Person Mobile Banking.

Banking 18

Banking Development Wireless Chief Operating Officer 18

Harvard Business Review

NOVEMBER 23, 2018

Our recent benchmarking of nearly 900 B2B companies underscores the importance of these tools. Those behaviors can serve as the basis of training, reinforced daily by front-line managers. A B2B technology supplier used Microsoft Workplace Analytics and other digital tools to track the behaviors of its sales reps.

Team 14

Team Price B2B Tools 14

Harvard Business Review

AUGUST 3, 2016

A new set of relationships is being formed within companies around how people working in data, analytics, IT, and operations teams work together. Data and analytics represent a blurring of the traditional lines of demarcation between the scope of IT and the responsibilities of operating divisions. Data and analytics embedded in IT.

Operations 8

Operations Chemicals Agility Supply Chain 8

Harvard Business Review

DECEMBER 14, 2018

As a result, many B2B companies remain stuck in a stalemate. Writing in the Sloan Management Review, Boston College professor Gerald Kane noted that 87% of executives surveyed indicated that digital technologies will disrupt their industries to a great or moderate extent. Minimize Pain.

Strategy 14

Strategy B2B Insurance Business Model 14

Harvard Business Review

APRIL 18, 2011

The executives' role is to define the attributes of the customer experience in partnership with their operational colleagues, organize the customer-satisfaction-measurement process against those attributes, and encourage remedial action wherever warranted. Many companies now have senior officers in charge of customer experience.

B2B 14

B2B Consensus Productivity Products 14

Harvard Business Review

JANUARY 9, 2014

Companies have long developed and managed their sales people differently from other employees, placing great emphasis on individual performance. On the most effective sales teams, particularly B2B, the individual no longer reigns supreme. We’ve also seen an increase in importance of network performance at the manager level.

Team 14

Team Metrics Compliance Attrition 14

Harvard Business Review

MAY 22, 2018

The problem is that many companies have the wrong “operating system” for organic growth. For most companies, both M&A and organic growth are managed like rocket launches. Once launched, the opportunity is micro-managed to ensure that everything goes according to plan.

Organization 14

Organization Company Venture Capitalist B2B 14

Harvard Business Review

JULY 10, 2012

Finally, B2B sales forces may elect to only offer some products to specific segments — not to everyone. It must cost more to operate here.") Companies need to remember that pricing moves that feel like common sense to managers can feel like a raw deal to angry consumers. Offering tailored selections is win-win.

Retail 15

Retail Hotels Price B2B 15

Innovation Excellence

FEBRUARY 25, 2017

When Netflix put the Video Rental Retail stores in their coffins, there was still a sizable segment of people who missed the convenience, were suspect of a mail-order or streaming subscription service, or simply didn’t have the connectivity to enjoy it. Enter, RedBox. A new smart-automated adaptation of the Blockbuster model, scaled down to be.

Retail 46

Retail Video B2C B2B 46

Harvard Business Review

AUGUST 10, 2018

Those analyses rely on publicly available data sources, but software providers have accumulated growing amounts of private data on almost every aspect of their customers’ technology, operations, people, and strategies. One of its business units, Fieldglass, provides insights and benchmarks to customers on external workforce management.

Benchmarking 8

Benchmarking Software B2B Comparison 8

Harvard Business Review

AUGUST 21, 2012

It's powerful stuff that will continue to evolve and change the way that companies market to consumers and B2B customers. The total potential value at stake in these sectors is $900 billion to $1.3 trillion annually.

Media 18

Media Productivity Products Technology 18