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(2,106)
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- News (321)
- Research (1,531)
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- January 8, 2025
- Article
Why Retailers Are Turning to Third-Party Marketplaces
By: Antonio Moreno
Some traditional retailers—including Walmart, Target, and Best Buy—are adopting third-party marketplaces, which connect customers with external sellers and thereby offer customers a much broader selection. Many other traditional retailers are considering whether to... View Details
Keywords: Marketplace Matching; Distribution Channels; Customer Focus and Relationships; Cost vs Benefits; Retail Industry
Moreno, Antonio. "Why Retailers Are Turning to Third-Party Marketplaces." Harvard Business Review Digital Articles (January 8, 2025).
- November 2023
- Case
Team Liquid: Fueling the Business of Fandom
By: Youngme Moon and Kerry Herman
In 2023, the co-CEOs of Team Liquid, one of the world's most prominent Esports organizations, are deciding whether and how to evolve their business model to include (1) a greater focus on enterprise revenue; and (2) more direct-to-consumer activity. Team Liquid has one... View Details
Keywords: Business Model; Customer Focus and Relationships; Games, Gaming, and Gambling; Revenue; Organizational Culture; Business and Community Relations; Video Game Industry
Moon, Youngme, and Kerry Herman. "Team Liquid: Fueling the Business of Fandom." Harvard Business School Case 324-041, November 2023.
- 17 May 2022
- Cold Call Podcast
Delivering a Personalized Shopping Experience with AI
Keywords: Re: Jill J. Avery
- January 2021 (Revised March 2021)
- Case
THE YES: Reimagining the Future of E-Commerce with Artificial Intelligence (AI)
By: Jill Avery, Ayelet Israeli and Emma von Maur
THE YES, a multi-brand shopping app launched in May 2020 offered a new type of buying experience for women’s fashion, driven by a sophisticated algorithm that used data science and machine learning to create and deliver a personalized store for every shopper, based on... View Details
Keywords: Data; Data Analytics; Artificial Intelligence; AI; AI Algorithms; AI Creativity; Fashion; Retail; Retail Analytics; E-Commerce Strategy; Platform; Platforms; Big Data; Preference Elicitation; Preference Prediction; Predictive Analytics; App Development; "Marketing Analytics"; Advertising; Mobile App; Mobile Marketing; Apparel; Online Advertising; Referral Rewards; Referrals; Female Ceo; Female Entrepreneur; Female Protagonist; Analytics and Data Science; Analysis; Creativity; Marketing Strategy; Brands and Branding; Consumer Behavior; Demand and Consumers; Forecasting and Prediction; Marketing Channels; Digital Marketing; Internet and the Web; Mobile and Wireless Technology; AI and Machine Learning; E-commerce; Digital Platforms; Fashion Industry; Retail Industry; Apparel and Accessories Industry; Consumer Products Industry; United States
Avery, Jill, Ayelet Israeli, and Emma von Maur. "THE YES: Reimagining the Future of E-Commerce with Artificial Intelligence (AI)." Harvard Business School Case 521-070, January 2021. (Revised March 2021.)
- June 2008
- Case
Rackspace Hosting in Late 2000
By: James L. Heskett and W. Earl Sasser
The leadership team of Rackspace, faced with accommodation of its service offering and dwindling financial reserves, decides to make customer focus the rallying cry of its new strategy. This short case was designed as the discussion igniter for a series of short video... View Details
Keywords: Customer Focus and Relationships; Finance; Management Teams; Service Operations; Customer Ownership; Strategy
Heskett, James L., and W. Earl Sasser. "Rackspace Hosting in Late 2000." Harvard Business School Case 808-166, June 2008.
- July 1994 (Revised January 1997)
- Case
Steamboat Ski & Resort Corporation
The largest ski resort in Colorado must determine how to select customer segments to focus its promotional and service-delivery efforts. Making segmentation work depends on reordering its pricing policy and "service packages." View Details
Rayport, Jeffrey F., Mary E. Callahan, Don Bramley, Katie King, and Hilary Nicholas. "Steamboat Ski & Resort Corporation." Harvard Business School Case 395-019, July 1994. (Revised January 1997.)
- April 2008
- Module Note
Service Design in the Context of Customer-Operators
By: Frances X. Frei
Taught as the second module in a Harvard Business School course on Managing Service Operations: Understanding the Customer Operating Role (606-092). Addresses the design and management of service operations with significant customer operating roles. The focus is on... View Details
Frei, Frances X. "Service Design in the Context of Customer-Operators." Harvard Business School Module Note 608-134, April 2008.
- Article
Using Gen AI for Early-Stage Market Research
By: James Brand, Ayelet Israeli and Donald Ngwe
Generative AI, particularly large language models (LLMs), offers a promising new tool for early-stage market research by simulating customer responses to product concepts. This can allow companies to draw conclusions similar to those they’d obtain by surveying... View Details
Keywords: Large Language Models; Large Language Model; Generative Ai; Artificial Intelligence; Market Research; Research; Marketing; AI and Machine Learning; Analytics and Data Science; Analysis; Customers; Consumer Behavior; Technology Industry; Information Technology Industry
Brand, James, Ayelet Israeli, and Donald Ngwe. "Using Gen AI for Early-Stage Market Research." Harvard Business Review (website) (July 18, 2025).
- Article
Know Your Customers' 'Jobs to Be Done'
By: Clayton M. Christensen, Taddy Hall, Karen Dillon and David S. Duncan
Firms have never known more about their customers, but their innovation processes remain hit-or-miss. Why? According to Christensen and his coauthors, product developers focus too much on building customer profiles and looking for correlations in data. To create... View Details
Keywords: Customer Relationship Management
Christensen, Clayton M., Taddy Hall, Karen Dillon, and David S. Duncan. "Know Your Customers' 'Jobs to Be Done'." Harvard Business Review 94, no. 9 (September 2016): 54–62.
- August 1984 (Revised March 1994)
- Case
The Toro Company S'no Risk Program
By: David E. Bell
Toro introduced a promotion in which purchasers of their snowthrower would receive a refund if the next winter brought only modest snowfall. The principal focus of the class is to understand what the risk implications are for the customer and for the company. May be... View Details
Bell, David E. "The Toro Company S'no Risk Program." Harvard Business School Case 185-017, August 1984. (Revised March 1994.)
- March 1996 (Revised January 1997)
- Case
Scott Cook and Intuit
By: James L. Heskett
Scott Cook has just learned that Microsoft has withdrawn its $2 billion offer for his company Intuit. Because of his company's prospects, he is elated. But he now must decide the direction in which to take his company while continuing to focus on the formula of... View Details
Keywords: Customer Relationship Management; Entrepreneurship; Business or Company Management; Marketing Strategy; Product Development
Heskett, James L. "Scott Cook and Intuit." Harvard Business School Case 396-282, March 1996. (Revised January 1997.)
- January 1999
- Case
State Street Corporation: Leading with Information Technology (B)
By: Stephen P. Bradley and Kelley Porter
With Multi-currency HORIZON, a real-time multi-currency accounting system that replaced the traditional batch-oriented single-currency accounting system, successfully launched, State Street Corp. (State Street) began to focus on growing the scope of its business... View Details
Keywords: Accounting; Trends; Global Strategy; Growth and Development Strategy; Competitive Strategy; Information Technology; Value Creation; Financial Services Industry
Bradley, Stephen P., and Kelley Porter. "State Street Corporation: Leading with Information Technology (B)." Harvard Business School Case 799-034, January 1999.
- 10 May 2011
- Working Paper Summaries
The Impact of Forward-Looking Metrics on Employee Decision Making
- March 2011 (Revised July 2011)
- Case
Vestas' World of Wind
By: Thomas J. Steenburgh and Elena Corsi
The wind turbine manufacturer Vestas launched the industry's first highly localized and customized new product launch campaigns which used also new tools such as web 2.0 platforms. Used to operate in a market where demand exceeded supply, Vestas had lost contact with... View Details
Keywords: Customer Focus and Relationships; Marketing Channels; Internet and the Web; Product Launch; Demand and Consumers; Advertising Campaigns; Global Strategy; Customization and Personalization; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Finance; Product Marketing; Technology Adoption; Energy Industry
Steenburgh, Thomas J., and Elena Corsi. "Vestas' World of Wind." Harvard Business School Case 511-121, March 2011. (Revised July 2011.)
- 07 Jul 2021
- Book
Good News for Disgraced Companies: You Can Regain Trust
landscape is bitterly divided and the COVID-19 pandemic has shaken the economy and led to widespread job losses globally, a corporate focus on trust may be more important than ever, Sucher says. She has studied corporate trust for two... View Details
Keywords: by Lane Lambert
- Article
Elevate Employees, Don't Eliminate Them
By: Ryan W. Buell
The last major global shock—the 2008 recession—led to what economists call a “jobless recovery” as companies found they could get by with fewer employees. But post-pandemic, the author writes, managers should focus on changing employees’ roles instead. He has five key... View Details
Keywords: Employee Relationship Management; Customer Relationship Management; Interpersonal Communication; Value Creation
Buell, Ryan W. "Elevate Employees, Don't Eliminate Them." Harvard Business Review 99, no. 5 (September–October 2021): 55–59.
- April 18, 2023
- Article
The Rebirth of Software as a Service
By: Frank V. Cespedes and Jacco van der Kooij
Traditional sales models focus on customer acquisition and the “funnel” or “pipeline” metrics that dominate talk about sales. But this approach falls short when applied to a recurring revenue business, where the customer life cycle looks more like a bowtie, not a... View Details
Cespedes, Frank V., and Jacco van der Kooij. "The Rebirth of Software as a Service." Harvard Business Review (website) (April 18, 2023).
- November 1994 (Revised May 1998)
- Background Note
Strategic Sales Management: A Boardroom Issue
By: Benson P. Shapiro, Stephen X. Doyle and Adrian J. Slywotsky
Explains why sales management has become an increasingly important and complex topic for top managers. Demonstrates the financial impact of a superior salesforce and then describes a way to gain superiority. The focus is on a salesforce that is responsive to customer... View Details
Shapiro, Benson P., Stephen X. Doyle, and Adrian J. Slywotsky. "Strategic Sales Management: A Boardroom Issue." Harvard Business School Background Note 595-018, November 1994. (Revised May 1998.)
- August 2014
- Case
Rent the Runway (Abridged)
By: Thomas R. Eisenmann, Brent Goldfarb and David A. Kirsch
Two months after a successful launch In November 2009, the cofounders of Rent the Runway (RTR), a website that rented designer dresses, are debating whether to grow their startup at a measured pace and focus on improving operational effectiveness, or raise a new round... View Details
Keywords: Lean Startup; Electronic Commerce; Fashion; Expansion; Business Startups; Growth and Development Strategy; E-commerce; Fashion Industry
Eisenmann, Thomas R., Brent Goldfarb, and David A. Kirsch. "Rent the Runway (Abridged)." Harvard Business School Case 815-055, August 2014.
- May 2009 (Revised January 2011)
- Case
HubSpot: Inbound Marketing and Web 2.0
By: Thomas J. Steenburgh, Jill Avery and Naseem Ashraf Dahod
This case introduces the concept of inbound marketing, pulling customer prospects toward a business through the use of Web 2.0 tools and applications like blogging, search engine optimization, and social media. Students follow the growth of HubSpot, an entrepreneurial... View Details
Keywords: Customer Relationship Management; Entrepreneurship; Price; Growth and Development Strategy; Marketing Communications; Social and Collaborative Networks; Segmentation; Web
Steenburgh, Thomas J., Jill Avery, and Naseem Ashraf Dahod. "HubSpot: Inbound Marketing and Web 2.0." Harvard Business School Case 509-049, May 2009. (Revised January 2011.)