HBR On Strategy

In an era driven by network effects, smaller players struggle to compete against bigger platforms. The trick to gaining ground on a much larger rival, says Harvard Business School professor Felix Oberholzer-Gee, is choosing a strategy that can’t easily be imitated.

A good example is TaoBao’s strategy for displacing eBay in China. Back in 2007, eBay was the world’s largest consumer marketplace, and TaoBao was an underdog with bold new ideas about how to build trust with customers who were reluctant to shop online.

“In fact, the market that Taobao targeted ended up being so much more important than eBay’s market,” Oberholzer-Gee tells Cold Call host Brian Kenny. “[A]nd eBay eventually left China.”

Key topics include: sales, hiring, compensation and pay, communication, performance management, and leadership development, competition, competitive markets, and innovation.

HBR On Strategy curates the best case studies and conversations with the world’s top business and management experts, to help you unlock new ways of doing business. New episodes every week.

“Creativity has to be at the forefront because if you don’t do that, then one day you will wake up and you will discover that your competitor has an edge on you,” says Cirque du Soleil executive vice chairman Daniel Lamarre.

He tells Adi Ignatius, host of HBR’s The New World of Work video series, why it’s important to stay true to your brand while experimenting with creative new ideas and how Cirque constantly analyzes audience feedback to measure the success of new acts.

Key topics include: creativity, strategy, brand management, risk management, art, innovation, brand values, experimentation, and media, entertainment, and professional sports. 

HBR On Strategy curates the best case studies and conversations with the world’s top business and management experts, to help you unlock new ways of doing business. New episodes every week.

From corporate social responsibility to ESG, an increasing number of for-profit organizations are pursuing positive social impact. But to “do well by doing good,” Jacob Harold (cofounder of Candid; former CEO of Guidestar) tells HBR IdeaCast host Curt Nickisch that you need a good strategy. Otherwise, things can go very wrong.

“We have a lot of work to do to figure out: what does it mean to do good in this moment?” Harold cautions.

Key topics include: business values, ethics, storytelling, social impact strategy, mathematical modeling, environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG), innovation, and complex systems science.

HBR On Strategy curates the best case studies and conversations with the world’s top business and management experts, to help you unlock new ways of doing business. New episodes every week.

Planning is comforting but it’s a terrible way to make strategy, says Roger Martin, former dean of the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto. In contrast, setting strategy should push your organization outside its comfort zone – if you’re doing it right.

“Plans typically have to do with the resources you’re going to spend. Those are more comfortable because you control them,” Martin explains. “A strategy, on the other hand, specifies a competitive outcome that you wish to achieve, which involves customers wanting your product or service. The tricky thing about that is that you don’t control them.”

Key topics include: strategic planning, competitive strategy, risk management, innovation, and travel and tourism industry.

HBR On Strategy curates the best case studies and conversations with the world’s top business and management experts, to help you unlock new ways of doing business. New episodes every week.

Getting your sales team on board with your strategy shouldn’t be an afterthought, Harvard Business School professor Frank Cespedes argues. After all, the engine of many businesses is a strong sales core.

But aligning your strategy with sales isn’t just about communicating your ideas effectively. You have to hire carefully and use smart incentives to guide selling behavior.

“The issue is aligning actual selling behaviors. And it is about behaviors. Business is a performance art. It’s not about good ideas,” Cespedes tells IdeaCast host Sarah Green Carmichael.

Key topics include: sales, hiring, compensation, communication, performance management, strategic planning, innovation, and leadership development.

HBR On Strategy curates the best case studies and conversations with the world’s top business and management experts, to help you unlock new ways of doing business. New episodes every week.

Subscriptions aren’t new – the business model dates back to trade guilds in the 12th century. But Robbie Kellman Baxter, an expert on the business of subscriptions, says with new billing platforms, remote customer support, and digital services, it’s worth considering how to make subscription business models work for your company.

“Predictable revenue is great. So you can manage the money you have and you can plan with confidence for your future,” she tells IdeaCast host Curt Nickisch. “Most of these businesses are also direct to the end customer, which also allows a deeper relationship with the customer.”

Key topics include: subscription fatigue, customer experience, entrepreneurship, how the pandemic changed subscription behavior, what went wrong at Blue Apron, innovation, and ethics.

HBR On Strategy curates the best case studies and conversations with the world’s top business and management experts, to help you unlock new ways of doing business. New episodes every week.

With rapidly changing markets and emerging technologies, setting the right price is harder than ever. But pricing strategy consultant Rafi Mohammed tells HBR IdeaCast host Sarah Green Carmichael that it’s possible to make better decisions about pricing if you understand how pricing and demand interact in your business and you have good market research to guide you.

“The front line really has a lot of intuition on what customers are willing to pay. [They have] a lot of market research that they can share with the people who set prices to help set the right price,” he explains.

Key topics include: pricing strategy, dynamic pricing, market research, supply and demand, innovation, media, entertainment, professional sports, and the travel and tourism industry.

HBR On Strategy curates the best case studies and conversations with the world’s top business and management experts, to help you unlock new ways of doing business. New episodes every week.

Listen to the original HBR IdeaCast episode: Pricing Secrets of Ticket Scalpers (July 2011)

Find more episodes of HBR IdeaCast

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