Firms have never known more about their customers, but their innovation processes remain hit-or-miss. Why? According to Christensen and his coauthors, product developers focus too much on building customer profiles and looking for correlations in data. To create offerings that people truly want to buy, firms instead need to home in on the job the customer is trying to get done. Some jobs are little (pass the time); some are big (find a more fulfilling career). When we buy a product, we essentially "hire" it to help us do a job. If it does the job well, we hire it again. If it does a crummy job, we "fire" it and look for something else to solve the problem. Jobs are multifaceted. They're never simply about function; they have powerful social and emotional dimensions. And the circumstances in which customers try to do them are more critical than any buyer characteristics. Consider the experiences of condo developers targeting retirees who wanted to downsize their homes. Sales were weak until the developers realized their business was not construction but transitioning lives. Instead of adding more features to the condos, they created services assisting buyers with the move and with their decisions about what to keep and to discard. Sales took off. The key to successful innovation is identifying jobs that are poorly performed in customers' lives and then designing products, experiences, and processes around those jobs.

The most successful companies don't just have good products and strong distribution systems-they have a deep understanding of customers. That naturally requires lots of marketing data, but the authors say it also takes an "insights engine"-a set of structures, people, and processes that can translate data into actionable strategy. How do high-performing organizations achieve this kind of customer centricity? Extensive research by the lead author's firm indicates that seven operational characteristics are critical for a superior insights and analytics group: It must be adept at synthesizing data, independent from other functions, integrally involved in business planning, collaborative, willing to experiment with new technologies and programs, future oriented, and active in strategic decision making. In addition, the people who are part of the insights engine share three key traits: They have a whole-brain mindset (they think creatively as well as analytically), they focus on business growth, and they are effective at getting their messages across with engaging storytelling rather than dry recitations of data. The authors discuss each characteristic in turn, using the consumer goods giant Unilever as a case study. Unilever's Consumer Markets and Insights group, the epitome of a powerful insights engine, has helped the company generate impressive revenue and sales growth.

In legal disputes, contested insurance claims, and similarly adversarial negotiations, one party is likely to open with an inflated claim or a lowball offer. And if the other side's position is unreasonable, it may make little sense to be reasonable yourself. But if everyone routinely came to a dispute with a realistic starting position, the offers would be more or less aligned, and any negotiation that followed would most likely be relatively civil, speedy, and fair. How can a negotiator who wants to be fair from the start ensure that his or her counterpart will be reasonable as well? The authors propose the "final-offer arbitration" challenge, which leverages an approach first applied in labor negotiations in the 1960s. You can employ this tactic by opening with a demonstrably fair offer and then--if the other party is unreasonable--extending a challenge to take the competing offers to an arbitrator who must choose one or the other rather than a compromise between them (the usual outcome of conventional arbitration). The authors describe how AIG used the approach and how other companies can begin to adopt it.

High-end professional services firms, unlike product companies, traditionally experience only linear revenue growth. That's because selling more services means adding more professionals, which limits profit margins. However, savvy providers of consulting, legal, accounting, and other services are using technology to their benefit. They are automating certain routine aspects of their work to essentially "productize" those tasks. By combining those products with human attention to matters requiring more knowledge or judgment, they can give clients better service at a lower cost. This article provides a guide to product development for professional services firms. The author describes the three key stages of the process: (1) To "discover potential products," identify opportunities for automation by looking for patterns in your services and zeroing in on the tasks that are performed frequently and require little knowledge. (2) To "develop products," use algorithms and artificial intelligence to create "smart" tools to handle high-volume, low-sophistication tasks. (3) To "monetize your products," stop charging for time and materials, and shift first to transaction-based pricing and then to an outcome-based model. In conjunction with this process, it's important to create a cross-functional team that focuses on product development. And take the long view--you'll have to invest time and money before you reap the benefits of embedding products in services.

Executives with scandal-tainted companies on their resumes pay a penalty on the job market, even if they clearly had nothing to do with the trouble. Because the scandal effect is lasting, a company you left long ago could have an impact on your current and future job mobility, not to mention your compensation. Overall, executives who suffer from the effect are paid nearly 4% less than their peers. You can't control this risk, the authors write, but you can and should plan for it. They offer three steps to help you survive a corporate scandal. (1) Be forthright. Transparency and full disclosure are key to overcoming the stigma. Executive recruiters, who do due diligence on candidates, can help you create a full, clear, and succinct narrative for hiring managers. (2) "Borrow" reputation and legitimacy from others in your network, establishing innocence by association. Executive search firms can also act as references and sponsors. (3) Take a "rehab job," one at which you so clearly excel that it creates a persuasive story to compete with the scandal narrative.

The toughest calls managers have to make come in situations when they have worked hard to gather the facts and have done the best analysis they can, but they still don't know what to do. Then judgment--a fusion of thinking, feelings, experience, imagination, and character--becomes critical. The author offers five practical questions to improve your odds of making sound judgments: (1) What are the net, net consequences of all my options? (2) What are my core obligations? (3) What will work in the world as it is? (4) Who are we? (5) What can I live with? All five questions must be answered, according to the author: "Each question is an important voice in the centuries-long conversation about what counts as a sound decision regarding a hard problem with high stakes for other people." If you work through these questions, you'll know that you've approached the problem in the right way--not just as a good manager but as a thoughtful human being.

When star salesperson Elizabeth starts dating Brad, the CFO of her company, she has high hopes for the relationship. She doesn't report to him, so there's no conflict there, and he's a smart, interesting guy. But when he dumps her for another coworker and flaunts the new relationship, Elizabeth finds herself in what now feels like a hostile workplace. Her boss tells her to "get over it," but she's not sure she can. Commentators Karen Firestone, author of "Even the Odds: Sensible Risk-Taking in Business, Investing and Life," and Wendi S. Lazar, partner of the employment law firm Outten & Golden, weigh in on whether Elizabeth should stay in her lucrative job or call back the headhunters who've been pursuing her and move on.

The NASCAR champion discusses the importance of teamwork at the racetrack, how technology has affected his sport, and what will determine when he retires.

When star salesperson Elizabeth starts dating Brad, the CFO of her company, she has high hopes for the relationship. She doesn't report to him, so there's no conflict there, and he's a smart, interesting guy. But when he dumps her for another coworker and flaunts the new relationship, Elizabeth finds herself in what now feels like a hostile workplace. Her boss tells her to "get over it," but she's not sure she can. Commentators Karen Firestone, author of "Even the Odds: Sensible Risk-Taking in Business, Investing and Life," and Wendi S. Lazar, partner of the employment law firm Outten & Golden, weigh in on whether Elizabeth should stay in her lucrative job or call back the headhunters who've been pursuing her and move on.

When star salesperson Elizabeth starts dating Brad, the CFO of her company, she has high hopes for the relationship. She doesn't report to him, so there's no conflict there, and he's a smart, interesting guy. But when he dumps her for another coworker and flaunts the new relationship, Elizabeth finds herself in what now feels like a hostile workplace. Her boss tells her to "get over it," but she's not sure she can. Commentators Karen Firestone, author of "Even the Odds: Sensible Risk-Taking in Business, Investing and Life," and Wendi S. Lazar, partner of the employment law firm Outten & Golden, weigh in on whether Elizabeth should stay in her lucrative job or call back the headhunters who've been pursuing her and move on.

Set in 2016, this case describes ING Bank's implementation of a radical new way of working using agile principles. ING's agile way of working has been written up in Harvard Business Review, Sloan Management Review and McKinsey Quarterly. This case provides a detailed account of how the new structure was developed and implemented. The case describes the process of change in ING Bank, from the aftermath of the global financial crisis to 2016. It provides background information on two change initiatives (Tango and Less is More) that simplified and rationalised the bank's activities, then it provides a detailed account of the major transformation that became known as RIO ("Redesign into Omnichannel"). It focuses on the choices made by Bart Schlatmann, COO of the Netherlands business, and his team - to pursue an omnichannel strategy (i.e. where all channels to market are linked together and managed seamlessly) and to build an organisation to support this strategy that drew inspiration from digital companies such as Google, Facebook and Amazon. The subsequent restructuring into "agile" teams was a groundbreaking move for a company in the rather conservative banking industry. The case provides lots of detail on how this new model works in practice. After 12 months 3,000 staff had embraced the culture of agile methodology. At the end of the case, Schlatmann had to consider two main questions: (1) How to balance the autonomy of tribes with alignment to the company's strategic objective; and (2) How to roll out agile to other parts of the ING.

Set in 2016, this case describes ING Bank's implementation of a radical new way of working using agile principles. ING's agile way of working has been written up in Harvard Business Review, Sloan Management Review and McKinsey Quarterly. This case provides a detailed account of how the new structure was developed and implemented. The case describes the process of change in ING Bank, from the aftermath of the global financial crisis to 2016. It provides background information on two change initiatives (Tango and Less is More) that simplified and rationalised the bank's activities, then it provides a detailed account of the major transformation that became known as RIO ("Redesign into Omnichannel"). It focuses on the choices made by Bart Schlatmann, COO of the Netherlands business, and his team - to pursue an omnichannel strategy (i.e. where all channels to market are linked together and managed seamlessly) and to build an organisation to support this strategy that drew inspiration from digital companies such as Google, Facebook and Amazon.

After developing powerful software, young entrepreneurs Raffael Maio and Joël Winteregg, founded NetGuardians in 2007. Their initial idea was to help companies improve security. (i) Over time, the two entrepreneurs improved their technology and decided to focus on defeating and preventing fraud in banking, where there was a gap in the market. In 2014 around $67 billion was lost due to banking fraud, 70% of it committed by employees inside the company. In 2015 the company was named a Gartner Cool Vendor, a worldwide industry recognition for companies that offer technologies or solutions that are innovative, impactful and intriguing. (ii) In the nine years since they had founded their company, Joël and Raffael had raised $6 billion in two rounds of funding. The company employed around 30 people in R&D offices in Kenya, Singapore and Poland. It had customers in Africa, the Middle East and Europe, and was breaking ground in Asia. (iii) Now it was time for NetGuardians to tackle some important strategic decisions: Should the company expand to other markets? Should it expand its product offering? Or should it focus on growing its customer base? (iv) Whatever the decision, it would lead to a change in business model that would have a significant impact on the company.

In June 2015, Lee Pharma Limited, a small Indian pharmaceutical company, filed an application with the Indian Patent Office for a grant of a compulsory licence to manufacture the diabetes drug Saxagliptin on the grounds that the patented version of the drug had not been made available to the public at an affordable price. The granting of a compulsory licence was expected to make the drug more affordable for the general public, but it would also undermine the interests of the patentee, a Western multinational company. If the developed world imposed sanctions against India in retaliation for such a protectionist measure, the flow of trade and foreign capital into the country would be adversely affected. Should the patent office strictly enforce the patent regime, which would encourage higher foreign capital inflows in research and development in the Indian pharmaceutical industry and promote inventions and innovations in the country? Or should it grant the compulsory licence, thereby attaching greater weight to the welfare of India's general public?

In April 2016, the yoga guru who started Patanjali Ayurved Limited declared that his company's revenue would exceed that of Colgate-Palmolive India by the end of the year and would overtake Hindustan Unilever in India in three years. Patanjali's revenue grew 125-150 per cent from the previous year. The company aimed to continue growing at a rate of 100-125 per cent annually over the next three years, as a manufacturer and marketer of a wide range of products including flour, biscuits, noodles, spices, honey, and toothpaste. It also considered exploring international expansion to support its high growth targets. Could Patanjali aggressively expand into more categories while maintaining sustainable growth?

In 2015, an ancillary client of a leading investment bank based in New Delhi, was looking to increase revenues from the two-wheeler and four-wheeler vehicle segments by acquiring customers that were original equipment manufacturers. A financial analyst was assigned the task of evaluating the options and identifying the right target to acquire for the client. The analyst used comparable company analysis and comparable transaction analysis, as well as valuation ratios (enterprise value-to-sales; enterprise value-to-earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortization; and price-to-earnings per share) to arrive at Talbros Automotive Components Limited as the best target for the client. For comparable company analysis, the analyst also compiled a list of four publicly traded firms that were similar to Talbros Automotive Components Limited. The analyst needed to arrive at the final valuation range by combining the results of both techniques (i.e., comparable company analysis and comparable transaction analysis), which could be achieved by using a football field analysis.

This technical note introduces students to fundamental concepts in process analysis and is appropriate for both undergraduate and MBA students in an introductory operations management course. It can be used as a stand-alone text for a lecture-based course or supplement for a case-based course. Concepts are broken out by section so that readings can be partitioned by class topic. Definitions of key terms are emphasized throughout the note, and a glossary is included in the appendix. Straightforward calculations are performed within the text to introduce students to process analysis. Topics covered include process mapping, capacity analysis, load balancing, batch processing, and Little's Law. A simple example of a Hawaiian-shirt production process is used to illustrate these core process-analysis topics.

Showpad is a growing startup whose founders are considering changes to spur growth. The options include changes to the product line, to pricing, and to sales management practices.

Real estate, land, and improvements can be defined both in a physical and legal sense as the rights to own or use them. This note discusses the physical attributes of real estate, the statute of frauds, the rights of ownership, and the constraints on the ownership of real property.

This notes describes the institutional landscape of real estate ownership. Because persons other than their formal owners today manage most large-scale properties, this note emphasizes the nature and structure of arrangements between owners and managers. It is organized into three main sections: the attributes of real property ownership; the importance of management expertise to the performance of real estate investments; and a review of the fundamental characteristics of different legal vehicles for real property ownership.