Publications

August 1987 (Revised June 1992)
Case

Adolph Coors in the Brewing Industry

Describes a company that had traditionally followed a strategy quite distinct from its major competitors', its eventual decision to imitate them, and its subsequent performance. View Details

Keywords: Competitive Strategy; Performance; Food and Beverage Industry

October 2016 (Revised November 2016)
Case

DO & CO: Gourmet Entertainment

By: Juan Alcácer and Esel Çekin

This case is about a global catering, restaurant, and hospitality company, DO & CO, growing geographically with its existing businesses while also adding new brands to its portfolio. The company had $1 billion in revenues in 2015 from its three divisions: airline... View Details

December 2011
Case

Keurig: Confidential Information for Negotiation with Green Mountain Coffee Roasters

By: Thomas R. Eisenmann, Shikhar Ghosh and James K. Sebenius

Case provides confidential information for students assuming the role of senior executives of Keurig, a startup that has developed an innovative "portion pack" coffee brewing solution, in a negotiation to license technology to Green Mountain Coffee Roasters (GMCR). The... View Details

Keywords: Negotiation; Food and Beverage Industry

May 2020
Teaching Note

Kraft Heinz: The $8 Billion Brand Write-Down

By: Jill Avery

Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 519-076. On Friday, February 22, 2019, following an unexpected and disappointing earnings report, The Kraft Heinz Company’s stock price fell 27%, wiping out $16 billion in market value. CEO Bernardo Hees had announced that the company had... View Details

Keywords: Marketing; Marketing Strategy; Brands and Branding; Food and Beverage Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; United States

April 1992
Supplement

Prelude Corp.: Afterthoughts

By: Norman A. Berg

Commentary by an executive familiar with the industry on what went wrong at Prelude and what the difficulties are in creating economies of scale in the lobster fishing industry. View Details

Keywords: Management; Problems and Challenges; Cost Management; Food and Beverage Industry

16 Dec 2011
News

A Texan in Tokyo

Keywords: Food Services and Drinking Places; Food Services and Drinking Places

21 May 2018
Blog Post

Harnessing The Power of Collaboration to Create Opportunity in Chicago

high and access to fresh food is limited. To deepen Accion’s impact and with an eye towards Accion’s long term sustainability, I spent the better part of the last four years... View Details

Keywords: Nonprofit / Government

28 Aug 2012
First Look

First Look: August 28

while more equal ones dislike competitive groups and do not necessarily respect them as competent. Unequal societies may need ambivalence for system stability: income inequality compensates groups with partially positive social images.... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

February 2023 (Revised February 2024)
Case

Doing Business in Accra, Ghana

By: Hakeem Belo-Osagie, Leonard Schlesinger and Namrata Arora

This case examines the challenges and opportunities of doing business in Ghana. It highlights Ghana economic transformation in the decades leading up to 2024 in the context of its history, culture, and politics. The case gives an overview of some of the main obstacles... View Details

Keywords: Business History; Business and Government Relations; Technological Innovation; Foreign Direct Investment; Economic Growth; Financial Crisis; Agribusiness; Food and Beverage Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; Ghana

August 2008 (Revised June 2010)
Case

Concha y Toro

By: Rohit Deshpande, Gustavo A. Herrero and Ezequiel Reficco

Chile's largest wine producer faces a price versus value positioning problem. Its highest quality wines are not priced competitively at retail because "Made in Chile" connotes great value and low price. View Details

Keywords: Price; Brands and Branding; Product Positioning; Value; Food and Beverage Industry; Chile

08 Oct 2014
Research & Ideas

Who Is the Chief Sustainability Officer?

move on, become more ambitious." Nike and Dow Chemical are examples of companies that have made it to the innovation stage. After Nike faced accusations about violations of human rights by... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Manufacturing

January 2003 (Revised December 2003)
Case

Joint Juice

Focuses on Joint Juice, a start-up in the new-age beverage category. The company has a patented formula for producing a glucosamine beverage, the only one on the market. (Glucosamine is a nutritional supplement believed to help rejuvenate joints and treat arthritis.)... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Growth and Development Strategy; Business or Company Management; Competitive Strategy; Expansion; Corporate Strategy; Industry Structures; Entrepreneurship; Food and Beverage Industry

02 Jan 2018
Op-Ed

'Dear Working Knowledge'--Our Favorite Reader Comments of the Year

of life in the home--should be viewed as a miserable chore. I look forward to coming home from work and spending time mindfully cooking fresh foods and ... yes, even mindfully... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

25 Apr 2016
News

Trail Blazer

Photography by Alexander Rubin Chuck McMinn (MBA 1978) has worked at enough in startups to know that the only guarantee in technology is that today’s hot product will eventually be replaced by more innovative technology. That’s why McMinn, founder View Details

Keywords: Jill Radsken; Food and Beverage Stores; Food and Beverage Stores; Food and Beverage Stores; Food and Beverage Stores

09 Aug 2010
Research & Ideas

How to Speed Up Energy Innovation

Is there a special sauce for stimulating innovation in the energy sector, a concoction to spur cost-effective developments toward solving the climate change problem? HBS professor Rebecca Henderson doesn't claim to know all the ingredients for that special sauce. But... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Energy; Utilities

22 Nov 2011
First Look

First Look: November 22

case:http://cb.hbsp.harvard.edu/cb/product/511137-PDF-ENG The K-Dow Petrochemicals Joint Venture Guhan Subramanian, James K. Sebenius, Phillip Andrews, and Rhea GhoshHarvard Business School Case 912-002 In 2007, the Dow View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

March 2011
Case

Cash Flow Productivity at PepsiCo: Communicating Value to Retailers

PepsiCo developed a new metric that better measured the value added by Pepsi products than did gross margin, the traditional metric used by retailers to determine shelf space and promotional activity. The new metric, cash flow productivity, captured the value of... View Details

Keywords: Customer Relationship Management; Cash Flow; Measurement and Metrics; Distribution; Performance Productivity; Value Creation; Food and Beverage Industry; Food and Beverage Industry

Find at Harvard

15 Sep 2020
Blog Post

One Month into the New MS/MBA Biotech

Harvard’s new MS/MBA Biotechnology: Life Sciences joint degree program confers an MBA from Harvard Business School and a Master of Science from the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences View Details

April 1996 (Revised June 2000)
Case

Boston Beer Company, Inc., The

Capital markets may have overcapitalized the craft brewing industry during a flurry of new IPOs. In the context of this "hot" IPO market each individual company's valuation may seem reasonable. However, after careful analysis of each company's financial statement and... View Details

Keywords: Initial Public Offering; Analysis; Valuation; Industry Growth; Food and Beverage Industry; Boston