Publications

March 2006 (Revised April 2007)
Case

Harley-Davidson: Preparing for the Next Century

By: Richard L. Nolan and Suresh Kotha

Harley-Davidson Co. exemplifies a remarkable management-led business transformation of a long standing manufacturing company. The company successfully met global competition and continues to innovate to maintain its market position. View Details

Keywords: Brands and Branding; Transformation; Change Management; Innovation and Invention; Competitive Strategy; Manufacturing Industry; Motorcycle Industry

May 2005 (Revised September 2005)
Case

Gallardo's Goes to Mexico

By: Clayton M. Christensen

The theories of market segmentation and brand building in Chapter 3, What Products Will Customers Want to Buy? in The Innovator's Solution by Clayton Christensen and Michael Raynor suggest that when companies segment markets and build brands in ways that match how the... View Details

Keywords: Innovation Strategy; Marketing Strategy; Global Strategy; Brands and Branding; Segmentation; Food and Beverage Industry; United States; Mexico

19 Sep 2017
First Look

First Look at New Research and Ideas, September 19

presented from the perspective of the company CEO and its global brand director who is also part owner. In 2015, Mavi had sales of $419 million, up 20% from the previous year. Growth rates like these were... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

October 2004 (Revised July 2013)
Case

Making China Beautiful: Shiseido and the China Market

By: Geoffrey G. Jones, Akiko Kanno and Masako Egawa

Describes the multinational growth of Shiseido, the world's fourth-largest cosmetics company, with a focus on its strategy in China since 1981. Explores the challenges facing firms in the globalization of a culturally specific industry such as cosmetics. The Japanese... View Details

Keywords: Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Globalized Firms and Management; Growth and Development Strategy; Resource Allocation; Competition; Beauty and Cosmetics Industry; China; Japan

10 Nov 2003
Research & Ideas

Globalization: The Strategy of Differences

Ten years ago, globalization seemed unstoppable. Today, the picture looks very different. Even Coca-Cola, widely seen as a standard-bearer of global business, has had its doubts about an idea it once took... View Details

Keywords: by Pankaj Ghemawat

18 Jun 2014
Research & Ideas

Leading Innovation is the Art of Creating ‘Collective Genius’

organizations with reputations for being highly innovative, then found 16 leaders within those organizations and studied how they worked. Determined to feature a global perspective, the authors include narratives of executives within... View Details

Keywords: by Kim Girard

16 Aug 2004
Research & Ideas

Luxury Isn’t What It Used to Be

Cashing in on the $60 billion global luxury goods market has never been tougher—or more rewarding. Competition is keen. And consumer preferences are constantly shifting, causing the concept of luxury itself to change over time. As a... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Consumer Products

March 2022
Case

BTS & ARMY

By: Doug J. Chung and Kay R. Koo

The South Korean K-pop band, BTS, is shattering linguistic boundaries and reshaping the global music industry. BTS became the first band in Billboard history to simultaneously top the Billboard Artist 100, Billboard Hot 100, and Billboard 200; and the sixth act to have... View Details

Keywords: Entertainment; Music Entertainment; Marketing; Brands and Branding; Social and Collaborative Networks; Social Enterprise; Consumer Behavior; Music Industry; Entertainment and Recreation Industry

September 1997
Case

Bayer AG (B)

By: John A. Quelch

Bayer's senior executives detail the communications challenge program that resulted from the company's reacquisition of its brand name and trademark cross, which gave Bayer one name worldwide for the first time since World War I. View Details

Keywords: Globalized Firms and Management; War; Acquisition; Trademarks; Brands and Branding; Communication Strategy; Biotechnology Industry; Pharmaceutical Industry; Germany

20 Aug 2024
Interview

Angel City Football Club: A New Business Model for Women’s Sports

By: Jeffrey F. Rayport, Brian Kenny and Nicole Tempest Keller

Angel City Football Club (ACFC) was founded in 2020 by venture capitalist Kara Nortman, entrepreneur Julie Uhrman, and actor and activist Natalie Portman. As outsiders to professional sports, the all-female founding team had rewritten the playbook for how to build a... View Details

Keywords: Brands and Branding; Gender; Franchise Ownership; Business Model; Sports Industry

06 Dec 2011
First Look

First Look: Dec. 6

here. Download the paper: http://www.hbs.edu/research/pdf/10-072.pdf Cases & Course MaterialsHaier: Taking a Chinese Company Global in 2011 Tarun Khanna, Krishna G. Palepu, and Phillip AndrewsHarvard Business School Case 712-408 In... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

05 Feb 2014
Research & Ideas

Can Putin Score Olympic Gold?

trouble if they don't go well. Perhaps the brand with the most to gain—or lose—is Mother Russia, which paid a record $51 billion to host the Games, and has a rare opportunity to show it has shaken off its economic and political doldrums... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Sports; Advertising

September 2020 (Revised December 2020)
Case

Hot Wheels at Mattel: Reinventing the Wheel

By: Elie Ofek, Andres Terech and Nicole Tempest Keller

In 2017, Chris Down, Global Brand General Manager for Hot Wheels, and his team from the Advanced Play Group within Mattel, Inc., were considering which innovation path to pursue in order to "future proof" the Hot Wheels franchise going forward. Hot Wheels was the... View Details

Keywords: Toys; Industry Evolution; Innovation Strategy; Product Development; Growth and Development Strategy; Technological Innovation; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Decision Making; Digital Transformation

April 2010
Case

A Giant Among Women

By: Willy C. Shih, Ethan S Bernstein, Maly Hout Bernstein, Jyun-Cheng Wang and Yi-Ling Wei

Few CEOs successfully manage the evolution of their companies from OEM outsourcer to branded manufacturer to expert consumer marketer as well as Tony Lo, CEO of Giant Manufacturing Co. Ltd., now the largest bicycle manufacturer in the world. In the mid-1980s, Giant... View Details

Keywords: Consumer Behavior; Customer Focus and Relationships; Global Strategy; Gender; Customer Satisfaction; Product Development; Bicycle Industry; Taiwan

March 2008 (Revised October 2009)
Case

Crossing Borders: MTC's Journey through Africa

By: Tarun Khanna and Ayesha Khan

This is the story of MTC, a Kuwaiti telecom company that has grown from a sleepy, state monopoly to become one of the fastest growing telecom companies in the world, with the largest regional footprint across the Middle East and Africa. The CEO of the company, Dr. Saad... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Global Strategy; Globalized Firms and Management; Growth and Development Strategy; Emerging Markets; Telecommunications Industry; Africa; Kuwait

25 Jul 2023
Research & Ideas

Could a Business Model Help Big Pharma Save Lives and Profit?

by harnessing a new business model. The bold approach worked. Gilead, one of the world’s leading antiviral makers, would sell its branded Hepatitis C medicines while offering local manufacturers voluntary licenses to produce generics,... View Details

Keywords: by Esther Schrader; Pharmaceutical; Health

July 2024
Case

Wizards of the Coast and Magic: The Rebounding

By: Boris Groysberg and Tom Quinn

This case traces the history and growth of the Magic: The Gathering trading card game. From its development in 1993 by tiny studio Wizards of the Coast, to Wizards’ acquisition by toy giant Hasbro in 1999, to its evolution into a billion-dollar brand in 2023,... View Details

February 1985 (Revised September 1988)
Case

Komatsu Ltd.

By: Christopher A. Bartlett

Reviews and updates the structure and characteristics of the earth-moving equipment industry presented in the companion case, Caterpillar Tractor Co. After revealing that CAT has suffered major financial losses during the period from 1981 through 1984, the case... View Details

Keywords: Financial Crisis; Machinery and Machining; Price; Growth and Development; Brands and Branding; Product Development; Production; Competitive Strategy; Global Strategy; Manufacturing Industry; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Industrial Products Industry

October 2020 (Revised July 2023)
Case

UCK Partners: Gong Cha

By: Victoria Ivashina and Sangyun Lee

In the Spring of 2017, Soomin Kim, Founding Partner of UCK Partners, and his team were debating the potential exit of UCK Partner’s investment in Gong Cha Korea, the sole local franchisor of the premium milk tea brand that they proprietarily sourced three years ago.... View Details

Keywords: Exit; Strategic Decision Making; Private Equity; Investment; Strategy; Investment Return; Decision Making; Bids and Bidding