Publications

February 2013
Case

Diamond Foods, Inc.

By: Suraj Srinivasan and Tim Gray

The Diamonds Foods, Inc. case describes the major accounting blow up at the company in late 2011 that was triggered by a report by Off Wall Street, a prominent short selling research firm. Diamond Foods, a high flying growth company in 2011, grew from a walnut farmers'... View Details

November 1996
Case

Diamond Walnut Growers

By: Ray A. Goldberg and Mollie H. Carter

Diamond Walnut Growers is the largest walnut marketer in the world. As a grower-owned cooperative, it is under pressure to operate as efficiently as independent handlers. Diamond is evaluating its high-margin consumer branded business, which has experienced little to... View Details

Keywords: Plant-Based Agribusiness; Change Management; Marketing Strategy; Operations; Cooperative Ownership; Corporate Strategy; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry

Find at Harvard

04 Apr 2022
What Do You Think?

As Disney Board Chair, What Would You Advise CEO Bob Chapek Regarding 'Don’t Say Gay'?

parks—responsible for spreading “pixie dust” for Disney’s “guests”—were supporters of these groups. Within Disney, employees were protesting on social media and organizing walkouts from company theme parks in Florida and elsewhere. In... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

14 Sep 2023
Blog Post

MBAs Accelerate Their Social Enterprise Ventures

solar-powered irrigation for Indian farmers. While solar irrigation can reduce agricultural production costs by up to 25% and eliminate 132M tons of CO2 emissions annually, upfront costs remain a barrier. Solara aims to make ownership... View Details

01 Aug 2000
Research & Ideas

A Latin American Vision: New HBS Research Center Opens

August 3rd-4th in Buenos Aires with a multi-faceted research conference at the Caesar Park Hotel. The 130 participants at the conference, "Partnering for Knowledge Creation," included prominent university academics and top View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

07 Nov 2017
First Look

New Research and Ideas: November 7, 2017

Fall 2017 Business History Review The Alternative Business History: Business in Emerging Markets By: Austin, Gareth, Carlos Davila, and Geoffrey Jones Abstract—This article... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

December 2011 (Revised October 2015)
Case

K&N's: Health and Happiness for Pakistan

By: David E. Bell, Damien P. McLoughlin and Mary Shelman

Keywords: Family Business; Growth and Development Strategy; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Pakistan

31 Jul 2019
Research & Ideas

Distressed Employees? Try Resilience Training

Every year depression affects one in every five employees and costs American businesses $210 billion in medical bills and lost productivity. In fact, for every worker with a depressive disorder, a company loses an average of 32 productive... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Health

15 Oct 2008
First Look

First Look: October 15, 2008

Mouse and the Wealthy Elephant Live Happily Ever After? Authors:James E. Austin and Herman B. Leonard Abstract What happens when small iconic socially oriented businesses are acquired by large corporations? Such mergers create significant... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

05 Jul 2021
What Do You Think?

Do Companies Really Need Chief Experience Officers to Know Their Customers?

(Image credit: iStockphoto/skynesher) I will always remember November 11, 1977 as the day I drove a Ford Pinto into the employee parking lot of the General Motors Technical Center in Detroit. My vehicle was the only Ford product in a sea... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

December 2021
Case

Bunge: Building a Sustainable Future?

By: Forest Reinhardt, David E. Bell, Pedro Levindo and Ruth Costas

Bunge, one of the world’s leading agribusiness traders and processors, strives to comply with its commitment to having a deforestation-free value chain by 2025 while it considers potential new business growth areas. After a complex turnaround, which involved one of the... View Details

Keywords: Deforestation; Value Chain; Agribusiness; Values and Beliefs; Growth and Development Strategy; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Environmental Sustainability; Financial Strategy; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry

January 2013 (Revised April 2013)
Case

OSI in China

By: David E. Bell and Mary Shelman

OSI, one of the world's largest suppliers of processed meats to McDonald's and other QSRs, was in the middle of a $400M expansion in China that included backward integration into poultry production. However, its current customers took only a portion of each bird... View Details

Keywords: China; Corporate Strategy; Vertical Integration; Competitive Positioning; Organizational Design; Channels Of Distribution; Agribusiness; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; China

01 Jun 2004
News

Working the Street

my time with the companies I worked for,” says Timken, who envisions returning to business (perhaps in Europe, perhaps with a start-up) when he retires from the El Monte force in ten years. “But when I reached 30, a lot of life forces hit... View Details

Keywords: Garry Emmons; tattoo; removal; program; Justice, Public Order, and Safety Activities; Government

29 Nov 2023
News

A Holiday Benefit Dinner in LA; Seattle Club Revival Underway

Among the events they’ve produced this year was a “marquis” CEO speaker series featuring prominent Seattle-area business leaders. The first speaker of the series was HBS alum and Seattle Mariners Owner John Stanton (MBA 1979), who hosted... View Details

Keywords: Margie Kelley

01 Aug 2001
News

Ray A. Goldberg (MBA '50)

turmoil, Goldberg remains as focused and busy as ever. He currently chairs a National Research Council subcommittee planning the direction of the U.S. government's future agricultural research, has been... View Details

Keywords: Alumni Achievement Award; John H. Davis; Agriculture; Agriculture

12 Apr 2011
First Look

First Look: April 12

management practices. Using data for 58 countries, we show that after the adoption of mandatory sustainability reporting laws and regulations, the social responsibility of business leaders increases. We also document that both sustainable... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

December 2023
Case

Santa Elena: Table Grape Production in Chile’s Water-Challenged Regions

By: Forest Reinhardt, Jenyfeer Martinez Buitrago and Mariana Cal

In the fiscal year ending in September 2022, Santa Elena, Chile’s fifth-ranking table grape exporter, a grape producer and exporter since 1980, had exported around 3.5 million boxes (18-pound each). But, due to a 13-year-long drought that plagued table grape-growing... View Details

Keywords: Plant-Based Agribusiness; Climate Change; Environmental Regulation; Environmental Sustainability; Natural Resources; Food; Environmental Law; Problems and Challenges; Weather; Adaptation; Business Strategy; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Chile; South America; Latin America