Publications

2011
Case

Wrapitup

By: W. Earl Sasser

A restaurant chain based in California offers made-to-order sandwich wraps using fresh, healthy ingredients. The founders of the company take a very active role in day-to-day business and tightly control every aspect of the restaurant operation from hiring store... View Details

Keywords: Service Operations; Governance Controls; Revenue; Employee Relationship Management; Planning; Customer Satisfaction; Problems and Challenges; Profit; Change Management; Compensation and Benefits; Leadership Style; Service Industry; California

September 2005 (Revised April 2010)
Case

Scharffen Berger Chocolate Maker (A)

By: Daniel C. Snow, Steven C. Wheelwright and Alison Berkley Wagonfeld

Scharffen Berger, a premium brand chocolate, is growing rapidly and must decide where and when to add capacity in the production line and with what technology. The company must consider the demands of marketing, the impact on quality and reputation, and the economics... View Details

Keywords: Production; Business Processes; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Performance Capacity; Quality; Expansion

January 2000 (Revised May 2001)
Case

kate spade

Kate Spade's founders try to finance and grow their luxury handbag and accessories business. As the case ends, the founding team must decide among four potential strategic partners offering to purchase different shares of Kate Spade at various valuations. Includes... View Details

Keywords: Growth Management; Partners and Partnerships; Business Growth and Maturation; Brands and Branding; Apparel and Accessories Industry

15 Nov 2010
Lessons from the Classroom

Connecting Goals and Go-To-Market Initiatives

In some respects, developing strategy is the easy part. Executing that strategy in alignment with strategic priorities is where real mastery of management takes place. We asked Harvard Business School senior... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Retail

January 2009 (Revised November 2010)
Case

The Dojima Rice Market and the Origins of Futures Trading

By: David A. Moss and Eugene Kintgen

In 1730, Japanese merchants petitioned shogun Tokugawa Yoshimune to officially authorize trade in rice futures at the Dojima Exchange, the world's first organized (but unsanctioned) futures market. For many years, the Japanese government had prohibited the trade of... View Details

Keywords: Futures and Commodity Futures; Price; Food; Business History; Market Transactions; Business and Government Relations; Japan

20 Mar 2019
News

Boeing Brings 100 Years Of History To Its Fight To Restore Its Reputation

05 Jan 2021
Video

Beatriz Fernández

Beatriz Fernández, Co-Founder and Manager of Crepes & Waffles S.A., describes her experience as a female business leader in the male-dominated restaurant industry. View Details

30 Apr 2012
News

National Academy of Engineering Elects 66 Members and 10 Foreign Associates

February 2022 (Revised May 2022)
Case

Buddy Valastro: Cake Boss

By: Boris Groysberg, Evan M.S. Hecht and Katherine Connolly Baden

Buddy Valastro, celebrity baker and business owner, inherited his father’s bakery—Carlo’s Bake Shop of Hoboken, New Jersey—at the age of seventeen. He had willed the shop to survive and gone on to fame through his television show, “Cake Boss”—the name most people now... View Details

May 2023
Case

Legacy Partners

By: Royce Yudkoff and Richard S. Ruback

Stephen Holbrook and Austin Pulsipher (both HBS '19) had been leading Nutrishare since acquiring the company six months earlier in mid-2021. The company, based in Sacramento CA, was a compounding pharmacy serving Total Parenteral Nutrition ("TPN") patients nationwide.... View Details

Keywords: Acquisition; Growth and Development Strategy; Competitive Strategy; Business or Company Management; Pharmaceutical Industry

18 Dec 2006
Lessons from the Classroom

Grooming Next-Generation Leaders

term," says Narayandas, the James J. Hill Professor of Business Administration and Chair of the Program for Leadership Development. "Are you managing yourself, are you View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

October 2018
Case

P-Will at DISCO

By: Ethan Bernstein, Naoko Jinjo and Yuna Sakuma

From the outside, DISCO—a Japan-based manufacturer of precision tools for semiconductor production devices—appeared to be a rather ordinary company that had achieved rather extraordinary success: it had simultaneously achieved 70% global market share, had lifted its... View Details

Keywords: Human Capital; P-Will; DISCO; Semiconductors; Self-Managed Organizations; Governance; Human Resources; Selection and Staffing; Management Practices and Processes; Management Systems; Organizational Structure; Organizational Design; Semiconductor Industry; Japan

The comprehensive guide to managing and leading companies that compete internationally

Drawing on the course material developed at the Harvard Business School and Yale School of Management by David Collis, International Strategy... View Details

2013
Working Paper

U.S. High-Skilled Immigration, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship: Empirical Approaches and Evidence

By: William R. Kerr

High-skilled immigrants are a very important component of U.S. innovation and entrepreneurship. Immigrants account for roughly a quarter of U.S. workers in these fields, and they have a similar contribution in terms of output measures like patents or firm starts. This... View Details

Keywords: Innovation; Diaspora; Diasporas; Entrepreneurship; Innovation and Invention; Immigration