A global hotel company that has just completed a large merger is debating whether to retain all the brands that came with the acquisition. The company CFO argues that it would be possible for each of them to have its own "swim lane," and that the result would be $200 million in annual cost savings; greater negotiating power with online travel agencies; and the ability to boost both revenue, by cross-selling brands, and occupancy rates, by leveraging a larger reservations system. Others argue that streamlining the brands will enable more resources to go to the most successful ones. With commentary from Noah Brodsky, chief brand officer at Wyndham Vacation Ownership, and the private equity consultant Annick Desmecht.

A global hotel company that has just completed a large merger is debating whether to retain all the brands that came with the acquisition. The company CFO argues that it would be possible for each of them to have its own "swim lane," and that the result would be $200 million in annual cost savings; greater negotiating power with online travel agencies; and the ability to boost both revenue, by cross-selling brands, and occupancy rates, by leveraging a larger reservations system. Others argue that streamlining the brands will enable more resources to go to the most successful ones. With commentary from Noah Brodsky, chief brand officer at Wyndham Vacation Ownership, and the private equity consultant Annick Desmecht.

After the Great Recession, the American Enterprise Institute, a Washington think tank, needed to compete even harder for every dollar. Arthur C. Brooks and his colleagues set out to demonstrate its true impact to a generation of data-savvy philanthropists. AEI's output is pretty straightforward: books, research articles, op-eds, media appearances, and so on. Determining its impact meant measuring its competitive standing in the marketplace of ideas. Brooks describes two of the metrics AEI uses: how many op-eds its scholars publish in prominent newspapers and how often those scholars are called by Congress to give testimony. Measured against its four leading competitors, AEI can claim 36% of op-eds over the period 2015-2017 and the most testimonies (by a wide margin) in the years 2009-2017.

Great innovators have long known that the secret to unlocking a better answer is to ask a better question. Applying that insight to brainstorming exercises can vastly improve the search for new ideas--especially when a team is feeling stuck. Brainstorming for questions, rather than answers, helps you avoid group dynamics that often stifle voices, and it lets you reframe problems in ways that spur breakthrough thinking. After testing this approach with hundreds of organizations, MIT's Hal Gregersen has developed it into a methodology: Start by selecting a problem that matters. Invite a small group to help you consider it, and in just two minutes describe it at a high level so that you don't constrain the group's thinking. Make it clear that people can contribute only questions and that no preambles or justifications are allowed. Then, set the clock for four minutes, and generate as many questions as you can in that time, aiming to produce at least 15. Afterward, study the questions generated, looking for those that challenge your assumptions and provide new angles on your problem. If you commit to actively pursuing at least one of these, chances are, you'll break open a new pathway to unexpected solutions.

As B2B offerings become more commoditized, the subjective, sometimes quite personal considerations of business customers are increasingly important in purchases. To discover what matters most to B2B buyers, the consulting firm Bain analyzed scores of quantitative and qualitative customer studies. All told, it identified 40 discrete "elements of value," which fall into five categories: table stakes, functional, ease of doing business, individual, and inspirational. The elements range from strictly objective--those related to pricing and specifications, for example--to more subjective ones, such as reducing the buyer's anxiety and enhancing his or her reputation. Understanding this full range of rational and emotional considerations, and tailoring the value proposition to the ones customers prize most, is critical to avoiding the commodity trap.

One of only a handful of African-American CEOs in the Fortune 500, Frazier gained widespread attention when he withdrew from President Trump's business advisory council after the events of August 2017 in Charlottesville, Virginia. He says, "I didn't see this as a political issue. It's an issue that goes to our fundamental values as a country." Frazier grew up in the inner city, in a household that valued education highly. He was fortunate, he says, to be bused out of his neighborhood to "the best schools in Philadelphia," which he credits with closing "the opportunity gap" for him. Despite a degree from Harvard Law School, however, he had to work to become "user-friendly" for the clients and partners at his white-shoe law firm. In this conversation with HBR's editor in chief, Frazier talks about balancing short-term pressures with long-term needs, the dauntingly high percentage of research projects that fail, the rationale for pricing lifesaving drugs so high, and the importance for a CEO of diffusing power "to people in a position to make a difference."

Some experts argue that corporate leaders are starving their firms of investment capital by making excessive payouts to shareholders, thereby undermining innovation, employment opportunity, and economic growth. As evidence, they point to S&P 500 firms' using 96% of their net income for repurchases and dividends. A closer look at the data shows that the amounts going to shareholders at the expense of internal investment are less than claimed. The problem lies in the ratio used--shareholder payouts as a percentage of net income--which fails to take into account offsetting equity issuances as well as actual R&D expenditures. The percentage of income potentially available for investment that goes to shareholders is not 96% but a much more modest 41%. After paying shareholders, S&P 500 firms are at near-peak levels of investment and have huge stockpiles of cash for exploiting future opportunities. There may well be severe corporate governance problems in the S&P 500, but the data suggests that excessive shareholder payouts is not one of them.

This is part of a case series. The case describes the turnaround of the Belgian bank KBC under the leadership of Johan Thijs in the period 2009-2016. The case is made up of three parts - A, B and C. KBC (A) describes the situation in July 2009 when Johan This was promoted to Managing Director (MD) of the Belgian subsidiary, by far the biggest and most important unit within KBC Group. The timing is a bad one for the bank - it had just been rescued through a multibillion euro bailout by the Belgian government and the bank is on the verge of bankruptcy. Morale is at an all-time low, employees feel betrayed and are demotivated and the euro crisis is about to hit the European banking sector just when banks throughout Europe are trying to respond to the financial crisis of 2008. Johan Thijs inherits a total mess in Belgium and the case describes the facts he faces and asks the question: 'What should he do in the Belgian Unit?' At the same time to becoming MD of Belgium, he becomes member of the Group's Executive Committee (ExCo) and the case also raises the question: 'What can Thijs do as a member of the ExCo to prevent the bankruptcy of KBC Group?'

Supplement to case LBS109. This is part of a case series. The case describes the turnaround of the Belgian bank KBC under the leadership of Johan Thijs in the period 2009-2016. The case is made up of three parts - A, B and C. KBC (A) describes the situation in July 2009 when Johan This was promoted to Managing Director (MD) of the Belgian subsidiary, by far the biggest and most important unit within KBC Group. The timing is a bad one for the bank - it had just been rescued through a multibillion euro bailout by the Belgian government and the bank is on the verge of bankruptcy. Morale is at an all-time low, employees feel betrayed and are demotivated and the euro crisis is about to hit the European banking sector just when banks throughout Europe are trying to respond to the financial crisis of 2008. Johan Thijs inherits a total mess in Belgium and the case describes the facts he faces and asks the question: 'What should he do in the Belgian Unit?' At the same time to becoming MD of Belgium, he becomes member of the Group's Executive Committee (ExCo) and the case also raises the question: 'What can Thijs do as a member of the ExCo to prevent the bankruptcy of KBC Group?'

Supplement to case LBS109. This is part of a case series. The case describes the turnaround of the Belgian bank KBC under the leadership of Johan Thijs in the period 2009-2016. The case is made up of three parts - A, B and C. KBC (A) describes the situation in July 2009 when Johan This was promoted to Managing Director (MD) of the Belgian subsidiary, by far the biggest and most important unit within KBC Group. The timing is a bad one for the bank - it had just been rescued through a multibillion euro bailout by the Belgian government and the bank is on the verge of bankruptcy. Morale is at an all-time low, employees feel betrayed and are demotivated and the euro crisis is about to hit the European banking sector just when banks throughout Europe are trying to respond to the financial crisis of 2008. Johan Thijs inherits a total mess in Belgium and the case describes the facts he faces and asks the question: 'What should he do in the Belgian Unit?' At the same time to becoming MD of Belgium, he becomes member of the Group's Executive Committee (ExCo) and the case also raises the question: 'What can Thijs do as a member of the ExCo to prevent the bankruptcy of KBC Group?'

This case relates the genesis and evolution of vision centres (VCs) for primary eye care at Aravind Eye Care System (AECS). AECS, based in the south Indian state of Tamil Nadu, is the world's largest eye care provider. The case is based in 2014, exactly a decade after the first vision centre was opened, and evaluates the role of VCs in Aravind's outreach ecosystem. Community outreach programmes were an integral part of Aravind's model from the start and formed a central part of its vision of taking eye care to the community's doorstep. For many years, community outreach at Aravind was done through eye camps held in remote rural locations. Eye camps had worked extremely well for a long time. However, eye camps were not a perfect solution to Aravind's outreach goals for many reasons. Vision centres evolved as a way to address some of the shortcomings of eye camps, and both these outreach methods were employed in parallel. This case focuses on Aravind's vision centres and how they evolved over a decade, how they compare with the eye camps as a vehicle to attain Aravind's goals, and the opportunities and challenges ahead.

In October 2017, the first ever commercial flight landed on St Helena, one of the world's remotest islands. There had been delays building,certifying, and opening the airport due to unforeseen wind conditions. Now that weekly commercial flights had finally begun, how should the island's Economic Development Board approach the next phase of the long-term strategy to boost St Helena's economy through tourism?

This is a three-part, disguised case series. In June 2009, Diana Zanzi was hired by Ventoso Ship Supply, an Italian sailboat manufacturer, to help them understand their boats' puzzling selling patterns. Zanzi was informed that sales rates for two higher-end boat models were especially odd. Despite one's superior technical specifications, speed, amenities, and overall value-for-money, their higher end models were hard to sell. However, a lower-quality boat was sold at an astonishing rate. Existing survey work conducted by the company only served to confirm the rational assumption that customers generally preferred more technically advanced sailboats; as such, the survey would not solve the mystery. Tasked with solving this mystery, Zanzi was given the contact information for Ventoso's roster of potential customers and asked to conduct her own interviews to discover what could possibly explain customers' preferences when acquiring sailboats. Zanzi was told that consumers may not be consciously aware of how they choose sailboats, and so she needed to figure out a good method to understand these unconscious preferences. In part A of the series, the reader is faced with the task of designing a test that might reveal buyers' sailing-related thoughts. For instance, what should Zanzi ask consumers to understand their implicit and unconscious perceptions of the ideal sailboat? More importantly, the reader is invited to consider when and why such a tool is needed. In other words, what marketing technique should we use when consumers don't seem to be fully aware of their decision process?

This is a three-part, disguised case series. In June 2009, Diana Zanzi was hired by Ventoso Ship Supply, an Italian sailboat manufacturer, to help them understand their boats' puzzling selling patterns. Zanzi was informed that sales rates for two higher-end boat models were especially odd. Despite one's superior technical specifications, speed, amenities, and overall value-for-money, their higher end models were hard to sell. However, a lower-quality boat was sold at an astonishing rate. Existing survey work conducted by the company only served to confirm the rational assumption that customers generally preferred more technically advanced sailboats; as such, the survey would not solve the mystery. Tasked with solving this mystery, Zanzi was given the contact information for Ventoso's roster of potential customers and asked to conduct her own interviews to discover what could possibly explain customers' preferences when acquiring sailboats. Zanzi was told that consumers may not be consciously aware of how they choose sailboats, and so she needed to figure out a good method to understand these unconscious preferences. In part C of the series, the reader is tasked with interpreting multiple levels of data (including selected stimuli covering multiple senses, consumer-generated adjectives linked to those stimuli, and word clusters of shared meaning composed of those adjectives) that resulted from Zanzi's interviews. What does this data indicate about consumers' preferred sailboat qualities and, more expansively, how Ventoso can effectively market its sailboats across different cultures? This discussion again allows the professor to talk about various market research techniques.

This is a three-part, disguised case series. In June 2009, Diana Zanzi was hired by Ventoso Ship Supply, an Italian sailboat manufacturer, to help them understand their boats' puzzling selling patterns. Zanzi was informed that sales rates for two higher-end boat models were especially odd. Despite one's superior technical specifications, speed, amenities, and overall value-for-money, their higher end models were hard to sell. However, a lower-quality boat was sold at an astonishing rate. Existing survey work conducted by the company only served to confirm the rational assumption that customers generally preferred more technically advanced sailboats; as such, the survey would not solve the mystery. Tasked with solving this mystery, Zanzi was given the contact information for Ventoso's roster of potential customers and asked to conduct her own interviews to discover what could possibly explain customers' preferences when acquiring sailboats. Zanzi was told that consumers may not be consciously aware of how they choose sailboats, and so she needed to figure out a good method to understand these unconscious preferences. In part C of the series, the reader is tasked with interpreting multiple levels of data (including selected stimuli covering multiple senses, consumer-generated adjectives linked to those stimuli, and word clusters of shared meaning composed of those adjectives) that resulted from Zanzi's interviews. What does this data indicate about consumers' preferred sailboat qualities and, more expansively, how Ventoso can effectively market its sailboats across different cultures? This discussion again allows the professor to talk about various market research techniques.

Committing yourself romantically to another ambitious person requires committing to their career as well as your own—which creates challenges that must be overcome to benefit from the partnership. After all, committing to two careers often requires one partner to take a time-out from ambition. Lost in most discussions of “power couples” is the fact that the real power of these couples is only tapped when both members of the partnership are focused on the same goals. When two people share the same career objective, the pair’s combined energy, skills, wits, and actions are enhanced. Two founders working toward a common goal will often fare better than one working alone. Like everything else in business, making a power couple business partnership work requires strategic planning, and many leadership teams can benefit from having a combination of technical and creative partners. The author recommends the following three key practices: First, one spouse must not report to the other. This will help mitigate the risk of casual dinner-table conversation turning into a performance review. Second, leadership roles should be defined. To help do this, both partners should consider taking a personality test to identify similarities and differences. Third, celebrate your business successes as a couple.

Spreadsheet supplement for case 718438.

This case documents the ongoing efforts by Alaska Airlines to enhance its efforts to become more customer centric by empowering its employees using a service framework. It explores how the airline starts with a completely hands-off approach to empowerment in which employees are encouraged to do whatever it takes to please customers. An economic downturn leads them to swing the pendulum the other way and develop a rules-based framework with strict guidelines. Ultimately, they settle on an intermediate model in which employees are given "freedom within a framework." This forces them to try and shift from a rules-based to a principles-based culture. The case explores not only what they did but also how the framework was rolled out. All this seems to be working until they acquire Virgin America in 2016. Virgin too espouses customer centricity and front-line autonomy but does so in a different way. The dilemma now is blend the two cultures that are both trying to achieve similar goals but do so quite differently.

Amazon entered China in 2004 by acquiring Joyo, a local e-retailer, and rebranding it as Amazon China, implementing the technology and practices that had worked in the U.S. Unlike its local competitors, Amazon China's organizational culture focused on the use of technology while downplaying the importance of marketing. Amazon's global standardization strategy thus made Amazon China less responsive to Chinese customers' online shopping habits and less flexible in dealing with suppliers and third-party sellers on its marketplace platform. In the first decade following its entry, Amazon China saw its market share of China's expanding e-commerce market shrink dramatically. In 2012, it undertook strategic transformations focused on cross-border e-commerce and introduced Amazon's other core businesses, including Kindle devices and AWS, to China. Adapted to the local market, Amazon's Kindle was a success. Both the e-book publishing and cloud computing (AWS) sectors are highly regulated in China and Amazon's efforts to replicate its U.S. business in China faced big challenges.