Filter Results:
(2,456)
Show Results For
- All HBS Web
(2,456)
- People (1)
- News (443)
- Research (1,680)
- Events (2)
- Multimedia (7)
- Faculty Publications (785)
Show Results For
- All HBS Web
(2,456)
- People (1)
- News (443)
- Research (1,680)
- Events (2)
- Multimedia (7)
- Faculty Publications (785)
- March 2015
- Case
Unilever: Combatting Global Food Waste
By: David F. Drake, Janice H. Hammond and Matthew G. Preble
The global consumer goods company Unilever was on pace to hit a number of aggressive targets by 2020 as part of the Unilever Sustainable Living Project, including a goal to halve the waste associated with the disposal of its products. Unilever's chief supply chain... View Details
Keywords: Food Waste; Sustainable Business And Innovation; Sustainable Supply Chains; Sustainable Operations; Organization Alignment; Environmental Sustainability; Operations; Supply Chain Management; Growth and Development Strategy; Food; Agribusiness; Strategy; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Beauty and Cosmetics Industry; Beauty and Cosmetics Industry; Beauty and Cosmetics Industry; Beauty and Cosmetics Industry; Beauty and Cosmetics Industry; Beauty and Cosmetics Industry; North and Central America; Europe; Asia; Africa; Latin America; India
Drake, David F., Janice H. Hammond, and Matthew G. Preble. "Unilever: Combatting Global Food Waste." Harvard Business School Case 615-040, March 2015.
- March 17, 2021
- Other Article
Beyond Pajamas: Sizing Up the Pandemic Shopper
By: Ayelet Israeli, Eva Ascarza and Laura Castrillo
A first look at how the COVID-19 pandemic impacted e-commerce apparel shopping in the US and the UK. Extensive analysis and interactive graphics utilizing millions of transactions.
While the pandemic is still playing out, our preliminary investigations... View Details
While the pandemic is still playing out, our preliminary investigations... View Details
Keywords: Retail; Retail Analytics; Consumer; Pandemic; COVID; COVID-19; Apparel; Ecommerce; Online Shopping; Online Apparel; Online Sales; Returns; CRM; Customer Retention; Customer Experience; Customer Value; Digital; Customer Focus and Relationships; Customers; Health Pandemics; Consumer Behavior; Customer Relationship Management; Internet and the Web; Behavior; E-commerce; Apparel and Accessories Industry; Apparel and Accessories Industry; Apparel and Accessories Industry; United States; United Kingdom
Israeli, Ayelet, Eva Ascarza, and Laura Castrillo. "Beyond Pajamas: Sizing Up the Pandemic Shopper." Harvard Business School Working Knowledge (March 17, 2021).
- September 2018 (Revised August 2019)
- Case
The Progressive Corporation, 2018
By: John R. Wells and Benjamin Weinstock
In early 2019, The Progressive Corporation (Progressive), the USA’s third-largest auto insurance writer, reported earned premiums were up 20% in 2018 compared to the previous year, and net income was up 64%. Direct sales of personal auto policies rose 21%, while agent... View Details
Keywords: Insurance Companies; Strategic Analysis; Strategic Decisions; Customer Acquisition; Customer Experience; Customer Lifetime Value; Policy Implementation; Competitors; Auto Insurance; Vehicle; Progressive; Allstate; State Farm; GEICO; Implementation; Insurance; Customer Value and Value Chain; Growth Management; Competitive Strategy; Insurance Industry
Wells, John R., and Benjamin Weinstock. "The Progressive Corporation, 2019." Harvard Business School Case 719-413, September 2018. (Revised August 2019.)
- 2025
- Working Paper
Dynamic Personalization with Multiple Customer Signals: Multi-Response State Representation in Reinforcement Learning
Reinforcement learning (RL) offers potential for optimizing sequences of customer interactions by modeling the relationships
between customer states, company actions, and long-term value. However, its practical implementation often faces significant
challenges.... View Details
Keywords: Dynamic Policy; Deep Reinforcement Learning; Representation Learning; Dynamic Difficulty Adjustment; Latent Variable Models; Customer Relationship Management; Customer Value and Value Chain; Foreign Direct Investment; Analytics and Data Science
Ma, Liangzong, Ta-Wei Huang, Eva Ascarza, and Ayelet Israeli. "Dynamic Personalization with Multiple Customer Signals: Multi-Response State Representation in Reinforcement Learning." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 25-037, February 2025.
- September 2014 (Revised November 2017)
- Case
Sustainability at IKEA Group
By: V. Kasturi Rangan, Michael W. Toffel, Vincent Dessain and Jerome Lenhardt
By 2014, IKEA Group was the largest home furnishing company, with EUR28.5 billion of sales, and planned to reach EUR50 billion by 2020, mainly from emerging markets. At the same time, IKEA Group had adopted in 2012 a new sustainability strategy that focused the... View Details
Keywords: Furnishing; Sustainability; Supply Chain; Wood; Customer Value and Value Chain; Supply Chain Management; Environmental Sustainability; Growth and Development Strategy; Consumer Products Industry
Rangan, V. Kasturi, Michael W. Toffel, Vincent Dessain, and Jerome Lenhardt. "Sustainability at IKEA Group." Harvard Business School Case 515-033, September 2014. (Revised November 2017.)
- January 2018 (Revised June 2018)
- Case
Medtronic: Navigating a Shifting Healthcare Landscape
By: Robert S. Kaplan, Michael E. Porter, Thomas W. Feeley and Alee Hernandez
Medtronic is adapting its strategy to changes in healthcare competition and payments. It has decided to develop new relationships with payers, hospitals, and physicians to become more accountable for patient outcomes and total costs. The case describes new forms of... View Details
Keywords: Value Based Health Care; Bundled Payments; Health Care and Treatment; Cost Management; Value Creation; Supply Chain Management; Customer Value and Value Chain; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry; United States; Netherlands
Kaplan, Robert S., Michael E. Porter, Thomas W. Feeley, and Alee Hernandez. "Medtronic: Navigating a Shifting Healthcare Landscape." Harvard Business School Case 718-471, January 2018. (Revised June 2018.)
- 01 Oct 1999
- News
The Same the World Over: Focusing on Customers and Innovation Brings Success
climate, customer orientation, and innovation. "Corporate culture was perceived as the prevailing set of shared values held by a firm's managers," Deshpandé explains,... View Details
Keywords: Peter K. Jacobs
- 27 Sep 2010
- Research & Ideas
Customer Experts Lose Influence When Teams are Pressured
It's a common problem: A work team tackles a high-pressure project for a client, but along the way something goes wrong with team dynamics and the client ends up feeling shortchanged. Even though team members initially recognize View Details
Keywords: by Sarah Jane Gilbert
- March 2019
- Technical Note
Control or Flexibility? Structured Empowerment Offers Both—Lessons from Retail & Service Chains (Abridged)
By: Tatiana Sandino
This note explains how several retail and service organizations use a practice described here as “structured empowerment” to balance control and flexibility as they grow. I define structured empowerment as a practice that grants employees both (a) the power to make... View Details
Keywords: Service Operations; Standards; Employees; Service Delivery; Decision Making; Power and Influence; Retail Industry; Service Industry
Sandino, Tatiana. "Control or Flexibility? Structured Empowerment Offers Both—Lessons from Retail & Service Chains (Abridged)." Harvard Business School Technical Note 119-088, March 2019.
- 11 Nov 2013
- Research & Ideas
A Smarter Way to Reduce Customer Defections
Companies spend significant sums to acquire customers. Once hooked, marketers protect those investments by attempting to keep patrons happy, engaged, and most of all, loyal. Reducing customer attrition, or... View Details
- January 2019 (Revised February 2024)
- Teaching Note
Hubble Contact Lenses: Data Driven Direct-to-Consumer Marketing
By: Ayelet Israeli
Teaching Note for HBS No. 519-011. As its Series A extension round approaches, the founders of Hubble, a subscription-based, social-media fueled, direct-to-consumer (DTC) brand of contact lenses, are reflecting on the marketing strategies that have taken them to a... View Details
Keywords: DTC; Direct To Consumer Marketing; Health Care; Mobile; Attribution; Experimentation; Experiments; Churn/retention; Customer Lifetime Value; Internet Marketing; Big Data; Analytics; A/B Testing; CRM; Advertising; Marketing; Marketing Channels; Marketing Strategy; Media; Brands and Branding; Marketing Communications; Digital Marketing; Acquisition; Growth and Development Strategy; Customer Focus and Relationships; Consumer Behavior; Social Media; E-commerce
- 21 Jul 2003
- Research & Ideas
Don’t Get Buried in Customer Data—Use It
their companies' CRM initiatives had failed to deliver profitable growth and had damaged long-term customer relationships. Tempting as it may be to point the finger at your CRM technology, that won't help... View Details
Keywords: by Jean Ayers
- Article
How Direct-to-Consumer Brands Can Continue to Grow
By: V. Kasturi Rangan, Daniel Corsten, Matt Higgins and Leonard A. Schlesinger
Direct-to-consumer (DTC) brands such as Allbirds, Casper, Peloton, and Warby Parker have creatively found a weakness in the marketing citadel of incumbent brands. By using data gleaned from daily interactions with customers, these brands have been able to adapt how... View Details
Keywords: Direct-to-consumer; Customer Journey; Business Model; Customer Relationship Management; Growth and Development Strategy
Rangan, V. Kasturi, Daniel Corsten, Matt Higgins, and Leonard A. Schlesinger. "How Direct-to-Consumer Brands Can Continue to Grow." Harvard Business Review 99, no. 6 (November–December 2021): 101–109.
- Research Summary
Sustainable Operations
Professor Lee studies how operational synergies between different supply chains can be used to create economic value and improve environmental sustainability. She uses an operational lens to approach sustainability problems, focusing on the management of material flow... View Details
- March 2018 (Revised March 2019)
- Technical Note
Control or Flexibility? Structured Empowerment Offers Both — Lessons from Retail & Service Chains
By: Tatiana Sandino
This note explains how several retail and service organizations use a practice described here as “structured empowerment” to balance control and flexibility as they grow. I define structured empowerment as a practice that grants employees both (a) the power to make... View Details
Keywords: Service Operations; Standards; Employees; Service Delivery; Decision Making; Power and Influence; Retail Industry; Service Industry
Sandino, Tatiana. "Control or Flexibility? Structured Empowerment Offers Both — Lessons from Retail & Service Chains." Harvard Business School Technical Note 118-082, March 2018. (Revised March 2019.)
- February 2021 (Revised February 2021)
- Background Note
eGrocery and the Role of Data for CPG Firms
By: Ayelet Israeli, Fedor (Ted) Lisitsyn and Mark A. Irwin
This notes provides information about the eGrocery industry and how traditional CPG companies handle this channel and potential data. It is recommended to use together with a series of exercises entitled: "E-Commerce Analytics for CPG Firms (A), (B), and (C)." View Details
Keywords: Data; Data Analysis; Data Analytics; Data Sharing; CPG; Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG); Delivery Planning; Customer Lifetime Value; Online Channel; Retail; Retail Analytics; Retailing Industry; Ecommerce; Grocery; Optimization; Analytics and Data Science; Analysis; Customer Value and Value Chain; Marketing Channels; E-commerce; Retail Industry; Consumer Products Industry; United States
Israeli, Ayelet, Fedor (Ted) Lisitsyn, and Mark A. Irwin. "eGrocery and the Role of Data for CPG Firms." Harvard Business School Background Note 521-077, February 2021. (Revised February 2021.)
- Web
Managing Customers for Growth - Course Catalog
customer lifetime value (LTV), customer-base analysis, and cohort dynamics to inform strategic decision-making. 2. Leveraging Data for Customer... View Details
- August 2017 (Revised November 2017)
- Case
Accounting for Political Risk at AES
By: Gerardo Pérez Cavazos and Suraj Srinivasan
As a global energy generating company, AES frequently faces challenges from political changes and instability. This is exacerbated by the fact that in many instances AES' primary customer is the government, which is also in charge of law-making. For example, AES'... View Details
Keywords: Political Risk; Asset Impairment; Risk Factors; Fair Value; Fair Value Accounting; Financial Reporting; Financial Statements; Energy Industry; Bulgaria; Dominican Republic; United States; Venezuela
Pérez Cavazos, Gerardo, and Suraj Srinivasan. "Accounting for Political Risk at AES." Harvard Business School Case 118-023, August 2017. (Revised November 2017.)
- April 2019
- Case
Afterpay U.S.: The Omnichannel Dilemma
By: Antonio Moreno, Donald Ngwe and George Gonzalez
In 2018, Nick Molnar, the founder of the Australia-based online payment service Afterpay began its expansion to the U.S. market. The service had gained a loyal following in Australia by enabling customers to pay for online purchases through four interest-free... View Details
Keywords: Omnichannel Retail; Multi-sided Platforms; Value Creation; Business Model Innovation; Fintech; Digital Marketing; Disruptive Innovation; Business Startups; Business Growth and Maturation; Business Model; Business Organization; For-Profit Firms; Change Management; Customer Value and Value Chain; Customer Relationship Management; Customer Satisfaction; Financing and Loans; Microfinance; Global Strategy; Marketing Channels; Brands and Branding; Marketing Strategy; Market Entry and Exit; Digital Platforms; Product Development; Supply Chain Management; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Networks; Network Effects; Internet and the Web; Financial Services Industry; Retail Industry; Technology Industry; United States; Australia
Moreno, Antonio, Donald Ngwe, and George Gonzalez. "Afterpay U.S.: The Omnichannel Dilemma." Harvard Business School Case 519-086, April 2019.