Sales Growth - Publications - Faculty & Research

12 Mar 2021
News

My Favorite Case

This was my favorite case in my favorite class, Entrepreneurial Management, taught by Professor Howard Stevenson. The protagonist learned the hard way that she had to plan to manage growth and, unfortunately, her operations infrastructure... View Details

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

06 Jan 2014
Research & Ideas

Technology Re-Emergence: Creating New Value for Old Innovations

brand of colorful Swatch watches. A portmanteau of "second watch," Swatch essentially introduced the idea of an inexpensive quartz watch as a fashion accessory. The strategy was wildly successful, with sales exceeding 50 million... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Apparel & Accessories; Technology; Consumer Products

06 Oct 2003
Research & Ideas

The Problem with Hedge Funds

There is thus no justification for the enormous growth of the hedge funds. It follows that the hedge fund mania is simply the latest of the securities industry's new, new things" for investors—another View Details

Keywords: by D. Quinn Mills

13 Nov 2013
Research & Ideas

Should Men’s Products Fear a Woman’s Touch?

America, but during the first half of 2013, Porsche's sales increased by 31 percent, largely attributed to its growth with women drivers. The Cayenne and the Panamera four-door sedan have both been... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Consumer Products; Food & Beverage; Auto

Web

HBS - Financials | Supplemental Financial Information

rebound at the end of the fiscal year. Revenue from Press, which has historically been dependent on sales at airports, bookstores, and other retail locations, improved 4 percent from the prior year. The View Details

March 2023
Case

Mirakl: Growing The Marketplace Economy

By: Antonio Moreno, Santiago Gallino and Emilie Billaud

Mirakl provided the technology and seller network required for companies like Macy's, Best Buy, Walmart, Siemens, or Carrefour to simply design, launch, and administer a marketplace that included products from third-party sellers. What began as a basic business idea in... View Details

Keywords: Business Growth and Maturation; Business Startups; Transformation; Technological Innovation; Growth and Development Strategy; Internet and the Web; Technology Adoption; Sales; Information Technology Industry; Retail Industry; Web Services Industry; Europe; France; Paris; United States

Citation

Educators

Purchase

16 Aug 2022
Op-Ed

Now Is the Time for Entrepreneurs to Play Offense

most talented entrepreneurs, I have been thinking more and more about what playing offense looks like in 2022-2023. Here’s the six-part playbook I’m hearing: 1. Acquire talent A few years ago, it was impossible to acquire talent. The best engineers, View Details

Keywords: by Jeffrey Bussgang

08 Jun 2010
First Look

First Look: June 8

to accomplish the following: mine your sales data to identify "homerun" products you're missing; reinvent your forecasting and pricing strategies; build end-to-end agility into your supply chain; establish incentives that align... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

10 Oct 2011
Research & Ideas

Retailing Revolution: Category Killers on the Brink

2000. At current growth rates, 2015 purchases via the Internet will likely exceed $250 billion. Online sales tend to be highly concentrated in several categories, and are so significant that it is... View Details

Keywords: by Rajiv Lal & Jose B. Alvarez; Retail

23 Aug 2006
Op-Ed

The Real Wal-Mart Effect

stakeholders, instead of just slicing up a fixed pie in a way that favors one group over another. Consider, for example, the conclusions of the McKinsey Global Institute's study of U.S. labor productivity growth between 1995 and 2000. In... View Details

Keywords: by Pankaj Ghemawat & Ken A. Mark; Retail

24 Dec 2013
First Look

First Look: December 24

a variety of metrics, Trader Joe's ranked as one of the most successful grocers in the United States in 2013. Experts estimated that the company had the highest sales per square foot of any major grocery chain, even significantly high... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

15 Jul 2019
Book

Many Executives Are Afraid of Finance. Here's How They Can Gain Confidence

overconfidence. Exaggerating synergies and ignoring integration costs Synergy is the idea that once merged, the value of two companies will be greater than the sum of the values of each individual company. On the surface, the idea of synergies isn’t unreasonable. For... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

07 May 2013
First Look

First Look: May 7

Investindustrial's team had the following exit alternatives: 1) a trade sale to an automotive buyer; 2) a secondary buyout, partial or complete, by a financial investor; 3) a relisting in Hong Kong. Each option had its pros and cons, but... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

01 Oct 1999
News

Banking on Success

sales and earnings. Some of these businesses will have very interesting futures; as for others - I'm not so sure. What is the best business advice you've ever received? Before I started working as a runner on Wall Street, my dad told me... View Details

Keywords: Deborah E. Blagg

11 Mar 2024
News

In Harmony

Subscribe on iTunes Subscribe on Spotify More Skydeck episodes Hi, my name is Julia Hanna; I’m an associate editor at the HBS Alumni Bulletin. Last November I flew to Seoul, South Korea to interview Michael Kim (MBA 1990) of MBK Partners. Often referred to as one of... View Details

Keywords: Julia Hanna; photograph by Jun Michael Park

31 May 2017
What Do You Think?

Can Amazon Do What Walmart Couldn’t, Stop the 'Wheel of Retailing'?

In 1997, a young entrepreneur visited a class at Harvard Business School taught by my colleague, Len Schlesinger. The class discussed a case based on the visitor’s fledgling online retailing company that had rapidly expanded sales to $100... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett; Retail

22 Nov 2004
Research & Ideas

Side Effects: The Case of Propecia

physicians, using the company's army of field representatives. The problem of so-called "detailing" to physicians was that the sales reps have literally a few minutes or even seconds to pitch directly to the doctor, and are... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Health; Pharmaceutical

26 Nov 2001
Op-Ed

Why Corporate Budgeting Needs To Be Fixed

able to realize the sales before the end of the quarter and thus fulfill their budget goal and make their bonuses. But the high cost of assembling the goods at a distant location—it required not only the rental of the warehouse but also... View Details

Keywords: by Michael C. Jensen

Web

HBS - Financials | Supplemental Financial Information

revenues, including current use gifts and distribution from the endowment. In fiscal 2023, the School’s total revenues increased by $101 million, or 11 percent, to $1.1 billion from $966 million in the prior year, primarily reflecting the View Details

January 2024
Case

Vibrant Health

By: Henry McGee and Sarah Mehta

This case is about nutritional supplements company Vibrant Health, among the 100 largest Black-owned businesses in the U.S. After acquiring the company from its white founder in 2007, co-owners Ted and Paige Parker significantly grew its sales. Set in September 2023,... View Details