Publications

01 Sep 2017
News

Case Study: Confidence Builder

enrolled in US colleges and universities. The Question: Confi’s online health resource is marketed directly to students, but the go-to-market strategy for its sexual assault prevention program is less clear. How can Confi break into the... View Details

Keywords: April White; Confi; Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools; Educational Services

11 Jan 2019
News

Case Study: Beating Bias

school years and more recently at Nickelodeon’s strategy department, Patel realized he (like many others) had been consuming media that only confirmed his own political bias and, in so doing, had failed to get the full picture of the... View Details

Keywords: Jen McFarland Flint

10 Aug 2015
News

A Talent Pipeline for Society’s Challenges

volunteered in high school, painting abandoned houses as part of Operation Brush Up, in Flint, Michigan. At the University of Michigan, she launched several service organizations, including the university’s first web-based program that... View Details

Keywords: Jill Radsken

23 Oct 2015
News

Staples Founder Thomas Stemberg Dies at 66

Keywords: General Merchandise Stores; Retail Trade

October 1993 (Revised February 1995)
Case

MCI Vision (A) (Condensed)

By: Frank V. Cespedes

Concerns the development, introduction, and first-year sales performance of Vision, a telecommunications service aimed at small- and medium-sized businesses. Introduced in 1990, Vision surpassed goals in that year, but was significantly below target in the first... View Details

Keywords: Change Management; Cost vs Benefits; Decision Choices and Conditions; Goals and Objectives; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Marketing Strategy; Product; Sales; Competitive Strategy; Valuation

09 Dec 2015
Research Event

When Hosts Attack: The Competitive Threat of Online Platforms

are building their services around these platforms,” said Harvard Business School assistant professor Feng Zhu, during a presentation at Future Assembly, an event at Harvard Business School where business leaders and academics discussed the challenges of View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Retail; Technology; Web Services

02 Dec 2020
News

Nine Ways to Have a Better 2021

Yes, we know it shouldn’t be too difficult to improve on 2020. But just to be sure, we drew on the knowledge, experience, and expertise of HBS faculty and alumni to gather nine strategies to put you over the top, whatever the year ahead... View Details

Profile

Jeremy Lipstein

exposure "to operations you don't see from the financial side," Jeremy looked for a program that welcomed younger candidates. "I felt it was the right time to go back to school," he says, "even though it was... View Details

22 Aug 2017
First Look

First Look at New Research and Ideas, August 23

industrial production (Alfaro and Chen, 2014). Using a unique worldwide plant-level dataset that reports detailed location, ownership, and operation information for plants in over 100 countries, we construct a spatially continuous index... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

April 1988 (Revised September 1992)
Case

Frito-Lay, Inc.: The Backhaul Decision

By: Janice H. Hammond

Prior to the Motor Carrier Act of 1980, companies with private trucking fleets were generally prohibited from selling transportation services to other companies. The deregulation of the trucking industry in 1980 allowed private carriers to offer for-hire transportation... View Details

Keywords: Cost Management; Revenue; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Marketing Strategy; Distribution; Service Operations; Sales; Salesforce Management; Transportation; Food and Beverage Industry

29 Jul 2010
News

Yes, You Can Raise Prices in a Downturn

Keywords: Ben Shapiro, Frank Cespedes; Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools; Educational Services

01 Aug 2011
Research & Ideas

Immigrant Innovators: Job Stealers or Job Creators?

The House Subcommittee on Immigration Policy and Enforcement met recently to hash out concerns related to the H-1B program, one of the most controversial of foreign visa topics in the United States. At issue was a stubborn question that politicians, corporations,... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Technology

February 1985 (Revised August 2008)
Case

Arrow Electronics

Arrow Electronics is the fastest growing distributor of electronic components in North America and the second largest. Its capital structure policy of heavy reliance on debt financing contrasts sharply with that of its leading competitor, Arnet. Students are asked to... View Details

Keywords: Borrowing and Debt; Capital Structure; Financial Management; Risk Management; Distribution; Competition; Hardware; Electronics Industry; United States

May 2010
Article

Does Product Market Competition Lead Firms to Decentralize?

By: Nicholas Bloom, Raffaella Sadun and John Van Reenen

There is a widespread sense that over the last two decades firms have been decentralizing decisions to employees further down the managerial hierarchy. Economists have developed a range of theories to account for delegation, but there is less empirical evidence,... View Details

Keywords: Product; Markets; Competition; Business Ventures; Geographic Location; Employees; Research; Programs; Decisions

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April 2001 (Revised January 2003)
Case

Robert Shapiro and Monsanto

Traces Monsanto's efforts to become a global biotech powerhouse under Shapiro's leadership. Examines how his crusade to save the world through genetic modification foundered. View Details

Keywords: Genetics; Supply Chain Management; Alliances; Global Strategy; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Biotechnology Industry

September 1988 (Revised June 1993)
Case

Ring Medical

By: V. Kasturi Rangan

Describes the progress of a new product launch (HCS-100, a hospital communication system). Ring Medical has sold only five systems in six months against an annual target of 30. There is a lack of agreement internally on how the new product effort should be organized.... View Details

Keywords: Conferences; Marketing Strategy; Product Launch; Distribution Channels; Performance