Publications

June 2014
Supplement

Intuit Inc.: Project AgriNova PowerPoint Supplement

By: Thomas R. Eisenmann

In late 2008, a team from Intuit's office in Bangalore, India, is evaluating an opportunity to launch a new venture that would use SMS to deliver crop price information to farmers in India. The case describes the structure of Indian agriculture and the problems... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Venturing; Entrepreneurship; Research; Business Ventures; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Information Technology Industry; Bangalore

February 2014 (Revised August 2015)
Case

Mission Produce

By: Jose B. Alvarez and Mary Shelman

As the leading distributor of fresh avocados in the U.S., Mission Produce was at a crossroads in late 2013. Avocado consumption was booming and CEO Steve Barnard wanted to acquire additional land in Peru and develop new avocado farms to help fill a projected supply... View Details

Keywords: Fresh Produce; Food; Peru; Vertical Integration; Supply Chain; Agriculture; Agribusiness; Food and Beverage Industry; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; United States; Peru

August 2000 (Revised February 2003)
Case

Borders Group, Inc.

By: Zeynep Ton and Ananth Raman

Describes Borders Group, a well-known retail chain, in late 1999 and its traditional strengths and rapid growth in the 1990s. By 1990, however, the company had fallen behind Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble in leveraging the Internet for book retailing, although it... View Details

Keywords: Supply Chain Management; Customer Value and Value Chain; Distribution Channels; Service Operations; Business Growth and Maturation; Economic Growth; Industry Growth; Growth and Development; Internet; Business Model; Order Taking and Fulfillment; Supply and Industry; Retail Industry; Publishing Industry

Leslie talks about the pervasive responsiveness trap in the workforce.

“The problem is that now everyone's on all the time and we come to expect that of each other. And then, we email each other late at night and we actually may or may not expect a... View Details

July 2019
Teaching Note

AT&T, Retraining, and the Workforce of Tomorrow

By: William R. Kerr and Carl Kreitzberg

A Teaching Note for the "AT&T, Retraining, and the Workforce of Tomorrow" case study (HBS#820-017). The case describes how AT&T designed and implemented a program to retrain 100,000 of its workers. The case first reviews the technological forces that compelled AT&T to... View Details

September 2014 (Revised June 2016)
Case

Whole Foods: The Path to 1,000 Stores

By: David F. Drake, Ryan W. Buell, Melissa Barton, Taylor Jones, Katrina Keverian and Jeffrey Stock

The case examines the operations strategy of Whole Foods, one of the largest natural grocery chains in the United States. In late 2013, Whole Foods was expanding rapidly, with a publicly-stated goal of growing from 351 to 1,000 domestic stores by 2022. It was also... View Details

Keywords: Human Capital; Food; Expansion; Market Entry and Exit; Operations; Strategy; Retail Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; United States

November 2006 (Revised August 2008)
Supplement

China Resources Corporation (B): China Resources Microelectronics

By: Dennis Campbell and David Lane

Supplements the (A) case. Late in October 2006, China Resources (Holdings) Co., Ltd. (CRC) CEO Charlie Song Lin, CFO Jiang Wel, and Information Center GM Derek Cheng were traveling from Hong Kong to Wuxi, China to attend the first ever meeting of China Resources... View Details

Keywords: Accounting; Business Conglomerates; Profit; Governance Controls; Management Systems; Business Strategy; China

June 2001
Case

Bedrock Productions

By: Michael J. Roberts and Michael L. Tushman

Describes a young Web consulting firm going through a very rapid period of growth in late 1999 and 2000. The founder/CEO sees himself as a strategist and marketer who is less well-suited to the operational details, that are expanding as the firm grows. A president is... View Details

Keywords: Leadership Development; Management Teams; Change Management; Managerial Roles; Consulting Industry

27 Feb 2013
News

The curious phenomenon of dalit entrepreneurship

February 2012
Case

Henkel: Building a Winning Culture

By: Robert Simons and Natalie Kindred

This case illustrates a CEO-led organizational transformation driven by stretch goals, performance measurement, and accountability. When Kasper Rorsted became CEO of Henkel, a Germany-based producer of personal care, laundry, and adhesives products, in 2008, he was... View Details

Keywords: Performance Measurement; Performance Appraisals; Human Resource Management; Values; Organizational Transformations; Pay For Performance; Strategy Execution; Values and Beliefs; Work-Life Balance; Organizational Culture; Human Resources; Performance Evaluation; Compensation and Benefits

November 2012 (Revised September 2013)
Case

Learning Resources: A Hands-On Toy Company Deals with New Challenges and Opportunities

By: Boris Groysberg and Anahita Hashemi

Learning Resources is a family-owned educational toy company that, by late 2011, was facing a myriad of challenges, including increased competition, entry into new markets, new distribution methods, rising costs of production in China, and changing customer behavior.... View Details

Keywords: Leading Teams; Strategy Formulation; Strategy And Execution; Innovation; Corporate Culture; Industry Analysis; Organizational Alignment; Entrepreneurs; Sales Channels; Leadership; Strategy; Change Management; Innovation Leadership; Family Business; Entrepreneurship; Product Design; Sales; Retail Industry; United States

April 2010 (Revised May 2011)
Case

Emerging Nokia?

By: Juan Alcacer, Tarun Khanna, Mary Furey and Rakeen Mabud

By late 2009, Nokia was grappling with the decision of whether to recover its leading position in the high-profit developed markets, where they were losing market share to the likes of Apple and Samsung, or defend its market leadership in the low-margin, high-volume... View Details

Keywords: Innovation and Invention; Emerging Markets; Industry Structures; Competitive Advantage; Corporate Strategy; Telecommunications Industry; Finland

23 Feb 2021
News

Managing Diversity, A Conversation about John Lewis and the Civil Rights Movement

20 Mar 2020
News

How social distancing could ultimately teach us how to be less lonely

16 Feb 2021
Video

Managing Diversity, A Conversation about John Lewis and the Civil Rights Movement

March 2018 (Revised September 2019)
Case

Chewy.com (A)

By: Jeffrey F. Rayport and Matthew G. Preble

In late 2013, Ryan Cohen, cofounder and CEO of online pet products retailer Chewy.com, faces a “bet the company decision”—whether to stay with a third-party logistics provider (3PL) for all of its e-commerce fulfillment or to take the function in house. Cohen worries... View Details

Keywords: Pet Food; Pet Products; Retail; Growth and Development Strategy; Service Operations; Decision Choices and Conditions; E-commerce; Retail Industry; Service Industry; Florida; United States

Article

Unraveling Results from Comparable Demand and Supply: An Experimental Investigation

By: Muriel Niederle, Alvin E. Roth and M. Utku Ünver

Markets sometimes unravel, with offers becoming inefficiently early. Often this is attributed to competition arising from an imbalance of demand and supply, typically excess demand for workers. However this presents a puzzle, since unraveling can only occur when firms... View Details

Keywords: Two-side Matching; Unraveling; Experiments; Market Design