Publications

April 2011
Case

Designs by Kate: The Power of Direct Sales

By: John A. Deighton and Sarah Abbott

The sales representatives at Designs by Kate (DBK) sell private label jewelry at hosted parties and through online social media channels. They are also responsible for recruiting, training, and managing new sales reps. CEO and founder Kate Creevey designed the... View Details

Keywords: Direct Sales; Consumer Marketing; Marketing Management; Personal Selling; Sales Compensation; Sales Organization; Motivation and Incentives; Marketing Strategy; Salesforce Management; Performance; Compensation and Benefits; Apparel and Accessories Industry

December 2014 (Revised May 2016)
Case

Dhamani Jewels: Becoming a Global Luxury Brand

By: Lynda Applegate and Lisa C. Mazzanti

Dhamani started as a loose gemstone dealer in 1969 in Jaipur, India. By the 2000s, it was headquartered in Dubai, United Arab Emirates and had expanded into diamonds and retail. The family business was now in its second generation of leadership and aimed to become a... View Details

Keywords: Luxury Retail; Jewelry; Luxury Goods; UAE; Retail; Brands and Branding; Family Business; Apparel and Accessories Industry; Dubai; India

September 2020 (Revised June 2023)
Supplement

Spreadsheet Supplement to Artea Teaching Note

By: Eva Ascarza and Ayelet Israeli

Spreadsheet Supplement to Artea Teaching Note 521-041. This collection of exercises aims to teach students about 1)Targeting Policies; and 2)Algorithmic bias in marketing—implications, causes, and possible solutions. Part (A) focuses on A/B testing analysis and... View Details

Keywords: Targeted Advertising; Algorithmic Data; Bias; Advertising; Race; Gender; Diversity; Marketing; Customer Relationship Management; Prejudice and Bias; Analytics and Data Science; Retail Industry; Retail Industry; Retail Industry; United States

September 2020 (Revised July 2022)
Exercise

Artea (D): Discrimination through Algorithmic Bias in Targeting

By: Eva Ascarza and Ayelet Israeli

This collection of exercises aims to teach students about 1)Targeting Policies; and 2)Algorithmic bias in marketing—implications, causes, and possible solutions. Part (A) focuses on A/B testing analysis and targeting. Parts (B),(C),(D) Introduce algorithmic bias. The... View Details

Keywords: Targeted Advertising; Discrimination; Algorithmic Data; Bias; Advertising; Race; Gender; Marketing; Diversity; Customer Relationship Management; Prejudice and Bias; Analytics and Data Science; Retail Industry; Retail Industry; Retail Industry; United States

August 2007 (Revised April 2008)
Case

Texas Pacific Group--J. Crew

By: Michael J. Roberts, William A. Sahlman and Lauren Barley

Describes Texas Pacific Group's purchase and operation of J. Crew, the catalog and specialty clothing retailer. Highlights the issues involved in financing such a transaction, and then focuses on the operational challenges of turning around the business, and of TPG's... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Private Equity; Financing and Loans; Investment; Operations; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Apparel and Accessories Industry; Apparel and Accessories Industry

December 1994 (Revised May 2008)
Case

Jensen Shoes: Lyndon Brooks' Story

Jane Kravitz (Caucasian female), strategic product manager, and Lyndon Brooks (African American male), a member of her staff at Jensen Shoes, a successful producer and marketer of casual, athletic, and children's footwear, are assigned to new positions and to each... View Details

Keywords: Prejudice and Bias; Ethnicity; Race Characteristics; Performance Evaluation; Gender Characteristics; Management Skills; Diversity; Apparel and Accessories Industry

February 2017
Teaching Plan

Dhamani Jewels: Becoming a Global Luxury Brand

By: Lynda Applegate

Dhamani started as a loose gemstone dealer in 1969 in Jaipur, India. By the 2000s, it was headquartered in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and had expanded into diamonds and retail. The family business was now in its second generation of leadership and aimed to become a... View Details

Keywords: Luxury Retail; Jewelry; Luxury Goods; UAE; Retail; Brands and Branding; Family Business; Apparel and Accessories Industry; Dubai; India

November 2019
Case

Celebrity Fashions Limited (A)

By: V.G. Narayanan, Tanvi Deshpande and Shreya Ramachandran

In May 2017 in Chennai, India, the chairman of Celebrity Fashions doubted whether the company could last until the end of the year. Venkatesh Rajagopal had found that the company, a readymade garment manufacturing and exporter he founded in 1989, was having a hard time... View Details

Keywords: Turnarounds; Operations; Management; Financial Condition; Problems and Challenges; Communication; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Transformation; Apparel and Accessories Industry; Apparel and Accessories Industry

June 1995 (Revised May 1996)
Teaching Note

Levi Strauss & Co.: Global Sourcing Series TN

By: Lynn S. Paine and Joshua D. Margolis

Teaching Note for (9-395-127) and (9-395-128). View Details

Keywords: Apparel and Accessories Industry; China

December 1991
Supplement

Whistler Corp. (B)

By: Gary P. Pisano and David T. Kotchen

Describes the decision the company chose and how it worked out. Designed as an in-class follow-up to Whistler Corp. (A). View Details

Keywords: Decision Making; Apparel and Accessories Industry; Massachusetts

2009
Case

Mercury Athletic Footwear, Inc.: Valuing the Opportunity: Brief Case No. 4050.

By: Timothy A. Luehrman and Joel L. Heilprin

In January 2007, West Coast Fashions, Inc., a large designer and marketer of branded apparel, announced a strategic reorganization that would result in the divestiture of their wholly owned footwear subsidiary, Mercury Athletic. John Liedtke, the head of business... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Restructuring; Valuation; Apparel and Accessories Industry

April 2021
Case

Buy Online, Pickup in Store: Evaluating an Omnichannel Intervention in Retail

By: Antonio Moreno, Santiago Gallino and Amy Klopfenstein

In October 2018, fashion, wellness, and beauty retailer Sylvarella implemented a Buy Online, Pickup in Store (BOPS) program in an attempt to counteract a sales decline. While BOPS had the potential to meet customer expectations for a seamless order and fulfillment... View Details

Keywords: Operations; Service Delivery; Logistics; Infrastructure; Distribution Channels; Order Taking and Fulfillment; Analysis; Retail Industry; Retail Industry; United States; Canada

September 1983 (Revised July 1998)
Case

Heather Evans

By: Howard H. Stevenson and Michael J. Roberts

Focuses on the efforts of Heather Evans, a second-year MBA student, and her attempts to start her own dress business. Examines the business plan and the process of acquiring control over the financial and human resources necessary to implement the plan. View Details

Keywords: Business Plan; Business Startups; Investment; Human Resources; Strategic Planning; Apparel and Accessories Industry

August 1995 (Revised May 2008)
Teaching Note

Jensen Shoes (TN)

By: James I. Cash Jr. and Mary C. Gentile

Teaching Note for (9-395-120) and (9-395-121). View Details

Keywords: Perception; Race; Groups and Teams; Employees; Apparel and Accessories Industry

January 2017
Case

Expanding Ecommerce at Technos

By: Thales Teixeira, Rohit Deshpandé, Ruth Costas and Priscilla Zogbi

Technos was the market leader in the Brazilian watch market. Its CEO had made a firm commitment to evolve the company’s marketing and commercial practices by focusing less on pushing product to retail clients and more on branding to end consumers to pull watches from... View Details

April 1996 (Revised June 1996)
Case

City Year Enterprise

City Year, a national, nonprofit, youth-service corps, decided to diversify its funding base by seeking opportunities to gain "earned income." In 1995, the initiative, dubbed "City Year Enterprise," had already launched its first project, a collaboration with the... View Details

Keywords: Nonprofit Organizations; Partners and Partnerships; Joint Ventures; Social Entrepreneurship; Apparel and Accessories Industry; United States

Find at Harvard

September 2000 (Revised October 2006)
Case

Atherton Clothing Company (A)

By: John A. Davis and Andrew Z. Tubman

Zachary Cohen, who will graduate soon from business school, wants to enter his family's business under certain conditions--he wants shares in the company and wants to change a buy-sell agreement. His father and his uncle seem to want to explore his entering the family... View Details

Keywords: Family Ownership; Family Business; Management Teams; Contracts; Apparel and Accessories Industry

June 2009 (Revised July 2009)
Case

Mrs. Ebtissam Algosaibi: An Entrepreneur in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Mrs. Ebtissam Algosaibi has created the leading high end jewelry company in the Middle East, Erum Jewelry, based in her home town of Alkhobar, Saudi Arabia. She believes Erum has the potential to be a world player similar to Cartier and Chopard. How should she expand... View Details

Keywords: Gender Characteristics; Entrepreneurship; Global Strategy; Problems and Challenges; Opportunities; Expansion; Apparel and Accessories Industry; Al-Khubar; Middle East

April 2021
Supplement

Buy Online, Pickup in Store: CEO Supplement

By: Antonio Moreno, Santiago Gallino and Amy Klopfenstein

In April 2019, Sylvarella CEO Sylvia Coparella must assess the impact of the company’s Buy Online, Pickup in Store (BOPS) program on her company’s overall sales. To do so, she must review analyses of both e-commerce and brick-and-mortar sales data and compare the... View Details

Keywords: Operations; Service Delivery; Logistics; Infrastructure; Distribution Channels; Order Taking and Fulfillment; Analysis; Retail Industry; Retail Industry; United States; Canada