Publications

24 Feb 2009
First Look

First Look: February 24, 2009

government-sponsored organization that was funded with 50 billion yen in equity capital and 10 trillion yen of government-guaranteed funds. Daiei presented the IRCJ with a unique opportunity to demonstrate the effectiveness of its restructuring View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

16 Mar 2023
Blog Post

HySynergy and Crossbridge Energy

“chicken-and-egg” problem: Every energy producer needs off-takers (buyers) and the cooperative strategy between HySynergy and Crossbridge Energy reduces the first-mover risk in order to spur investment from both parties. Additionally, our... View Details

March 2020
Case

Sizmek Chapter 11: Surviving Walled Gardens in Their Ad Tech Empire

By: Ayelet Israeli, Danilo Tauro and Sarah Gulick

This case provides a post-mortem of the advertising technology (adtech) company Sizmek. Sizmek grew via multiple acquisitions, with the vision of becoming an integrated adtech company that could leverage AI to buy digital media, while creating and serving display and... View Details

Keywords: Digital Marketing; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Mergers and Acquisitions; Applications and Software; Internet and the Web; Competition; Marketing; Advertising Industry; Web Services Industry; United States; Europe

February 2021
Teaching Plan

Soofa: Displaying the Right Path?

By: Jeffrey J. Bussgang and Amy Klopfenstein

This teaching plan serves as a supplement to the case “Soofa: Displaying the Right Path?” HBS 820-098. The case explores the tension between two different financing and expansion plans for a startup, and explores issues related to business model pivots and industry... View Details

July 2024 (Revised January 2025)
Case

Dynamic Pricing at Wendy's: Where's the Beef?

By: Elie Ofek, Alicia Dadlani and Martha Hostetter

In early 2024, Wendy’s new CEO announced on an earnings call that the company would install digital menus in its US locations so it could begin testing dynamic pricing—changing prices up or down in response to shifts in supply and demand – as well as allow engaging in... View Details

Keywords: Dynamic Pricing; Marketing Strategy; Price; Technology Adoption; Consumer Behavior; AI and Machine Learning; Customer Focus and Relationships; Policy; Food and Beverage Industry

August 2005 (Revised May 2006)
Case

Cherkizovsky Group, The (A) (Abridged)

By: Lynn S. Paine

Describes the transformation of a formerly state-owned meat processing plant in Russia into a privately owned and operated food processing conglomerate under Russia's economic reforms of the 1990s. Among the challenges the CEO, Igor Babaev, and his top management team... View Details

Keywords: History; Business Conglomerates; Privatization; Transformation; Management Teams; Sales; Brands and Branding; Business or Company Management; Marketing Strategy; Crisis Management; Food and Beverage Industry; Russia

Find at Harvard

01 Dec 2016
News

Case Study: Sweat the Technique

including NFL and NHL teams. Use cases also include military and elder care markets. All told, Unger estimates peak revenues to reach about $375 million. Nix is still in the midst of product development, but it expects to set the market... View Details

Keywords: Dan Morrell

November 1996 (Revised December 1996)
Case

SAP America

By: David A. Garvin and Artemis March

SAP America has grown at an explosive rate. This case describes the company's strategy, organization, and culture, with special attention to its approach to partnering and its sales and consulting process, which have been instrumental in allowing growth to proceed. Now... View Details

Keywords: Business Growth and Maturation; Change Management; Entrepreneurship; Growth Management; Demand and Consumers; Organizational Culture; Alliances; Competitive Strategy; Corporate Strategy; United States

Find at Harvard

01 Mar 2010
News

Rwanda Provides Students with Hands-On Learning

students worked with seven NGOs, small businesses, and a government agency, variously focused on issues of social enterprise and business development. Student teams tackled projects with the goal of providing concrete solutions to management problems. One team... View Details

Keywords: Margie Kelley; Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools; Educational Services; Management, Scientific, and Technical Consulting Services; Professional Services

16 Jun 2009
First Look

First Look: June 16

assets in its home base, it also opened up many opportunities abroad, including in Russia, one of the largest electricity markets in the world. The case outlines Enel's internationalization strategy and then... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

January 2009 (Revised February 2010)
Case

Gucci Group in 2009

By: David B. Yoffie and Renee Kim

The Gucci Group had transformed itself into the world's third largest luxury retailer with multiple brands. The company had performed well even after the departure of star designer Tom Ford and former CEO Domenico De Sole. However, the challenging global economic times... View Details

Keywords: Financial Crisis; Brands and Branding; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Luxury; Corporate Strategy; Apparel and Accessories Industry; Retail Industry

February 1988
Case

Crown Cork & Seal Co., Inc. (Condensed)

By: Richard G. Hamermesh and Richard S. Rosenbloom

A condensed version of Crown Cork & Seal Co., Inc. The principal changes are the elimination of details about the early history of the company and condensation of the final section, Outlook for the Future. View Details

Keywords: Risk and Uncertainty; Industry Growth; Environmental Sustainability; Business Strategy; Trends; Manufacturing Industry

January 2003 (Revised March 2004)
Case

Silverado (A)

By: Jan W. Rivkin and Charles J. Woodard

Silverado has raised $50 million and launched its first product: an Internet-based trivia game with innovative software. In a highly uncertain environment, the young management team must decide whether to continue developing the product and whether to branch out into... View Details

Keywords: Risk and Uncertainty; Technological Innovation; Strategic Planning; Internet and the Web; Decision Choices and Conditions; Product Launch; Business Strategy; Entertainment and Recreation Industry

23 Jun 2003
Research & Ideas

Psychology, Pathology, and the CEO

market share. Its Mach3 shaving system was a blockbuster product, but the company was suffering the effects of its own reliance on trade loading—the practice of offering discounts to retail customers at the end of a quarter in order to... View Details

Keywords: by Rosabeth Moss Kanter

10 Jun 2008
First Look

First Look: June 10, 2008

managers will use the discretion given by such estimates to convey private information on future cash flows, while agency theory predicts managers will use the discretion opportunistically. We test these alternative hypotheses using a sample of firms with View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

05 Jul 2004
Research & Ideas

Radical Change, Entrepreneurial Opportunity

strategies of companies within those industries. In particular, I focus on how an industry gets defined: how consumers and other industry players make sense of, or frame, the industry, and the way that framing in turn affects how the... View Details

Keywords: by Michael J. Roberts; Technology

August 2019
Case

Twiggle: E-Commerce with Semantic Search

By: Shane Greenstein and Danielle Golan

Four years after being founded, in 2014, by former Google executives Amir Konigsberg (CEO) and Adi Avidor (CTO), Twiggle had developed a search enhancement that plugged into an online merchant’s existing framework. The company utilized advanced structuring and... View Details

Keywords: Search Technology; Customer Acquisition; Internet and the Web; Technological Innovation; Commercialization; Growth and Development Strategy; E-commerce; Technology Industry; Israel