Publications

19 Mar 2015
News

Walter Salmon Remembered

working for an investment management firm in Boston. He then served as the Chairman of the Board of the investment management company I started in Boston nine years later. Professor Salmon constantly amazed... View Details

Keywords: Business Schools & Computer & Management Training; Business Schools & Computer & Management Training

June 2011
Background Note

It's a Social World

By: Stephen P. Bradley and Nancy Bartlett

Social media had fashioned the lives of individuals and communities by 2010, providing an opportunity and a challenge for companies of all sizes. This note provides background on various social media (e.g. social networks, forums, games and communication services) and... View Details

Keywords: Customer Relationship Management; Brands and Branding; Marketing Strategy; Media; Service Operations; Sales; Opportunities; Corporate Strategy; Web

Web

Institutions, Macroeconomics, and the Global Economy - Course Catalog

Yet, such episodes also create business opportunities – and not just for the hedge funds and speculators that profit from them. Managers that have and use a coherent framework for understanding and analyzing these phenomena will enjoy a... View Details

29 Dec 2014
Research & Ideas

Most Popular Articles and Research Papers of 2014

the Case for Pluralistic Risk Management The failure to rescue survivors from the sunk Russian submarine Kursk is explored by Anette Mikes and Amram Migdalpaper. Better Deals Through Level II Strategies: Advance Your Interests by Helping... View Details

October 1995
Teaching Note

Procter & Gamble: Improving Consumer Value Through Process Design TN

By: F. Warren McFarlan

Teaching Note for (9-195-126). View Details

Keywords: Customer Value and Value Chain; Customer Focus and Relationships; Distribution Channels; Information Technology; Value Creation; Logistics; Management Practices and Processes; Consumer Products Industry

Web

Investment Strategies - Course Catalog

wealth. The focus of Investment Strategies is financial markets, principally equity markets, taking the perspective of an institutional portfolio manager and considering the efficacy of value investing,... View Details

Profile

Jeremy Andrus

chain, and selling. I worked for a while as a hotel developer for a Marriott franchisee. Before HBS, I was a management consultant at Monitor, which sharpened my perspective on business and industry strategy. I learned a huge amount at... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Consumer Products; Entertainment / Media

16 May 2011
Research & Ideas

What Loyalty? High-End Customers are First to Flee

customers who are more valuable over time. "One prescription from all of this is that managers should avoid service complacency—or the tendency to rely on preexisting service advantages—and invest more in proactively increasing... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna

01 Mar 2006
News

Venture Capital, Post-Dot Bomb

’96), managing director at Mayfield. Sean Dalton (MBA ’98), a managing general partner at Highland Capital, noted that dire predictions for the industry were nothing new. He counseled a simple, head-down... View Details

Keywords: Securities, Commodities, and Other Financial Investments; Finance

01 Jan 2010
News

Allan W.B. Gray, MBA 1965

focus on asset management and service would yield superior results. The approach worked so well that the company became the largest privately owned, independent asset View Details

Student-Profile

Rohan Kekre

I grew up in Rochester, NY and came to Harvard College broadly interested in math, but not quite sure of where it would take me. I ended up studying applied math with a focus in economics. What ultimately attracted me to economics, like... View Details

September 2022
Background Note

On CUE: The Quest for Optimal Customer Unit Economics

By: Elie Ofek, Barak Libai and Eitan Muller

Startups are often evaluated by how well they perform on unit economics, defined as the ratio of a customer’s lifetime value (LTV) to acquisition costs (CAC). A common target for unit economics, advocated by many VCs and analysts, is 3:1 (i.e., LTV/CAC=3). While there... View Details

Keywords: Unit Economics; Business Startups; Performance Evaluation; Customer Value and Value Chain; Customer Relationship Management; Analysis

October 2000 (Revised November 2005)
Case

Hilton HHonors Worldwide: Loyalty Wars

By: John A. Deighton and Stowe Shoemaker

Hilton Hotels regards the frequent guest program as the industry's most important marketing tool, directing marketing efforts at the heavy user. What is Hilton to do then, when a competitor ups the ante? This case illustrates the economics of frequency marketing in... View Details

Keywords: Customer Relationship Management; Decision Choices and Conditions; Brands and Branding; Competitive Strategy; Accommodations Industry

October 1996 (Revised April 1997)
Case

Tweeter etc.

By: John T. Gourville and George Wu

In the early 1990s, Tweeter etc., a small regional retailer of higher-end audio and video equipment, faced increasing competitive pricing pressures from several large regional and national consumer electronics chains. In response, in 1993, they introduced "Automatic... View Details

Keywords: Advertising; Customer Focus and Relationships; Price; Market Entry and Exit; Supply Chain Management; Competition; Electronics Industry; Retail Industry