Publications

26 Sep 2011
HBS Case

HBS Cases: Lady Gaga

A&M Vice Chairman Steve Berman, Live Nation's global touring CEO Arthur Fogel, William Morris Endeavor agent Marc Geiger, and producer Vincent Herbert. Go Big or Go Home? In the autumn of 2009, Lady Gaga was set to go on the road with... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Entertainment & Recreation; Music

July 2004 (Revised July 2005)
Case

Activision: The 'Kelly Slater's Pro Surfer' Project

By: Alan D. MacCormack, Enrico D"Angelo and Kerry Herman

Mike Ward, the producer in charge of developing the Kelly Slater's Pro Surfer game for Activision, must decide whether to launch the game in time for the 2002 Christmas season. Complicating his decision are the lukewarm response from consumers to TV test spots of the... View Details

Keywords: Games, Gaming, and Gambling; Product Development; Customer Satisfaction; Projects; Business or Company Management; Product Launch; Marketing Strategy; Decision Choices and Conditions; Industry Structures; Innovation Strategy; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; United States

April 2009 (Revised March 2010)
Case

Nippon Steel Corporation

By: Srikant M. Datar and Akiko Kanno

Nippon Steel Corporation, the largest Japanese steel producer and second largest in the world faces challenges in pursuing strategy to become a true global player. Nippon Steel had long been the top Japanese company, however the emergence of a global player,... View Details

Keywords: History; Corporate Strategy; Problems and Challenges; International Accounting; Change Management; Restructuring; Competitive Strategy; Emerging Markets; Globalization; Global Strategy; Steel Industry; Japan

July 2022
Case

David Crane’s Clean(er) Energy Strategy at NRG

By: George Serafeim, Michael W. Toffel and Tom Quinn

In 2015, David Crane was the CEO of NRG, the second-largest energy producer in the United States. NRG got most of its power from fossil fuels, but Crane – hired as CEO in 2003 as NRG emerged from bankruptcy – had invested heavily in alternative energy, loudly... View Details

Keywords: Energy; Leadership; Corporate Governance; Transformation; Alternative Energy; Energy Generation; Climate Change; Corporate Accountability; Renewable Energy; Energy Industry; United States

August 2008 (Revised July 2009)
Supplement

Gazprom (B): Energy and Strategy in a New Era

By: Rawi E. Abdelal, Sogomon Tarontsi and Alexander Jorov

President Putin publicly stated that Gazprom, the largest natural gas producer in the world, was a powerful political lever of the Russian state in the world and a keystone in the foundation of the country's energy security. Thus the top leadership of Russia has... View Details

Keywords: Non-Renewable Energy; Growth and Development Strategy; State Ownership; Business and Government Relations; Expansion; Energy Industry; Russia; Ukraine

04 Feb 2002
Research & Ideas

How a Juicy Brand Came Back to Life

by asserting that a brand might fit better in one company's portfolio than in another's. But a marketing professional would probably explain the improved fit in terms of distribution economies or manufacturing synergies. I would explain it differently: First, as every... View Details

Keywords: by John Deighton; Food & Beverage

December 2000
Case

Friona Industries, L.P.

By: Ray A. Goldberg, Carin-Isabel Knoop and Cate Reavis

As the food industry becomes more sophisticated, and as genomics and other factors provide for quality control from the producers to the consumers in the food chain, the beef industry has been one of the last commodity systems to organize the vertical systems to... View Details

Keywords: Customer Satisfaction; Customer Value and Value Chain; Food; Management Systems; Supply and Industry; Performance Consistency; Quality; Partners and Partnerships; Food and Beverage Industry; Retail Industry

29 Jul 2013
Research & Ideas

A Manager’s Moral Obligation to Preserve Capitalism

possible—indeed, Friedman went further to say that any attempt to curb the free market was harmful to the good of society. This is the view Ramanna grapples with in a new working paper, Managers and Market Capitalism, cowritten with... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

May 2003 (Revised May 2009)
Case

ZARA: Fast Fashion

Focuses on Inditex, an apparel retailer from Spain, which has set up an extremely quick response system for its ZARA chain. Instead of predicting months before a season starts what women will want to wear, ZARA observes what's selling and what's not and continuously... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Multinational Firms and Management; Competitive Advantage; Manufacturing Industry; Apparel and Accessories Industry; Retail Industry; Spain

03 Dec 2020
Blog Post

The HBS Show Must Go On

resiliency the HBS community showed during a difficult time to be able to come together and produce something truly special. Lori Ossip Prior to HBS, Lori worked in Real Estate Investment and Asset View Details

February 2011 (Revised October 2018)
Case

ALAC International

By: Richard S. Ruback and Royce Yudkoff

ALAC was a small importer of specialty industrial chemicals. The case explores the different financing alternatives to facilitate the company's explosive growth in working capital. At the end of 2009, the company was awarded the United States distributorship for the... View Details

Keywords: Working Capital; Growth Management; Financing and Loans; Chemical Industry

14 Jul 2003
Research & Ideas

Understaffed and Overworked: What Now?

gets done and what doesn't can make you the hero. You do the deed no one else wants to do, and you focus your efforts toward producing the results you've decided are most meaningful." Create Alliances "Senior View Details

Keywords: by Paul Michelman

09 Oct 2015
Blog Post

Students, Alumni, and Colleagues Gather to Discuss Leadership in the Energy Industry

The energy industry has been shaken over the last year as oil prices have dropped from over $110 to below $50, with OPEC (Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries) promising no relief to the supply glut and American producers... View Details

2007
Other Unpublished Work

Effects of Inventory on Demand for Rentals in the Home Video Market

By: Ioannis Ioannou, Julie Mortimer and Richard Mortimer

Retailer inventory decisions can greatly influence observed demand for a product by affecting, among other things, product availability (stock-outs) and product visibility in the store. These inventory decisions are affected by numerous factors including vertical... View Details

Keywords: Decisions; Demand and Consumers; Supply Chain Management; Competition; Contracts; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; United States

November 2018 (Revised August 2020)
Case

The Reinvention of Kodak

By: Ryan Raffaelli and Christine Snively

The Eastman Kodak Company (Kodak) was a name familiar to most Americans. The company had dominated the film and photography industry through most of the 20th Century and was known for making affordable cameras (and the “Kodak Moment”) and supplying the movie industry... View Details

Keywords: CEO; Leadership; Asset Management; Transformation; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Competitive Strategy

December 2012 (Revised October 2013)
Case

Developing the Materiality Matrix at Telefónica

By: Robert G. Eccles, George Serafeim and Asun Cano-Escoriaza

Telefónica, one of the largest telecommunication companies in the world and headquartered in Spain, has been issuing a corporate sustainability report since 2002. In its 2011 Sustainability report, the company included a "materiality matrix," and was one of only five... View Details

Keywords: Sustainability; Sustainability Reporting; Sustainable Strategy; CSR; Corporate Social Responsibility; Communication Technology; Environmental Accounting; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Environmental Sustainability; Telecommunications Industry; Spain

Web

Organizational Behavior - Doctoral

field and advancing theoretical understanding in posts at schools of management or in disciplinary departments. The Organizational Behavior program is jointly administered by the faculty of Harvard Business School and the Department of... View Details

January 2009 (Revised March 2013)
Case

Live Nation Faces the Music

By: Stephen P. Bradley, Frank Cespedes and Kerry Herman

In 2008, concert producer and promoter Live Nation faces a decision about its strategy in light of the tumultuous changes in the music industry and the increasing power of the major artists. As the music business once again recreates itself in response to new... View Details

Keywords: Change Management; Decision Choices and Conditions; Music Entertainment; Five Forces Framework; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Corporate Strategy; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; Music Industry; Service Industry