by Frank Cespedes | Mar 3, 2015 | Aligning Strategy and Sales, Interviews
CFOs play an increasingly integral role within an organization – so much so that Frank Cespedes, Senior Lecturer in the Entrepreneurial Management Unit at Harvard Business School and author of “Aligning Strategy and Sales,” says that CFOs can and should start acting...
by Frank Cespedes | Mar 3, 2015 | Aligning Strategy and Sales, Articles
When it comes to business, we talk too much about social media and expect too little. It’s like the old joke about sales people: one person says, “I made some valuable contacts today,” and the other responds, “I didn’t get any orders, either.” Companies measure the...
by Frank Cespedes | Feb 18, 2015 | Aligning Strategy and Sales, Articles
If you have a monopoly, then your reward is a quiet life, one devoid of having to deal with competition. But most firms face changing competition, threats to their installed base, and quarterly investor expectations — all of which place sometimes conflicting demands...
by Frank Cespedes | Feb 13, 2015 | Aligning Strategy and Sales, Articles
The goal of strategy is sustained profitable growth, and that means earning returns above your cost of capital or what economists call “Economic Profit” (EP). Companies seeking profitable growth, therefore, face two interdependent tasks: grow the top line and manage...
by Frank Cespedes | Feb 6, 2015 | Aligning Strategy and Sales, Articles
What does it take to be a good salesperson? There’s a wide range of responses. Most reflect what you’d expect to find in the Boy Scout Handbook, with commonly cited traits like modesty, listening, curiosity, achievement orientation, and lack of discouragement. In pop...
by Frank Cespedes | Jan 28, 2015 | Aligning Strategy and Sales, Articles, Interviews
The gap between a company’s sales and strategy are important now more than ever. While we may or may not be recovering from a lengthly recession, it has been a slippery slope towards recovery for many years. The average S&P company decreased its COGS by over 250...
