Publications

February 2022
Teaching Note

AptDeco: Circular Economy Furniture Marketplace

By: Ayelet Israeli

Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 521-069. AptDeco, a used furniture marketplace, was growing rapidly in the tri-state area. The co-founders were confident that the business model, financial position, and unit economics positioned AptDeco for scaling in the massive $120... View Details

Keywords: E-Commerce Strategy; Mobile; Word-of-Mouth; Word Of Mouth; Word-of-mouth Marketing; Internet Marketing; Growth Strategy; Platform; Platforms; Two Sided Markets; Two-sided Market; Two-sided Marketplace; Two-Sided Markets; Two-sided Network; Black Entrepreneurs; Black Leadership; African Americans; African-American Protagonist; Circular; Peer-to-peer Markets; Furniture Industry; Growth Hacking; Monetization Strategy; Growth Management; Marketing Strategy; Entrepreneurship; Digital Platforms; Marketing Channels; Digital Marketing; Consumer Behavior; Acquisition; Retention; Growth and Development Strategy; Customer Focus and Relationships; Expansion; Brands and Branding; E-commerce; Retail Industry; Consumer Products Industry; Technology Industry; Web Services Industry; United States; North America; New York (city, NY); New York (state, US)

December 2009 (Revised January 2010)
Case

Managing Talent at Bertelsmann AG (A)

By: Boris Groysberg, Nitin Nohria, Mark Maletz and Kerry Herman

Bertelsmann's EVP HR Immanuel Hermreck and his team were focused on four key HR issues. Three of these were somewhat discreet: improving Bertelsmann's employer brand; managing Bertelsmann talent across the firm's decentralized businesses; and ensuring early... View Details

Keywords: Talent and Talent Management; Recruitment; Retention; Selection and Staffing; Leadership Development; Strategic Planning; Competitive Advantage; Media and Broadcasting Industry; Germany

Web

Women, Work, and the “M” Word - Blog: Health Supplement

Citigroup’s Jane Fraser, Alphabet’s Ruth Porat – all women above the age of 50, which is typically a menopausal demographic. We need more leaders like these trailblazers from successive generations. So, how do business leaders support saying the “M” word? Both from a... View Details

August 1999 (Revised January 2002)
Case

Brita Products Company, The

By: John A. Deighton

Clorox's Brita skillfully exploits a tide of water safety concerns, growing a home water (filtration) business from inception to a 15% U.S. household penetration in ten years. The dilemma in the case arises as the period of increasing returns seems to be drawing to a... View Details

Keywords: Customer Value and Value Chain; Acquisition; Retention; Safety; Natural Environment; Emerging Markets; Investment Return; Equity; Demand and Consumers; United States

April 2021 (Revised April 2021)
Teaching Plan

Nehemiah Mfg. Co.: Providing a Second Chance

By: Brian Trelstad and John Masko

Teaching Plan for HBS Case No. 320-008. In 2009, Dan Meyer and Richard Palmer, two veterans of the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) industry, founded Nehemiah Manufacturing to build FMCG brands while providing jobs to Cincinnati, Ohio’s beleaguered urban core. Two... View Details

Keywords: Social Entrepreneurship; Retention; Selection and Staffing; Employment; Human Capital; Growth Management; Brands and Branding; Social Marketing; Mission and Purpose; Prejudice and Bias; City; Urban Scope; Consumer Products Industry; Manufacturing Industry; Ohio; United States

06 Jul 2020
Blog Post

A Letter from the Women in Investing Club

to also play an active role in addressing them. We are calling on our sponsors and other buy-side firms to evaluate their hiring and retention practices for the investing team, to be thoughtful as they bring on board members and senior... View Details

April 2001 (Revised November 2001)
Case

AvantGo

By: Alan D. MacCormack and Kerry Herman

Richard Owen, CEO of AvantGo, is preparing for a meeting in which he will set the human resource policy for the firm going forward. It has been three months since the company's IPO, and given the tremendous cramp in hiring over the six months prior to the IPO, he knows... View Details

Keywords: Initial Public Offering; Management Teams; Selection and Staffing; Retention; Growth and Development Strategy; Performance Evaluation; Information Technology; Decisions; Information Technology Industry; Service Industry; United States

Find at Harvard

March 1987 (Revised October 1993)
Case

Au Bon Pain: The French Bakery Cafe, The Partner/Manager Program

By: W. Earl Sasser

In recent years, Au Bon Pain (ABP), a chain of upscale French bakeries/sandwich cafes based in Boston, confronted a set of human resource problems endemic to the fast food industry (i.e., a labor shortage which made it difficult to attract and maintain quality crew... View Details

Keywords: Motivation and Incentives; Managerial Roles; Retention; Employees; Performance Improvement; Recruitment; Problems and Challenges; Compensation and Benefits; Food and Beverage Industry; Service Industry; Boston

28 Oct 2019
Research & Ideas

Brick-and-Mortar Stores Are Making a Comeback

customer acquisition, distribution, and retention channel is contributing in a different way. I think it’s interesting to look at where Amazon is taking us, which is into a frictionless buying process: How do I make it as fast and easy... View Details

Keywords: by Jen McFarland Flint; Retail

12 Apr 2016
First Look

April 12, 2016

or a combination—can catalyze leaders' listening skills, reveal what does or doesn't work inside the organization, highlight hidden challenges and opportunities, and generate essential competitive intelligence. It can promote engagement and enhance View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

06 Aug 2013
First Look

First Look: August 6

to leave sued firms. Overall, shareholders use litigation along with director elections and director retention to hold some independent directors more accountable than others when firms experience financial fraud. Publisher's link:... View Details

Keywords: Anna Secino

Web

Online Digital Marketing Strategy Course | HBS Online

Concepts Personalization From Storytelling to Story-Making Connecting Customers and Building Community Featured Exercises Investigate reasons for customer churn and how companies can improve retention Unpack strategies for increasing... View Details

April 2024
Case

Cyrus: Turning a Traditional Business Model on Its Head (A)

By: James Heskett

The loss of the lease at their Michelin-starred Cyrus 1.0 in Sonoma County, California gives the partners an opportunity to shut down and rework a “broken” business model, one with labor intensive experiences six or seven nights a week, high burnout, high... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Retention; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Leasing; Work-Life Balance; Strategic Planning; Loss; Profit; Working Conditions; California

December 1999 (Revised August 2001)
Case

Millennium Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (A)

By: Stefan H. Thomke and Ashok Nimgade

Focuses on Millennium's strategy to grow and revolutionize drug development through the use of new technologies such as genomics. Describes how Millennium Pharmaceuticals--a fast-growing biotechnology firm in Cambridge, MA--has used strategic alliances to finance the... View Details

Keywords: Cost Management; Financing and Loans; Medical Specialties; Retention; Growth and Development Strategy; Time Management; Product Development; Problems and Challenges; Alliances; Technology; Biotechnology Industry; Pharmaceutical Industry; Cambridge

06 Aug 2014
What Do You Think?

What Is Warren Bennis’s Legacy?

optimistic, looking forward, and learning. They exhibited what is described by the word, "neoteny," the retention of youthful qualities by adults. (It helps explain why Bennis included himself in the sample of persons studied as... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett; Education

13 Nov 2000
Research & Ideas

Corporate Venturing: Entrepreneurship on the Inside

incentivize and motivate internal people, because they have access to a talent pool that doesn't always exist outside." At the same time, developing new businesses can provide large companies with a potent retention mechanism.... View Details

Keywords: by Kenneth Liss

25 Jan 2011
First Look

First Look: Jan. 25

http://sloanreview.mit.edu/the-magazine/articles/2010/fall/52118/how-to-do-well-and-do-good/ Corporate Governance When Founders Are Directors Authors:Feng Li and Suraj Srinivasan Publication:Journal of Financial Economics (forthcoming) Abstract We examine CEO... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

26 Feb 2007
Research & Ideas

The Power of the Noncompete Clause

certainly appears to be on the minds of members of the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce, who in 2003 issued a report titled Preventing a Brain Drain: Talent Retention in Greater Boston. While it would be a stretch for us to claim that... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

January 2025
Case

Shifting Winds: DEI in Corporate America

By: Clayton S. Rose, Maisie Wiltshire-Gordon and David Lane

In the 2020s, intense and conflicting social and political pressures challenged organizational leaders around the world. Prominent among these were powerful competing views on workplace diversity, equity, and inclusion programs (DEI) in the United States. Public... View Details