The Horizons Tracker

SEPTEMBER 10, 2023

AI Assistance The researchers developed a two-part machine-learning model that could revolutionize the way automobile designers and marketers approach vehicle development. Instead, “theme clinics,” involving large focus groups of highly-targeted consumers evaluating designs on paper, are relied upon.

Market Segmentation 64

Market Segmentation Focus Group Marketing Engineering 64

In the CEO Afterlife

SEPTEMBER 8, 2015

One of the best sources of understanding is experience, such as in-market know-how, familiarity with competitors and customers, or expertise in leading during turbulent times. At Apple, Steve Jobs never wanted research from focus groups or quantitative usage and attitude studies. Understanding comes in many shapes and forms.

Power 100

Power Competitive Advantage Airlines Information 100

The Horizons Tracker

JANUARY 29, 2020

Interns were a key aspect of this informal process of understanding market trends, simply by their presence in the office. This was complimented by more formal approaches, such as intern-based focus groups, or the provision of low-stakes assignments for interns to share their cultural knowledge.

Trends 84

Trends Mentor Focus Group Analysis 84

HR Digest

OCTOBER 27, 2023

In my view, employee engagement operates like the stock market exchange. In addition to our classic engagement surveys that we used to run every year, we also do focus groups on topics that most matter to our colleagues to better understand employees’ preferences, as well as incorporate best practices from other organizations.

Agility 98

Agility Leadership Diversity Industry 98

HR Digest

MAY 2, 2019

Some of the other initiatives revolve around work-life flexibility, recruiting veteran talent and building a more diverse talent pipeline – all of which support the company’s long-term growth and innovation. How do you measure the value these D&I programs bring to the company? People are at the core of this strategy.

Diversity 81

Diversity Human Resources Globalization Automotive 81

The Horizons Tracker

FEBRUARY 25, 2020

The authors wanted to explore just how people, and especially those in low- to medium-paying jobs, think about the prospect of refreshing their skillset to remain valuable in the labor market. . They began by trying to explore some of the opportunities and challenges this group of people saw as they envisaged the future ahead of them.

Technology 107

Technology Competitive Advantage Training Report 107

HR Digest

MAY 15, 2024

This involves aligning the TNA with the company’s strategic priorities, such as improving financial performance, enhancing operational efficiency, or expanding into new markets. Focus group discussions with a diverse group of employees can also provide a deeper understanding of the organization’s training requirements.

Analysis 132

Analysis Training Compliance Objective 132

Skip Prichard

JUNE 22, 2020

Companies with a healthy culture gain a positive reputation, not only among employees, but also with customers and the market. The culture required to drive a strategy of innovation is different from the culture required to develop efficiency or operational excellence. The right culture attracts and retains better talent.

How To 115

How To Middle Management Reputation Short-term 115

Strategy Driven

JANUARY 26, 2011

This emerging social era is about engaging everyone around you to redefine what you do and how you do it – including sales, marketing, R&D, customer support, and product development. Building your Social Nation means changing what you think it means to build a company. Still skeptical? Then take a look at the hard numbers.

Media 66

Media Learning-by-Doing Open-book Company 66

The Practical Leader

AUGUST 16, 2023

” These are a bit extreme, but we’ve heard variations of these thoughts over the years in focus groups to survey a Client’s organizational culture. One morning, I asked a group of very quiet participants a series of questions about their organization’s climate and leadership effectiveness. .”

Energy 52

Energy Crisis Leadership Absenteeism 52

Harvard Business Review

DECEMBER 27, 2010

I thought it would be helpful to provide the list of 31 questions, and my one sentence perspective on each question, as it dovetails with my current book project (tentatively titled, The Little Black Book of Innovation.) How do you define innovation? What are different types of innovation? What is disruptive innovation?

Innovation 18

Innovation Govindarajan Business Model Disruptive Innovation 18

Harvard Business Review

JULY 21, 2011

Every day, multi-million dollar consumer electronics products suffer the consequences of poor, lazy, ineffective, uninspired, unprepared, overly-technical, follow-the-status-quo marketing. The products at retail are generally good, but the marketing ranges from atrocious to bad. The difference is marketing. Why do they use it?

Marketing 15

Marketing Productivity Products Retail 15

Harvard Business Review

APRIL 28, 2011

upload the photo of a wine stain on your table cloth to a website and get back in minutes a detailed — and guaranteed — expert treatment for its safe removal); perhaps it's an invitation to participate in an 'open innovation' focus group for non-trivial compensation.

Innovation 15

Innovation Price Competitive Advantage Efficiency 15

Harvard Business Review

AUGUST 23, 2011

We used to quiz him with focus groups and mall intercepts. In short, it's time for "Cessna" marketing, a look from 12,000 feet at American culture and commerce. Does experience marketing get any more exciting than this? Never mind, he wants Z. But these days, he's not sure. It's not that he won't tell us. It's pursuit.".

Trends 15

Trends Marketing Brand Film 15

Harvard Business Review

FEBRUARY 25, 2014

Big data has become the X factor of modern marketing, the hero of every marketer’s story. You may be thinking that data will magically turn bush-league marketing into a winning “Moneyball” performance. Data, alone, isn’t what makes marketing move the needle for business.

Marketing 12

Marketing Reis Brand Retail 12

Harvard Business Review

SEPTEMBER 24, 2013

Whether you’re a digital start-up or an institutional entrepreneur, three simple heuristics offer an excellent way to determine whether a fledgling innovation initiative should be put out of its misery (and yours). Almost all innovation efforts have the hiccoughs and bumps in the road. 1) No Pleasant Surprises. That is fuel.

Innovation 15

Innovation Learning Curve Benchmarking Compliance 15

Harvard Business Review

OCTOBER 26, 2012

can be a powerful way to enable innovation, because it forces you to go beyond superficial demographic markers that correlate with purchase and use to zero in on frustrations and desires that motivate purchase and use. It is a simple way to visualize opportunities for innovation. Circumstance. Constraints. Compensating behaviors.

Sample 18

Sample Innovation Software Airlines 18

Harvard Business Review

JANUARY 8, 2013

As global innovators, however, they share a remarkable core value and best practice: they invest in the innovative capabilities of their suppliers. While lean production has almost nothing to do with video production, the clear message was that genuinely lean enterprise craved innovation that made their suppliers more innovative.

Innovation 10

Innovation Lean Production Disintermediation Incubator 10

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. What's more, traditional market research is episodic, whereas the nature of solutions requires a more ongoing, relationship-based approach. Why E-mail Marketing Is King.

B2B 15

B2B Business Objectives Focus Group Marketing 15

Harvard Business Review

APRIL 23, 2012

When a consumer product company wants to know how a new product or new marketing campaign will perform, it doesn't rely solely on traditional market research surveys. It goes to test markets. It also provides the test bed for optimizing the marketing mix to support the full-scale launch.

Business Model 16

Business Model Marketing Mix Retail Entrepreneur 16

Harvard Business Review

APRIL 25, 2012

The same holds true for consumer focus groups, innovation contests, and more recently the use of social media sites to solicit feedback from consumers. The company interviewed teens in focus groups before launching the product to find out which features to include in their new internet-enabled TV.

Power 15

Power Mass Marketing Focus Group Brand 15

Harvard Business Review

OCTOBER 4, 2013

Bally Technologies , a leading provider of gaming systems for casinos, has earned more than 60 awards for innovation in just the last four years. Through an innovation excellence framework. Innovative companies create an environment that fosters the right balance between current and future with “and thinking.”.

Technology 8

Technology Innovation Kaizen Chief Executive Officer 8

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

JUNE 26, 2014

Sephora, the cosmetics retailer, has been widely recognized as a leader in integrating its digital marketing efforts into its overall strategy. As one sign of that, Sephora has a single executive who serves as both chief marketing officer and chief digital officer. Marketing and internal IT expertise are both at the table.

Brand 14

Brand CTO Marketing Retail 14

Harvard Business Review

MARCH 17, 2014

However, we’ve discovered the need for an approach that falls somewhere between the two—to explore the customer value proposition and market appeal of a concept in the more turbulent and distracting context of the live market, but without full investment in a pilot. We call this approach “live prototyping.”.

Retail 13

Retail Focus Group Brand Marketing 13

Harvard Business Review

MAY 24, 2012

According to the Center for Talent Innovation (CTI) , money is not the major motivator among college-educated workers. One such dad commented in a CTI focus group, "I'm the primary breadwinner, so I can't take time off now. Staggered hours and telecommuting are a huge hit in emerging markets , too. The good news?

Chief Financial Officer 20

Chief Financial Officer Motivation Loyalty Budgeting 20

Harvard Business Review

JULY 21, 2011

With the first approach, companies seek significant mismatches between their existing organizational capabilities and the markets they serve. They ask: Where are opportunities to introduce something totally unexpected in a market we already serve, with an offering we can deliver tomorrow with little additional investment?

Supply Chain 15

Supply Chain Sample Hedge Engineering 15

Harvard Business Review

SEPTEMBER 7, 2011

million university graduates entered the job market in 2010 , up from one million in 1999. Especially telling: 57% of the Chinese women university graduates surveyed for our book Winning the War for Talent in Emerging Markets rated the public sector as an attractive job option. More than 6.4 Not acting, however, is not an option.

Travel 14

Travel Survey Marketing Budgeting 14

Harvard Business Review

JUNE 8, 2018

In 2016, former American Express CEO Ken Chenault tasked chief human resource officer Kevin Cox with finding new opportunities that would drive innovation and revenue growth. Their reasoning: Five years from now, successful companies will increasingly employ innovative business models that no one currently thinks are feasible.

Development 17

Development Participative Conference Innovation 17

Harvard Business Review

DECEMBER 31, 2012

Their marketing departments. Marketing promotions don't resonate and can't be tied to measurable results. In doing research for my book , I found that companies who are attracting buyers in today's hyper-connected world are developing new approaches and competencies that focus on one thing: customers. Here's how.

CEO 10

CEO Airlines Marketing Software 10

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. They can benefit greatly from assessing the distance between their recruitment marketing and the actual employee experience. Few employees had been to regional offices or even interacted with colleagues in other markets.

Reputation 17

Reputation Brand Attrition How To 17

Harvard Business Review

JUNE 20, 2014

At the Center for Talent Innovation (CTI), we call this “flex around the edges.”

Flextime 13

Flextime Human Resources Career Talent Management 13

Harvard Business Review

MARCH 23, 2012

How many organizations would rely mainly on intuition when taking a new product to market? How can we share insights and innovations that allow our employees to be more productive? When faced with a major investment decision, how many organizations would bet their success on a gut feeling? Are employees fully engaged and motivated?

Metrics 15

Metrics Parcell Call Center Products 15

Harvard Business Review

AUGUST 10, 2012

economy is sluggish, Europe is in a crisis, and emerging markets have slower rates of growth than in the past. Additional data was collected through interviews, focus groups and, most importantly, through observation. In a slow-growth world, the new growth norm has to be about satisfying the needs of non-customers.

Education 16

Education Sample Case Study Survey 16

Harvard Business Review

JUNE 15, 2015

Different segments have different risk tolerances, ways of making decisions, and — perhaps most challenging for growing businesses — preferences for when and how they adopt innovations. To be successful, companies need to innovate for the consumers they want, not the ones they have. Insight Center. Growing Digital Business.

Early Adopters 8

Early Adopters Innovation Short-term Rogers 8

Harvard Business Review

SEPTEMBER 15, 2014

Consider Ashoka , which provides start-up funding and support for social innovators worldwide. Network members readily participated in focus groups and collaborated with Gilbert’s group to develop new programs and store designs.

Gilbert 12

Gilbert Participative Cooper Network Economy 12

Harvard Business Review

NOVEMBER 5, 2018

One simple and often overlooked way for larger companies to experiment is to randomize the introduction of new products across a set of markets. To answer those questions, Duncan and his team conducted an experiment, launching Express Pool in six large markets and then comparing metrics in the launch cities with those in others.

Productivity 8

Productivity Products Metrics Franchising 8