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7 Steps to Problem Solving

Skip Prichard

2: Disaggregate. Yes, we find the most common mistakes in complex problem solving are weak problem statements, poor problem disaggregation, and insufficient attention to good team norms. 7 Steps to Problem Solving. 1: Define the problem. 3: Prioritize. 4: Workplan. 5: Analyze. 6: Synthesize. Communicate.

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How Demand Forecasting Can Boost Business Efficiency

Strategy Driven

Macro Demand Forecasting: The “big picture” demand forecasting technique that looks ahead at broader market conditions to help plan a business’s overarching strategies. Beyond that, there are two broad categories of methods that each type of forecasting can employ. Diversify forecasting methods.

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Traditional Strategy Is Dead. Welcome to the #SocialEra

Harvard Business Review

The fact that they are joined at the hip in so many people's minds means that marketing agencies are thriving — but that the rest of our organizations are not. They see it as the purview of two functions: marketing and service. Social can be and is more than marketing or communications-related work. But they shouldn't be.

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Approximately Correct Is Better than Precisely Incorrect

Harvard Business Review

A Harvard Business School marketing professor named John Deighton once came up with a vivid analogy to illustrate this and show why a business should sub-segment its customer base. What they should be doing is disaggregating the drivers of these results, and focusing instead on who, or what, comprises those averages.

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The Founder's Dilemma: To Sell or Not to Sell?

Harvard Business Review

What is the market context? Ask yourself if this is a buyer's or seller's market. It is hard to disaggregate the reasons, but doing so alongside answering each of these questions will help bring clarity to this crossroads. If lots of people are buying, it may be time to consider selling. Do you really want to sell?

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How To Really Measure a Company's Innovation Prowess

Harvard Business Review

So it began disaggregating return on equity into three components. equity markets* on BusinessWeek's 2008 list ended up underperforming broader market indices between March 2008 and March 2013. That's where the Dupont analysis come in. Until they do, at least be wary of the next company that graces a magazine cover.

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From Zipcar to the Sharing Economy

Harvard Business Review

They enable the disaggregation of physical assets in space and in time, creating digital platforms that make these disaggregated components — a few days in an apartment, an hour using a Roomba, a seat in your drive from Berlin to Hamburg — amenable to pricing, matching, and exchange.