Michael Porter regarded the selection of a defendable position within an industry as the end result of a competitive strategic analysis. He argued that successful, profitable companies generally choose to compete on either low costs or by differentiating their products to meet specific customer needs. Although these two strategic options are mutually exclusive,...

Henri Fayol, the father of the school of Systematic Management, was motivated to create a theoretical foundation for a managerial educational program based on his experience as a successful managing director of a mining company. In his day, managers had no formal training and he observed that the increasing complexity of organisations would require more...

In the early 1970's, the industrial marketing professors Frederick E. Webster and Yoram Wind, developed the 'buying centre' concept in order to structure large scale sales in complex corporate environments. In the early 1980's, Thomas Bonoma expanded their original list of five roles with the role of initiator. The concept then classified six buying roles...

In the early 1980s, the American communication researchers, Steil, Watson & Barker, developed the SIER hierarchy of active listening based on their observation that people recall only about 50% of the message immediately after hearing it and only 25% after two days. Steil, Watson & Barker built upon Claude Shannon and Warren Weaver's general model...