Publications

01 Dec 2014
News

Case Study: Growing the Family Business

centers in the Cleveland suburbs. The first has been open two years; the second is almost a year old and approaching operational breakeven—about the same timeline as the first center. The team expects to open a new center later this month and View Details

Keywords: childcare; Finance

27 Mar 2019
News

Fulfilling Their Promise

The founding of Girls Group began in 2003 with a single handwritten question pulled from a box. A group of middle school girls had scribbled questions onto scraps of paper and dropped them into the box to prompt discussions. The young women were sitting with a group of... View Details

Keywords: Maureen Harmon; mentoring

November 2005 (Revised August 2007)
Case

ConAgra Foods: The Next Chapter

By: Ray A. Goldberg and Mary L. Shelman

In 2005, CEO Bruce Rohde has almost completed the integration of ConAgra Foods' collection of 90 independent operating companies into a focused, value-added firm and was beginning to think about his successor. ConAgra had become the second largest food company and No.... View Details

Keywords: Change Management; Corporate Strategy; Leading Change; Management Succession; Strategic Planning; Brands and Branding; Food; Agribusiness; Product Marketing; Management Teams; Transformation; Customer Focus and Relationships; Food and Beverage Industry; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; United States

January 2002 (Revised April 2004)
Case

Chapter Enrichment Program Teams at the American Red Cross (A)

By: Jeffrey T. Polzer and Anita Williams Woolley

The American Red Cross has a system for structuring, staffing, and leading teams to review its local chapters. Mirroring professional services firms that use teams to serve clients, this system provides detailed guidelines to increase individual team member's... View Details

Keywords: Planning; Groups and Teams; Management Teams; Leadership; Organizational Structure

December 1996 (Revised June 1997)
Case

Trinity College (A)

By: F. Warren McFarlan and Jaan Elias

Trinity College was an elite, private, liberal-arts college of some 1,800 students located in Hartford, CT. When Tom Gerety was chosen as Trinity's 17th president in 1989, he pledged to stay for ten years. Now less than five years at the job, Gerety announced he was... View Details

Keywords: Higher Education; Crisis Management; Management Succession; Planning; Social Enterprise; Education Industry; Connecticut

19 Jan 2023
News

Want a Job? You'll Have to Convince Our AI Bot First

01 Mar 2008
News

Sarah Talley’s Key Negotiation Principles

When you have a problem, when there’s something you engage in with Wal-Mart that requires agreement so that it becomes a negotiation, the first advice is to think in partnership terms, really focus on a common goal, of getting costs out, for example, and ask questions.... View Details

Keywords: General Merchandise Stores; Retail Trade

01 Sep 2006
News

Does My Résumé Work?

Some topics arise often enough in conversations with MBA job seekers to merit inclusion on a “Ten Most Frequently Asked Questions” list. HBS career consultants Warren Radtke and Fran Davis shared the list — along with their expert advice, summarized below — during an... View Details

Keywords: Deborah Blagg; jobs; interviews; Business Schools & Computer & Management Training; Educational Services

August 2006 (Revised September 2012)
Case

Arrow Electronics--The Apollo Acquisition

By: Stephen P. Kaufman

Having already made 10 acquisitions of competitors in the last decade, the CEO of Arrow is evaluating the acquisition of another small competitor to boost sales, become #1 in a niche market segment, and achieve economies of scale. He is struggling with whether the deal... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Integration; Valuation; Performance Evaluation; Competitive Strategy; Corporate Strategy; Strategic Planning; Growth and Development Strategy; Electronics Industry; United States

June 2019
Teaching Note

The Drone Racing League: Building the Sport of the Future

By: Robert F. Higgins and James Barnett

Drone Racing League (DRL) sees itself as the world’s preeminent professional drone racing league. The company is in its third season of racing and is focused on future seasons and the negotiation of a new media agreement. How should the company proceed? Teaching Note... View Details

Keywords: Drones; Racing; Sports; Entrepreneurship; Media; Strategic Planning

October 1998 (Revised November 1999)
Case

Chantal Cookware Corp.

By: H. Kent Bowen, Paul W. Marshall and Stephanie Dodson

Chantal Cookware is a small, private company with a 15-year record of success in the design, assembly, and sale of high-end cookware. It experiences serious setbacks when consumers' tastes shift from colorful enamel-on-steel products to commercial-style cookware.... View Details

Keywords: Consumer Behavior; Strategic Planning; Market Entry and Exit; Product Positioning; Trends; Manufacturing Industry

February 1998 (Revised February 1999)
Case

Amway Japan Limited

In April 1997, the president of Amway Japan (AJL, Tokyo, Japan), pondered how to reverse the first performance decline the company has experienced since entering the Japanese direct selling market in 1979. Established as the tenth overseas subsidiary of Amway Corp. of... View Details

Keywords: Strategic Planning; Motivation and Incentives; Business Subsidiaries; Distribution Channels; Customer Satisfaction; Consumer Products Industry; Michigan; Tokyo

October 2011
Case

Patricia Gottesman at Crimson Hexagon

By: Lena G. Goldberg and Mary Beth Findlay

After successful capital raises and significant progress in gaining market acceptance of its tools for analyzing public opinion, Crimson Hexagon's CEO prepares to address the company's investors on the question of exit strategy. View Details

Keywords: Corporate Strategy; Strategic Planning; Business and Shareholder Relations; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Policy; Information Industry; Web Services Industry

June 2006 (Revised January 2007)
Case

Dana Hall: Funding a Mission (A)

By: F. Warren McFarlan, Herman B. Leonard and Melissa Tritter

Dana Hall is a private all-girls school in New England facing a crisis in its mission. As social norms shift away from single-sex education, the school's enrollment is falling and deficits are becoming the norm. At the same time, the modern vision for girls' education... View Details

Keywords: Crisis Management; Financing and Loans; Nonprofit Organizations; Mission and Purpose; Strategic Planning; Education Industry; England

September 1999 (Revised October 2006)
Case

MarketSoft

By: Joseph B. Lassiter III and Diana S. Gardner

Greg Erman and Nancy Benovich-Gilby have assembled a team and selected a market for the launch of a high-potential venture based on using an Internet-based service to manage the flow of sales leads between principals and their distribution channel partners. Their... View Details

Keywords: Product Development; Planning; Sales; Management; Internet; Web Services Industry

Article

Book review of Contemporary Perspectives on Strategic Market Planning, by Kerin, Roger A., Vijay Mahajan, and P. Rajan Varadarajan, Allyn and Bacon, 1990.

By: Frank V. Cespedes

Keywords: Information; Perspective; Strategy; Markets; Planning

December 1988
Case

Great Lakes Diversified Corp.: The Detroit Plant--1980

By: Roy D. Shapiro

Keywords: Buildings and Facilities; Planning; Production; Strategy; Michigan

August 1985
Case

Peripheral Products Co.

By: Frank V. Cespedes

Keywords: Distribution Channels; Distribution; Planning

March 1998 (Revised November 1998)
Case

Empresas CAP, 1994

By: Tarun Khanna and Danielle Melito Wu

Empresas CAP began as a private-sector steel company in 1946. Over the next 40 years, CAP's ownership structure moved from nationalization to reprivatization. Unrestricted by state ownership, CAP began to diversify its holdings. The case considers the viability of... View Details

Keywords: Ownership; Privatization; Diversification; Competitive Strategy; Growth and Development Strategy; Management; Planning; Steel Industry