Publications

19 Jan 2024
News

The Values and Virtues of a Quick Fix

Subscribe on iTunes Subscribe on Spotify More Skydeck episodes Hi, this is Dan Morrell, host of Skydeck. Speed has gotten a pretty bad rap, says Anne Morriss (MBA 2004). The Silicon Valley mantra of moving fast and breaking things has led to waves of high-profile... View Details

22 Sep 2023
News

Skydeck Voices: The Most Important Person I Met at HBS

Photo provided by Harvard University Subscribe on iTunes Subscribe on Spotify More Skydeck episodes Who was the most important person you met at HBS? And why? This is Dan Morrell, host of Skydeck, and when my colleagues set up on Spangler Lawn during Spring Reunions... View Details

Web

Events - Business History

History Seminar Paris, City of Finance: Domesticating Investment in Nineteenth Century France Alexia Yates, University of Manchester Oct 22 22 Oct 2018 Business History Seminar Socioeconomic Inequality across Religious Groups:... View Details

24 Aug 2017
Cold Call Podcast

Does Le Pliage Help or Hurt the Longchamp Luxury Brand?

Keywords: Re: Jill J. Avery; Fashion

June 2016 (Revised November 2021)
Case

Longchamp

By: Jill Avery, Tonia Junker and Daniela Beyersdorfer

Longchamp’s Le Pliage is one of the fashion world’s most successful products, a cultural icon across the globe. But managing the low priced, nylon handbag is challenging as Longchamp tries to move its brand upmarket into higher priced, luxury leather goods. How much... View Details

Keywords: Brand Management; Luxury Brand; Brand Positioning; Product Strategy; Retailing; Pricing Strategy; Marketing; Brands and Branding; Marketing Strategy; Luxury; Family Business; Price; Strategy; Apparel and Accessories Industry; Retail Industry; Consumer Products Industry; Fashion Industry; France; Europe

Web

Teacher Profiles - Case Method Project

History IB Diploma Program History Theory of Knowledge NC Rachal Staring Durham School of the Arts Durham, NC NC Frances Starn Hillside High School Durham, NC NY John Staudt The Wheatley School Old Westbury, NY CO Kayla Steele Berthoud... View Details

June 2015 (Revised January 2017)
Case

Accor: Strengthening the Brand with Digital Marketing

By: Jill Avery, Chekitan S. Dev and Peter O'Connor

Accor, the world's leading hotel operator with a portfolio of fourteen hospitality brands (including Sofitel and Novotel) in 92 countries, prided itself on living up to its motto, "To open new frontiers in hospitality." Accor was indeed contemplating how to do just... View Details

Keywords: Digital; Hospitality; Branding; Brand Management; Marketing; Brands and Branding; Marketing Channels; Marketing Communications; Marketing Strategy; E-commerce; Accommodations Industry; Travel Industry; Tourism Industry; Europe; France

March 2020 (Revised January 2022)
Case

Michelin: Building a Digital Service Platform

By: Sunil Gupta and Christian Godwin

Michelin, a tire company with over a century of experience, attempts to develop a digital service platform for its fleet and dealer customers. The case focuses on the challenges of bringing a large, well-established company into the digital age. Concerned about the... View Details

Keywords: Change; Transformation; Customer Focus and Relationships; Decision Making; Leading Change; Growth and Development; Strategy; Digital Platforms; Internet and the Web; Auto Industry; Travel Industry; Transportation Industry; United States; France

Web

Globalization - Faculty & Research

Performance Efficiency ; Transportation ; Auto Industry ; Battery Industry ; Energy Industry ; Green Technology Industry ; Transportation Industry ; France ; Europe ; China Citation Educators Purchase Related Truelove, Emily, Linda A.... View Details

October 2009 (Revised June 2011)
Case

Zappos.com 2009: Clothing, Customer Service, and Company Culture

By: Frances X. Frei, Robin J. Ely and Laura Winig

On July 17, 2009, Zappos.com, a privately held online retailer of shoes, clothing, and other soft line retail categories, learned that Amazon.com, a $19 billion multinational online retailer, had won its board of directors' approval to offer to merge the two companies.... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Customer Focus and Relationships; Decision Choices and Conditions; Governing and Advisory Boards; Service Delivery; Organizational Culture; Internet and the Web; Valuation; Apparel and Accessories Industry; Retail Industry

07 May 2014
What Do You Think?

How Should Wealth Be Redistributed?

France and, as a result, whether our host's family would remain in the country. We discussed it sitting near a priceless painting by a master with only a few examples of his work in private hands. This was all brought to mind by the... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

24 May 2018
Research & Ideas

Distance Still Matters in Business, Despite the Internet

was the “death of distance,” a concept popularized in 1997 by Frances Cairncross’s book of the same title. A recent essay in the The New Oxford Handbook of Economic Geography challenges that notion, or at least deepens the argument. While... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Transportation; Telecommunications; Shipping; Publishing; Technology

10 Mar 2021
Research & Ideas

Key to Doing Your Best at Work? Be Yourself

Frances X. Frei, UPS Foundation Professor of Service Management. Too often, people are advised or feel pressured to bury the special or quirky aspects of their personalities, recalibrate their speaking or personal styles, or think twice... View Details

Keywords: by Christina Pazzanese, Harvard Gazette

Web

Dillon House | About

his father’s investment firm in 1938 and led Dillon Read as chairman from 1946 to 1953. He served in the US Navy during World War II and was decorated for his actions in combat. In 1953 Dillon was appointed ambassador to France by... View Details

December 2002 (Revised February 2005)
Case

Cap Gemini Ernst & Young (A): A Global Merger

By: Ashish Nanda

French IT consulting giant Cap Gemini is poised to purchase the consulting arm of Ernst & Young, a U.S.-based Big 5 accounting firm. In doing so, many differences need to be resolved, including negotiating with Ernst & Young entities all over the world as well as... View Details

Keywords: Negotiation; Multinational Firms and Management; Mergers and Acquisitions; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Information Technology Industry; Consulting Industry; France

Earl Sasser is a Baker Foundation Professor at Harvard Business School and has been a member of the faculty there since 1969. He received a B.A. in Mathematics from Duke University in 1965, an MBA from the University of North Carolina in 1967, and a Ph.D. in... View Details

December 2002 (Revised January 2003)
Case

Four Seasons Goes to Paris: '53 Properties, 24 Countries, 1 Philosophy'

By: Roger H. Hallowell, David Bowen and Carin-Isabel Knoop

Illustrates how Four Seasons manages hotels in countries with strong and distinct national cultures. Focuses on how the chain meets its exacting service standards in a variety of settings worldwide, with special attention on France. View Details

Keywords: Service Delivery; Organizational Culture; Global Range; Global Strategy; Standards; Accommodations Industry; Paris