Ananth Raman

Foundation Professor of Business Logistics at Harvard Business School

Retailers can offer great product selection and value, but those who lack empathy for their customers are at risk of losing them, says professor Ananth Raman.

There’s a famous line from the movie The Godfather, which is often repeated in corporate settings: “This is business, not personal.” Ironically, though, that statement is actually bad business advice.

During the Consortium for Operational Excellence in Retailing (COER) conference held May 10-11 at Harvard Business School, professor Ananth Raman discussed the importance of empathy in customer-facing business.

Eilene Zimmerman

An author finds what it takes to be a successful entrepreneur…Five years ago, Amy Wilkinson was attending a birthday party in New York City when she looked around at the prominent guests and saw several well-known entrepreneurs.

They included the founders of Google, eBay, and Gilt Groupe.That got Wilkinson, a fellow in the White House Trade Office at the time, thinking. She wondered what had made these entrepreneurs successful when so many others had failed.

Klaus E. Meyer

Professor of Strategy and International Business; Director of CEIBS Research Centre for Emerging Market Studies

Is there ever anything to be gained from buying a brand that’s left for dead?

When I first read about Pearl River Piano, it was a story about an acquisition of a famous German piano maker named Ritmüller that helped Pearl River to advance in the premium segment. Yet, there was a little problem: Ritmüller was supposed to be from the city of Göttingen and even though I had lived there for five years, I had never heard the name. So, I called an expert on the German music industry, and he hadn’t heard about the company either. Now I was intrigued, and did what professors do when the facts don’t fit: I dug into the archives. It turns out the real story is much more interesting.

Julie Irwin

Professor of Marketing and Business, Government and Society McCombs School of Business, The University of Texas at Austin

The other night I watched Raymond Reddington, fictional star of the TV series The Blacklist, pull off another impossible plotline without breaking a sweat, explaining calmly to one of his minions that the key to winning is to “value loyalty above all else.”

The notion of loyalty as a protective force that leads to great success is so much a part of how we think about leadership that it is very easy to accept, even when it is not espoused by someone as exceptionally interesting to watch as James Spader.

I would contend that loyalty is linked with success in many people’s minds because the archetypal successful leader always demands utmost loyalty and in turn this demand is linked with a special competence. Remain loyal, the story goes, things will go well.