Publications

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October 1992 (Revised July 2001)
Case

Gap, Inc., The: Building a Brand

By: Walter J. Salmon and David Wylie

Explores the circumstances under which a specialty store chain can profitably engage in large-scale non-price advertising. View Details

Keywords: Advertising; Brands and Branding; Supply Chain Management

September 1996 (Revised June 1997)
Case

QVC, Inc.

By: Jeffrey F. Rayport

Illustrates the "Service Profit Chain" in action. QVC, whose initials stand for Quality, Value,, and Convenience, demonstrates clearly how a strong customer focus can lead to establishing a strong franchise in the retail sector and a highly profitable business whose... View Details

Keywords: Customer Relationship Management; Service Delivery; Retail Industry; United States

March 2007 (Revised August 2014)
Case

Survey Masters LLC (A)

By: William J. Bruns

Partners in a service firm are reviewing results for 2006, wondering whether large or small projects are more profitable. Present reports make small projects look more profitable. However, activity-based accounting reveals that large projects are more profitable and... View Details

Keywords: Activity Based Costing and Management; Financial Reporting; Cost vs Benefits; Financial Strategy; Service Industry

February 2011 (Revised December 2022)
Supplement

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

By: Stuart C. Gilson and Sarah Abbott

One of the leading publishers of textbooks and other educational materials for the U.S. K-12 educational instruction market has suffered a dramatic decline in sales and profits in the wake of the 2008-2009 financial market crisis and economic recession, and it now... View Details

Keywords: Restructuring; Decisions; Economic Slowdown and Stagnation; Borrowing and Debt; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Profit; Crisis Management; Goals and Objectives; Sales; Competition; Publishing Industry; United States

02 Apr 2015
Research & Ideas

Digital Initiative Summit: Big Messages, Small Screens, Many Choices

comScore. Apps suck up the majority of that time. In fact, app usage alone comprises 52 percent of total digital media engagement, according to comScore. So how do companies profit from the fact that mobile users are more engaged than... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Advertising

Rawi E. Abdelal

Rawi Abdelal is the Herbert F. Johnson Professor of International Management at Harvard Business School and the Emma Bloomberg Co-Chair of the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative.

Professor Abdelal's primary expertise is international political... View Details

August 1982 (Revised January 1988)
Case

Assuming Control at Altex Aviation (A)

Two young and inexperienced MBAs buy a virtually bankrupt company. They design a decentralized control system organized around profit centers. View Details

Keywords: Restructuring; Entrepreneurship; Management Systems; Air Transportation Industry

Profile

Tony He

complex business issues. I chose HBS because I wished to learn from peers and professors from diverse backgrounds, and the MBA program offered both breadth in its coverage of management topics and the opportunity to drill into specific... View Details

Keywords: Nonprofit / Government

March 2020
Case

Cafe Kenya

By: Lynda M. Applegate and James T. Kindley

This case describes Café Kenya (CK), a Kenyan-based chain of casual quick-food restaurants. The chain was started in 2011 in Nairobi by Nekesa Kuria. Kuria started Café Kenya and grew it by reinvesting profits into company stores and through franchising. She also... View Details

Keywords: Restaurants; Entrepreneurship; Business Startups; Growth and Development Strategy; Kenya

August 2002 (Revised August 2002)
Case

Raiser Senior Services--The Stratford (A)

By: H. Kent Bowen and Alison Berkley Wagonfeld

Focuses on modifying operations to increase profitability at an upscale senior care facility in California. Jennifer Raiser, president of Raiser Senior Services, opened the Stratford in 1992 as a high-end, continuing-care retirement community. Ten years later, the... View Details

Keywords: Cost Management; Profit; Saving; Health Care and Treatment; Age; Management Teams; Problems and Challenges; Ethics; Legal Liability; Business Growth and Maturation; Health Industry; Service Industry; California

June 1975 (Revised September 2004)
Case

Angus Cartwright III

By: Kenneth J. Hatten, William J. Poorvu, Howard H. Stevenson, Arthur I. Segel and John H. Vogel, Jr.

Judy and John DeRight, looking to diversify their investment portfolios, have retained Angus Cartwright, Jr. to identify prospective real estate acquisitions. Mr. Cartwright has four potential properties that he feels merit an in-depth financial analysis. The case... View Details

Keywords: Acquisition; Cash Flow; Investment Return; Investment Portfolio; Taxation; Balanced Scorecard; Valuation

12 Jul 2011
First Look

First Look: July 12

the Use of Unverifiable Estimates in Required Goodwill Impairment Authors:Karthik Ramanna and Ross L. Watts Publication:Review of Accounting Studies (forthcoming) Abstract SFAS 142 requires managers to estimate the current fair value of... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

Robert S. Kaplan

Robert S. Kaplan is Senior Fellow and Marvin Bower Professor of Leadership Development, Emeritus at the Harvard Business School. He joined the HBS faculty in 1984 after spending 16 years on the faculty of the business school at Carnegie-Mellon University, where he... View Details

Keywords: health care; nonprofit industry

May 2003
Case

Sun Hydraulics: Leading in Tough Times (A) (Abridged)

By: Linda A. Hill and Jennifer Suesse

Sun Hydraulics, 32-year-old global hydraulics engineering and manufacturing company headquartered in Sarasota, Florida; confronts tough choices due to the economic downturn in 2001. The company leadership debates how to maintain profitability and reduce labor costs... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Culture; Mission and Purpose; Financial Crisis; Crisis Management; Manufacturing Industry; Florida

February 2009
Background Note

Basic Techniques for the Analysis of Customer Information Using Excel 2007: A Step-by-Step Approach

By: Francisco de Asis Martinez-Jerez

The objective of this note is to provide a set of easy, step-by-step guides for some analytical techniques that are useful in the analysis of cases discussed in the course "Competing and Winning through Customer Information" (CWCI). The instructions that follow use... View Details

Keywords: Customer Relationship Management; Information Management; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques

02 Nov 2019
News

American Business Schools Are Reinventing the MBA

January 2021
Case

Rio Tinto Aluminum: Can Purpose Lead to Profit?

By: David Fubini and Agastya Muthanna

This case describes the tradeoffs Rio Tinto faces as it considers investments to ensure environmentally friendly, sustainability produced aluminum with the potential risks of competitive pricing and profit loses. View Details

Keywords: Environmental Sustainability; Investment; Price; Competition; Profit; Cost vs Benefits; Mining Industry

13 Dec 2022
Interview

Why Some Start-Ups Fail to Scale

By: Jeffrey Rayport and Curt Nickisch

Managing rapid growth is a huge challenge for young businesses. Even start-ups with glowing reviews and skyrocketing sales can fail. That’s because new ventures and corporate initiatives alike have to sustain profitability at scale, according to Harvard Business School... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Growth Management; Outcome or Result; Transition

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October 2023 (Revised January 2024)
Case

McDonald's Board of Directors (A)

By: Lynn S. Paine and Will Hurwitz

In October 2019, the McDonald’s Corporation board of directors, chaired by Enrique Hernandez, Jr., gathered to learn the results of their outside counsel’s investigation into the conduct of the CEO. On the surface, the iconic fast-food chain was thriving as growing... View Details