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Charts & Statistics - Leadership

Airmail service starts Influence: High 30 1930 s 19 The New Deal Commercial and investment banking separated Reconstruction Finance Corp. created to combat bank and business failures Introduction of Federal Deposit Insurance SEC established Federal regulations prohibit... View Details

July 2020
Case

Amanda and Kristen: Mented Cosmetics

By: Steven Rogers, Jeffrey J. Bussgang and Alterrell Mills

The co-founders (Black HBS alumnae) of an e-commerce beauty startup explore the unmet needs within the beauty industry. This case study examines the entrepreneurial opportunities that come from identifying an underserved market, specifically within the Black community... View Details

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01 Jan 2002
News

Egon P.S. Zehnder (MBA '56)

McCann-Erickson, Inc., 1956-59 With a student loan to repay after HBS, Zehnder jumped at the advertising agency's starting salary of $7,500-the highest offer he received-plus the prospect of an international posting. By 1959, aged 29, he... View Details

10 Feb 2003
Research & Ideas

Commodity Busters: Be a Price Maker, Not a Price Taker

more than it charged light users. The original basis for pricing telephone service, including both a fixed monthly charge and a usage charge, represents the same kind of thinking. The person who chose to price advertising services as 15... View Details

Keywords: by Benson P. Shapiro

27 Jul 2009
Research & Ideas

Social Network Marketing: What Works?

When marketers want to reach users of social networks such as Facebook, MySpace, or Cyworld, they have two choices: buy advertising or start a viral campaign. New research by Harvard Business School professor Sunil Gupta suggests that... View Details

Keywords: by Sarah Jane Gilbert; Advertising; Advertising; Advertising

27 Oct 2002
Research & Ideas

Want a Happy Customer? Coordinate Sales and Marketing

The sales force can no longer passively accept and execute plans from marketing. Account managers, product managers, and advertising managers need to work together to protect profits and enhance volume in the harsh world of customer... View Details

Keywords: by Benson Shapiro

Research Summary

Clinical Trials as a setting for Health Policy and Management Research

The clinical trial marketplace is in flux. A decade ago, pharmaceutical firms almost exclusively conducted the study of their novel drug compounds within major academic medical centers. But today, industry-sponsored clinical trials are increasingly using community... View Details

04 May 2016
What Do You Think?

What Does Boaty McBoatface Tell Us About Brand Control on the Internet?

this matter was handled? What would you have done differently? Why? What do you think?--JH. References: Dina Gerdeman, Advertisers Get Serious About Playing With Their Brands,Harvard Business School Working Knowledge, hbswk.hbs.edu, May... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett; Advertising

Web

Harvard Business School

career with Cablevision Systems Corporation, becoming executive vice president of Cablevision's Rainbow Advertising Sales Company, a senior management role he fulfilled until retiring from the company in 2011. Theodore 'Ted' Wells Jr. MBA... View Details

29 Jan 2013
Research & Ideas

Creating the Perfect Super Bowl Ad

Super Bowl Sunday is sure to bring the usual barrage of clever soda, beer, and car ads featuring everyone from Vegas showgirls selling Coca-Cola to pop celebrity Psy charming us to buy pistachios Gangnam-style. But at a whopping $3.7 million per 30-second spot, perhaps... View Details

Keywords: by Kim Girard; Advertising; Advertising

March 2016 (Revised May 2018)
Case

ASOS PLC

By: John R. Wells and Gabriel Ellsworth

Launched in 2000, ASOS was one of the world’s largest online fashion specialists in 2018. Focusing on young consumers aged 16–25 years, the company offered over 85,000 items on its websites, many times more than the largest fashion stores, and added several thousand... View Details

Keywords: ASOS; AsSeenOnScreen; Online Fashion; Online Apparel; Nick Beighton; Nick Robertson; E-commerce; E-Commerce Strategy; Online Retail; Multichannel Retailing; Omnichannel; Social Media; Marketplaces; Shipping; Advertising; Digital Marketing; Business Growth and Maturation; Business Model; Business Startups; For-Profit Firms; Customer Focus and Relationships; Age; Gender; Currency Exchange Rate; Profit; Revenue; Geography; Geographic Scope; Global Range; Global Strategy; Globalized Firms and Management; Globalized Markets and Industries; Business History; Selection and Staffing; Journals and Magazines; Human Capital; Business or Company Management; Crisis Management; Goals and Objectives; Growth and Development; Growth and Development Strategy; Growth Management; Management Succession; Brands and Branding; Marketing Channels; Marketing Communications; Marketing Strategy; Product Positioning; Social Marketing; Media; Distribution; Distribution Channels; Order Taking and Fulfillment; Infrastructure; Logistics; Public Ownership; Problems and Challenges; Strategy; Adaptation; Business Strategy; Competition; Competitive Strategy; Corporate Strategy; Expansion; Vertical Integration; Segmentation; Internet and the Web; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Apparel and Accessories Industry; Fashion Industry; Retail Industry; United Kingdom; England; London

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September 2013 (Revised August 2015)
Background Note

Leadership and Teaming

By: Ethan Bernstein

Small differences in the leadership of teams can have large consequences for the success of their efforts. Many initiatives fail not because of a fatal error in judgment or insufficient ideas, knowledge, motivation, or capabilities to deliver a solution. They fail... View Details

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13 Jun 2014
Op-Ed

World Cup Soccer: 770 Billion Minutes of Attention

The business of football has a well-established global audience. In this playing field, aggregating the attention of fans and selling a portion to advertisers and sponsors is where the real riches lie. The ticket sales are a mere fraction... View Details

Keywords: by Thales Teixeira; Sports

November 2005 (Revised December 2016)
Case

Bally Total Fitness (A): The Rise, 1962–2004

By: John R. Wells, Elizabeth A. Raabe and Gabriel Ellsworth

From a single, modest club in 1962, Bally Total Fitness had grown to become—in management’s words—the “largest and only nationwide commercial operator of fitness centers” in the United States in 2004. Bally had faced its share of challenges, but the last couple of... View Details

Keywords: Bally Total Fitness; Fitness; Gyms; Health Clubs; Chain; Securities And Exchange Commission; Paul Toback; Weight Loss; Exercise; Contracts; Personal Training; Retention; Accounting; Accounting Audits; Accrual Accounting; Finance; Advertising; Business Growth and Maturation; Business Model; For-Profit Firms; Customers; Customer Satisfaction; Public Equity; Financing and Loans; Revenue; Revenue Recognition; Geographic Scope; Multinational Firms and Management; Health; Nutrition; Business History; Lawsuits and Litigation; Management; Business or Company Management; Goals and Objectives; Growth and Development Strategy; Marketing; Operations; Service Delivery; Service Operations; Public Ownership; Problems and Challenges; Business and Shareholder Relations; Business Strategy; Competition; Corporate Strategy; Expansion; Segmentation; Trends; Cost Management; Profit; Growth and Development; Leadership Style; Five Forces Framework; Private Ownership; Opportunities; Motivation and Incentives; Competitive Strategy; Health Industry; United States; Illinois; Chicago

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13 Feb 2017
Research & Ideas

Paid Search Ads Pay Off for Lesser-Known Restaurants

For business executives trying to decide where exactly in the digital realm to invest their advertising dollars, new research indicates that paid search ads on review sites such as Yelp can be a good way to go—at least for small,... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Food & Beverage

17 Dec 2008
Lessons from the Classroom

‘Ted Levitt Changed My Life’

executive might as well pack his attaché case and go fishing. If an organization does not know or care where it is going, it does not need to advertise that fact with a ceremonial figurehead. Everybody will notice it soon enough." In... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Education; Retail

31 Oct 2004
Research & Ideas

Bypass Marketing: Are Docs Influenced?

Until the close of the last decade, health consumers received much of their knowledge and advice about prescription drugs from their physicians or other health care professionals. Today, pharmaceutical companies are spending several billion dollars a year to View Details

Keywords: by Manda Salls

06 Mar 2017
Research & Ideas

Why Comparing Apples to Apples Online Leads To More Fruitful Sales

Online, consumers are more likely to buy when a product grouping display contains like items. Source: Mik22 In online retail displays, items pictured next to your product may make or break a decision to buy that product, according to results of a new study by Uma R.... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Advertising; Advertising

02 Apr 2015
Research & Ideas

Digital Initiative Summit: Companies Must Forget—and Borrow

As companies ride the digital wave, many find that switching up old, tired practices and deviating from the norm can be crucial to survival. But sometimes things can be taken too far. During the Digital Initiative Summit at Harvard Business School on March 30, business... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Advertising; Advertising