Blog | Recent Posts

  • Costs Of Not Experimenting

    Today I’ll look at the work of Uri Gneezy and John List. Specifically their book, The Why Axis. These are very well respected scholars and they are strong proponents of more real-world testing. Today I most want to highlight the idea that there are very sizable costs of not experimenting. Business Managers Under-Experiment The authors…


  • Customer Centricity And CLV

    Peter Fader is a major figure in the study of customers. Specifically, he is closely linked to the idea of how companies value customers and focus on serving the customers that are most important to the firm. His 2019 book with Sarah E. Toms, The Customer Centricity Playbook, looks at customer centricity and CLV. The…


  • Customer Centricity And Customer Equity

    Customer centricity is a very good book. It is short and has an excellent point. You could read it in a long bath despite there being much to learn from it. So what then can we learn about customer centricity and customer equity from Peter Fader’s book? A Strong Start And Clear View Of Customer…


  • Angel And Demon Customers

    Larry Selden and Geoffrey Colvin had a book back in 2003 that made quite a stir. It introduced the idea of angel and demon customers. This was a catchy way of explaining the notion that not all customers are profitable. Indeed, Selden and Colvin argue that customers should not all be treated the same. What…


  • Numbers Don’t Lie, But People Frame Decisions

    Vaclav Smil’s book — Numbers Don’t Lie — is a helpful approach to understanding the world. He is able to layout what numbers mean answering a number of important questions around transportation, food, energy etc… The numbers are very helpful. That said, even though he mostly just outlines numbers you can see his perspective coming…


  • Progress Exists And Is A Good Thing

    Matt Ridley is an interesting writer. A popular science/ideas writer he gives you his thoughts on a wide variety of subjects. I do admire his willingness to adopt an overarching narrative. To be honest, at times it can seem a bit too much for my tastes. His libertarian-esque views tend to see him damning a…


  • Use Of Humor In Business

    I must confess to being a bit jealous of Jennifer Aaker and Naomi Bagdonas. They get to teach a course on the use of humor in business. It seems like they have a great time doing it. They meet a lot of fun people and do a lot of interesting activities. (As well as doing…


  • What Are People Like? A Categorization

    Before designing any intervention to influence them it is worth asking: What Are People Like? Derek Ireland in The Behaviorally Informed Organization presents what he calls a Boundedly Rational Complex Consumer Continuum, the shorthand being the BRCCC. (I am unsure why he thinks that is a pleasant and memorable acronym. I feel that I may…


Verified by MonsterInsights