MIT Sloan Management Review Article on When Doing Less Adds Up to More

Imagine that, as a new executive at a retail company with stagnating sales, you’re tasked with finding new ways to grow revenues. After studying the market, you propose a new line of products to be sold in all of your locations. Upon launching the new product line, however, sales aren’t as robust as expected, so you introduce price promotions and give the new lineup more prominent store placement. Yet sales still don’t budge.

When you visit stores to investigate, you find that some locations haven’t rearranged the store layout and others haven’t stocked the inventory they received weeks ago. A sales associate at one location is confused about which of your several products are new, while the manager at your most popular location tells you that overall sales have declined since the store was rearranged around the new lineup because regular customers can’t find the products they’re used to purchasing.

About the Author

Zeynep Ton (@zeynepton) is professor of the practice at the MIT Sloan School of Management and cofounder of the Good Jobs Institute. She is the author of The Case for Good Jobs: How Great Companies Bring Dignity, Pay, and Meaning to Everyone’s Work (Harvard Business Review Press, 2023).

Learn more about MIT SMR.