Publications

06 Jan 2016
What Do You Think?

Why Do Leaders Get Their Timing Wrong?

Summing Up Is Good Timing in Management Primarily a Function of Strategy or Culture? Timing in executing change is an important responsibility of leadership. Responses to this month’s column suggest that if timing is the result of one... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett; Auto; Fashion

November 2020
Teaching Note

DayTwo: Going to Market with Gut Microbiome

By: Ayelet Israeli

Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 519-010. DayTwo is a young Israeli startup that applies research on the gut microbiome and machine learning algorithms to deliver personalized nutritional recommendations to its users in order to minimize blood sugar spikes after meals.... View Details

November – December 1996
Article

What Is Strategy?

By: M. E. Porter

Today's dynamic markets and technologies have called into question the sustainability of competitive advantage. Under pressure to improve productivity, quality, and speed, managers have embraced tools such as TQM, benchmarking, and reengineering. Dramatic operational... View Details

Keywords: Strategy

Find at Harvard

December 2018 (Revised June 2021)
Case

Bulb 2015: Foundation

By: John R. Wells and Benjamin Weinstock

In late August 2015, Amit Gudka and Hayden Wood, co-founders of Bulb, Ltd (Bulb), were ready to offer affordable renewable energy to the United Kingdom’s 27 million households. They hoped to capitalize on the hundreds of thousands of customers switching their energy... View Details

December 2022 (Revised January 2023)
Case

Cann: High Hopes for Cannabis Infused Beverages

By: Ayelet Israeli and Anne V. Wilson

Founded in 2018 by Jake Bullock and Luke Anderson, Cann sold “social tonics,” or cannabis-infused beverages. By 2022, the company had several notable celebrity investors and talent partners, had sold over 10 million beverages to consumers, was distributing in six... View Details

November 2018
Case

Cepuros Foods Malaysia: Finding the Secret Sauce for Growth (Brief Case)

By: John A. Quelch and Katherine B. Hartman

Shelby Diaz, country manager for Cepuros Foods International—Malaysia (CFI-M), must decide a growth strategy for the expansion of CFI-M's line of salsas, particularly regarding whom to target and how to allocate marketing investments. CFI-M could expand aggressively by... View Details

Keywords: Growth and Development Strategy; Marketing Strategy; Marketing Communications; Product Positioning

January 2019 (Revised October 2019)
Case

Glossier: Co-Creating a Cult Brand with a Digital Community

By: Jill Avery

Glossier’s proclaimed strategy was “born from content; fueled by community.” The digital-first, direct-to-consumer beauty brand had experienced rapid growth, with sales up 600% in 2017 and a customer portfolio that grew by threefold. But, its founder, Emily Weiss, was... View Details

August 2014
Case

Netflix in 2011

By: Willy Shih and Stephen Kaufman

Reed Hastings founded Netflix to provide a home movie service that would do a better job satisfying customers than the traditional retail rental model. But as it encountered challenges it underwent several major strategy shifts, ultimately developing a business model... View Details

09 Jun 2008
Lessons from the Classroom

Monetizing IP: The Executive’s Challenge

to adopt strategies to monetize their holdings. In other cases, however, companies have adopted "scorched earth" policies that aim to confront and litigate with rivals about intellectual property, which have often proved to be... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Video Game; Web Services

Bushra Guenoun

Bushra is a doctoral student in Organizational Behavior at Harvard Business School. Her research interests include trust, morality, social identity and mentorship/advising. She received an A.B. in Psychology from Harvard College in 2017. Previously, she worked as a... View Details

September 2019 (Revised May 2021)
Case

pymetrics: International Expansion

By: John R. Wells and Benjamin Weinstock

In August 2018, pymetrics, a solution offering neuroscience-based recruiting tests, closed a $40 million funding round that valued the business at $160 million. Over 60 companies around the globe were using pymetrics tests in their recruiting process, including... View Details

02 Apr 2001
Research & Ideas

Not All M&As Are Alike—and That Matters

activity sponsored by Harvard Business School. That study sought to examine questions of M&A strategy and execution with a new rigor. Our in-depth findings will emerge over the next year or two, in the form of various books, articles,... View Details

Keywords: by Joseph L. Bower

04 Aug 2020
Cold Call Podcast

Glossier Built a Cult-Brand and a Digital Community, but What’s Next?

Keywords: Re: Jill J. Avery; Advertising

September 2002 (Revised December 2005)
Case

DaimlerChrysler Post-Merger Integration (A)

By: Richard F. Meyer, Michael G. Rukstad, Peter J. Coughlan and Stephan A. Jansen

Describes the background, process, and aftermath of the merger between Daimler-Benz of Germany and Chrysler Corp. of America. Describes the economic structure and trends of the world automobile industry at the turn of the century as well as the individual histories and... View Details

Keywords: Integration; Negotiation Process; Corporate Strategy; Mergers and Acquisitions; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Auto Industry; Germany; United States

September 2006 (Revised March 2010)
Case

Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, Ltd

By: Tarun Khanna, Krishna G. Palepu and Claudine Deborah Madras

How do companies develop a strategy that is both low-cost and differentiated without becoming squeezed in the middle? Describes how Teva, Israel's first and largest multinational, achieved its globally dominant position in generic pharmaceuticals, an industry that has... View Details

Keywords: Multinational Firms and Management; Emerging Markets; Rank and Position; Competitive Strategy; Pharmaceutical Industry; India; Israel

March 2019
Teaching Note

Zespri Grows

By: David E. Bell and John Masko

Teaching Note for HBS No. 519-047. View Details

December 2011 (Revised May 2012)
Case

Heavy Metal (A): Baosteel Enters Brazil

What is Baosteel, a top Chinese steelmaker, doing in Brazil? The company is responding to the Chinese government's "go global" policy and to the possible rise in iron ore input costs. But steel mills are complex, capital-intensive projects, and Brazil is an emerging... View Details

Renata Gaineddenova is an Assistant Professor in the Strategy Unit at Harvard Business School. Her research focuses on industrial organization and the market design of digital platforms. Prior to joining HBS, Professor Gaineddenova was a Postdoctoral Associate at... View Details

September 2020 (Revised July 2022)
Technical Note

Algorithmic Bias in Marketing

By: Ayelet Israeli and Eva Ascarza

This note focuses on algorithmic bias in marketing. First, it presents a variety of marketing examples in which algorithmic bias may occur. The examples are organized around the 4 P’s of marketing – promotion, price, place and product—characterizing the marketing... View Details