Profit - Publications - Faculty & Research

01 Apr 2002
News

Stocking Up Can Build Customer Value

A classic business problem from the 1950s illustrates the tension between inventory costs and missed sales. A newspaper vendor must decide how many papers to buy each day based on typical demand. His profit is optimized, the solution... View Details

Keywords: Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools; Educational Services

Clarence Francis

Francis oversaw General Foods with a product line that included the successful Post cereals, Maxwell House and Sanka Coffee, Log Cabin Syrup and Jell-O. After absorbing an initial $17 million loss in the frozen foods sector, Francis was able to turn a View Details

Keywords: Food & Tobacco

12 May 2025
News

Building in the Age of AI: Timeless Methods, Timely Tools

profitable business models by embracing these timely tools to become "10x Leaders. This webinar was held on May 14, 2025. Building in the Age of AI Resources Download the presentation slides. View Details

2011
Working Paper

Observation Bias: The Impact of Demand Censoring on Newsvendor Level and Adjustment Behavior

By: David F. Drake

In an experimental newsvendor setting we investigate three phenomena: Level behavior — the decision-maker's average ordering tendency; adjustment behavior — the tendency to adjust period-to-period order quantities; and observation bias — the tendency to let the degree... View Details

Keywords: Cost; Consumer Behavior; Decision Making; Prejudice and Bias; Profit

Citation

January 2004 (Revised April 2004)
Case

Ford Motor Company: Quality of Earnings Growth Analysis (A)

By: David F. Hawkins and Jacob Cohen

Even though Ford Motor Co. reports improved profitability, an equity analyst issues a sell recommendation and Standard & Poor's downgrades long-term debt. View Details

Keywords: Quality; Business Earnings; Valuation; Investment Return; Profit; Financial Statements; Revenue; Auto Industry; Consulting Industry

Citation

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01 Apr 2014
First Look

First Look: April 1

opportunistic low-ball offers. Working Papers The Effect of Management Control Elements on Coordination By: Bormann, Sara, Jan Bouwens, and Christian Hofmann Abstract—This study examines how control elements of a firm affect coordination among View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

Richard M. DeVos

In 1959, with his partner Jay Van Andel, DeVos established one of the most profitable direct selling companies in the world. Van Andel and DeVos accomplished their success through the use of an elaborate pyramid-like distribution system... View Details

Keywords: Personal Care & Home Products

Pete Rozelle

equal-revenue-earning teams. These changes allowed the NFL to become a profitable enterprise by promoting competition among the teams for players and among the networks and merchandisers for broadcasting and advertising rights,... View Details

Keywords: Entertainment & Broadcast Media

Bernard F. Gimbel

and Milwaukee, Gimbel ran Saks Fifth Avenue stores in New York, Chicago, Detroit and Beverly Hills. During World War II, Gimbel earned huge profits on scarce consumer goods, which he had purchased earlier at low prices. View Details

Keywords: Retail

01 Feb 2000
Research & Ideas

Keeping Track: Performance Measurement, Control & Strategy

materials into the classroom and refined the concepts and models through discussions with students in my MBA course, Achieving Profit Goals and Strategies. The result is the fourteen chapters of this book, which includes contributions by... View Details

Keywords: Re: Robert Simons

Kenneth H. Olsen

Olsen's DEC pioneered the minicomputer market in the 1960s and early 1970s, as well as the microcomputer market in the 1980s, garnering profits of over $1 billion by 1987. Olsen shepherded his company through many tough times, including... View Details

Keywords: Computers & Electronics

James R. Moffett

In 1981, Moffett orchestrated one of the largest and most profitable mergers in Wall Street history – the merger of his oil exploration company, McMoRan Oil and Gas Company, with Freeport Minerals Corporation – creating a $4 billion... View Details

Keywords: Agriculture & Mining

Mills B. Lane, Jr.

Taking over the small southern bank after the death of his father, Lane went on to build it into one of the largest and most profitable banks in the Southeast. Lane shook up the staid banking community by employing a variety of marketing... View Details

Keywords: Finance

Howard B. Keck

profits of $200 million in 1979. Equally notable, however, was Keck’s work with the W. M. Keck Foundation, which was a huge supporter of science and technology. Under Keck’s leadership, the Foundation’s charitable trust grew from $250... View Details

Keywords: Utilities & Energy

Walter E. Sachs

In addition to continuing Goldman, Sachs’ success in the underwriting business, Walter Sachs expanded the company’s other business areas, his most notable venture being the creation of the investment trust arm, the Goldman, Sachs Trading Company. Despite the wildly... View Details

Keywords: Finance

William W. Prince

Prince took over the estate of his adopted father upon his death and concentrated his efforts on improving Armour, one of Chicago Stock Yards' subsidiaries. When Prince took over Armour, its principal business, meatpacking, was not profitable, but through a series of... View Details

Keywords: Food & Tobacco

19 Jul 2010
Research & Ideas

How Mercadona Fixes Retail’s ’Last 10 Yards’ Problem

margins. Yet in the new case study "Mercadona," HBS assistant professor Zeynep Ton and research assistant Simon Harrow describe a Spanish supermarket chain that has done all this while achieving steady profits and double-digit... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Retail; Food & Beverage

01 Feb 1999
News

Newman's Own Brand of Charity

profits would have to go to charity. "To make money off that would be so tacky," he noted. From the outset, Newman eschewed costly market research and ignored industry wisdom that new product launches initially lose substantial sums of... View Details

01 Jun 2003
News

HP's Fiorina Speaks at HBS

Silicon Valley’s quintessential “garage to riches” enterprise. Perhaps her biggest move has been HP’s 2002 merger with Compaq, the largest such marriage in high-tech history. Acknowledging the nay-saying and controversy that accompanied the deal, Fiorina noted, “We... View Details

Keywords: HP; Hewlitt-Packard; Fiorina; Compaq; Management of Companies and Enterprises; Management

George H. Love

improve its production efficiencies. The operation, which was losing money when he took the helm, was always profitable during his tenure. Love was also highly regarded for his fair union negotiations with John Lewis. In addition to... View Details