Publications

September 2003 (Revised June 2007)
Case

Virgin Mobile USA: Pricing for the Very First Time

Dan Schulman, the CEO of Virgin Mobile USA, must develop a pricing strategy for a new wireless phone service targeted toward consumers in their teens and twenties, many of whom are believed to have poor credit quality and uneven usage patterns. Contrary to conventional... View Details

Keywords: Price; Market Entry and Exit; Wireless Technology; Telecommunications Industry; United States

25 May 2011
HBS Case

QuikTrip’s Investment in Retail Employees Pays Off

group of retailers is challenging this notion of an industry built on the backs of crummy jobs, very prosperous companies that include Costco, Mercadona, Trader Joe's, and QuikTrip. What do they know that... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Retail

10 Jan 2020
Blog Post

Know Your Audience - Recruiting HBS Students for Retail

coming from outside the industry before business school. Career switchers make up a significant portion of the HBS class overall and they bring highly transferrable skills and... View Details

Keywords: Consumer Products / Retail

21 Oct 2013
Research & Ideas

Missing the Wave in Ship Transport

price increases drove an industry uptick as the market shifted from oil to coal. Demand for ships outstripped supply until 1981, when a global recession and the US coal miners' strike led to a collapse in... View Details

Keywords: by Kim Girard; Transportation

March 2009 (Revised October 2010)
Case

Tokyo AFM

By: Francois Brochet

This case was written as the financial accounting portion of the final exam for a first-year MBA course at Harvard Business School. The goal was to test students' ability to apply major concepts taught during the course to an industry which they had not covered, but... View Details

Keywords: Accounting; Decision Choices and Conditions; Economics; Insurance; Insurance Industry; Japan

26 May 2015
First Look

First Look: May 26

http://hrleadsbusiness.org/rise-of-hr-e-book May 2015 JAMA, the Journal of the American Medical Association Medicine's Continuous Improvement Imperative By: Huckman, Robert S., and Ananth Raman Abstract—... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

December 2009 (Revised June 2011)
Case

Curt Schilling's Next Pitch

By: Noam T. Wasserman, Jeffrey J. Bussgang and Rachel Gordon

As his major-league pitching career was starting to wind down in 2006, baseball all-star Curt Schilling decided to become an entrepreneur. Looking to focus his tenacity and his passion for online role-playing games on a new challenge, he founded an online gaming... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Business Startups; Decision Choices and Conditions; Entrepreneurship; Financing and Loans; Leadership; Personal Development and Career; Groups and Teams; Video Game Industry

25 Jul 2016
Research & Ideas

Who is to Blame for 'The Great Training Robbery'?

the way people are organized and managed—the roles, responsibilities, and relationships—must be made first. Helping individuals and teams to learn how to enact View Details

Keywords: by Roberta Holland; Education

19 Sep 2005
Research & Ideas

Rethinking Company Loyalty

masters to further her own career are also what the company needs. And when firms help workers acquire new skills that support their professional advancement, they often win those workers' commitment—and... View Details

Keywords: by Lauren Keller Johnson

13 Sep 2017
Blog Post

Why We Recruit: Gorton's Seafoods

Why We Recruit is a series of interviews with our recruiting partners covering a variety of topics ranging from their experience working with HBS to what they want students to know. New interviews will be released throughout the year to... View Details

Keywords: Consumer Products / Retail

March 1987 (Revised October 1993)
Case

Au Bon Pain: The French Bakery Cafe, The Partner/Manager Program

By: W. Earl Sasser

In recent years, Au Bon Pain (ABP), a chain of upscale French bakeries/sandwich cafes based in Boston, confronted a set of human resource problems endemic to the fast food industry (i.e., a labor shortage which made it difficult to attract and maintain quality crew... View Details

Keywords: Motivation and Incentives; Managerial Roles; Retention; Employees; Performance Improvement; Recruitment; Problems and Challenges; Compensation and Benefits; Food and Beverage Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; Boston

November 2000 (Revised April 2004)
Case

Airbus A3XX: Developing the World's Largest Commercial Jet (A)

By: Benjamin C. Esty and Michael Kane

In July 2000, Airbus Industries' supervisory board is on the verge of approving a $13 billion investment for the development of a new super jumbo jet known as the A3XX that would seat from 550 to 1,000 passengers. Having secured approximately 20 orders for the new jet,... View Details

Keywords: Risk and Uncertainty; Investment; Forecasting and Prediction; Capital Budgeting; Valuation; Government and Politics; Demand and Consumers; Product Development; Product Positioning; Air Transportation Industry; Air Transportation Industry

September 2017 (Revised March 2018)
Case

Chai Point: Disrupting Chai

By: Shikhar Ghosh, Ramana Nanda and Rachna Tahilyani

Chai Point is India’s largest organized chai retailer. It has missed its target for retail store openings by approximately 25%, goals that are very important to its investors who are also board members. However, it has developed an exciting new internet-based tea... View Details

January 1991 (Revised March 1992)
Case

USA Today

By: Robert L. Simons

USA Today is a national newspaper struggling to achieve profitability. This case focuses on the use of management control systems to identify emerging opportunities and the formulation of new strategies. The interactive system used by top managers--the Friday... View Details

Keywords: Strategy; Competitive Advantage; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Managerial Roles; Forecasting and Prediction; Growth and Development Strategy; Risk Management; Labor and Management Relations; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Risk and Uncertainty; Journalism and News Industry; United States

Find at Harvard

04 Aug 2020
Blog Post

HBS Career & Professional Development Responds to COVID-19

Kristen Fitzpatrick (HBS '03) is the Managing Director of HBS Career and Professional Development (CPD). In this role, she also coaches alumni and MBA students. Through her interactions with recruiters over... View Details

17 Oct 2013
News

An Obstacle to Patient-Centered Care: Poor Supply Systems

May 2007 (Revised September 2008)
Case

Biocon Limited

By: Krishna G. Palepu and Ananth Chepuri

Biocon Limited was facing significant pricing pressure in their cash cow business, that primarily consisted of manufacturing Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs). To combat this commoditization, Biocon's leadership had chosen an innovation-led strategy. This new... View Details

Keywords: Globalized Firms and Management; Innovation and Management; Leading Change; Growth and Development Strategy; Risk Management; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Biotechnology Industry; India

August 2014
Teaching Plan

The Huffington Post

By: Thomas R. Eisenmann

In February 2010, management of the Huffington Post, a fast-growing but not-yet-profitable Internet newspaper that aggregates blog posts from unpaid contributors and excerpts of stories originally published by other news sites, faces a number of decisions about its... View Details

Keywords: Internet and the Web; Newspapers; Entrepreneurship; Growth and Development Strategy; Journalism and News Industry