Impact case study database

The route to impact has largely been through the dissemination of Cable’s ideas and findings to a broader audience through the book Alive at Work: The Neuroscience of Helping Your People Love What They Do [3.6]. As a consequence, the results and insights generated by the research [3.1] [3.2] [3.3] [3.4] [3.5] have been used by companies around the world to raise staff morale and productivity.

Selling nearly 40,000 copies across the world, the book’s success has provided a platform for Cable to speak directly to companies. From 2018-2019 he accepted invitations to address senior staff at 18 different firms, including Facebook, MetLife, Ericsson, BMW, Estee Lauder and Louis Vuitton.

Significant numbers of senior business leaders have read the book themselves and changed their practice as a result – at the banking group HSBC for example. The UK frozen food company COOK organised an event for 120 team leaders based around principles from the book. James Rutter, the company’s chief creative officer, who read the book and organised the event, says: “It has had a real impact on us at COOK.” The research, he adds, has: “really helped shape how we’ve gone about seeking to enrich and deepen our culture over the past 12 months”. [5.1]

Another example of the research having impact was the Indian call centre company Wipro. A field project there [3.3] showed that giving new starters an hour dedicated to asking them to talk about their strengths and to explore times when they had been most successful at work had a surprisingly large effect. Most strikingly, it reduced staff turnover by a third, compared to employees who received the company’s standard orientation, which instead focused on corporate values and behaviours. Wipro managers were so impressed (the company employs 30 new people each day and turnover is a significant cost) that they scaled up the results of the field trial and, following consultation with Cable, introduced the practice into the call centre organization in 2013.

Another strong example of impact is the Netherlands-based recruitment consultants Randstad. It has incorporated Cable’s findings into leadership training for 1,000 senior staff and integrated the “best self” idea [3.3] into its Customer Delight programme across 14 countries. The company says: “The impact of the best self is such an energizing moment. It lights up the eyes and creates a completely different energy for the rest of the training”. [5.2] The company adds: “The work of Dan Cable has been helping Randstad transform and will continue to be very valuable to Randstad in the future.” [5.2]

The research has also generated much interest in the media – both popular and business publications. Dozens of articles have appeared from Psychology Today to Forbes. [5.3] Four pieces Cable published on the website of the Harvard Business Review have together reached 1 million page views. A piece on humble leadership alone has more than 700,000. “ That’s amazing,” says Kevin Evers of the HBR. [5.4]

The research Rey presented in 2013, which showed for the first time that the world’s financial system runs as a cycle largely controlled by US monetary policy, was provocative, widely discussed and has proven to be very influential at the highest levels.

Following the high-profile launch of her idea [3.1], Rey has been invited to give several highly prestigious lectures on this research such as the Mundell Fleming Lecture at the IMF in 2014 (first woman to give it; 2013 speaker Paul Krugman, 2015 speaker Ben Bernanke) [5.1], the Paolo Baffi lecture at the Banca d’Italia (first woman) in 2019 [5.2], the Andrew Crockett Memorial Lecture at the Bank for International Settlement (first woman) in 2017 [5.3]. The IMF constructed its entire 2017 Annual Research Conference on the concept of the “global financial cycle” that was introduced by Rey’s research [5.4].

Backed with solid academic research, Rey’s efforts to discuss and share the findings placed her idea firmly at the top of the global economic agenda.

Because many variables combine to inform and steer economic policies, such as the setting of national interest rates, it is difficult to draw a straight line of cause and effect between Rey’s academic research and specific rate setting or macroprudential decisions. As such, the impact of the research is best indicated by the reach and influence that the results have had on those who do make such decisions. The research has also helped shape the new integrated policy framework of the International Monetary Fund.

For example, Janet Yellen, Chair of the US Federal Reserve from 2014-2018, says:

“Hélène Rey’s research on the global financial cycle and the trilemma has been important in informing Federal Open Market Committee discussions especially about the effect of US monetary policy on the rest of the world. It has also influenced our thinking about the effect of monetary policy in risk taking in international financial markets.” [5.5]

“This line of research is interesting and important. Given the sometimes severe consequences of financial instability, we have to take these issues very seriously,” says Ben Bernanke, also a former US Federal Reserve Chair. [5.6]

“The presence of borrowers and lenders operating in multiple currencies and in multiple countries creates multiple channels through which developments in financial conditions can be transmitted across countries,” says Mark Carney, former governor of the Bank of England and Chair of the Financial Stability Board and since 2019, UN special envoy for climate action and finance.

“Hélène Rey has been a key proponent of the importance of such channels,” he says. [5.7] The research made “an influential contribution to the discussions at the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee.” [5.8]

The research “has helped transform central bank thinking on the international transmission of monetary policy” says Benoît Cœuré, Head of the BIS Innovation Hub and former member of the Executive Board, European Central Bank. [5.9]

He adds: “Professor Rey’s research on the Mundell trilemma and her concept of a “global financial cycle” have led central bankers to qualify their traditional views about monetary policy independence and flexible exchange rates, and have been very influential. We used them at the European Central Bank to understand the international consequences of our conventional and non-conventional monetary policy measures. I have myself referred to Professor Rey’s research in several public speeches as ECB Executive Board member.“

The research has changed how the IMF operates. IMF Chief Economist Gita Gopinath says: “Professor Rey’s research has been very useful for us. So much so that her insights have been incorporated in the new analytical Integrated Policy Framework of the Fund. We highlight in this new conceptual model the possible role of foreign exchange intervention and capital flow measures to improve monetary autonomy following shocks to international risk appetite. This is in accordance with Professor Rey’s work. This new conceptual framework will, subject to approval from the Board, be gradually rolled out to help our policy advice to emerging markets and advanced economies.” [5.10]

The impact of this research has been driven by wide dissemination and discussion of the findings and by presenting practical steps for firms to follow. For example, Birkinshaw synthesised the research results [3.1][3.2][3.3] into two books that provide explicit guidance to companies on how to transition from the classical ‘industrial era’ model of management to the ‘digital era’ model that is popular among today’s technology firms such as Google and Facebook. The first book Reinventing Management [5.1] defines the specific dimensions that executives should focus on when seeking to develop new ways of working, for example how coordination is achieved, how decisions are made, and how objectives are set. This book also lays out an experiment-based methodology to help executives put these innovative ideas into practice.

The second book Fast/Forward [5.2] articulates a fully-fledged model: the adhocracy, as an alternative to bureaucracy or meritocracy, and explains the elements of this adhocracy model, for example the need to structure operations around market-based opportunities.

Both sold more than 10,000 copies, and Fast/Forward won a Silver prize for business theory in the Axiom business book awards in 2018. [5.3]

The ideas developed in the academic studies and presented in the two books have significantly influenced corporations. For example, the Brazilian firm TecBan, which provides ATMs, armoured trucks and other services to banks across the country and which employs 6,500 people, has used Birkinshaw’s research to re-organise its operations [5.4]. Jaques Rosenzvaig, CEO of TecBan, says the research findings have “driven the company's cultural transformation by bringing the importance of balancing bureaucracy, meritocracy and adhocracy in our management model”. Tangible results include 80 ideas suggested by staff to make processes simpler and more productive, and revenue growth in 2019 of 12% and 88% of staff reporting high morale in the latest survey.

CI&T, a Brazilian/US consulting company also used Birkinshaw’s adhocracy framework as the blueprint for its 2017 re-organisation. Company co-founder Bruno Guicardi says they used it to create “small self-organized fluid teams organized around market opportunities.” The year after this restructuring, the company grew its revenue per employee by almost 40%, and with strong employee engagement and customer satisfaction ratings. [5.5]

Ernesto Ciorra, Chief Innovability Officer of Enel, Europe’s most valuable energy company, says Birkinshaw’s work has been “inspiring for our Group, providing a solid guideline to shape the organizational transformation through a thorough understanding of the differences between bureaucracies, meritocracies and adhocracies, and that the right organizational model should be opportunity-driven.” [5.6] Microsoft executive Ross Smith points to his 400-person team having “some of the highest engagement…and lowest attrition” across Microsoft’s software development operation, following his implementation of Birkinshaw’s ideas in Reinventing Management. [5.7]. Similar success stories have been reported by companies including Swiss (airlines) [5.10], Roche (pharmaceuticals) [5.8], and Implement (consulting) [5.9]. For example, a Roche executive cites Birkinshaw’s work – and strategies presented in Reinventing Management -- as helping them get away “from hierarchy and bureaucracy to an agile organisation.” [5.8]

The research has also had impact because it has formed the basis for an education and training programme. An innovative MOOC called “Managing the company of the future”, offered through Coursera, has been taken by more than 80,000 people since 2014, with a rating of 4.8 out of 5 from 800 raters. And the work with several companies to implement the research is included in case studies on management innovation, for example ING bank, the UK’s Government Digital Service, Bayer, and Tencent. These are offered through the London Business School and external partners including Harvard Business School and business education group The Case Centre.

The research described in section 2 has been used to design and introduce a new drug distribution system in Zambia called eZICS (Enhanced Zambia Inventory Control System). The goals of eZICS include improving drug availability for patients, creating real-time inventory and movement visibility through the supply-chain, digitising Zambia’s distribution system and reducing inventory management labour.

Following system design recommendations outlined in [3.1], its main components include smart phones with barcode scanners at every storage location that are connected to a centralised application and database, enhanced demand and supply lead-times forecasting, and enhanced inventory control policies ([5.4] and [5.5]).

The initiative started in 2010 and was supported by a partnership that ultimately included the Zambian Ministry of Health, the World Bank, the UK Government’s Department for International Development, UNICEF/UNDP, computer giant IBM and Professor Gallien’s research group (see [5.1] and historical timeline in [5.5]).

The collaboration involved a transfer of the technical knowledge and computer code which Professor Gallien’s group had developed for [3.1] and [3.2] to the IBM solution development team responsible for delivering the eZICS system to the Zambian Government for deployment by its central medical store (MSL).

Launched in 2016, the new tool transformed the supply of medicines. Dr. Bonface Fundafunda, Managing Director of MSL and advisor to the Zambian government at the time, says it “allowed an officer at any health facility, to process all the requirements that were needed to enable an informed supply chain decision to be made.” [5.2]

Professor’s Gallien’s studies were pivotal in the tool’s development, he adds. “The studies provided decision-makers with the basis for planning the supply of health products to different health facilities per region of Zambia, taking into account parameters such as climatic impact. For example, facilities being cut off due to annual flooding events.”

Positive impacts of the system included improved stock accuracy, wider transparent access to data on stock levels, orders and movements and better national planning and budgeting for medicines.

After training workshops attended by more than 100 employees, the system was extended in 2018, to cover the supply of 40 medicines across eight districts in four provinces of the country [5.3] and [5.4]. Staff at health facilities could use mobile devices with barcode scanners to record and transmit stock and usage details to a central inventory control system. Unlike the historic system, the eZICS was fully transparent, giving each district real-time information on drug stock levels at the clinics, and the ability to coordinate the transfer of supplies from one facility to another if required.

While the national deployment of eZICS has currently been paused due to funding issues among others, the system “continues to receive high praise in terms of simplicity, broad impact on management of supply chain for health products,” Fundafunda says. “It can be deployed across different types or levels of the health sector, from the low village health centre or health post, to a major referral health facility with equally complex pharmaceutical and health product management infrastructure.” Commenting on the impact of this work, he concludes “this approach enabled the Ministry and partners to start seeing assured healthcare service provision […]. By extension, the assured availability of health products made contribution to positive health outcomes for Zambia.”

Finally, eZICS also served as a pioneering project and proof of concept beyond Zambia as it was the first inventory distribution system with decentralised real-time inventory visibility to be deployed in the public sector of any sub-Saharan African country. Other countries such as the Democratic Republic of Congo have since sent missions to Lusaka in order to benefit from MSL’s experience with eZICS.

Figure 1. Research and Impact Timeline

There is growing demand among the public and policy makers for action to tackle short-term thinking in the corporate world. So, the research was timely, found a receptive audience and had direct impact on policy makers, business regulations and corporate practice.

Policy makers:

Impact on policy makers came after Edmans invested substantial effort to disseminate the findings beyond academia. He wrote an FT op-ed in 2017, an HBR article in 2018, and gave a Gresham public lecture series in 2018-9 which included a lecture dedicated to executive pay. He was the guest columnist for Economia, the magazine of the Institute for Chartered Accountants in England and Wales, in 2018 and wrote a column on executive pay reform. In 2017 he wrote and published on his own website a non-technical guide on how to reform pay that has been viewed over 10,000 times. He has also spoken at many industry conferences on pay design, for example hosted by the Investment Association, the Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators, and the Westminster Business Forum. The research findings received widespread media coverage in high profile publications. For example, they were featured in a Financial Times front page article and highlighted in both the Wall Street Journal and The Economist’s prestigious Buttonwood column.

As a result of this outreach effort, Edmans was invited to testify to the House of Commons Corporate Governance Inquiry in 2016. The subsequent select committee report, in April 2017, endorsed the findings of his research and called for equity to be cashed in “over a genuinely “long-term” period, normally at least five years”. [5.1]

The research findings were also highlighted in a November 2016 Green Paper on corporate governance from the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) [5.2]. Quoting [3.1] it said: “There is growing evidence that the usual one to three year holding period for shares provided in executive remuneration packages is too short and can incentivise short-term behaviour.” The Green Paper suggested a solution in line with the research findings: to extend the time before a CEO can cash in equity from three to five years.

Business regulations:

Following the publication of the 2016 Green Paper, in July 2018 the UK’s Financial Reporting Council revised its Corporate Governance Code, which sets principles and standards for 2,600 firms listed on the London Stock Exchange. It said firms should lengthen the time horizon for shareholdings by executives to five years, and that they should hold shares for two years after retirement. [5.3] The Financial Reporting Council invited Edmans to speak at the launch event for the new Corporate Governance Code.

Corporate practice:

Several high-profile firms including RBS and Pets at Home have switched their practices. In 2018, the multinational engineering company The Weir Group said it would make executives wait up to seven years before they could sell stock. Writing in the company’s annual report, Clare Chapman, chair of its remuneration committee, said the reform was based on academic research that indicated “pay packages with less reliance on short-term performance conditions and requiring large shareholdings, have a positive impact on investment, innovation, long-term decision making and long-term value creation.” [5.4] As Chapman explained in the Harvard Business School case study on The Weir Group’s pay reform, “Professor Alex Edmans from London Business School … assembled the strongest possible academic evidence on pay design and the link with long-term value. … This provided a strong rationale for proposals and gave the RemCo confidence in discussions with both executives and investors that our proposals had a robust underpinning.” [5.5]

Beyond the UK, in 2016 Edmans was appointed in-house corporate governance advisor to the $910bn Norwegian Sovereign Wealth Fund, which on average owns 1.3 per cent of every listed company in the world. In April 2017, the fund released guidelines that said CEOs should be made long-term shareholders because short-term incentives encouraged them to make poor decisions. [5.6] Explaining its decision, it said: “While many CEOs resist such temptations, academic research supports the notion that such behaviours exist.”

Yngve Slyngstad, head of the fund, told the Financial Times it would start pressing companies to force chief executives to own substantial stakes in their companies for at least five and preferably 10 years. [5.7]

Attributing change in the complex business world to specific academic findings should be done with caution. But Tom Gosling, then a senior partner at PwC and an expert in executive compensation who advises the BEIS and others on policy, says Edmans’ research has been instrumental in driving a rethink on short term incentives in corporate pay. “Prior to Professor Edmans’ work, these concerns had not been documented by rigorous evidence,” he says. This evidence was “ highly influential” in encouraging the BEIS to recommend the changes in the UK Corporate Code, he says. And it was “ directly influential” in the development of the Norwegian Fund’s pay guidelines. [5.8]

The 2020 book Grow the Pie won plaudits from reviewers. Andy Haldane, Chief Economist of the Bank of England, said “Alex Edmans’ superb book makes the case, compellingly and comprehensively, for a radical rethink of how companies operate and indeed why they exist. It is a tour de force”. Dame Helena Morrissey, former CEO of Newton Investment Management, wrote “This is a brilliant and timely book, taking the business case for responsible capitalism to a whole new level.” It has been presented at Talks at Google and is currently being translated into Chinese and Korean.

An important social benefit and impact of this research is to reveal a major factor that determines the effectiveness of commonly used monetary and fiscal policy interventions: the role of household mortgage debt in the transmission mechanism. This is vital information for policy makers and others because it shows that fiscal measures that affect households with a mortgage could have a more powerful effect on consumer spending than expected. In contrast, conventional wisdom said the aggregate effects of macroeconomic policies were largely driven by households with lower income.

The results have had direct impact in three ways: on policy makers, on policy and on efforts to rebuild public trust in financial systems.

Policy makers:

Policy makers in governments and central banks around the world have used both the results and the analytical techniques developed in the research to make fiscal interventions more effective. For example, the Bank of England now includes Surico’s findings on transmission of monetary policy to households in its own analyses.

Andrew Haldane, chief economist at the Bank of England, says Surico’s work is “state-of-the-art and gradually being embedded into the day-to-day analysis that institutions like the Bank of England use.” [5.1]

The European Central Bank is also using Surico’s research. The ECB is now applying the mechanisms he developed to analyse data from the Euro area economy. The initial results appear to be “broadly similar’ says Oreste Tristani, a senior adviser with the ECB, which will allow the ECB to incorporate the mechanisms and results in its work. [5.2]

Policy:

Results from the research have helped to guide ECB policy on keeping interest rates at ultra-low levels. Surico’s research [3.1] shows how low interest rates lead to a significant increase in income across society. “These scientific findings have been influential not only in the public debate, but also in in-house policy deliberations on the costs and benefits of the low interest rates policy,” Tristani says. [5.2]

The research also helped to set a specific policy in Italy: the scrapping of a property tax in 2015. “The results in Paolo’s analysis could not have been more timely from our perspective, as the discussion among members of the government, parliament and their staff had been merely political until then,” says Tommaso Nannicini, a senator of the Italian Parliament and former Chief Economic Adviser and Undersecretary of State to the Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi. [5.3]

The research was studied by the Prime Minister’s economic advisers and discussed in parliamentary committees. It provided new impetus to the idea of abolishing the property tax on the main dwelling, and a precise quantification of the economic benefits of such a policy. When Renzi’s government abolished the tax, Surico’s research was quoted in parliamentary reports and official documents. “This represents a great example of evidence-based policymaking and productive interplay between academic research and political discussion,” Nannicini says. [5.3]

Rebuilding public trust:

In a different type of impact, the research also gives a solid evidence base to efforts by the Bank of England and other experts to rebuild public trust in financial institutions. One way they are doing this is to explain how different agents in the economy – by age, wealth, income, residence etc – are personally affected by decisions and policies, and therefore how macroeconomic policies affect inequality and how inequality shapes macroeconomic policies. Surico’s research “speaks directly to this,” Haldane says. “It provides an academic perspective for central banks to lean on when setting their strategy for engaging with citizens.” [5.1]

In 2015, The Economist magazine - in its popular section on explaining economic research by academics and economists to the general public - featured Surico’s work [3.2] to support the notion that tax relief for households with mortgage debt can be an effective policy tool to stimulate a depressed economy. [5.4]

In 2015, the daily Italian newspapers with large national circulation, Il sole 24 ore, Il Corriere and Il Giornale, presented the results of Surico’s research in [3.3] as part of the social and policy discussion on the desirability of a property tax on the main dwelling. [5.5] and [5.6, 5.7]

In 2016-2018, the Bank of England Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) has used extensive references to Surico’s work [3.1] and [3.2] to explain to the general public and members of Parliament the effectiveness of monetary policy and its transmission to consumption via income effects. This has been used in both formal communications by the Bank of England Deputy Governor to Parliament and in speeches of MPC members to the general public. [5.8, 5.9]

Through the commercial firm Nowcasting Economics Limited, the research findings have been applied widely in the world of business and economics. Since 2014 several new financial institutions have used the technique. Details are commercially sensitive, but other clients include the central banks of Canada, Belgium and Slovenia. Other state agencies include the German Ministry of Economics and Energy. Many other institutions apply the method on a routine basis. For example, the influential Federal Reserve Bank of New York has used it since April 2016 to produce early estimates of GDP growth for the US economy. [5.1]

It estimates GDP growth for the current and subsequent quarter, based on data released over the course of each week, and publishes them every Friday at 11:15 a.m. on the Federal Reserve Bank of New York's public website. They explicitly state their efforts “build on” the work of Reichlin and her colleagues. [5.1]

Another significant application of the research is in Germany. Starting in January 2020, the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy uses the nowcasting technique to produce and publish real-time estimates of GDP, as a guide to the performance of the country’s economy. The Nowcasting Economics Limited team developed the relevant model in collaboration with Dr Till Strohsal, an economist with the ministry, and jointly published the results with him as a working paper in 2020. [5.2]

Dr Strohsal says: “ I cannot value enough how useful the London Business School model has been for us. The research has definitely had a big impact here.” [5.3]

Without nowcasting, GDP figures are typically only available 30-45 days after the close of a quarter. “Now we have a reliable forecast every day and that’s very useful for us to understand the direction of the economy and to fulfil our institutional duties.”

It helps the ministry comment on the state of the country’s economic performance to the media and to senior figures in government, Strohsal says. And the ministry also includes nowcast GDP estimates in its official monthly bulletins. “This really was the missing piece of the methodologies we needed,” he adds.

There are two key end-users of this information. The first is the community of economic analysts and forecasters in Germany and elsewhere. The second is the general public and business communities, who need reliable information on the state of the economy to plan and make decisions. It’s impossible to track how this information is used, Strohsal says. “But we hope and expect that it will influence firms and consumers. We know from macroeconomic theory that reliable estimates of economic growth are essential to guide spending and future investment.”

The intervention described in the research led to a direct impact - documented in [3.1] and described for practitioner and policy audiences in [3.2-3.5] - on the hundreds of firms that were part of the study, and on the individuals who were given jobs by those in the marketing training group. For example, Dawn Warden, a participant who runs a clothes shop, says that sales increased. [5.2] Another, entrepreneur Mvikeli Biyana, says: “I’ve got more contracts and I employ more people”. [5.2] Wafaa Abdurahman, who worked as a trainer for the project, says: “It created a different vibe, a different understanding, a different mindset”. [5.2]

Additionally, the research had indirect impact through the actions of entities such as the World Bank, which invest large sums in business skills training in emerging markets. Given the importance of the research findings [3.1], they were disseminated widely in World Bank and policy-maker oriented outlets [3.2-3.5], as well as in the London Business School Review [5.8] even while the core academic paper was still undergoing peer review. Results that show how marketing skills increase sales and so allow businesses to take on more staff have directly influenced the design of multi-million dollar programmes run by the World Bank to boost the economic and employment contributions of hundreds of small and start-up firms in Nigeria and Peru. Specifically, both programmes have been designed to offer access to marketing expertise, alongside the more traditional finance skills.

Bilal Zia, a senior economist at the World Bank – and a co-author on [3.1] -- notes: “The implications of this research are compelling. The World Bank alone spends over $1 billion dollars per year on business training programs. Yet the impact of these programs has been unclear. What this paper shows is not just that the impact is “there”; it also shows the mechanism of the impact: of “how” the impact happens. The insights from this study have already been applied to other World Bank projects, for example in Nigeria, where business training programs have been moulded based on the insights from this study." [5.4]

The Nigeria program ran from 2015-2018, backed by an initial $200m World Bank loan. It offered support to thousands of small and medium sized enterprises across the country, to help them expand and reach new markets. For the first time in such a project, this programme paid for marketing professionals to be made available to the firms: some two-thirds of the companies accepted the marketing help. The full results of the programme, including boosts to sales and employment, are still being processed. But early findings confirm that the introduction of the marketing skills have been beneficial and have significantly improved aspects including the use of best practice.

The Peru project started in 2020 and is funded with $50m from the World Bank. It focuses on growing some 200 innovative tech start-up firms. Again, based on the results of the academic study [3.1], the programme has been designed to make marketing support a major component.

Leo Lacovone, a lead economist with the World Bank says the results of the academic study [3.1] were a game changer. He says: “These significant financial programmes would not have been designed in this way to include marketing skills if it wasn’t for the results of the South Africa study.” Previous programmes focused on the financial aspects of running a business, such as accounting, he says. “Marketing aspects were a bit of a blind spot because there was no evidence that they had any benefit. Now there is. That makes a fundamental difference to the way we design and implement these programmes.” He expects the findings and the value of marketing skills on sales and employment will influence more programmes in the future, both those run by the World Bank and by national governments. [5.9]

The World Bank has also worked with the government of Mexico from 2016 to 2019 to design and run an exercise to improve the performance of 1,500 entrepreneurs, mostly in the service industries such as restaurant and shop owners, which offer significant opportunities to create new jobs. Marketing skills were a large component, again because the results of the study [3.1] showed their impact on sales and employment.

The UK charity Grow Movement used the results of the study to help design a $500,000 project to offer remote business consulting support to some 500 small firms in Uganda. The scheme, which used volunteers to deliver marketing and other advice over the telephone, raised sales by almost a third (28%) to an average $352 a month. [5.6]

Chris Coghlan, co-founder of the charity, said: “Because of the positive results of the work in South Africa we deliberately designed some of the Uganda projects to have a marketing focus. And I think it had a real impact in helping to grow the sales of these companies. The project was covered in the Economist and has sparked interest among other organisations who may now start remote coaching projects in developing countries.” [5.5]

The research [3.1] won the 2016 Gary L. Lilien ISMS-MSI Practice Prize, given every two years to a research project that represents the “most outstanding implementation of marketing science concepts and methods”. The award recognizes work that “had significant, verifiable and, preferably quantitative impact on the performance of the client organization.” Practice Prize Committee Chair John Roberts, Professor of Marketing at the University of New South Wales noted: “This work—as well as that of the other finalists for the award--represents the finest of what marketing scientists have to offer practitioners. Each finalist used targeted marketing science modeling approaches to help the client organization improve its profits and performance substantially.” [5.7]