Publications

December 2019 (Revised March 2020)
Case

Impossible Foods founder and CEO Pat Brown started the company out of concern over livestock production’s impact on climate change. Impossible’s mission is to end consumption of animals by 2035, and its strategy is to develop and market plant-based foods so similar to... View Details

October 2012 (Revised March 2014)
Teaching Note

Baltic Beverages Holding: Competing in a Globalizing World (A) and (B)

By: Juan Alcácer

The teaching plan to accompany "Baltic Beverages Holding: Competing in a Globalizing World (A)," HBS No. 713-430; "Baltic Beverages Holding: Competing in a Globalizing World (B)," HBS No. 713-471. It is divided into an introduction, followed by three discussion... View Details

Keywords: Strategic Positioning; Location Choices; Location Strategies; Strategic Planning; Strategy; Globalization; Global Strategy; Globalized Markets and Industries; Food and Beverage Industry; Sweden; Soviet Union

November 2002 (Revised May 2003)
Case

ConAgra Foods

By: Ray A. Goldberg and Ingrid Vargas

In 2002, ConAgra Foods CEO Bruce Rohde was deliberating the next steps in the process of transforming the company from an agribusiness giant to a value-added food processor. ConAgra had become the second largest food company and number one food service supplier in the... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Strategy; Leading Change; Change Management; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Food; Agribusiness; Product; Business Processes; Management Teams; Expansion; Brands and Branding; Food and Beverage Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; United States

December 2011 (Revised April 2013)
Case

Brasil Foods

By: David E. Bell and Natalie Kindred

In mid-2011, the management of Brasil Foods, a leading Brazilian branded foods producer and protein exporter, is evaluating strategies for international and domestic growth. The team has just received approval from Brazil's antitrust authorities to complete the merger... View Details

Keywords: Global Strategy; Growth and Development Strategy; Competitive Advantage; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Brazil

08 Jun 2020
Working Paper Summaries

Food Security and Human Mobility During the Covid-19 Lockdown

Keywords: by Prithwiraj Choudhury, Wesley W. Koo, Xina Li, Nishant Kishore, Satchit Balsari, and Tarun Khanna

February 2018
Case

Whole Foods and JANA Partners

By: Suraj Srinivasan and Quinn Pitcher

In 2017, JANA Partners decided to launch an activist campaign at struggling supermarket chain Whole Foods Market. The company had struggled for the past several years, and JANA thought the presence of new directors could help turn around its operations, while Whole... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Governance; Information Technology; Institutional Investing; Investment Activism; United States

October 2013
Article

A Traffic Light Food Labeling Intervention Increases Consumer Awareness of Health and Healthy Choices at the Point-of-Purchase

By: Lillian Sonnenberg, Emily Gelsomin, Douglas E. Levy, Jason Riis, Susan Barraclough and Anne N. Thorndike

We surveyed customers in a hospital cafeteria in Boston, Massachusetts before and after implementation of traffic light food labeling to determine the effect of labels on customers' awareness and purchase of healthy foods. View Details

Keywords: Nutrition Labeling; Obesity; Food Labeling

Find at Harvard

March 2010 (Revised February 2013)
Supplement

Baltic Beverages Holding: Competing in a Globalizing World (B)

By: Juan Alcacer, Rasmus Karl Gustaf Molander and Rakeen Mabud

In 1991, Hartwall and Pripps made the decision to found Baltic Beverages Holding (BBH) and invest in the former USSR by buying Estonia's biggest brewery, Saku. View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Investment; Globalized Economies and Regions; Competition; Corporate Strategy; Food and Beverage Industry; Estonia; Finland; Sweden

September 2022
Teaching Note

Can Goodr Fight Food Insecurity at Scale?

By: William R. Kerr, Daniel Isenberg and Ria Mazumdar

Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 822-143. View Details

Keywords: Social Enterprise; Social Entrepreneurship; Entrepreneur; African-american Entrepreneurs; Food Waste; Food Insecurity

June 2022 (Revised October 2022)
Background Note

Digital Commerce and Delivery: Preparing Food and Retail Value Chains for a 50-50 World

By: William R. Kerr, Daniel O'Connor, Paige Boehmcke and Will Ensor

Increasing digitalization of grocery retail and quick commerce reveals insights about managing complex supply chains at scale and shifting revenue streams from product sales to data monetization. How are the roles of retailers changing? What happens if marginal cost... View Details

Keywords: Grocery Delivery; Grocery; Digitalization; Fulfillment; Delivery; Supply Chain; Disruption; Food; Supply Chain Management; Market Design; Trends; Value Creation; Goods and Commodities; Customer Value and Value Chain; Digital Transformation; Food and Beverage Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; United States; China

April 2007 (Revised May 2007)
Case

John Mackey and Whole Foods Market

By: Nancy F. Koehn and Katherine Miller

Traces the history of organic agriculture from its pre-industrial roots to the present day, and examines the growth of Whole Foods Market in the context of the broader growth of the organic industry. Also investigates John Mackey's role as a founder and leader of the... View Details

Keywords: Leadership; Food; Entrepreneurship; Agribusiness; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry

January 2009 (Revised October 2009)
Case

GLOBALGAP: Food Safety and Private Standards

By: David E. Bell and Mary Louise Shelman

In response to new laws governing liability and several food safety scares in the 1990s, European retailers drove the creation of a universal production standard based on Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) for fresh fruit and vegetables and a third-party certification... View Details

Keywords: Agribusiness; Food; Governance Compliance; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Business and Government Relations; Safety; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Europe

November 2019 (Revised February 2020)
Case

Hormel Foods

By: David E. Bell and Natalie Kindred

In 2019, CEO Jim Snee is weighing how to shape the image of Hormel Foods, one of the largest U.S. meat and food companies, at a time when the industry faces unprecedented scrutiny. Based in the small town of Austin, Minnesota, the nearly 130-year-old firm is best known... View Details

Keywords: Brand Portfolio Strategy; Brands and Branding; Product; Strategy; Marketing Strategy; Risk Management; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; United States; China

April 2023
Teaching Note

Cann: High Hopes for Cannabis Infused Beverages

By: Ayelet Israeli and Anne V. Wilson

Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 523-074. View Details

December 2009 (Revised October 2015)
Case

Diamond Foods

By: David E. Bell and Mary Louise Shelman

CEO Michael Mendes has transformed a grower-owned cooperative into a publicly traded top marketer of snack foods. Diamond's organization, culture, product development process, advertising and promotion strategy, and specifically its marketing department have been built... View Details

Keywords: Agribusiness; Business Model; Customer Focus and Relationships; Leadership; Marketing Strategy; Consumer Behavior; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Cooperative Ownership; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; United States

Article

Assessing the Food and Drug Administration's Risk-Based Framework for Software Precertification with Top Health Apps in the United States: Quality Improvement Study

By: Noy Alon, Ariel Dora Stern and John Torous

BACKGROUND: As the development of mobile health apps continues to accelerate, the need to implement a framework that can standardize categorizing these apps to allow for efficient, yet robust regulation grows. However, regulators and researchers are faced with numerous... View Details

Keywords: Mobile Health; Smartphone; Food And Drug Administration; Risk-based Framework; Health Care and Treatment; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Applications and Software; Framework

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November 2019 (Revised April 2020)
Case

Danone: Changing the Food System

By: David E. Bell, Federica Gabrieli and Daniela Beyersdorfer

Emmanuel Faber, Chairman and CEO of the food and beverage company Danone, believed that humankind had only ten years to bend the curve on climate change and restore the biodiversity that the global food and agricultural ecosystem was critically dependent on. Upon... View Details

Keywords: Animal-Based Agribusiness; Plant-Based Agribusiness; Food; Nutrition; Quality; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Environmental Sustainability; Climate Change; Business Model; Food and Beverage Industry; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; France

October 1988
Case

Pepsi-Cola Fountain Beverage Division: Marketing Organization

By: Frank V. Cespedes

Keywords: Marketing; Marketing Channels; Food and Beverage Industry