Publications
Publications
Show Results For
- All HBS Web
(1,827)
- Faculty Publications (488)
- November 2011 (Revised August 2012)
- Background Note
Customer Discovery and Validation for Entrepreneurs
By: Frank V. Cespedes, Thomas Eisenmann and Steven G. Blank
Provides practical guidelines for conducting market research to explore and validate demand for entrepreneurial offering. Explains how the research objectives of entrepreneurs might differ from those relevant to managers evaluating product or service offerings to... View Details
- November 2011
- Case
Pacific Grove Spice Company
By: William E. Fruhan and Craig Stephenson
Pacific Grove Spice Company is a profitable, rapidly growing manufacturer, marketer, and distributor of quality spices and seasonings. The company's business model requires significant investment in accounts receivable, inventory, and fixed assets to support sales.... View Details
- November 2011
- Case
WrapItUp: Developing a New Compensation Plan
By: W. Earl Sasser Jr. and Rachel Shelton
A restaurant chain based in California offers made-to-order sandwich wraps using fresh, healthy ingredients. The founders of the company take a very active role in day-to-day business and tightly control every aspect of the restaurant operation from hiring store... View Details
Keywords: Empowerment; Middle Management; Human Resource Management; Compensation; Incentives; Motivation; Motivation and Incentives; Change Management; Business Growth and Maturation; Service Delivery; Entrepreneurship; Employees; Compensation and Benefits; Food and Beverage Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; California
- June 2011
- Case
Reed Supermarkets: A New Wave of Competitors
By: John A. Quelch and Carole Carlson
Reed Supermarkets is a high-end supermarket chain with operations in several Midwestern states. Meredith Collins, vice president of marketing, visits stores located in Columbus, Ohio, an important region with the largest market and the greatest impact on revenue... View Details
- June 2011 (Revised May 2012)
- Case
Nestlé SA: Nutrition, Health and Wellness Strategy
By: Rebecca M. Henderson and Ryan Johnson
In 1997 Nestlé committed to a strategic vision of becoming the leading nutrition, health and wellness (NHW) company in the world. Over the next 13 years, the NHW strategy guided strategic decisions and choices at Nestlé including merger and acquisition choices,... View Details
- May 2011
- Teaching Note
The Dutch Flower Cluster (TN)
By: Jorge Ramirez-Vallejo and Michael E. Porter
Teaching Note for 711507. View Details
- April 2011
- Case
Porcini's Pronto: "Great Italian cuisine without the wait!"
By: James L. Heskett and Richard Luecke
Porcini's Inc. operates a chain of 23 full-service restaurants located near shopping malls and downtown areas in the northeastern United States. Known for providing excellent service, Porcini's serves high-quality Italian cuisine made from fresh ingredients. Looking... View Details
Keywords: Franchising; Syndication; Quantitative Analysis; Performance Measurement; Human Resource Management; Incentives; Motivation; Consumer Behavior; Measurement and Metrics; Quality; Customer Value and Value Chain; Selection and Staffing; Expansion; Business Growth and Maturation; Service Delivery; Franchise Ownership; Customer Focus and Relationships; Product Marketing; Food and Beverage Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; Northeastern United States
- 2011
- Working Paper
The Impact of Forward-Looking Metrics on Employee Decision Making
By: Pablo Casas-Arce, F. Asis Martinez-Jerez and V.G. Narayanan
This paper analyzes the effects of providing forward-looking metrics on employee decision making. We use data from a southern European bank that, in April 2002, started providing its branch managers with customer lifetime value (CLV) information about mortgage... View Details
- February 2011 (Revised February 2018)
- Case
Greg Mazur and the Purchase of Great Eastern Premium Pet Foods
By: Richard S. Ruback and Royce Yudkoff
Greg Mazur decided to purchase a small business after graduating from the Harvard Business School. The case explores his decision about whether or not he should finalize his deal to purchase Great Eastern Premium Pet Foods, Inc. ("GEPP"). It gives students the... View Details
- February 2011 (Revised April 2012)
- Case
PepsiCo Peru Foods: More than Small Potatoes
The regional head of supply chain for PepsiCo South America Foods and his team had worked for 10 years to realize their dream of creating an agricultural research center in Peru that could provide more productive and healthier varieties of potatoes for the Frito-Lay... View Details
- January – February 2011
- Article
Creating Shared Value
By: Michael E. Porter and Mark R. Kramer
The capitalist system is under siege. In recent years business has been criticized as a major cause of social, environmental, and economic problems. Companies are widely thought to be prospering at the expense of their communities. Trust in business has fallen to new... View Details
- 2011
- Working Paper
The Architecture of Transaction Networks: A Comparative Analysis of Hierarchy in Two Sectors
By: Jianxi Luo, Carliss Y. Baldwin, Daniel E. Whitney and Christopher L. Magee
Many products are manufactured in networks of firms linked by transactions, but comparatively little is known about how or why such transaction networks differ. This paper investigates the transaction networks of two large sectors in Japan at a single point in time. In... View Details
- 2011
- Book
The Ultimate Question 2.0: How Net Promoter Companies Thrive in a Customer-Driven World
By: Fred Reichheld and Rob Markey
Defines the fundamental concept of Net Promoter, explaining its connection to your company’s growth and sustained success.
*Presents the closed-loop feedback process and demonstrates its power to energize employees and delight customers.
*Shares new and... View Details
*Presents the closed-loop feedback process and demonstrates its power to energize employees and delight customers.
*Shares new and... View Details
- December 2010 (Revised March 2013)
- Case
Asian Agri and the Future of Palm Oil
By: David E. Bell and Natalie Kindred
For Asian Agri and other Indonesian palm oil producers, the future promised rising demand from fast-growing Asian populations, but also intensifying criticism from environmental groups. With the highest yield and lowest production cost of any edible oil, palm oil... View Details
- September 2010 (Revised August 2011)
- Background Note
Pricing, Profits, and Customer Value
By: Frank V. Cespedes, Benson P. Shapiro and Elliot B. Ross
This note discusses how some firms (start-ups and established companies) maximize customer value and profits via their pricing processes. It is aimed at companies that compete on the basis of performance initiatives rather than absolute cost advantages and low price.... View Details
- September 2010 (Revised January 2016)
- Case
Grameen Danone Foods Ltd., a Social Business
By: V. Kasturi Rangan and Katharine Lee
Grameen Danone is a joint venture between the Grameen Group (a sister company of Grameen Bank) and Groupe Danone, a $2 billion (revenues) French food company. The company's goal was to provide nutritional yogurt (brand name Shoktidoi) for the nearly 50 million... View Details
- September 2010 (Revised February 2011)
- Case
Red Lobster
By: David E. Bell and Jason Riis
Red Lobster, a 40-year-old chain of seafood restaurants, has just completed some market research revealing an opportunity to shift its target customer segment. The chain is in the final stages of a 10-year plan of rejuvenation under CEO Kim Lopdrup. When he took over... View Details
- July 2010
- Supplement
Marketing Analysis Toolkit: Customer Lifetime Value Analysis (CW)
By: Thomas J. Steenburgh and Jill Avery
Customers are increasingly being viewed as assets that bring value to the firm. Customer lifetime value is a metric which allows managers to understand the overall value of their customer base and relate it to three customer strategies firms employ: asset acquisition -... View Details
- July 2010 (Revised January 2017)
- Background Note
Marketing Analysis Toolkit: Customer Lifetime Value Analysis (2024)
By: Thomas Steenburgh and Jill Avery
Customers are increasingly being viewed as assets that bring value to the firm. Customer lifetime value is a metric that allows managers to understand the overall value of their customer base and relate it to three customer strategies firms employ: asset... View Details
Keywords: Customer Lifetime Value; Return On Investment; Customer Acquisition; Customer Retention; Customer Churn; ＂Marketing Analytics＂; Marketing; Customer Relationship Management; Customer Focus and Relationships; Customer Value and Value Chain; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Marketing Strategy; Measurement and Metrics; Strategic Planning; Value
- 2010
- Book
The New Science of Retailing: How Analytics Are Transforming the Supply Chain and Improving Performance
By: Marshall Fisher and Ananth Raman
Retailers today are drowning in data but lacking in insight: They have huge volumes of information at their disposal. But they're unsure of how to sort through it and use it to make smart decisions. The result? They're struggling with profit-sapping supply chain... View Details