Publications

11 Oct 2021
Blog Post

Crafting a Nontraditional Path to Venture Capital and Private Equity with Morgan Sheil (MBA 2021)

years at HBS, allowed her to pick up experiences, skills, and knowledge that would help her carve a path from chemical engineering and supply chain to climate operations strategy at KKR Capstone and climate... View Details

February 2022
Case

US Foods: Driving Post-Pandemic Success?

By: David E. Bell, Olivia Hull and Amy Klopfenstein

In November 2021, US Foods CEO Pietro Satriano must decide his company’s trajectory following the COVID-19 pandemic. US Foods suffered due to business closures and social distancing during the height of the pandemic. While the situation improved following the return of... View Details

March 2021
Case

The U.S. Home Improvement Sector in 2020

By: José Alvarez and David Lane

Provides an overview of the U.S. home improvement sector in 2020, reviewing sources of growth in the decade ending in 2020, with special attention to the impact of COVID-19 on market leaders Home Depot and Lowe’s and the spike in online revenues for both. Also noted... View Details

Keywords: Change Management; Trends; Leading Change; Operations; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Performance; Technology; Construction Industry; United States

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

April 2020
Background Note

U.S. Food Retail During the Pandemic: March 2020

By: José B. Alvarez and Natalie Kindred

This note, written in late March 2020 and mainly U.S. focused, looks at the unfolding impact of the coronavirus pandemic on food retailers and their suppliers. It allows student to consider the challenges facing food retail executives as they navigate urgent supply... View Details

Keywords: Coronavirus Pandemic; Risk and Uncertainty; Risk Management; Food; Supply Chain; Consumer Behavior; Demand and Consumers; Trade; Crisis Management; Health Pandemics; Food and Beverage Industry; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Retail Industry; United States

May 2016 (Revised October 2016)
Case

Agricultural Revolution without a Land Revolution: the Megafarms of CP Group

By: William C. Kirby and Nancy Hua Dai

This case describes the megafarm model launched by the CP group as part of their efforts to ensure the safety and quality of their supply chain of agricultural products (particularly, eggs) in China while also promoting the welfare of Chinese farmers. This model was... View Details

Keywords: China; Poultry; Public-private Partnership; Animal-Based Agribusiness; Family Business; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; China

01 Feb 2019
News

Apple held hostage by its Chinese puzzle

15 Jun 2016
News

Why Sourcing Local Food Is So Hard for Restaurants

December 2011
Case

Bergerac Systems: The Challenge of Backward Integration

By: David A. Garvin and Sunru Yong

Bergerac Systems is a small, rapidly growing manufacturer of diagnostic instruments used in veterinary practices. The company introduced the OmniVue chemistry analyzer, which enables veterinarians to run a wide range of blood and blood chemistry tests on their animal... View Details

Keywords: Financial Analysis; Manufacturing Strategy; Strategy; Production; Supply Chain Management; Vertical Integration; Performance Capacity; Financial Strategy; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry

Juan Alcacer is the James J. Hill Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School. He joined HBS in 2007 and has taught the required MBA strategy course, an elective on Global Strategy and PhD courses in Strategy and International Business. Within... View Details

Keywords: consulting; management consulting; telecommunications

15 May 2020
News

Five ESG Implications from COVID-19

October 2003 (Revised January 2004)
Case

ITC eChoupal Initiative, The

Soybean farmers in India have traditionally sold their product through ineffective and frequently dishonest physical marketplaces (mandi). Farmers are generally poor and often illiterate and are forced to be "price-takers" after an arduous journey to the mandi. They... View Details

Keywords: Plant-Based Agribusiness; Fairness; Internet and the Web; Supply Chain Management; Emerging Markets; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; India

Laura Alfaro is the Warren Alpert Professor of Business Administration. At Harvard since 1999, she served as Minister of National Planning and Economic Policy in Costa Rica from 2010-2012, taking a leave from HBS. She is Co-Editor of the Journal of International... View Details

Research Summary

Paper - Commodity Chains: what can we learn from a business history of the rubber chain? (1870-1910)

The literature on the rubber boom applied a Marxist/Dependendist view of rubber production in the Brazilian Amazon. Even though a sizeable surplus was generated in the rubber chain, it was mostly appropriated by foreigners. This view is in tune with the Global... View Details

26 Sep 2024
HBS Seminar

Garrett Van Ryzin, Columbia & Amazon

03 Oct 2019
HBS Seminar

Christopher Tang, UCLA Anderson School of Management

November 2013
Case

IdentiGEN

By: Ray A. Goldberg and Matthew Preble

Ciaran Meghen and Ronan Loftus, co-founders of IdentiGEN (an Irish company that had created a unique service called DNA TraceBack to help customers identify and trace meat products), were discussing the company's future. The recent crisis over beef products being... View Details

Keywords: Animal-Based Agribusiness; Agribusiness; Supply Chain Management; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Canada; United Kingdom; United States; Republic of Ireland

May 2023
Article

Decarbonizing Health Care: Engaging Leaders in Change

By: Vivian S. Lee, Kathy Gerwig, Emily Hough, Kedar Mate, Robert Biggio and Robert S. Kaplan

Health care leaders are often surprised to learn that their operations contribute significantly to a warming climate. In addition to their roles as responders to and victims of extreme weather events, health care organizations have an obligation to reduce... View Details

Keywords: Health Care; Decarbonization; Carbon Emissions; Net-zero Emissions; Climate Change; Health Care and Treatment; Health Industry

Read Now

March 2024 (Revised April 2024)
Case

“The Wheels on the Bus” Go Electric: Highland Electric Fleets and Partners

By: Rosabeth M. Kanter and Jacob A. Small

Founder Duncan McIntyre developed an innovative service-based business to electrify transportation fleets for school districts and scale through public-private partnerships while contributing to climate change solutions. The case covers the rationale for electric... View Details

Keywords: Climate Change; Leadership; Growth Management; Supply Chain; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Innovation Leadership; Transportation Industry; United States; Canada