Publications

07 Jul 2019
HBS Case

Walmart's Workforce of the Future

approach to the customer experience, with an emphasis on employee training and improved ecommerce and automation technology, both on the floor and in back office roles. One foundational move to beef up its technology was Walmart’s $3.3... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Retail

03 Oct 2005
Research & Ideas

The Truck Driver Who Reinvented Shipping

additional trucks and hired a team of drivers, a move that enabled him to get off the road and look for new customers. For the next two years, his business thrived, but when poor economic conditions forced many of his newly won customers... View Details

Keywords: by Anthony J. Mayo & Nitin Nohria; Manufacturing; Transportation; Aerospace

February 2008 (Revised December 2011)
Case

Weber Shandwick: The Client Relationship Leader Program

By: Robert G. Eccles and Kerry Herman

In 2002 Weber Shandwick, a leading global public relations agency, instituted a Client Relationship Leader (CRL) Program for its top 32 global accounts. The purpose of the program is to ensure that all of the firm's resources across geographies, practice areas, and... View Details

Keywords: Blogs; Competency and Skills; Customer Relationship Management; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Design; Social and Collaborative Networks; Competitive Advantage; Public Relations Industry

March 2024
Case

Nomad: A License to Bank

By: Paul A. Gompers and Pedro Levindo

In late 2023, Lucas Vargas, CEO and co-founder of Nomad, a fintech that offered financial services in the United States for Brazilian residents, had to decide what to do to ensure the company’s continued expansion. Nomad launched its first product, a U.S. digital bank... View Details

21 Apr 2015
First Look

First Look: April 21

Campaign and the Upside of CEO Activism By: Chatterji, Aaron, and Michael Toffel Abstract—When Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz asked his baristas to engage customers in a discussion about race in America, it was a clear case of the growing... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel & Sean Silverthorne

26 Apr 2016
First Look

April 26

its stores and its supply chain, lower levels of greenhouse gas emissions, safer products for customers and manufacturers, and better treatment of its workers. The company promoted the idea that its size gave it significant influence in... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

30 Oct 2018
First Look

New Research and Ideas, October 30, 2018

https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=55176 Harvard Business School Case 518-067 HubSpot and Motion AI: Chatbot-Enabled CRM HubSpot, an inbound marketing, sales, and customer relationship management (CRM) software provider,... View Details

Keywords: Dina Gerdeman

16 Apr 2001
Research & Ideas

Strategy and the Internet

structure of their industries, hastened competitive convergence, and reduced the likelihood that they or anyone else will gain a competitive advantage. A destructive, zero-sum form of competition has been set in motion that confuses the View Details

Keywords: by Michael E. Porter

30 Sep 2014
First Look

First Look: September 30

objectives within the short time available will be a major challenge. Purchase this case: http://hbr.org/product/Thomas-Cook-Group-on-the-/an/215008-PDF-ENG Harvard Business School Case 807-025 eClinicalWorks: The Paths to Growth In January 2006, eClinicalWorks (eCW)... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

February 2018 (Revised August 2018)
Case

Blue Haven Initiative: The PEGAfrica Investment

By: Vikram S. Gandhi, Caitlin Reimers Brumme and Amram Migdal

This case examines Blue Haven Initiative (BHI), an impact investing fund and family office, and one of its investments, PEGAfrica (PEG). BHI founder Liesel Pritzker Simmons’ motivations for using her family wealth to start a family office focused on impact investing,... View Details

Keywords: Impact Investing; Family Office; Development; International Development; International Development Investing; Development Fund; Sustainability; Solar Energy; Solar; Pay As You Go; PAYG; MFI; Social Venture; Business Ventures; Acquisition; Business Growth and Maturation; Business Startups; Economics; Development Economics; Energy; Energy Conservation; Energy Sources; Renewable Energy; Social Entrepreneurship; Finance; Assets; Asset Pricing; Capital; Capital Budgeting; Capital Structure; Venture Capital; Cash; Cash Flow; Currency; Currency Exchange Rate; Equity; Private Equity; Financial Instruments; Debt Securities; Stock Shares; Financing and Loans; Microfinance; International Finance; Investment; Investment Return; Investment Activism; Investment Funds; Investment Portfolio; Price; Geography; Geographic Location; Emerging Markets; Ownership; Ownership Stake; Private Ownership; Social Enterprise; Value; Valuation; Value Creation; Energy Industry; Financial Services Industry; Green Technology Industry; Africa; United States

09 Nov 2016
Op-Ed

6 Lessons from Donald Trump's Winning Marketing Manual

acquisition with customer retention. Sizzle beats steak. Clinton was always going to beat Trump on the steak of experience and policy knowledge. A new brand can't afford to get lost in the policy weeds.... View Details

Keywords: by John A. Quelch

30 Apr 2013
First Look

First Look: April 30

acquisition in the mechanical controls distribution industry. Ferrari received support from the PE firm in negotiating and financing acquisitions but faced the challenging task of integrating them into the... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

23 May 2012
Research & Ideas

Five Ways to Make Your Company More Innovative

communication and encouragement, they can find the courage to try, fail, redo, and try again. Carliss Baldwin How can companies tap their customers for innovative ideas? Firms have a tendency to look at their navels. The first thing I... View Details

Keywords: by Garry Emmons, Julia Hanna & Roger Thompson

October 2022
Article

A Structural Model of Organizational Buying for Business-to-Business Markets: Innovation Adoption with Share-of-Wallet Contracts

By: Navid Mojir and K. Sudhir

The paper develops the ﬁrst structural model of organizational buying to study innovation diﬀusion in a B2B market. Our model is particularly applicable for routinized exchange relationships, whereby centralized buyers periodically evaluate and choose contracts,... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Buying Behavior; Healthcare Marketing; B2B Markets; B2B Innovation; New Product Diffusion; New Product Adoption; Organizations; Acquisition; Behavior; Health Care and Treatment; Marketing; Innovation and Invention

December 2018
Case

First Utility Ltd.

By: John R. Wells and Benjamin Weinstock

At the end of 2017 First Utility Ltd. was the largest of the middle-tier domestic energy suppliers in the United Kingdom, serving 808,000 of the country’s 27 million households with electricity and gas. In Q1 2017 First Utility captured 3% market share. The company had... View Details

Keywords: Rapid Growth Stage; Power/Energy; Energy Efficiency Standards; Energy; Competition; Diversification; Acquisition; Expansion; Growth Management; Energy Industry; United Kingdom