Publications

December 2021 (Revised May 2022)
Case

Troverie (A)

By: Thomas R. Eisenmann, Lindsay N. Hyde and Olivia Graham

Six months after the August 2018 launch of Troverie, a U.S.-based online retailer of luxury watches, the average cost of acquiring a customer is much higher than originally projected, and the startup is incurring a substantial loss on each sales transaction. Could... View Details

Keywords: Startup; Luxury Goods; Customer Acquisition; Entrepreneurship; Business Startups; Luxury; Failure; Internet and the Web; Revenue; Fashion Industry; United States

Web

IT Strategy: Building a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Strategy for HBS IT | Information Technology

implementation and operationalization, the Task Force has created an action plan for the 2024 calendar year that includes educational opportunities, event planning, and... View Details

Elizabeth R. Johnson

Liz is a doctoral student in the Organizational Behavior program at Harvard Business School. She is broadly interested in studying identity, inequality, and well-being, particularly how intersectional identities shape workplace experiences.

Prior to... View Details

July 2021 (Revised January 2024)
Case

Fynd

By: Ranjay Gulati, Kairavi Dey and Rachna Tahilyani

Fynd is a fast-growing venture that in 7 years since its founding has become India's largest omnichannel retail company with real-time access to over 9,000 stores' offline inventory. It started as a B2B business supporting retailers who didn’t have an online business,... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Business Startups; Business Model; Acquisition; Decision Making; Cost vs Benefits; Growth and Development Strategy; Web Services Industry; Technology Industry; Communications Industry; India; Mumbai

19 Dec 2011
News

Death Knell for the Category Killers?

Web

Influence of the China Trade and the Heard Legacy - A Chronicle of the China Trade

Home Site map Map / Directions Search: General Information HBS Home About Annual Report Campus Commencement Dean Nohria Employment Give News New Construction Academic Programs Doctoral Programs Executive Education MBA Summer Venture in... View Details

September 2005 (Revised March 2007)
Case

Lifefont: The Case for RetailDriver

Examines how Lifefont (pseudonym), a multidivisional consumer packages goods company, develops a system to manage and measure the impact of promotional events in retail outlets. View Details

Keywords: Framework; Change Management; Compensation and Benefits; Cost vs Benefits; Growth Management; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Customer Relationship Management; Product Marketing; Salesforce Management; Advertising; Management Systems; Information Technology; Retail Industry

December 2015
Case

The Hain Celestial Group

By: David E. Bell, José B. Alvarez, James Weber and Mary Shelman

Hain Celestial manufactured natural and organic food and personal care products to be sold to retailers of these products. The company had grown successfully and profitably through acquisitions and organically for two decades. In late 2015, Hain faced challenges on... View Details

Keywords: Agribusiness; Strategy; Marketing; Consumer Products Industry; United States

May 2003 (Revised May 2009)
Case

ZARA: Fast Fashion

Focuses on Inditex, an apparel retailer from Spain, which has set up an extremely quick response system for its ZARA chain. Instead of predicting months before a season starts what women will want to wear, ZARA observes what's selling and what's not and continuously... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Multinational Firms and Management; Competitive Advantage; Apparel and Accessories Industry; Apparel and Accessories Industry; Apparel and Accessories Industry; Spain

June 2018
Case

Candor at Clever

By: Ethan Bernstein and Om Lala

Clever, a high-growth EdTech company based in San Francisco, had grown quickly in market share and headcount. As with many high-growth companies, however, early employees (many of whom had never managed people before) had been given the opportunity to manage teams, and... View Details

August 1990 (Revised December 1993)
Case

Talbots

By: Walter J. Salmon

Describes the entry of this store and catalog retailer of classic women's clothing into the Japanese market place. Introduces such issues as cross-border management, multi-national retailing, and joint venturing. View Details

Keywords: Joint Ventures; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Management; Market Entry and Exit; Apparel and Accessories Industry; Apparel and Accessories Industry; Japan

May 1997
Case

CompUSA

By: Krishna G. Palepu and Sarayu Srinivasan

CompUSA was performing poorly until new management reorganized and redirected the business. Consequently, CompUSA became the top retailer in its industry. Management outlines its future plans. View Details

Keywords: Restructuring; Change Management; Finance; Success; Performance Evaluation; Strategic Planning; Business Strategy; Retail Industry; Retail Industry; United States

Web

Laying Down the Principles: Management - Railroads and the Transformation of Capitalism | Harvard Business School/title>

HBS Quick Links MBA Executive Education Doctoral Programs Faculty and Research Alumni HBS Publishing Site Index HBS Home Contact Us Map/Directions Railroads: The Transformation of Capitalism Introduction The... View Details

2008
Book

Disrupting Class: How Disruptive Innovation Will Change the Way the World Learns

By: Clayton M. Christensen, Michael B. Horn and Curtis W. Johnson

According to recent studies in neuroscience, the way we learn doesn't always match up with the way we are taught. If we hope to stay competitive—academically, economically, and technologically—we need to rethink our understanding of intelligence, reevaluate our... View Details

Keywords: Learning; Teaching; Disruptive Innovation; Competitive Advantage; Technology Adoption

Find at Harvard

August 2022
Case

Rocket Learning: Evidence in Action

By: Brian Trelstad, Tomas Rosales and Malini Sen

Founders of Rocket Learning, an India-based nonprofit which focused on early childhood education (ECE), received an invitation from MIT’s Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (JPAL), a development research organization, to test its intervention for ECE with a... View Details

Keywords: Social Entrepreneurship; Early Childhood Education; Nonprofit Organizations; Literacy; Values and Beliefs; Social and Collaborative Networks; Education Industry; India; Asia

March 2024 (Revised April 2025)
Case

TELEXISTENCE Inc.

By: Paul A. Gompers and Akiko Saito

A case about a Japanese robotics startup aiming to enter the U.S. market with its robots that combine AI and human intervention to complete restocking tasks in retail stores. View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Entrepreneurship; Market Entry and Exit; Technology Adoption; Decisions; AI and Machine Learning; Retail Industry; Retail Industry; Japan; United States