Allison Hartsoe’s book — The Age of Customer Equity — looks at customer-based strategy. She highlights examples of firms successfully using customer centric strategy. The examples are interesting and there is much to learn from the discussions. I should note that this is not an academic book. The concepts are much looser than I would…
Search Results for: metrics
Market Research Lessons
Alex and Mike Sherman have a book of market research lessons. This is a nice little book of sensible ideas. I liked it and will highlight a few of the points that stood out for me. Aims Of The Research Should Impact What You Study This seems obvious, and it is really. Still, it is…
The Failure Of Science
Stuart Ritchie in Science Fictions looks at the failure of science. To be fair it is hard to argue with a lot of his points. Ritchie rightly points out that there is fraud but probably more common and alarming is bad practice. Scientists don’t mean to do anything too bad but lots of skimming here…
Net Positive Business
In the world of sustainable business Paul Polman seems to be the nearest thing to a superstar. Hence his book with Andrew Winston, Net Positive, will get a big audience which is a very good thing. It seeks to give Polman’s view of business which was central to his tenure as Unilever CEO, a net…
Sustainable Marketing Strategy Cases
This page contains a number of free sustainable marketing strategy cases. These cover a variety of topics in business. For more on sustainable marketing strategy see here. Introductory Sustainable Marketing Strategy Cases These are simple cases designed to set the stage for discussions of business, purpose, and sustainability. The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals This…
Solving Problems Upstream
Dan Heath has a book on solving problems upstream. The central idea is that it is better to solve a problem nearer its source than try and solve the problem once it has fully manifested. Heath’s hard-to-disagree with advice is that it is better to stop the horror movie monster being conjured rather than having…
CEOs And Sustainability
Alan Murray (CEO of Fortune Media) has a book on how business is engaging more with social issues. There are a lot of good points in there that help to illustrate business in 2022. So what can he tell us about CEOs and Sustainability? First, The Bad Points Broadly speaking I am on board with…
Not All Papers Must Feature Firm Performance
Today I’m discussing another paper that uses Total Q. I won’t spend too long on that. I have said plenty elsewhere about how bad Total Q is as a measure of firm performance. In this post, I want to somewhat sympathize with the authors of a paper that uses Total Q. I will tell a…
Another Total Q Mystery
I am fascinated by attempts to replace Tobin’s Q as a firm performance metric with Total Q. Both metrics are not fit for purpose. One of the most interesting things is just how terrible the arguments in favor of Total Q as a firm performance metric are. I recently highlighted problems in Du and Osmonbekovās “Direct effect of…
Viewing Customers As Investments
Every now and then it is worth looking back at how earlier generations thought of marketing. (Or anything else really). There can be a lot to learn — although you often have to cope with some old-fashioned ideas and terminology. An interesting early piece is by Edward C. Bursk which was about viewing customers as…