Publications

November 2021
Case

Tommy Hilfiger Adaptive: Fashion for All

By: Elizabeth A. Keenan, Sandra J. Sucher and Shalene Gupta

In Fall 2017, Tommy Hilfiger launched Tommy Hilfiger Adaptive, a line of adaptive and inclusive fashion apparel intended to make dressing easier. Now, Tommy Hilfiger is planning to launch Tommy Hilfiger Adaptive internationally in early 2020. The prospect of making... View Details

March 2024 (Revised April 2024)
Case

Angel City Football Club: Scoring a New Model

By: Jeffrey F. Rayport, Jennifer Fonstad and Nicole Tempest Keller

In January 2024, Kara Nortman, Julie Uhrman, and Natalie Portman, the founders of Angel City Football Club (ACFC) were developing the club’s first three-year strategic plan. Founded in 2020, ACFC had a star-studded investor group, including Portman and celebrities such... View Details

Keywords: Sports; Entertainment; Entrepreneurship; Brands and Branding; Venture Capital; Business Model; Corporate Strategy; Digital Marketing; Sports Industry; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; United States; California; Los Angeles

12 Mar 2021
News

My Favorite Case

should CEO Dan Case take to balance the competing demands of maintaining the firm's culture and positioning it for future growth? “Mine came after business school. I came back here with my best friend, who was the subject of a case by Tom... View Details

Keywords: Business Schools & Computer & Management Training; Educational Services

22 Oct 2013
First Look

First Look: October 22

light of India's growing population and demand for dairy. How could he maintain the firm's cooperative structure, address the nutritional needs of all Indians, make use of emerging technology, and navigate the country's dairy policies in... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

18 Dec 2017
Op-Ed

Why Employers Must Stop Requiring College Degrees For Middle-Skill Jobs

Credit: Pixsooz American companies have a problem. Over the past decade, they have begun to demand a bachelor’s degree in hiring workers for jobs that traditionally haven’t required one. This uptick in credentialing, or “degree inflation,” rested on the belief that... View Details

Keywords: by Joseph Fuller

13 Nov 2017
Research & Ideas

Want to Be Happier? Spend Some Money on Avoiding Household Chores

healthier campers if we eased up on the cooking, scrubbing, and grocery shopping and instead threw a little money at these problems. “We feel like we don’t have enough time to do everything we want to do, and that makes us feel like we’re unable to cope with the View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

24 Sep 2018
Research & Ideas

How Cost Accounting is Improving Healthcare in Rural Haiti

costs to deliver services,” Shah explains. “Every hard-earned dollar needs to be fully utilized to deliver high-quality citizen care.” Case in point is Haiti, where the governmental outlay for health care expenditures was a mere $54 per capita in 2015, compared with... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Health

Web

Serving the Public Interest Through Competition: British Railroads - Railroads and the Transformation of Capitalism | Harvard Business School

Railroads Finance Management Business Analysts Mass Distribution Mergers & Syndicates Research Links Serving the Public Interest Through Competition: British Railroads Through comparative analysis of railroads in the United States and... View Details

October 2016
Supplement

24 Hour Fitness (B): Ownership Changes, 2005–2016

By: John R. Wells and Gabriel Ellsworth

In 2016, 24 Hour Fitness was the number-two fitness chain in the United States, generating revenues of $1.4 billion from 441 clubs serving 3.8 million members. Based in San Ramon, California, 24 Hour Fitness operated clubs in 13 states. Having grown rapidly to become... View Details

Keywords: Advertising; Advertising Campaigns; Buildings and Facilities; Acquisition; Business Growth and Maturation; Business Model; Business Organization; For-Profit Firms; Customers; Customer Focus and Relationships; Customer Satisfaction; Age; Training; Private Equity; Financing and Loans; Price; Profit; Revenue; Geographic Location; Geographic Scope; Health; Nutrition; Business History; Human Resources; Employees; Employee Relationship Management; Recruitment; Selection and Staffing; Journals and Magazines; Human Capital; Business or Company Management; Goals and Objectives; Growth and Development Strategy; Management Teams; Marketing; Brands and Branding; Marketing Channels; Marketing Communications; Marketing Strategy; Social Marketing; Demand and Consumers; Market Entry and Exit; Media; Organizational Design; Private Ownership; Problems and Challenges; Groups and Teams; Sales; Salesforce Management; Situation or Environment; Welfare or Wellbeing; Sports; Strategy; Business Strategy; Competition; Competitive Strategy; Competitive Advantage; Corporate Strategy; Expansion; Segmentation; Information Technology; Internet; Mobile Technology; Online Technology; Software; Web Sites; Value; Valuation; Health Industry; Media and Broadcasting Industry; United States; California; San Francisco

30 Jul 2007
Research & Ideas

Repugnant Markets and How They Get That Way

cockroaches in California, because nobody wants to eat cockroaches. The law of supply and demand takes care of that. But the reason there's a law against eating horse meat in California is because some people would like to eat horse meat,... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

15 Jun 2021
News

Zone Defense

differently,’” Tseng says. “I know what that means: Someone could have gotten killed.” If Brandon Tseng was prescient about the demand for technology that could reduce the risks associated with indoor-clearance operations, Ryan Tseng... View Details

Keywords: April White; drone technology; military; security; entrepreneurship; leadership; Air Transportation; Transportation

March 2021 (Revised August 2024)
Case

Hotwire.com: Navigating Through Turbulence

By: Jeffrey F. Rayport, Manny de Zarraga and Eric Levine

On September 10, 2001, after speaking at an industry conference at New York’s World Trade Center, Hotwire co-founder Spencer Rascoff boarded a flight from Newark to San Francisco. After returning home, Rascoff awoke the next morning to a phone call informing him that... View Details

Keywords: September 11; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Business Growth and Maturation; Disruption; Decisions; Job Cuts and Outsourcing; Growth Management; Digital Platforms; Problems and Challenges; Risk and Uncertainty; Expansion; Internet and the Web; Leading Change; Leadership Style; Air Transportation Industry; Tourism Industry; San Francisco

01 Nov 2011
First Look

First Look: Nov. 1

Chearavanonts enter the company, how has Chairman Dhanin created a business culture that maintains the closeness of a family business with the strategic vision, innovations, and transparency of a professionally run company-especially given the fact that many business... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

03 Dec 2020
Research & Ideas

Cut Payroll Costs with Transparency, Fairness, and Compassion

many companies is that widespread salary cuts may not be workable because of existing employee agreements. Furloughs A furlough is a mandated unpaid leave of absence, utilized by private (such as General Motors during the 2019 United Auto... View Details

Keywords: by Boris Groysberg and Sarah Abbott

Web

Case Studies - Social Impact Collaboratory

Courses & Case Studies Case Studies Middlebury College: Energy2028 (320029) by Brian Trelstad , Michael Norris and John McKinley APRIL 2020 (REVISED MAY 2021) Not all social change happens with new organizations. Middlebury College is one of the oldest liberal arts... View Details

06 Oct 2003
Research & Ideas

The Problem with Hedge Funds

the failure of Long Term Capital Management, then in the late 1990s became major drivers of the market, having grown enormously. They are often close partners to the investment banks, because the funds are small money-management units... View Details

Keywords: by D. Quinn Mills

25 Apr 2017
First Look

First Look at New Research, April 25

worldwide phenomenon. Sensing, analyzing, and developing appropriate responses to the complex new demands of the expanded, global marketplace is difficult, and the greatest challenge comes in developing the organizational capabilities and... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

January 2022
Case

SpartanNash Company: The Amazon Warrants (A)

By: Benjamin C. Esty, E. Scott Mayfield and Daniel Fisher

As of 12/31/21, Amazon held $22 billion of equity and warrants in related companies. In fact, it often requests a free grant of warrants when it enters into a new commercial agreement with a supplier. Over the past 20 years, Amazon has gotten warrants in almost 20... View Details

Keywords: Valuation; Value Creation; Consumer Behavior; Negotiation; Distribution; Ownership; Partners and Partnerships; Business Strategy; Equity; Distribution Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; United States