Harvard Business Review

AUGUST 11, 2011

When stock markets gyrate and growth prospects darken, it's tempting to rein in innovation programs and hoard cash. Management has made promises to senior executives about what a project will achieve, and fixed costs have built up because they looked prudent in comparison to planned revenues.

Fixed Costs 15

Fixed Costs Travel Revenue Assets 15

Harvard Business Review

APRIL 6, 2016

In many industries, the capital required to build an asset of minimum efficient scale is growing. For instance, the cost of building and equipping a leading-edge semiconductor fab has climbed to $7 billion, as the technology required to make more advanced chips is getting more complex. Model 2: Asset capacity pooling.

Assets 12

Assets Operations Insurance Telecommunications 12

Harvard Business Review

SEPTEMBER 9, 2015

During an economic crisis, the exaggerated decline in orders can be especially damaging to upstream suppliers that have high fixed costs tied to production assets. It reached a peak on June 12 and then proceeded to lose over 40% of its value by the end of August despite efforts by the Chinese government to prop up the market.

Sales 15

Sales Sales Operations Fixed Costs 15

Harvard Business Review

FEBRUARY 24, 2015

The first category is exogenous factors over which the business has little control: the growth of the markets into which it sells; the competitive intensity and thus the average profitability of the industry in which it operates; or the fragmentation of its industry and thus the scope for a growth-by-acquisition approach.

Assets 11

Assets Revenue Energy Fixed Costs 11

Harvard Business Review

SEPTEMBER 4, 2013

For example, a decade ago, it''s unlikely that small-business owners would have told you that they needed a flexible way to host data and applications, one that preferably turned the fixed cost of computer hardware into a variable cost of renting capacity. When the company rides an enabling trend.

Fixed Costs 8

Fixed Costs Variable Costs Assets Banking 8

Harvard Business Review

APRIL 5, 2017

However, firms can efficiently increase margin growth without much revenue growth by managing to squeeze out their fixed costs to service the same level of output. What if concentrated market power of a few companies in an industry has made these companies more profitable than usual? Are all share repurchases myopic?

Metrics 11

Metrics Cash Flow Revenue Compensation 11

Harvard Business Review

NOVEMBER 10, 2016

As Marshall Van Alstyne, Geoffrey Parker, and Sangeet Choudary articulated recently in HBR , “With a platform, the critical asset is the community and the resources of its members.” On any given day in America, 40% of hospital beds lie empty, their enormous fixed costs weighing heavily on the system.

Hospitality 12

Hospitality Administration Transportation Fixed Costs 12