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Photo of Frank V. Cespedes

Unit: Entrepreneurial Management

Contact:

(617) 495-5122

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Areas of Interest

  • business marketing
  • entrepreneurial management
  • pricing
  • sales force management

Additional Topics

  • channels of distribution
  • competitive strategy
  • cross-functional integration
  • entrepreneurial marketing
  • entrepreneurship
  • executive development
  • organizational strategy
  • strategy formulation
  • strategy implementation
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Frank V. Cespedes

MBA Class of 1973 Senior Lecturer of Business Administration

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Frank Cespedes is Senior Lecturer in the Entrepreneurial Management Unit. He received his B.A. from the City College of New York, M.S. from M.I.T. and Ph.D. from Cornell University.

At Harvard, he has developed and taught a variety of MBA and executive courses, led the Strategic Marketing Management program for senior executives, and was co-lead of the Sustainable Market Leadership program for CEOs and their leadership teams. He currently teaches the elective Entrepreneurial Sales and Marketing (ESM) course in the MBA program as well as modules in the Owner President Management (OPM) executive program and he heads the executive program on "Aligning Strategy and Sales."

Before joining the faculty, he was a Research Associate at Harvard and worked at Bain & Company, an international strategy consulting firm. From 1995 to 2007, he was Managing Partner at the Center for Executive Development (CED), a firm that won awards in the United States and Europe for its work with companies worldwide.  He has consulted to companies in many industries, is affiliated with private-equity investors, and has been a Board member of Evenflo, HALO Industries, start-up firms, and the Education for Employment Foundation (EEF), which provides career training in skills linked directly to job placement with companies in the Middle East and North Africa. 

He is the author or co-author of six books, including Aligning Strategy and Sales: The Choices, Systems, and Behaviors that Drive Effective Selling (Harvard Business Review Press, 2014), Concurrent Marketing: Integrating Product, Sales and Service(Harvard Business School Press) and Going to Market: Distribution Systems for Industrial Products (Harvard Business School Press); as well as articles in Harvard Business Review, Wall Street Journal, Strategy and Business, Business Horizons, California Management Review, International Encyclopedia of Business and Management, Journal of Managerial Issues, Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management, Marketing Encyclopedia, Organization Science, Sloan Management Review, and Strategy & Business. He has also written more than 40 case studies about companies and numerous technical notes on various business topics.

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PublicationsResearch Summary
  1. Research Summary

    Strategy Implementation: Role and Management of the Sales Force

    by Frank V. Cespedes

    My research concerns the role and management of the sales force as agents of a firm's business strategy and not only as individual or team contributors to profitable growth. This work takes the form of course development, teaching and workshops in HBS executive programs, and research publications.
  2. Research Summary

    Performance Pricing and Business Strategy

    by Frank V. Cespedes

    This research focuses on companies that have sustained high willingness-to-pay over diverse market conditions, including economic slumps. It examines how firms identify, articulate, and communicate value to selected customer groups and the organizational implications, especially the implications for sales and business development.
  3. Research Summary

    Entrepreneurial Management: Customer Discovery and Business Development

    by Frank V. Cespedes

    This research focuses on: (a) market research methods and tactics suitable to startups seeking their initial customers and validation of their initial business model; (b) guidelines for conducting visits with potential customers as part of the startup ptrocess; and (c) the issues involved in scaling a venture's sales process after validation of the firm's initial business model and acquisition of initial customers.

In the News

19 Aug 2019
Harvard Business Review
Why “Tell Them Something They Don’t Know” Is Bad Advice in B2B Sales
02 Sep 2019
Fortune
The A.I. of the Deal: These Data-Rich Startups Want to Automate Sales
24 May 2010
Wall Street Journal
Raise Your Prices!
24 May 2010
Wall Street Journal
Raise Your Prices!
26 Jul 2010
HBS Working Knowledge
Yes, You Can Raise Prices in a Downturn

See more news for Frank V. Cespedes »

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