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Tag: Business models

  • Considering the Future of the BBC and Its Funding Model

    Considering the Future of the BBC and Its Funding Model

    September 29, 2026

    With viewership of the British Broadcasting Company (BBC) in decline, the country’s Culture Minister must recommend a new funding model for the venerated public institution which will allow the broadcaster to succeed in an increasingly competitive media environment.

    Harvard Business School senior lecturer Henry McGee and host Brian Kenny discuss the case, “The Future of the BBC: Public Ownership vs. Privatization,” and the different structures an institution like the BBC could have in order to operate in a financially sound and culturally impactful way.

  • The Store Isn’t Dead—but the Merchant Model Is

    The Store Isn’t Dead—but the Merchant Model Is

    Harvard Business Review Logo

    picture alliance/Getty Images

    The decline of many retailers reflects not the death of the physical store but the failure of the traditional merchant model, which requires retailers to forecast demand, own inventory, and absorb

    Walk through a department store at the end of a season and the signs tell a familiar story: 40% off! 60% off! Clearance! Retailers often treat these markdowns as a tactical problem, the result of the wrong product, the wrong promotion, or bad weather effects. But they are better understood as confessions. They reveal the downsides of the traditional retailing model. The retailer acted as a merchant, committed to inventory before demand was known, absorbed the risk of being wrong, and then paid for that error in margin erosion and brand equity dilution. Under this merchant model, retailers routinely take on more risk than they can handle.