Publications

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02 Sep 2019
What Do You Think?

Are Overlooked Forces Shielding the US from Severe Economic Downturns?

dependable distribution with internet-enabled inventory control extending all the way into consumer households and businesses. The result is that inventory value in relation to sales in the United States has fallen by more than 50 percent... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett; Service

January 2001
Case

Accrue Software, Inc.

In 2000, Accrue is one of three survivors of the initial consolidation of the Web traffic analysis software industry. However, entry from CRM software providers and consultants, as well as ASPs offering Web analysis services, has introduced new threats to Accrue. Newly... View Details

Keywords: Customer Value and Value Chain; Competitive Advantage; Software; Web Services Industry

August 2002
Background Note

Customer Benefit Stack

By: Das Narayandas

Describes a process to understand customer benefits created in industrial markets using the metaphor of a customer benefit stack. View Details

Keywords: Customer Satisfaction; Customer Value and Value Chain; Marketing Strategy; Product Marketing; Manufacturing Industry

January 2025
Case

Driving Efficiency and Sustainability at P&G China

By: Feng Zhu, Philip Kuai and Billy Chan

P&G China’s business had reached new heights thanks to the explosive growth of e-commerce in the country, but the rapidly increasing volume of shipments to customers had created operational and environmental challenges in terms of packaging waste, shipping damage, and... View Details

Keywords: Transformation; Customer Value and Value Chain; Environmental Sustainability; E-commerce; Logistics; Product Design; Value Creation; Order Taking and Fulfillment; Supply Chain Management; Consumer Products Industry; China

12 Sep 2016
Research & Ideas

What Brands Can Do to Monitor Factory Conditions of Suppliers

brand-name multinationals that contract out the work. “In a sense, global supply chains are serving a regulatory function, with companies imposing an additional layer of rules and investing resources to enforce them,” says Harvard... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

17 Jul 2006
Lessons from the Classroom

Developing a Strategy for Digital Convergence

successful along the entire vertical chain in a converging world. In the course, we try to dissect where, and under what conditions, you want to focus on horizontal layers in the value View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Computer; Education

July–August 2013
Article

A Joint Model of Usage and Churn in Contractual Settings

By: Eva Ascarza and Bruce G.S. Hardie

As firms become more customer-centric, concepts such as customer equity come to the fore. Any serious attempt to quantify customer equity requires modeling techniques that can provide accurate multiperiod forecasts of customer behavior. Although a number of researchers... View Details

Keywords: Churn; Retention; Contractual Settings; Access Services; Hidden Markov Models; RFM; Latent Variable Models; Customer Value and Value Chain; Consumer Behavior

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Read Now

October 2000 (Revised December 2002)
Background Note

Note on Customer Management

By: Das Narayandas

Describes a process for managing customers for profit. View Details

Keywords: Customer Relationship Management; Customer Value and Value Chain; Value

28 Nov 2006
Other Presentation

Value-Based Competition in Health Care: Issues for Singapore

By: Michael E. Porter

This presentation draws Michael E. Porter and Elizabeth Olmsted Teisberg: Redefining Health Care: Creating Value-Based Competition on Results, Harvard Business School Press, May 2006. Earlier publications about health care include the Harvard Business Review... View Details

Keywords: Integration; Competition; Customer Value and Value Chain; Insurance; Health Care and Treatment; Health Industry; Singapore

08 Jul 2002
Research & Ideas

How to Fashion Your New E-Business Model

the value chain framework to define the set of activities through which products and services are created and delivered to customers.6 Once activities are defined, it is then possible to analyze the... View Details

Keywords: by Lynda M. Applegate

18 Jun 2001
Research & Ideas

Tech Investment the Wise Way

the offering, given the value proposition and value chain structure chosen; describe the position of the firm within the value network linking... View Details

Keywords: by Henry Chesbrough & Richard S. Rosenbloom

December 2009
Article

Closing the Customer Feedback Loop

By: Rob Markey, Fred Reichheld and Andreas Dullweber

Realizing that customer retention is more critical than ever, companies have ramped up their efforts to listen to customers. But many struggle to convert their findings into practical prescriptions for customer-facing employees. Some companies are addressing that... View Details

Keywords: Customer Centric Initiative; Customer Satisfaction; Customer Focus and Relationships; Customer Value and Value Chain

July 1996
Case

Williams-Sonoma, Inc.--1990

By: Nancy F. Koehn and Michael Dearing

Howard Lester, chairman and CEO, has just completed a second offering of common stock in Williams-Sonoma, Inc. ($218.2 million 1989 sales). Having targeted $500 million in retail sales, Lester's challenge is to: 1) prioritize growth investments in five existing catalog... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Strategy; Alignment; Customer Value and Value Chain; Competitive Strategy; Retail Industry

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07 Aug 2012
First Look

First Look: August 7

experiment to measure the value of shareholder proxy access. We find that firms that would have been most vulnerable to proxy access, as measured by institutional ownership and activist institutional ownership in particular, lost View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

12 Mar 2018
Op-Ed

Op-Ed: Why BlackRock CEO Larry Fink Is Not a Socialist

cost-cutting; in fact, cutting infrastructure, supply chain costs, and excess expenses should be done all the time, in good times and bad. This is the approach used by ExxonMobil as it has been one of the greatest View Details

Keywords: by Bill George; Banking

June 2022
Case

Zalando: Becoming the Starting Point for Fashion

By: Antonio Moreno, Leela Nageswaran, Emilie Billaud and Federica Gabrieli

Born in 2008 as a small startup selling flip flops, by mid-2021 Zalando had turned into an online fashion company with an assortment of more than 4,500 international brands, 45 million active customers, and a presence in 23 European markets. An essential component in... View Details

Keywords: Transition; Customer Value and Value Chain; Digital Platforms; Distribution; Order Taking and Fulfillment; Infrastructure; Logistics; Service Operations; Strategy; Business Strategy; Fashion Industry; Apparel and Accessories Industry; Beauty and Cosmetics Industry; Distribution Industry; Retail Industry; Service Industry; Shipping Industry; Technology Industry; Europe

02 Apr 2008
Research & Ideas

Four Companies that Conquered America

retailer, to enter the U.S. market with the new Fresh & Easy chain of discount grocery stores. Avoiding geographies where Wal-Mart is entrenched, Tesco has so far opened 50 stores in the growth markets of California, Nevada, and... View Details

Keywords: by John Quelch

12 Jun 2006
Research & Ideas

The Promise of Channel Stewardship

Most company distribution systems are designed ad-hoc when needed, and serve neither value chain partners nor end users well—just look at the frustrating new-car buying process set up by American auto... View Details

Keywords: by V. Kasturi Rangan & Marie Bell; Consumer Products

November 2019 (Revised September 2022)
Case

TripAdvisor: An Itinerary for Growth

By: Jeffrey F. Rayport, Spencer Rascoff and Susie L. Ma

In 2019, TripAdvisor was one of the best-known and most-trafficked online travel sites. For nearly 20 years, its founder and CEO Steve Kaufer had steered TripAdvisor through many phases of growth and profitability, but recently the company’s growth had started to slow.... View Details

Keywords: Business Growth and Maturation; Decision Making; Business or Company Management; Growth Management; Innovation and Invention; Brands and Branding; Operations; Customer Value and Value Chain; Information Technology; Travel Industry; Massachusetts