Publications

May 1986
Supplement

Gillette Co.: Dry Idea Advertising (A), Video

Presents an audiovisual account of the five year struggle to solve creative problems on the Gillette Co.'s Dry Idea brand antiperspirant. The Dry Idea creative review is divided into three parts: 1) review of early advertising, 2) reenactment of a 1983 meeting attended... View Details

Keywords: Advertising; Consumer Products Industry

December 2000 (Revised December 2016)
Technical Note

Valuing Companies in Corporate Restructurings: Technical Note

By: Stuart C. Gilson

This case provides a technical overview of different valuation techniques for use in valuing companies in corporate restructuring. Techniques covered include adjusted present value, WACC, capital cash flow, and discounted cash flow valuation. Specific numerical... View Details

Keywords: Restructuring; Capital; Cash Flow; Interest Rates; Valuation

January 2015 (Revised July 2019)
Case

CVS Health: Promoting Drug Adherence

By: Leslie John, John Quelch and Robert Huckman

Email mking@hbs.edu for a courtesy copy.

The case describes a program that CVS Health recently implemented to improve medication adherence, an important problem from a societal, public policy, and firm... View Details

Article

How Local Context Shapes Digital Business Abroad

By: William R. Kerr

This article identifies how digital businesses need to be adapted to the local environment in which they are being applied. Core ideas include the development of strong barriers to entry, the types of network effects encountered, and the localization of business... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Information Technology; Geographic Location; Market Entry and Exit; Adaptation; Entrepreneurship; Network Effects

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April 2006
Background Note

Designing Sustainable Service Models

By: Frances X. Frei

Taught as the second module in a Harvard Business School course on Managing Service Operations. Addresses the challenge of designing service models that effectively incorporate a customer operating role, as well as how to align operations to deliver value to both the... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Customers; Design; Managerial Roles; Consumer Behavior; Service Operations; Power and Influence; Value

June 2003 (Revised August 2003)
Case

Pension Policy at The Boots Company PLC

By: Luis M. Viceira and Akiko M. Mitsui

In early 2000, the trustees of the pension scheme at Boots considered a proposal to move 100% of the pension assets into a bond portfolio, which would be passively managed. The Boots Co. PLC was a leading retailer of cosmetics and toiletries in the United Kingdom, and... View Details

Keywords: Performance Productivity; Employees; Asset Management; Capital Structure; Investment Portfolio; Consumer Products Industry; United Kingdom

March 2013
Case

Singapore Metals Limited

By: John T. Gourville

Singapore Metals Limited (SML) has declining sales but has developed a new product (curled metal pile driver pads) that, in field tests, delivers customer benefits that are many times SML's manufacturing costs. Jonathan Lee and Alex Tan of SML's Engineered Products... View Details

Keywords: Metals and Minerals; Marketing Strategy; Price; Business Strategy; Product Development; Consumer Products Industry; Consumer Products Industry; Singapore

25 Aug 2003
Research & Ideas

Studying Japan from the Inside

Masako Egawa (HBS MBA '86) discusses the evolution of the JRO and of Japan itself in this e-mail interview. Churchwell: What has been the most interesting company to write... View Details

Keywords: by Cynthia Churchwell

13 Jun 2018
Working Paper Summaries

Learning to Become a Taste Expert

Keywords: by Kathryn A. Latour and John A. Deighton; Food & Beverage

21 Mar 2011
Research & Ideas

Are We Thinking Too Little, or Too Much?

The most captivating item in Michael Norton's office is a Star Wars The Force Trainer, a toy that allows would-be Jedi warriors to levitate a Ping-Pong ball within a tube using only the power of focused thinking. Norton, a marketing... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

28 Oct 2015
Research & Ideas

A Dedication to Creation: India's Ad Man Ranjan Kapur

is a significantly lower image brand; the consumer doesn’t see a connection. It’s as if Levi decided to make a fancy Italian suit. I’m not going to believe in the brand even if they make a nice suit, because my image View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Advertising

Spring 2013
Article

Salience in Quality Disclosure: Evidence from the U.S. News College Rankings

By: Michael Luca and Jonathan Smith

How do rankings affect demand? This paper investigates the impact of college rankings, and the visibility of those rankings, on students' application decisions. Using natural experiments from U.S. News and World Report College Rankings, we present two main... View Details

Keywords: Rank and Position; Demand and Consumers; Quality; Decisions; Newspapers; United States

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14 Nov 2016
Op-Ed

5 Lessons I Hope Marketers Don’t Learn from Donald Trump

If marketing is a profession, and I hope it is, then I suggest there are five rules that marketers should not follow in the interests of self-respect and respect for the profession. It pays to pander. No it... View Details

Keywords: by John A. Deighton

24 Apr 2014
News

Addressing roadblocks to innovation in health care

convenes health care management educators to develop and implement new curricula for health care management education. She also recommends policy changes, such as standards for health care IT and transparency to consumers on the price and... View Details

January 2020
Case

The June Oven

By: Leonard A. Schlesinger and Christian Godwin

The June Oven was a smart oven which was capable of identifying food and cooking it accordingly. This type of smart oven represented the next step in the long history of oven and stove development. Due to the widespread use of traditional ovens, the market for the June... View Details

November 2002 (Revised June 2003)
Case

Corning, Inc.: Technology Strategy in 2003

By: Rebecca Henderson

Corning, Inc. has a 150-year history of building a strategy around innovation. Founded as a glass manufacturer in 1851, the company quickly established itself as a maker of specialty glass products and over the next 100 years diversified into light bulbs, television,... View Details

Keywords: Information Technology; Strategy; Innovation Strategy; Situation or Environment; Research and Development; Consumer Products Industry; United States

November 1998 (Revised November 1999)
Case

British Sugar in China

By: Ray A. Goldberg, Carin-Isabel Knoop and Srinivas Sunder

British Sugar, the first major diversification of Associated British Foods, is entering China as part of the global sweetener, starch, and ingredient strategy. View Details

Keywords: Trade; Food; Globalization; Marketing Strategy; Market Entry and Exit; Diversification; Consumer Products Industry; China; United Kingdom