Publications

Web

Outdoor Spaces | About

south side main entrance road and is named in honor of Frank Batten (MBA 1952) for his leadership gift to support the renewal and enhancement of the Soldiers Field campus. Burden Park With the decommissioning of Burden Hall in 2017, HBS... View Details

April 2002 (Revised February 2003)
Background Note

An Economic Framework for Assessing Development Impact

By: Benjamin C. Esty, Frank J. Lysy and Carrie Ferman

Discusses the differences between private and social returns and describes an economic framework for assessing a project's social return [known as the economic rate of return (ERR)]. The framework begins by analyzing the impact of a new project on private financiers... View Details

Keywords: Cost vs Benefits; Microeconomics; Investment Return; Framework; Projects; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Valuation

01 Mar 2024
News

Case Study: Testing the Waters

Illustration by Christina Spano Endurance training was nothing new to Lauren Picasso (MBA 2014), who’d raced through her younger years as a cross-country runner and swimmer. In 2017, when she was director of marketing at Jet.com and... View Details

Keywords: Jen McFarland Flint; Food and Beverage Stores; Retail Trade

Web

James Sharpe | Baker Library | Bloomberg Center | Harvard Business School

Skip to Main Content HBS Entrepreneurs Collection Profiles About This Collection Contact Us Special Collections Search Paul Baier PurchasingCenter.com/Excara Frank Batten Weather Channel Steven B. Belkin Trans National Group (TNG) Hakeem... View Details

August 15, 2022
Article

Preparing Sales for a Changing Economy: Part 2: Getting More from Your Training Spending

A previous article discussed changing business development requirements and some implications. This article discusses three areas that are fundamental to getting ROI from training initiatives and how engagement between Sales and L&D professionals, completed by smart... View Details

Keywords: Training; Sales

09 Jun 2015
News

How Merck Is Trying to Keep Disrupters at Bay

25 Oct 2016
First Look

October 25, 2016

September–October 2016 European Business Review What Senior Executives Should Know About Sales By: Cespedes, Frank V. Abstract—Business is more complex, data more abundant, and more specialists are needed to stay up-to-date with... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

Web

Fieldcrest Division of Fieldcrest Mills, Inc.: Compensation System for Field Sales Representatives

Focuses on the compensation plan for Fieldcrest sales representatives. Management is reviewing the structure of the plan and must decide how to establish compensation goals and guidelines for the following year so that sales efforts are allocated among products and/or... View Details

Keywords: Markets; Competitive Strategy; Compensation and Benefits

20 Jul 2016
News

To Increase Sales, Get Customers to Commit a Little at a Time

February 1993 (Revised September 1994)
Case

Hewlett-Packard Imaging Systems Division: Sonos 100 C/F Introduction

By: Frank V. Cespedes and Marie Bell

The marketing manager for the Imaging Systems business unit (ISY) at Hewlett-Packard Medical Products Group is considering channel strategy and channel management issues raised by the upcoming introduction of a new cardiac imaging product. Product marketing's plans... View Details

Keywords: Marketing Channels; Product Marketing; Product Launch; Market Entry and Exit; Distribution Channels; Sales; Competitive Strategy

28 Jun 2011
First Look

First Look: June 28

by examining the association between top executive turnovers and guidance. Although firm and industry characteristics are important determinants of guidance, we conclude that CEOs participate in firm-level policy decisions, whereas CFOs... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

2012
Article

Exploring Re-Identification Risks in Public Domains

By: Aditi Ramachandran, Lisa Singh, Edward Porter and Frank Nagle

While re-identification of sensitive data has been studied extensively, with the emergence of online social networks and the popularity of digital communications, the ability to use public data for re-identification has increased. This work begins by presenting two... View Details

Keywords: Safety; Analytics and Data Science; Social and Collaborative Networks

2019
Working Paper

Why Do User Communities Matter for Strategy?

By: Sonali K. Shah and Frank Nagle

User communities represent a unique organizing structure for the exchange of ideas and knowledge. They are organizations composed primarily of users working collaboratively, voluntarily, and with minimal oversight to freely and openly develop and exchange knowledge... View Details

Keywords: Strategic Management; Knowledge Sharing; Collaborative Innovation and Invention; Organizations; Knowledge Use and Leverage; Strategy

SSRN

May 2017
Case

Promontory, Inc.

By: Frank V. Cespedes and Amy Handlin

Promontory, Inc. is a small, privately owned firm in the promotional products (specialty advertising) industry. After starting the firm two years ago with the intention of pursuing a high-quality/high-price strategy, the CEO is seeking methods of increasing sales... View Details

Keywords: Salesforce Management; Marketing Strategy; Customization and Personalization; Business Model; Sales; Advertising Industry

May 1990 (Revised October 1993)
Case

Cooper Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

Traces the 12-year career of a pharmaceutical salesperson, Bob Marsh, from recruitment to termination. Mr. Marsh has had an uneven career with Cooper Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (CPI) and, after a probationary period, is asked to resign. Following his termination, a number... View Details

Keywords: Decision Making; Resignation and Termination; Personal Development and Career; Problems and Challenges; Core Relationships

2013
Working Paper

Digital Dark Matter and the Economics of Apache

By: Shane Greenstein and Frank Nagle

Researchers have long hypothesized that spillovers from government, university, and private company R&D contribute to economic growth, but these contributions may be difficult to measure when they take a non-pecuniary form. The growth of networking devices and the... View Details

Keywords: Measurement and Metrics; Internet and the Web; Performance Productivity; Applications and Software; Economic Growth; Research and Development

Find at Harvard

July 2017
Article

The Four Stages to Becoming an Excellent Front-Line Sales Manager

Sales occupations account for more than 10% of the total U.S. labor force, and that official estimate is almost certainly low: In an increasingly service economy, many people who do business development for a living are not listed as “sales” for reporting purposes.... View Details

Keywords: Salesforce Management

April 2021
Article

Today's Surgeon Compensation Models Fall Short: Aligning Incentives to Create More Equitable and Value-based Compensation Models

By: Susanna Gallani, Mary Witkowski, Lauren Haskins, Haley Jeffcoat, Vinita Mujumdar and Frank Opelka

Modern medicine is undergoing a transformation that involves innovative surgical approaches, increased medical treatment options, clinical care pathways that require collaboration beyond hospital walls, and health data captured by electronic health records and other... View Details

Keywords: Physician Compensation; Surgeons; Health Care and Treatment; Business Model; Compensation and Benefits