Coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic, Moderna was riding the successes of developing a vaccine in record time and helping stem the tide of the crisis. However, the company had grown at an incredible rate, more than doubled its number of employees, and had to put on hold desired projects to push the company to continue to innovate and push the boundaries as a digital-first biotech company. The retirement of CTO and Moderna's digital architect, Marcello Damiano, prompted the company to reevaluate how best to proceed. The choice for who would replace him loomed large over many aspects of the company's strategy moving forward, and could potentially reshape its future.
Marketing and sales are essential aspects of any business; marketing manages the customer experience, while sales focuses on the customer relationship. In today's quickly changing world, marketing and sales have had to adapt to virtual selling, social media communication, digital marketing, and more. Nevertheless, some things have remained the same, including the need for consistent branding, the focus on the customer, and the collaboration between marketing and sales. This text looks at these issues in depth. Written for marketing and sales professionals and students, Seamless offers expert opinion, academic theory, real-world experience, and practical advice with explanatory graphics and "Dos and Don'ts" lists to educate and guide readers through the marketing, sales, and account management process to business success. Chapter 1 begins with a discussion of target markets, their nature, and their business potential. Traditional primary market research still plays an essential role, as does the internet, in obtaining data for actionable market intelligence. Assessing needs of market segments and understanding their strategic fit with a company's business plan can help a company select their target market no matter the size of the organization. The salesman's curse is also discussed-that is, the need for precision prospecting in order to find the potential customers worth spending time on. How to make use of segmentation to capture an organization's market is explored, along with how to focus the marketing and sales process effectively. If companies underestimate early marketing and sales work, they will eventually hit several obstacles, including hours of wasted effort and the need to revise their marketing and sales strategy.
Marketing and sales are essential aspects of any business; marketing manages the customer experience, while sales focuses on the customer relationship. In today's quickly changing world, marketing and sales have had to adapt to virtual selling, social media communication, digital marketing, and more. Nevertheless, some things have remained the same, including the need for consistent branding, the focus on the customer, and the collaboration between marketing and sales. This text looks at these issues in depth. Written for marketing and sales professionals and students, Seamless offers expert opinion, academic theory, real-world experience, and practical advice with explanatory graphics and "Dos and Don'ts" lists to educate and guide readers through the marketing, sales, and account management process to business success. Chapter 2 focuses on the need for an organization to establish their brand and a competitive position before they attack target businesses in their market segment. Marketing and sales efforts must be preceded by fixing the company's brand image in the prospective customer's mind. Establishing the brand and positioning is the next step in developing the marketing and sales process. Once that is done, companies can begin a highly focused and effective marketing and sales approach. Upstream marketing is explored, and while it takes time, effort, and expertise, it has many benefits. Several practical suggestions on branding, positioning, and communication in general are offered.
Marketing and sales are essential aspects of any business; marketing manages the customer experience, while sales focuses on the customer relationship. In today's quickly changing world, marketing and sales have had to adapt to virtual selling, social media communication, digital marketing, and more. Nevertheless, some things have remained the same, including the need for consistent branding, the focus on the customer, and the collaboration between marketing and sales. This text looks at these issues in depth. Written for marketing and sales professionals and students, Seamless offers expert opinion, academic theory, real-world experience, and practical advice with explanatory graphics and "Dos and Don'ts" lists to educate and guide readers through the marketing, sales, and account management process to business success. Chapter 3 shifts the focus from the marketing team to the sales team. Once specific market segments and target businesses within those segments are identified, sales teams can work with marketing teams to investigate and understand potential customers' business dynamics, how they buy, and whom the company is competing with to get the business. By exploring the market further, identifying specific target prospects, and taking the time to understand competitors, organizations will create and establish a healthy and realistic sales pipeline and reduce the length of their sales cycle. Straightforward tips on prospect analysis and qualification, competitive analysis, and competitive strategy are all provided.
Marketing and sales are essential aspects of any business; marketing manages the customer experience, while sales focuses on the customer relationship. In today's quickly changing world, marketing and sales have had to adapt to virtual selling, social media communication, digital marketing, and more. Nevertheless, some things have remained the same, including the need for consistent branding, the focus on the customer, and the collaboration between marketing and sales. This text looks at these issues in depth. Written for marketing and sales professionals and students, Seamless offers expert opinion, academic theory, real-world experience, and practical advice with explanatory graphics and "Dos and Don'ts" lists to educate and guide readers through the marketing, sales, and account management process to business success. Chapter 4 discusses how to inform, influence, motivate, and sell, which are core to marketing and sales. It examines how to move the prospect identified and analyzed in the previous chapter's work, from awareness, through positive opinion, to consideration, leading on to trial or evaluation and to the point of purchase. When these actions are executed effectively, they will lead to successful sales.
Marketing and sales are essential aspects of any business; marketing manages the customer experience, while sales focuses on the customer relationship. In today's quickly changing world, marketing and sales have had to adapt to virtual selling, social media communication, digital marketing, and more. Nevertheless, some things have remained the same, including the need for consistent branding, the focus on the customer, and the collaboration between marketing and sales. This text looks at these issues in depth. Written for marketing and sales professionals and students, Seamless offers expert opinion, academic theory, real-world experience, and practical advice with explanatory graphics and "Dos and Don'ts" lists to educate and guide readers through the marketing, sales, and account management process to business success. Chapter 5 considers how and when to put together the sales proposal or tender and what it might contain. The salesperson must make the case to be the right supplier, in the most professional possible. Many salespeople, under constant pressure to reach quotas, undervalue this communication to the prospective buyer. This chapter examines the importance of value-based selling (VBS), getting the timing right in this part of the sales process, and how to present the proposal to the target audience. Experienced businesspeople will discuss the lessons they learned in the field, and the chapter offers some insights on how to approach this vital part of the sales process.
Marketing and sales are essential aspects of any business; marketing manages the customer experience, while sales focuses on the customer relationship. In today's quickly changing world, marketing and sales have had to adapt to virtual selling, social media communication, digital marketing, and more. Nevertheless, some things have remained the same, including the need for consistent branding, the focus on the customer, and the collaboration between marketing and sales. This text looks at these issues in depth. Written for marketing and sales professionals and students, Seamless offers expert opinion, academic theory, real-world experience, and practical advice with explanatory graphics and "Dos and Don'ts" lists to educate and guide readers through the marketing, sales, and account management process to business success. Chapter 6 examines how to turn the prospect's awareness into a positive opinion, with sufficient confidence in you, your company, and your solution to give you the order. This is the stage at which many potential complex B2B sales are lost. Managing the customer's detailed assessment of what you are selling is an essential skill that will serve you well and lead to more closed deals. Every potential sale will differ at this stage; so an adaptable, personalized, and tightly managed process is needed. Professional and experienced managers of the sales process will comment on their relevant lessons learned in the field and the chapter draws some conclusions on the most effective approach.
Marketing and sales are essential aspects of any business; marketing manages the customer experience, while sales focuses on the customer relationship. In today's quickly changing world, marketing and sales have had to adapt to virtual selling, social media communication, digital marketing, and more. Nevertheless, some things have remained the same, including the need for consistent branding, the focus on the customer, and the collaboration between marketing and sales. This text looks at these issues in depth. Written for marketing and sales professionals and students, Seamless offers expert opinion, academic theory, real-world experience, and practical advice with explanatory graphics and "Dos and Don'ts" lists to educate and guide readers through the marketing, sales, and account management process to business success. Chapter 7 examines the art of helping your new customer to hit the road running. It's easy to close the sale and lose attention to helping the customer realize all of the business benefits that you sold to them. Whatever your product or service offering, a smooth transition into the customer's existing systems by properly managing the installation process is essential to avoid buyer remorse, customer support problems, and any early damage to a new relationship for which you have long-term ambitions. We'll also examine the importance of successful implementation by the user.
Marketing and sales are essential aspects of any business; marketing manages the customer experience, while sales focuses on the customer relationship. In today's quickly changing world, marketing and sales have had to adapt to virtual selling, social media communication, digital marketing, and more. Nevertheless, some things have remained the same, including the need for consistent branding, the focus on the customer, and the collaboration between marketing and sales. This text looks at these issues in depth. Written for marketing and sales professionals and students, Seamless offers expert opinion, academic theory, real-world experience, and practical advice with explanatory graphics and "Dos and Don'ts" lists to educate and guide readers through the marketing, sales, and account management process to business success. Chapter 8 introduces the roles of the SAM-strategic account manager or KAM-key account manager, who will produce highly profitable repeat sales. It looks at becoming embedded as a strategic partner, assessing and realizing future sales opportunities, gaining enthusiastic endorsements and referrals, and fending off the competition by providing a great customer experience (CE). The benefits of these actions apply to organizations large and small. A major practitioner will discuss how they have had success in this area, and the chapter offers suggestions on how best to make it work.
As Hasbro Inc.’s Wizards of the Coast LLC (Wizards) worked to design the next iteration of its popular tabletop role-playing game, Dungeons & Dragons (D&D), word leaked that it was looking to change its decades-old Open Game License. This would restrict third-party contributions to the game and reduce gameplay options for customers, in favour of increased protection of D&D’s game mechanics as Wizards’ intellectual property. Wizards’ delayed reaction to the leak gave way to an organized response from the D&D community, eventually pushing Wizards to give up its efforts to restrict licensing and take further steps to restore trust. What, if anything, went wrong with Wizards’ priorities, and what should its priorities be going forward?
NutriNest, founded by Le Danh Hoang, was the first company to introduce farmed bird's nest products in Vietnam. In January 2018, the company launched a sustainable product line under a new brand called the Green Bird. The Green Bird product line was positioned to meet consumers’ sustainability and health concerns, and quickly became the company’s best-selling products. To continue to grow NutriNest, Hoang was facing a crucial decision. Should he focus on the current portfolio of the Green Bird line or add new products? If he chooses to introduce new products, how should he ensure that these products will attract new segments of customers and increase sales?
On July 2022, Signify Health, a health care services company that was disrupting the US health care market with its value-based care provision, announced the opening of a new technology centre outside the United States. This was a significant first step for the company beyond its home country. The company had an ambitious plan to develop an international centre of excellence for innovation that it expected would grow to employ more than 125 people by the end of 2023. The new technology centre was seen as a critical step to develop new solutions and provide technologies that would enable the platform to scale up its business. However, the company had to make some important and urgent decisions, including where to locate the international technology centre and how to integrate the new centre into the wider domestic organization.
After importing three hundred bags of ground sacha inchi, a seed with promising nutritional benefits, from Peru, Kayla Gray has important decisions to make. Her new venture, Sachi Superfoods, is ready to launch; however, she does not have a clear plan on how to best market her product. Gray must decide on the best market segment to pursue in addition to the most effective marketing channel for her product.
Hope Medicals owner, Shiva Aruguman, was considering entering the online pharmacy market. Hope Medicals was a local pharmacy in Madurai, India’s Tamil Nadu state, and Aruguman was at a strategic crossroads—he had to decide whether to expand into the online pharmacy market. With the challenges (financial and non-financial) of integrating the “brick” and “click” modes of his pharmacy business, Aruguman had to conduct an analysis based on capital budgeting and run a Monte Carlo simulation to determine the potential profitability and risks of such a venture.
In March 2021, the wholesale distributor of home décor products SBO Distributors Ltd. (or SWISSBO), based in Vancouver, Canada, was considering an opportunity for strategic analysis. The firm was at a crossroads in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic had led to a setback in the company’s revenues and margins—seemingly, a temporary setback. The wholesaler was now facing a make-or-break dilemma that involved a new growth opportunity to move up the value chain toward retailing.
In November 2018, Dell Technologies was poised to re-enter the public markets by means of a complex recapitalization that would replace an entire class of publicly-traded "tracking stock," with new shares that would trade publicly without the need of a formal IPO. The tracking stock was meant to track the value of the publicly traded shares of the software company VMware, but from the outset had traded at a significant discount, sparking intense criticism from analysts and shareholders, including Carl Icahn. In July 2018 the company announced the recapitalization, in which tracking stock holders could exchange their shares for new Dell shares or cash worth $109 a share. Dell had subsequently increased its offer to $120 a share. While Icahn and other large shareholders responded favorably to the new offer, a group of shareholders filed a class action lawsuit against Dell, alleging the offer was "financially unfair and coercive," and that Dell's directors had breached their fiduciary duties to tracking stock holders.
Following Dell's return to the public market in 2018, the company's stock underperformed. In June 2020, the Wall Street Journal reported that Dell was exploring various options with respect to its majority stake in the virtualization software company VMware.
The "Moral Complexity in Leadership" series of cases and teaching notes help business instructors harness the power of fiction to prepare students for the moral and ethical dilemmas they will face throughout their careers. Meaningful fiction challenges students intellectually and emotionally; it reveals the inner worlds of human players and enables learning that can be difficult to access through case studies, commentary, or reporting. Through literature, students will wrestle with the kinds of problems they will face as leaders looking to make courageous decisions aligned with their moral codes. The works in this series represent a wide range of settings, viewpoints, and cultural frameworks; the characters are complex and contradictory, and the systems within which they operate (whether family, organizational, or cultural) influence them in varied ways. They have been taught to executive, full- and part-time MBA student audiences for many years. The series aims to increase students' understanding of moral frameworks and enhance their skills in facilitating and participating in healthy and productive dialogue about complex and provocative issues. This installment of the series, "Hubris, and Humility," examines the great ancient Greek tragedian Sophocles's play Antigone, about a young Theban princess's defiance of the state-personified in her uncle, Creon, the king of Thebes-in her struggle to bury with honor her brother who was slain in a civil war. Antigone is loyal to her brother and shows courage in speaking up for him; Creon cannot understand why anyone would make such an emotional decision. Antigone s story warns organizational leaders that hubris can drive them to simplistic solutions when situations demand an appreciation of complexity, moral humility, and thoughtfulness. From Creon, leaders witness the-in this instance, dire-consequences of ignoring input from multiple points of view, especially when others' perspectives are uncomfortable or inconvenient.
The UMass Memorial Health Care (UMMHC or UMass) case is an examination of the impact of crisis or high uncertainty events on organizations. As a global pandemic unfolds, the case examines the ways in which UMMHC manages crisis and poses questions around organizational change and opportunity for growth after such major events. The case begins with a background of UMMHC, including problems the organization was up against before the pandemic, then transitions to the impact of crisis on UMMHC operations and its subsequent response, and concludes with challenges that the organization must grapple with in the months and years ahead. A crisis event can occur at any time for any organization. Organizational leaders must learn to manage stakeholders both inside and outside the organization throughout the duration of crisis and beyond. Additionally, organizational decision-makers must learn how to deal with existing weaknesses and problems the organization had before crisis took center stage, balancing those challenges with the need to respond to an emergency all the while not neglecting major existing problem points. This case is well-suited for courses on strategy determination and implementation, organizational behavior, and leadership.