Publications

14 Jan 2019
News

At LVMH’s Watch Division, Experience of a Different Kind

04 Oct 2016
Blog Post

The Peek Weekend Stem Cohort Experience

and English double major, I had never thought about business school. I found out about Peek serendipitously via email. My school’s career center sends out informational emails here and there and this one caught my eye. When I first read... View Details

18 Apr 2018
First Look

First Look at New Research and Ideas, April 18, 2018

counterparts. The empirical evidence presented in the chapter demonstrates that diversified business groups can add value in mature markets such as Britain. Even the much-criticized conglomerates of the... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

Web

5.2 Use of Harvard Name & Logo - MBA

must respect and maintain the integrity of the HBS name and logo. Complete identity guidelines for Harvard Business School are found on the Marketing & Communications Brand & Style Guide website . Policies &... View Details

October 2013 (Revised July 2024)
Teaching Note

Amazon in 2024

By: Sunil Gupta

Amazon launched its website in July 1995 to sell books online and by 2020 it has grown to become a digital giant with over $280 billion in annual sales. A large part of its growth came from expanding into a variety of businesses that some see as unrelated. Has it... View Details

Keywords: Internet and the Web; Marketing Strategy; Competitive Advantage; Business Model; Competitive Strategy; Growth and Development Strategy; Retail Industry

01 Dec 2018
News

In My Humble Opinion: Growth Investor

Cedric Bobo (MBA 2004) was bitten by the business bug at the age of eight, when he visited his mother, who was a secretary at FedEx’s Memphis office. “I was drawn to the creative, all-hands-on-deck energy of the place,” he says. “In 1983,... View Details

Keywords: Julia Hanna

19 Jul 2016
First Look

July 19, 2016

complicated—and instructive. Kodak suffered from a technology transition in which it lost the benefits of a learning curve to a general-purpose technology platform where there were no entry barriers. It also suffered from difficulty in scaling down its traditional... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

10 Sep 2012
HBS Case

HBS Cases: Branding Yoga

Harvard Business School Professor Rohit Deshpandé often asks his marketing students a show-stopping question: Is everything brandable—and should everything be brandable? So when he read a November 2010 New... View Details

Keywords: by Kim Girard; Entertainment & Recreation

March 2008 (Revised June 2008)
Case

Sirtris Pharmaceuticals: Living Healthier, Longer

Describes a set of key strategic decisions facing the scientific founder and CEO of a promising, early stage bio-pharmaceuticals company. Should the company establish a proposed alliance with a pharmaceutical firm? Should it create a nutraceuticals business in parallel... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Decision Choices and Conditions; Entrepreneurship; Growth and Development Strategy; Risk Management; Brands and Branding; Pharmaceutical Industry

03 May 2011
First Look

First Look: May 3

Business Review 89, no. 5 (May 2011) Abstract Although there's ample research to guide marketers in naming new products, little of it has addressed follow-on offerings, even though these make up the bulk of... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

August 2023
Case

Reimagining Hindustan Unilever (A)

By: Sunil Gupta and Rachna Tahilyani

In the fall of 2019, the CEO and MD of Hindustan Unilever (HUL), India’s largest fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) firm, is wondering what to do about their experiments to digitize distribution. Despite three years of intense efforts, their apps to empower retailers... View Details

Keywords: Experimentation; Digital Transformation; Digital Strategy; Leading Change; Distribution; Decisions; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Consumer Behavior; E-commerce; Competition; Performance; Business Strategy; Marketing; Transformation; Consumer Products Industry; Asia; India

04 Dec 2019
Book

Creating the Experimentation Organization

Business Administration at Harvard Business School, and author of the forthcoming book, Experimentation Works: The Surprising Power of Business Experiments. Booking isn’t... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

February 2009 (Revised March 2009)
Case

Publicis Groupe 2009: Toward a Digital Transformation

By: Rosabeth M. Kanter and Matthew Bird

After a series of acquisitions, Maurice Levy, the Chairman and CEO of Publicis Groupe, had created the fourth largest marketing and communications company in the world. His next major challenge was managing the firm's digital transformation. In December 2006, the... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Transformation; Financial Crisis; Globalized Firms and Management; Leading Change; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Expansion; Information Technology; Advertising Industry; Communications Industry

20 Dec 2018
Blog Post

A Time For Opportunity In Food and Agriculture

food and agribusiness is growing among MBAs at Harvard Business School. In the past couple of years, for example, membership in the student Food, Agriculture, and Water (FAW) Club has nearly doubled. To help meet that interest, on October... View Details

29 Aug 2017
Blog Post

3 Insights from My First Year at HBS

business in emerging markets based during my Tanzania consulting engagement (and broader personal experiences). It was well received by both my classmates and professors. 2. I Learned about Purpose Driven... View Details

January 2009
Background Note

Financial Networks and Informal Banking in China: From Pawnshops to Private Equity

By: Elisabeth Koll

Provides an analysis of why informal financial networks and institutions still play an extremely important role in China's economy in the 21st century. Although China has emerged as one of the fastest growing economies in the world, it still suffers from a weak... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Private Equity; Banks and Banking; Financing and Loans; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; State Ownership; Business and Government Relations; Networks; China