Publications

07 Oct 2019
News

WeWork Investors Turned Off by ‘Sloppy’ IPO Filings

April 1988 (Revised October 1996)
Case

Home Depot, Inc., The

By: Krishna G. Palepu

Home Depot, founded in 1978, pioneered the warehouse retailing concept in the home center industry. The company's niche strategy resulted in rapid growth in sales. By 1986, however, the company began experiencing deteriorating profitability. Students are asked to... View Details

Keywords: Mathematical Methods; Performance; Business Strategy; Retail Industry

Dr. Austin holds the Eliot I. Snider and Family Professor of Business Administration, Emeritus at the Harvard Business School. Previously he held the John G. McLean Professorship and the Richard P. Chapman Professorship. He has been a member of the Harvard... View Details

Keywords: agribusiness

27 May 2021
News

Facebook-Funded Report Accuses Apple Of Depriving Consumers Of Choices

March 1991 (Revised October 1994)
Case

Coca-Cola vs. Pepsi-Cola and the Soft Drink Industry

By: Michael E. Porter

Describes the competition between Coca-Cola and Pepsi-Cola. Provides a summary of the history of the soft drink industry prior to World War II, and over the period 1950-1990 in greater detail. Major strategic competitive moves and countermoves are described. Also... View Details

Keywords: Competition; Industry Growth; Business Strategy; Food and Beverage Industry

July 2008
Case

eHarmony

By: Mikolaj Jan Piskorski, Hanna Halaburda and Troy Smith

eHarmony's CEO needs to decide how to react to imitations of its business model, encroachment by competing models, and ascendance of free substitutes. The case provides four options to address these threats and asks students to choose one after they analyzed the... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Decision Choices and Conditions; Growth and Development Strategy; Industry Structures; Competitive Strategy; Competitive Advantage; Service Industry

10 Jun 2013
Research & Ideas

How Numbers Talk to People

problem) to examine a major change in an organization's strategy or business model. It tends to be a longer story with a greater degree of analysis over time. Sometimes Eureka stories also involve other... View Details

November 1999 (Revised July 2003)
Case

Pre-Paid Legal Services, Inc.

By: Paul M. Healy and Jacob Cohen

Pre-Paid Legal Services' business model reveals two key issues--managing the sales force and sales growth and managing claims. Students analyze the economics of the business and consider how to measure firm performance, how to evaluate and reward the sales force, and... View Details

Keywords: Financial Management; Financial Strategy; Salesforce Management; Marketing Strategy; Accrual Accounting; Business Cycles; Forecasting and Prediction; Insurance; Business Growth and Maturation; Insurance Industry

Other Article

What Do We Know About Variance in Accounting Profitability?

By: Anita M. McGahan and Michael E. Porter

In this paper, we analyze the variance of accounting profitability among a broad cross-section of firms in the American economy from 1981 to 1994. The purpose of the analysis is to identify the importance of year, industry, corporate-parent, and business-specific... View Details

Keywords: Strategy; United States

Find at Harvard

March 2003
Background Note

A Short Note on the AccuFlow Excel Model

By: Jay O. Light

Describes an Excel spreadsheet workbook that facilitates the analysis of AccuFlow, Inc. View Details

Keywords: History; Analytics and Data Science; Cost of Capital; Negotiation; Capital; Business Model; Economic Systems; Machinery and Machining; Leveraged Buyouts; Business Startups; Equity

November 1994 (Revised April 2012)
Case

National Electric Corporation

By: David F. Hawkins and Norman Bartczak

A company meets financial analysis year-end earnings per share estimates, which have been progressively lowered during the year. View Details

Keywords: Goals and Objectives; Quality; Business Earnings; Stock Shares; Analysis

05 Dec 2019
News

Code-Switching At Work Is Taking a Psychological Toll On Black Professionals

January 2008
Article

The Five Competitive Forces That Shape Strategy

By: Michael E. Porter

This article includes a one-page preview that quickly summarizes the key ideas and provides an overview of how the concepts work in practice along with suggestions for further reading. In 1979, a young associate professor at Harvard Business School published his first... View Details

Keywords: Profit; Five Forces Framework; Industry Growth; Industry Structures; Business and Government Relations; Competitive Strategy

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Tsedal Neeley is the Naylor Fitzhugh Professor of Business Administration, Senior Associate Dean of Faculty Development and Research, and Faculty Chair of the Christensen Center for Teaching... View Details

09 Jun 2011
News

Will Groupon Survive Until 2016?

28 Oct 2013
News

Case Study: The Nuts and Bolts of Nightlife

February 2015 (Revised April 2016)
Supplement

Quincy Apparel (B)

By: Thomas R. Eisenmann and Lisa C. Mazzanti

The (B) case provides post-mortem analysis from Quincy's cofounders on why their startup failed and what they could have done differently. Explanations for failure focus on Quincy's ambitious value proposition and resulting operational challenges; cofounder conflict;... View Details

Keywords: Retail; Online Retail; Women's Apparel; Internet and the Web; Entrepreneurship; Failure; Business Startups; E-commerce; Apparel and Accessories Industry; Retail Industry

June 2025
Teaching Note

Paul Weiss: Fighting or Negotiating with POTUS

By: Eugene Soltes and Anthea Brady

This note was prepared by Professor Eugene Soltes and Research Associate Anthea Brady for the purpose of aiding classroom instructors in the use of “Paul Weiss: Fighting or Negotiating with POTUS,” HBS No. 125-098. It provides analysis and questions that are intended... View Details