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Who Should Read It? Whatever role you play in your organization, if you’re a conscientious leader, you’ve probably wondered about ways to better drive long-run value. Fusion for Profit answers many of your most pressing questions—and probably some you’ve never fully articulated. For example: The Product Manager - Prior to the launch of a new product, how can the company use self-stated intentions data (which are inherently imprecise) to forecast demand for that product?
- How can the company measure the likely effects of new product introductions on cannibalization and the market shares of competitors?
- How should the company coordinate its marketing policies when it introduces new products sequentially into the marketplace?
The Advertising Manager - How should the advertising budget be allocated over time and across media (e.g., conventional media and the Internet)?
- What metrics should be used to measure advertising productivity for conventional media? What metrics should the company use to measure advertising productivity for the Internet? And, how should these decisions factor in measurement error and joint effects across media?
- How should the company determine whether to prepurchase advertising space in the future? And, what proportion of the advertising budget should be spent on prepurchasing advertising in different media?
The Sales Manager - How should the multiproduct company determine the optimal compensation plans for its sales force?
- How should compensation plans be adjusted when the salesperson’s effort has an effect on future sales and profits?
- Under what conditions should sales revenue be used as a proxy of a salesperson’s productivity?
The Pricing Manager - How should the company determine what prices to charge for individual products and product bundles?
- How should the company price a new product it is planning on adding to its existing product line?
- How should the company price a product when some consumers or consumer segments have incomplete information?
The Mergers and Acquisition (M&A) Manager - How should the company determine the brand equity of a target brand or company that it plans to acquire?
- Under what conditions is it desirable for one company to acquire another company with low brand equity?
- How should the company determine whether an international acquisition or merger will increase the long-run value of the company?
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) - How should the company measure the productivities of divisional managers and how should these managers be compensated?
- Should the company set up manufacturing operations immediately or should it wait till demand or technological uncertainty are resolved?
- How should the company set up its global operations? How should the company measure the performances of the relevant global managers and what compensation plans should the company use to maximize long-run performance?
The Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) How should the company choose a product positioning and advertising strategy that maximizes its long-run performance? How should the company coordinate the marketing, engineering, and finance functions to determine the optimal mix of products and product designs? How should the company measure the risks and returns from using a multichannel distribution strategy?
The Chief Financial Officer (CFO) - What financial criteria should be used to allocate resources across products and markets to achieve the best combination of risk and return for shareholders?
- How will the marketing policy of a given product affect the distribution of cash flows that the product generates now and in the future?
- How will the marketing policy of a given product affect the distribution of cash flows for other products in the company?
The Chief Operating Officer (COO) - How should the company develop and design bundling systems based on its market opportunities?
- What metrics should the multiproduct company or organization use to measure performance?
- How should the company distinguish between efficiency and effectiveness?
The Chief Technology Officer (CTO) - How should the company integrate the R&D and marketing functions in order to translate technology into real customer advantages?
- How should the company determine the risks and returns from choosing different product portfolios based on a particular technology?
- How can the company determine the value of the technical synergies from acquiring a target company and rank that company against its competitors?
The Chief Information Officer (CIO) - How should the company measure the performance of multichannel distribution strategies (e.g., bricks-and-mortar stores and the Internet)?
- How should the company measure the performance of its advertising strategy across conventional media and the Internet?
- How should the company measure the short- and long-run productivities of its call centers?
The Owner of a Privately-Held Company - What is the appropriate measure of risk and return to the owner from pursuing different marketing strategies?
- Should the privately-held company react modify its strategy differently from a publicly-held company when market conditions change?
- Under what conditions will product-line and/or geographical diversification (domestic or international) help the privately-held company?
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