Publications

June 2022
Teaching Note

Bespoken Spirits: Disrupting Distilling

By: Benjamin C. Esty and Daniel Fisher

Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 721-419. On October 7, 2020, Bespoken Spirits publicly announced it had received $2.6 million of seed funding for its “sustainable maturation process,” a process that could produce award-winning whiskeys in just days rather than years... View Details

Keywords: B2B Vs. B2C; Technological Innovation; Business Startups; Cost Management; Business Model; Food and Beverage Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; Food and Beverage Industry

October 2016 (Revised November 2016)
Case

DO & CO: Gourmet Entertainment

By: Juan Alcácer and Esel Çekin

This case is about a global catering, restaurant, and hospitality company, DO & CO, growing geographically with its existing businesses while also adding new brands to its portfolio. The company had $1 billion in revenues in 2015 from its three divisions: airline... View Details

22 Mar 2011
First Look

First Look: March 22

certain. What worried the company's leadership was the prospect of Reb A taking off—that is, being widely accepted by consumers and used by food and View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

14 Oct 2014
News

The Steve Jobs of Beer

Keywords: Beverage and Tobacco Product Manufacturing; Beverage and Tobacco Product Manufacturing

03 Mar 2020
News

Can This Man Change the American Diet?

in the Boston area, Clover serves an always-changing, all-vegetarian menu to a 90 percent non-vegetarian customer base. In this episode of Skydeck, associate editor Julia Hanna takes listeners behind the scenes at a Clover food... View Details

Keywords: Agriculture

07 Sep 2020
Research & Ideas

How to Help Small Businesses Survive COVID's Next Phase

America small-business owners moved quickly when COVID-19 started shuttering shops in March. Fine dining restaurants shifted to takeout. Book shops introduced curbside pickup. Gyms offered classes online. Business owners, it seemed, just needed to face this... View Details

Keywords: by Danielle Kost; Food & Beverage; Food & Beverage

March 2019
Supplement

Koita Milk

By: Lynda M. Applegate, E. Ofek and Michael Norris

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Cash Flow; Food; Growth Management; Social Marketing; Ownership Stake; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; United Arab Emirates; Dubai

September 2008
Supplement

Mr. Nelson Peltz, Founding Partner, Trian Partners. Interviewed by Professor John Quelch

By: John A. Quelch

Professor John Quelch interviewed Mr. Nelson Peitz, Founding Partner of Trian Partners on events and decisions leading up to the decision to acquire the Snapple brand and the results of that corporate decision. View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Decision Choices and Conditions; Private Equity; Investment; Brands and Branding; Food and Beverage Industry; Food and Beverage Industry

February 1981 (Revised June 1993)
Case

Harris Seafoods, Inc.

By: William E. Fruhan Jr. and William A. Sahlman

Presents data relevant to a major capital expenditure--the construction of a shrimp plant. Designed to test student's ability to identify relevant cash flows, to estimate the cost of capital, and to decide whether or not to invest. View Details

Keywords: Decision Making; Cash Flow; Cost of Capital; Factories, Labs, and Plants; Food and Beverage Industry; Food and Beverage Industry

01 Sep 2013
News

Alumni News | Book Briefs

Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Food Rights: The Escalating Battle over Who Decides What We Eat by David E. Gumpert (OPM 5, 1981) (Chelsea Green Publishing) Do Americans have the right to get their View Details

Keywords: Elementary and Secondary Schools; Elementary and Secondary Schools; Elementary and Secondary Schools; Elementary and Secondary Schools

17 May 2017
News

Nisa Godrej Takes Over

company] for 25 years." A recent piece in Quartz suggests that Godrej’s appointment is part of a larger cultural movement in India, with more and more women taking on visible executive roles. Last July, Coca-Cola India appointed its... View Details

03 Aug 2022
News

Hungry for Change

Management consulting doesn’t lend itself to a balanced diet. Always on the go for her projects at Kurt Salmon, Kate Flynn (MBA 2012) would grab whatever packaged food appeared healthiest to her. For a long time, she sought low-calorie... View Details

Keywords: April White

14 Oct 2015
News

Blue Apron's Got Big Plans For Dinner - But So Do Its Hungry Rivals

Keywords: Plated; Food and Beverage Stores; Food and Beverage Stores

January 2018 (Revised October 2021)
Case

Château Margaux: Launching the Third Wine (Abridged)

By: Elie Ofek

Château Margaux, one of only five prestigious estates in the Bordeaux Medoc wine region to have been classified as a "first-growth", is facing a host of strategic decisions in early 2013. Up until this point the estate had been selling two red wines, a first wine whose... View Details

Keywords: New Product Launch; Marketing Plan; Brand Management; Go To Market Strategy; Channels Of Distribution; Wine Industry; Marketing Strategy; Distribution Channels; Product Launch; Brands and Branding; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; France

01 Mar 2014
News

No Small Beer

The biggest thing in the beer business these days is the little guy. Research firm Technomics reported that the craft beer and premium import market rose almost 15 percent in 2012, with an "upward trajectory" that continued in 2013. View Details

Keywords: Morrell, Daniel; craft beer; Food and Beverage Stores; Food and Beverage Stores

January 1991 (Revised March 2010)
Case

Westchester Distributing, Inc. (A)

By: Robert L. Simons and Robert Boxwell

Focuses on the three-way interaction among internal controls, employee behavior, and incentives. Salesmen are illegally providing kickbacks to customers of this beer-distribution firm. In turn, salesmen are reimbursing themselves by filing fraudulent expense reports.... View Details

Keywords: Financial Reporting; Crime and Corruption; Corporate Governance; Governance Controls; Salesforce Management; Behavior; Motivation and Incentives; Food and Beverage Industry; Food and Beverage Industry

14 Nov 2019
News

Keeping Red Lobster Fresh

to do is work on is following a phased plan. And there are three phases to the plan. Phase one was fixing the fundamentals of the business, which are making sure you're operating well, making sure you got high-quality View Details

Keywords: Food Services and Drinking Places; Food Services and Drinking Places

December 2011
Case

Green Mountain Coffee Roasters: Confidential Information for Negotiation with Keurig

By: Thomas R. Eisenmann, Shikhar Ghosh and James K. Sebenius

Case provides confidential information for students assuming the role of Green Mountain Coffee Roasters (GMCR) senior executives in a negotiation to license technology from Keurig, a startup that has developed an innovative "portion pack" coffee brewing solution. The... View Details

Keywords: Negotiation; Food and Beverage Industry