Customer Management - Publications - Faculty & Research

08 Jul 2021
Blog Post

Catching the Entrepreneurship Bug at HBS

Maker Scholar was born! Now I’m selling greeting cards, custom art, and really a whole lot of other stuff I make with my hands and some art supplies via Shopify and Instagram from my little home “studio” (aka my kitchen table). It’s been... View Details

01 Dec 2000
News

Latin America's Decade

Quaxar.com, an e-commerce and Internet consulting firm based in Miami, took a different approach to the matter of start-up capital. Leonel Azuela (MBA 2000), managing partner of Quaxar, explains that "we opted for a strategic partnership... View Details

Keywords: Garry Emmons and Julia Hanna; Latin America; research; infrastructure; Hospitality; Securities, Commodities, and Other Financial Investments; Finance; Management, Scientific, and Technical Consulting Services; Professional Services

November 2004 (Revised September 2019)
Background Note

The U.S. Health Club Industry in 2004

By: John R. Wells, Gabriel Ellsworth and Benjamin Weinstock

In 2004, the $16.8 billion U.S. health club industry continued its strong record of growth. There were almost 27,000 health clubs in the United States, up from 6,700 two decades earlier, and these clubs claimed 41 million members, over 14% of the U.S. population.... View Details

Keywords: Health Clubs; Fitness; Gyms; Chain; Weight Loss; Obesity; Exercise; Personal Training; Bally Total Fitness; 24 Hour Fitness; YMCA; Gold's Gym; Curves; Franchise; Franchising; Subscription; Promotional Sales; Promotions; Fixed Costs; Body; Accrual Accounting; Revenue Recognition; Buildings and Facilities; Business Growth and Maturation; Business Model; For-Profit Firms; Trends; Customers; Demographics; Age; Income; Private Equity; Financing and Loans; Profit; Revenue; Geographic Scope; Multinational Firms and Management; Health; Nutrition; Business History; Employees; Retention; Human Capital; Working Conditions; Contracts; Business or Company Management; Goals and Objectives; Growth and Development Strategy; Markets; Demand and Consumers; Supply and Industry; Industry Growth; Industry Structures; Operations; Service Operations; Franchise Ownership; Private Ownership; Public Ownership; Problems and Challenges; Sales; Salesforce Management; Situation or Environment; Opportunities; Nonprofit Organizations; Welfare; Sports; Strategy; Business Strategy; Competition; Competitive Strategy; Consolidation; Corporate Strategy; Customization and Personalization; Expansion; Segmentation; Hardware; Health Industry; United States

Citation

Educators

Purchase

01 Sep 2008
News

Mara Aspinall

1,500-person division is a leader in the emerging field of personalized medicine, which treats cancer and other diseases with customized therapies that take into account the patient’s specific genetic traits. With HBS professor Richard... View Details

Keywords: Deborah Blagg; Ambulatory Health Care Services; Health, Social Assistance

17 Feb 2015
News

The First Five Years: Justin Pasquariello (MBA 2010)

specifically, the marketing insight that customers care much more about product benefits than they do about product attributes, is very relevant as we talk about what we do and what we are learning. This insight also informs my strategic... View Details

Keywords: Health, Social Assistance

23 Sep 2014
First Look

First Look: September 23

become an iconic example of an organization with virtually no hierarchy. A 400-person organization, Valve's unique organizational form (described in detail in the case and accompanying employee handbook) includes 100% self-allocated time, no View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

12 Aug 2014
First Look

First Look: August 12

provider" offering financing solutions including debt and equity, investment banking, brokerage, and asset management services to clients in the infrastructure sector. With nearly 50% of its employees joining through acquisitions,... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

10 Apr 2007
First Look

First Look: April 10, 2007

School Case 207-084 Following a successful model in Europe, JP Morgan has introduced a set of five U.S. retail mutual funds with an investment philosophy and marketing strategy grounded in behavioral finance. The asset management group... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

25 Apr 2023
News

Class of 2022 Startups Sweep Alumni New Venture Competition

and Vanessa Royle In the end, Ilana Springer Borkenstein and Eric Gruskin, from the New York region, took the Grand Prize of $75,000 with their startup, M7 Health, an innovative nursing-workforce management platform. The Runner Up prize... View Details

Keywords: Margie Kelley

07 Aug 2007
First Look

First Look: August 7, 2007

This relationship between the tax preferences of institutional shareholders and firm payout policy could reflect dividend-averse institutions gravitating to low-dividend paying-firms or managers adapting their payout policies to the... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

01 Jun 2014
News

What’s Next

mission to develop great general managers by capitalizing on the case method. In recent years, the School has added myriad initiatives that appear to celebrate complexity rather than strategic simplicity. Please draw these initiatives... View Details

Keywords: HBS Campaign; Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools; Educational Services

Web

2018 Symposium - Race, Gender & Equity

2008). He is a past editor of the Academy of Management Review and co-founding editor of the Academy of Management Annals. Art now co-edits Research in Organizational Behavior. He is a Fellow of the Academy... View Details

23 Feb 2009
Research & Ideas

Creative Entrepreneurship in a Downturn

formation, and innovation. He is also a partner of the international management consulting firm McKinsey & Company, where he is a leader of its Innovation practice. Chakravorti has advised over 30 Fortune 500 companies on innovation,... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

Web

Day in IFC: Layla Ramirez (MBA 2017), Africa - MBA

Ethnological Museum, we arrive at the Holy Trinity Church. It was built to commemorate Ethiopia's liberation from Italian occupation and is the second most important place of worship in Ethiopia. In observance of religious customs and... View Details

10 Jul 2000
Research & Ideas

IT Links for Boundaryless Companies

of projects, to try things out, to see what works. Delivery of value is ongoing. The default in this model is action. The idea is you do custom assembly, but you put a premium on the ability of those things to fit together like Lego... View Details

Keywords: by Kenneth Liss

24 Sep 2021
Blog Post

Alumni Spotlight: Career Advice from Alums Working in Climate

around the world adapt and lead. Climate jobs have never more robust or exciting. From transportation to tech to agriculture, regardless of your experience, I’d encourage all MBAs to make climate a part of your next role." Nathan Nemon (MBA 2020), View Details

06 Dec 2021
News

Digitalization: The Key to the Future of HBS

management and delivery platform that is School-wide. Then we can think about what additional things we can do on top of those platforms—apps that anybody can build to amplify their message across the broader HBS ecosystem. This kind of... View Details

Keywords: April White

01 Mar 2008
News

Where Have All the Leaders Gone?

passenger can create his own climate zone. We customize our music and then implant the made-to-order entertainment directly into our ears. And what bigger marketing success have we seen in the past generation than the coffeehouses where... View Details

Keywords: Government

06 Aug 2014
Research & Ideas

Climbing Down from the Ivory Tower

police to protect the citizens. Olstrom dubbed the phenomenon "co-production." Since then, it has become common for organizations to treat consumers as production partners. Many high-tech firms hire existing customers to beta-test early... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Education; Health

16 Jul 2024
Research & Ideas

Weighing Digital Tradeoffs in Private Equity

“There are many more private equity firms than in the past, so it’s becoming difficult for them to generate returns and add value,” says Brian Baik, an assistant professor in the Accounting and Management Unit at Harvard Business School.... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Financial Services

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