Publications

May 2019 (Revised January 2020)
Case

The Video-Streaming Wars in 2019: Can Disney Catch Netflix?

By: Anita Elberse and Monica Cody

Bob Iger, CEO of entertainment conglomerate Disney, thrilled investors with details about Disney’s upcoming foray into video streaming in April 2019. Disney’s move was only the latest in a series of actions taken by new and established entertainment companies in a... View Details

Keywords: Television; Entertainment; Media; Television Entertainment; Management; Strategy; Disruption; Information Technology; Competition; Media and Broadcasting Industry; Entertainment and Recreation Industry

December 1996 (Revised October 1999)
Case

Kidder, Peabody & Co.: Creating Elusive Profits

By: Robert L. Simons and Antonio Davila

On April 17, 1994, Kidder, Peabody & Co. announced a $350 million charge against earnings resulting from the discovery of false trading profits. That same day, the termination of Joseph Jett's employment with the company was made public. By illustrating the mechanics... View Details

Keywords: Bonds; Governance Controls; Crime and Corruption; Financial Reporting; Profit; Financial Strategy

February 1987 (Revised August 1988)
Case

Gillette Personal Care Division: Marketing Planning and Control

Bill Ryan, president of the Gillette Co.'s Personal Care Division, is considering changing the division's planning and control system for marketing. White Rain, the division's most recent success, had been launched by taking shortcuts through the system, while other... View Details

Keywords: Marketing; Management Systems; Consumer Products Industry; United States

01 May 2019
What Do You Think?

What Should the Leadership of YouTube Do?

responsibility, even if that comes at the expenses (sic) of growth.” Original Column On April 2, 2019 the leadership team at YouTube, headed by CEO Susan Wojcicki ( “The most powerful woman on the internet,”... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett; Entertainment & Recreation; Media & Broadcasting

October 2023
Case

Foodology: Creating a Virtual Restaurant Group in Latin America

By: Rembrand M. Koning, Jorge Tamayo and Jenyfeer Martínez Buitrago

In April 2020, Daniela Izquierdo (HBS, 2019) and Juan Guillermo Azuero (HBS, 2019), awaited the results of Harvard Business School’s Alumni New Venture Competition. Operating since September 2019, Foodology, a Colombian food-tech startup in the cloud kitchen segment,... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Business Model; Entrepreneurship; Food and Beverage Industry; Latin America; South America; Colombia

May 2016 (Revised May 2017)
Case

Supply Chain Finance at Procter & Gamble

By: Benjamin C. Esty, E. Scott Mayfield and David Lane

In April 2013, Procter & Gamble (P&G), the world’s largest consumer packaged goods (CPG) company, announced that it would extend its payment terms to suppliers by 30 days. At the same time, P&G announced a new supply chain financing (SCF) program giving suppliers the... View Details

15 May 2019
Research Event

The Unconventional Capitalism That Shapes Business History

records and other, unconventional, records are being used by one speaker to uncover the scale of their activities, and argue that basically China already had an entrepreneurial class ready and waiting when Deng began opening China.... View Details

Keywords: by Geoffrey G. Jones; Education

12 Feb 2001
Research & Ideas

Creating Value Across Borders

being created, while in others, the stock of technical knowledge that can potentially be transferred into new ventures is locked up in companies. The best example is Japan, where most innovations are generated within research laboratories operated View Details

Keywords: by Staff

16 Mar 2003
Research & Ideas

At the Center of Corporate Scandal Where Do We Go From Here?

economy. I know that a lot of things have been done to address these problems already, but my own sense is that what we've seen is incomplete. Too much of our public discussion has operated on the surface of the problems. We need to go a lot deeper, and I think we need... View Details

Keywords: by Kim B. Clark

06 Jul 2010
Research & Ideas

Renewable Energy: Winds at Our Back?

When American energy entrepreneur Jim Gordon envisioned the first offshore wind farm lining the horizon a few miles off the coast of the eastern United States, he perhaps did not factor in blowback from almost every angle. Gordon's nearly 10-year battle to gain... View Details

Keywords: by Sarah Jane Gilbert; Energy; Utilities

November 2019 (Revised February 2020)
Case

Starbucks: Reaffirming Commitment to the Third Place Ideal

By: Francesca Gino, Katherine B. Coffman and Jeff Huizinga

On April 12, 2018, two African American entrepreneurs had scheduled a business meeting at a Starbucks in Philadelphia’s Rittenhouse Square neighborhood. They sat without ordering, waiting for a local businessman to show up for the meeting. The store manager called 911... View Details

Keywords: Mission and Purpose; Values and Beliefs; Prejudice and Bias; Crisis Management; Employees; Training

23 Jul 2001
Research & Ideas

How the Giants of Enterprise Seized the Future

personalities, he and Walton could not have been more different. Walton, the optimist, could light up a room. Revson, the pessimist, could light up a room by leaving it. But they did share one trait—a characteristic which paved their way... View Details

Keywords: by Richard S. Tedlow

13 Oct 2009
Research & Ideas

7 Lessons for Navigating the Storm

It is tough to think positively in a crisis. Yet one overarching lesson in a new book by HBS professor Bill George, 7 Lessons for Leading in Crisis (Jossey-Bass), is exactly that: See crisis as a chance to develop and enhance your... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

19 Nov 2007
Lessons from the Classroom

Teaching The Moral Leader

taught the course. First introduced to HBS in the late 1980s by Harvard psychiatrist and educator Robert Coles, The Moral Leader uses literature to study moral decision-making and leadership. Individual faculty teach the course using... View Details

Keywords: by Sarah Jane Gilbert; Education

25 Sep 2017
Research & Ideas

Why Politics is Failing America, and What Business Can Do To Help

Source: Delpixart There’s a general consensus that Washington is “broken.” But the reason politics doesn’t seem to deliver for citizens anymore may not involve who’s in the White House, which party controls Congress, or even any inherent... View Details

Keywords: by Christina Pazzanese, Harvard Gazette

June 2013 (Revised August 2020)
Case

Bonnie Road

By: Arthur I Segel, John H. Vogel, Jr. and Lisa Strope

Victor Alexander was intrigued by the packet of papers that lay in front of him. The papers comprised a brochure that Garden State Bank had put together in an effort to sell the Bonnie Road Distribution Center in Somerset, New Jersey, for $9.7 million. It was April... View Details

Keywords: Real Estate; Investment; Acquisition; Buildings and Facilities; Property; Partners and Partnerships; Decision Choices and Conditions; Distribution Industry; Real Estate Industry; Texas

2021
Working Paper

Supply- and Demand-Side Effects in Performance Appraisals: The Role of Gender and Race

By: Iris Bohnet, Oliver P. Hauser and Ariella Kristal

Performance reviews in firms are common but controversial. Managers’ subjective appraisals of their employees’ performance and employees’ self-evaluations might be affected by demographic characteristics, interact with each other as self-evaluations are typically... View Details

Keywords: Performance Appraisals; Gender; Race; Performance Evaluation

Read Now

09 Sep 2009
Working Paper Summaries

Perspectives from the Boardroom--2009

Keywords: by Jay W. Lorsch, Joseph L. Bower, Clayton S. Rose & Suraj Srinivasan

September 1995 (Revised December 1997)
Case

Philip Morris: Marlboro Friday (A)

By: Alvin J. Silk and Bruce Isaacson

On April 2, 1993 Philip Morris USA launched an elaborate integrated program of consumer and retail promotions of unspecified duration that effectively slashed the retail price of its flagship brand, Marlboro, by 20% in the U.S. market. This program represented a major... View Details

Keywords: Competition; Price; Marketing Strategy; Market Participation; Brands and Branding; Consumer Products Industry; United States