Food - Publications - Faculty & Research

Milton S. Hershey

Hershey founded the first mass market chocolate company in 1900. His chocolate bar was so popular that the company did not advertise it until 25 years after his death. The company’s sales grew rapidly from $622,000 in 1901 to $55 million in 1941. The Hershey factory... View Details

Keywords: Food & Tobacco

Ralph A. Hart

Hart was instrumental in taking the newly public company, Heublein, to new heights. He grew revenues five-fold (from $100 million to $500 million) and dramatically expanded Heublein’s international footprint with production facilities in 34 countries. Under his... View Details

Keywords: Food & Tobacco

Bowman Gray

Gray developed the famous advertising slogan for Camel cigarettes: “I’d walk a mile for a Camel.” An early radio advertiser, Gray sponsored the Camel Pleasure Hour in the 1930s. Gray led the campaign against Lucky Strike, which vied with Camel for the top spot in the... View Details

Keywords: Food & Tobacco

J. Paul Austin

Austin was instrumental in building Coke’s international presence. This was dramatically exhibited by his development of an exclusive agreement to market Coke in China in 1978. During his tenure as Coke’s third CEO, the company produced 15 consecutive years of market... View Details

Keywords: Food & Tobacco

Debra J. S. Fields

Capitalizing on the trend of upscale home baked goods, Fields began the company with one store in California in 1977 and, by 1984, had expanded to 160 stores in the United States and four international locations, generating $45 million a year in revenues. Fields’... View Details

Keywords: Food & Tobacco

Henry P. Crowell

Whereas traditional producers marketed oatmeal to wholesalers, Crowell packaged and marketed his brand of oatmeal, Quaker Oats, nation-wide as a breakfast cereal, a unique product at the time. Crowell utilized aggressive marketing strategies to promote the Quaker Oats... View Details

Keywords: Food & Tobacco

Peter H. Coors

Taking the helm of the business from his father, Peter set out to re-invent the company which had been overshadowed by the political opinions and approaches of its former business leaders. Peter established solid relations with the company's unions and began a highly... View Details

Keywords: Food & Tobacco

Adolphus Busch

Joining his father-in-law’s company in 1864, Busch, along with Carl Conrad, developed the formula for Budweiser beer, which became the bestselling beer in the country. Taking the helm of the company in 1913, Busch developed a process for pasteurizing beer that enabled... View Details

Keywords: Food & Tobacco

John H. Bryan, Jr.

When Bryan took over Consolidated Foods, later renamed the Sara Lee Corporation, the company was a $2.5 billion dollar conglomerate. Bryan made significant acquisitions including the Hanes Corporation, which experienced a doubling of sales from $450 to $900 million. By... View Details

Keywords: Food & Tobacco

Felipe Antonio Custer

Keywords: Food and Chemicals

17 Jun 2020
News

Toronto Copes with COVID-19 Via Webinars; Alumni Respond to Pandemic in Philippines

resources to help the government address the needs of the Filipino people while ensuring the safety and well-being of the employees, staff, artists, and journalists of the network. Together with its foundation, the company has raised US$6.8 million from donations to... View Details

Keywords: Margie Kelley

17 Oct 2022
Blog Post

6 Things to Know About Sustainability at HBS

interested in sustainability and the environment will find plenty of company on campus. In addition to becoming Student Sustainability Associates, students can join three clubs (the Energy and Environment Club; the Food and Agriculture... View Details

01 Mar 2019
News

In Character: A Case Discussion Drama

to craft a case that captures the dynamics common across many situations, and that also brings in unique elements from individual examples to highlight important themes. With 450 employees and more than $300 million Canadian in annual revenue, Stoy View Details

Keywords: Julia Hanna

01 Dec 2005
News

Alumni Achievement Awards: Honorees and Victories

concessions company and building it into Boston Culinary Group, of which he is chairman and CEO. The firm does business in forty states, supplying food and drink to arenas and convention centers and operating theaters, ski resorts, and... View Details

Keywords: Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools; Educational Services; Management; Management, Scientific, and Technical Consulting Services; Professional Services

27 Aug 2014
Lessons from the Classroom

Learning From Japan’s Remarkable Disaster Recovery

is that participants write up their own case studies—an opportunity usually reserved for faculty. Some of the 18 cases published or in development in the "The Great East Japan Earthquake" series include reports on Google Japan and Yahoo!; Oisix, an online... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Energy; Utilities; Retail

08 Oct 2010
What Do You Think?

Will Transparency in CEO Compensation Have Unintended Consequences?

assumption that a lower ratio of CEO to average compensation has a beneficial effect on an organization's performance. Presumably, the thinking is that greater equity in pay leads to a healthier culture (for example, in organizations like Whole View Details

Keywords: by Jim Heskett

01 Jun 1996
News

Reinventing Marketing

Rounding out Marketing's agenda are multifaceted research projects. Professor Walter J. Salmon is looking at the costs and benefits of product variety for retailers and manufacturers as part of a joint project with the Food Marketing... View Details

Keywords: Mary Jane Higgins; Illustration by Peter Hoey

December 1988 (Revised March 1989)
Case

Pabst Brewing Co.

At the end of 1984 the Pabst Brewing Co. was the object of a takeover contest for the second time in three years. Nearly two years after a reorganization in early 1983 Pabst still suffered from low margins and high debt service costs. This case describes the takeover... View Details

Keywords: Valuation; Restructuring; Bids and Bidding; Acquisition; Food and Beverage Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; United States

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September 2024
Case

Navigating Digital Transformation at Carrefour

By: Sunil Gupta and Emilie Billaud

In 2023, Elodie Perthuisot, Carrefour’s Executive Director for e-commerce and digital transformation, met with CEO Alexandre Bompard to discuss strategies for the company’s digital initiatives. Carrefour, a global retail giant with over 14,300 stores across 40... View Details

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November 2020
Case

Truebird—An AlleyCorp Venture

By: Shikhar Ghosh and Shweta Bagai

In December 2018, Kevin Ryan and Wendy Tsu faced an important decision – to finalize the CEO candidate for Truebird, an innovative, automated coffee café concept. Like many of AlleyCorp and Ryan’s companies, Truebird started with the observation of an unmet need – an... View Details