Focusing On Customers - Publications - Faculty & Research

October 2003 (Revised August 2005)
Case

American Legacy: Beyond the Truth Campaign

The hard-hitting "Truth" campaign has been one of the most successful antismoking initiatives in history. The focus of the "Truth" campaign is to dissuade teenagers from smoking. The sponsor of the campaign, the American Legacy Foundation, is now trying to decide... View Details

Keywords: Advertising Campaigns; Communication Strategy; Customer Focus and Relationships; Decision Choices and Conditions; Ethics; Brands and Branding; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact

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13 Aug 2018
Blog Post

Following My Dream: Launching a Venture

product (MVP) one could imagine, and I’m very grateful for the advice. Our extensive MVP testing at corporate offices allowed us to validate key assumptions of our business model and value proposition, e.g. more than 70% of our users... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship

September 2013
Case

SafeBlend Fracturing

By: Benson P. Shapiro, Frank V. Cespedes and Alisa Zalosh

The CEO of SafeBlend Technologies must set a price for the company's environmentally friendly fracturing fluid additive. The firm is negotiating a new contract with its biggest client, Bristol Natural Gas. For the last two years, SafeBlend has been the sole provider of... View Details

Keywords: Information Technology; Customer Relationship Management; Price; Negotiation; Competitive Advantage; Environmental Sustainability; Energy Sources; Sales; Energy Industry

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Web

MBA Program - Alumni

the School is preparing future leaders for the demands of an ever-changing world. HBS Pilots First Impact Investing Fund HBS’s first student-run Impact Investing Fund focuses on local BIPOC-led and -owned... View Details

01 Jan 2013
News

Joanna M. Jacobson, MBA 1987

game-changing ideas," SGP is both a foundation and a pro bono consulting firm focusing on nonprofit scale and systemic change, primarily in Massachusetts. "We find social entrepreneurs with promising ideas... View Details

Keywords: Susan Young

02 Nov 2020
Blog Post

2+2 Where Are They Now Spotlight: Tyler Teykl (MBA 2017)

2+2 deferred admissions process? Education has always been very important to my family, and I believe it was the best ROI you can get. Thus, an MBA was already on the table for me while at Purdue. Applying while I was still in my... View Details

13 Nov 2006
Research & Ideas

Science Business: What Happened to Biotech?

state of the science in biotech. So, as a result, we have been pursuing an anatomy that focuses on breaking up the pieces of the puzzle into independent pieces (having lots of small specialized firms) when... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Biotechnology

12 May 2003
Research & Ideas

How Hot is the “Hot Spot” Business?

several years ago to connect the back end of its 50,000 stores with company headquarters. But it soon dawned on executives that 90 percent of Starbucks customers use the Web, and many are high-end business... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne & Martha Lagace; Technology; Communications; Telecommunications

12 Oct 1999
Research & Ideas

Where Main Street Meets Wall Street

For Boston, whose history is better known for its midnight rides and tea parties with attitude, this was, by comparison, a low-key moment. On a slow July day in 1924 in the Hub's financial district, a new investment product was quietly... View Details

Keywords: by Garry Emmons; Financial Services

10 Apr 2006
Research & Ideas

American Auto’s Troubled Road

this year, of the millions of cars being churned out in factories all around the world, one of them, unknown and unremarked, will roll off an assembly line and take its place in history. Basking under the hot lights of a showroom, or... View Details

Keywords: by Garry Emmons; Manufacturing; Transportation; Auto

Web

Teaching Quantitative Material - Christensen Center for Teaching & Learning

an analysis. Core Principles Although case instructors exhibit a variety of styles and approaches in teaching quantitative materials, many incorporate the following principles: View quant segments as “workshops”—not polished performances Approach quant segments as... View Details

02 Aug 2007
What Do You Think?

How Will Millennials Manage?

productively, and as a result can often produce good work at what appears to be the last minute. They are focused on their own personal development. They want an accelerated path to success, often exaggerate... View Details

Keywords: by Jim Heskett

11 Jan 2010
Research & Ideas

Mixing Open Source and Proprietary Software Strategies

impossible to give a unique recipe for all software firms—it really depends on the industry's configuration and the placement of your product with respect to competitors. Q: Your paper concludes by citing other industries where new... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Web Services

20 Oct 2003
Research & Ideas

Gaps in the Historical Record: Development of the Electronics Industry

Brookings Institution has published two excellent books, Targeting the Computer and Creating the Computer, which provide excellent brief reviews of the industry's story into the 1970s. He has done so by focusing View Details

Keywords: by Alfred D. Chandler Jr.; Consumer Products

03 Feb 2016
What Do You Think?

How Do You Hire an 'Impostor'?

In Hiring, Should We Give Self-Confidence a Greater Weight Than Humility? Summing Up A respondent to this month’s column, Joel, provided the question for this summary. As he asked, "should we be focusing View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

02 Sep 2019
What Do You Think?

Are Overlooked Forces Shielding the US from Severe Economic Downturns?

will be very important in determining the length of the current US economic expansion. Those were the messages from responses to this month’s column. Steve Adcock was optimistic about the influences of technology and services on economic... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett; Service

21 Jan 2009
First Look

First Look: January 21, 2009

options. Brand manager Margaret Foley is facing an increasingly complex media environment in which her traditional media plan, focused on television, print, and radio advertising, has become less effective... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

Profile

Henry McCance

Jeffrey Morby (MBA 1961) were launching a nonprofit to fight Alzheimer’s and invited McCance to join them, along with Boston philanthropists Jerome and Phyllis Rappaport. They introduced him to Dr. Rudolph Tanzi, a Harvard geneticist View Details

Keywords: Venture Capital / Private Equity; Financial Services; Health Care

12 Aug 2008
First Look

First Look: August 12, 2008

accurately reflect the demographic diversity of the U.S. population. Yet, most research on diversity in organizations has focused on the outcomes associated with workforce... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

18 Jun 2001
Lessons from the Classroom

Why Leaders Need Great Books

senior lecturer Sandra Sucher will teach a section as well. Although The Moral Leader adheres to a pedagogical framework, it eschews the traditional HBS case method involving a manager and his or her business problems. Instead, it focuses... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

Publications