IESE Insight - Service and Operations Management

What kind of relationship should I have with Amazon?

Jané, Joan; Sabrià, Frederic Getting onto Amazon's e-commerce platform usually sends sales skyrocketing. But, let the seller beware: there are strings attached.

How to run companies with the stroke of a hashtag

Llopis, Jaume Twitter has changed how we communication. The book 500 tweets for better management gathers thoughtful messages about the economy and business management from the active account of IESE's Jaume Llopis.

A book for all your New Year's resolutions

This year, hold yourself accountable to all your professional goals.

The Dangers of Payment Variability for Supply Chains

Serrano, Alejandro; Oliva, Rogelio; Kraiselburd, Santiago Today's companies are relying more heavily on trade credit, which amplifies the risk of financial contagion in a supply chain. A new model follows financial flows to explain the propagation and amplification of payment variability -- and risk -- throughout supply chains.

How to Optimize Your Assortment Strategy to Reduce Suppliers' Prices

Heese, Sebastian; Martínez de Albéniz, Victor For retailers, rationalizing inventory assortment makes sense to optimize profits, adjusting supply to demand. But note that assortment strategies can also be used to drive competition between suppliers for better pricing, as Víctor Martínez de Albéniz and Sebastian Heese explain.

How Design Can Boost Social Impact and Business Results

Sosa, Manuel E. Many managers approach problems with an engineering mindset: build it the right way and make sure it works. Designers, on the other hand, approach problems with the question: are we building the right thing in the first place? In this article, Manuel E. Sosa of INSEAD discusses how companies can build a design culture to boost business results while solving complex social challenges.

Mathematical Models for Fine Arts

Martínez de Albéniz, Victor; Valdivia, Ana Even art museums can benefit from the quantitative methods developed to optimize retail sales, says professor Víctor Martínez de Albéniz. To boost museum traffic, here are some tips for planning exhibits -- and suggestions for further applications in theater, TV news and beyond.

Rethinking the Funnel for the Omnichannel Age

D'Andrea, Guillermo Wearables, self-driving cars, AI: these trends are triggering a seismic shift in consumer patterns toward a constantly connected and engaged omnichannel model. From his research on retail sector trends and digitization, the author offers a series of tips so that brands and businesses can adapt to the consumer of the future.

Connected Robots: Industry 4.0, Automation, and Why We Need to Let the Robots Communicate

Lampa, Stefan; Sachon, Marc Robotics is an industry game-changer, but what implications does this have in practice, from staffing to performance metrics? IESE's Marc Sachon speaks to Stefan Lampa, Chief Executive Officer of Kuka Robotics, about today's robots and how they're going to change the future for all of us tomorrow.

Buyers Helping Suppliers to Boost Business for All

Tunca, Tunay; Zhu, Weiming It's a win-win situation. When big buyers help smaller suppliers secure financing, costs go down, order fill rates climb, and the whole supply chain benefits -- with a double-digit (11.8 percent) boost to channel profits. Weiming Zhu's practical research on supplier financing is especially relevant in developing economies, such as China.