Publications

01 Mar 2024
News

Game On

categories. Take, for starters, the food and beverage model: Like any bowling alley, Top Golf, or the Kansas City–based Chicken N Pickle (with NFL investors Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce), these establishments lure people in with an... View Details

Keywords: Jen McFarland Flint; photographed by Edward Linsmier; Amusement, Gambling, and Recreation Industries; Arts, Entertainment

18 Jan 2018
News

The Lessons of All-Day Breakfast

exactly what we thought it would. It came with high incrementality, which means a lot of folks who hadn't been visiting us in the past, or at least the recent past, came in. It came with a high average check and it drove trade up from some of our View Details

Keywords: Food Services and Drinking Places; Food Services and Drinking Places

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

16 Apr 2001
Research & Ideas

Strategy and the Internet

positioning. Strategy goes far beyond the pursuit of best practices. It involves the configuration of a tailored value chain—the series of activities required to produce and deliver a product or service—that enables a company to offer... View Details

Keywords: by Michael E. Porter

December 2018
Case

Choosy

By: Jeffrey J. Bussgang and Julia Kelley

Founded in 2017, Choosy is a data-driven fashion startup that uses algorithms to identify styles trending on social media. After manufacturing similar items using a China-based supply chain, Choosy sells them to consumers through its website and social media pages.... View Details

Web

Continuity of Strategic Direction - Institute For Strategy And Competitiveness

HBS ISC Strategy Strategy Strategy Explained Business Strategy Creating a Successful Strategy Corporate Strategy The Role of Leaders Related Topics Creating a Successful St... Creating a Successful Strategy Unique Value Proposition... View Details

March 2008 (Revised May 2008)
Case

Carlyle Japan (A)

By: David B. Godes, Masako Egawa and Mayuka Yamazaki

Tamotsu Adachi, Managing Director of Carlyle Japan, wants to formulate a strategy to improve his firm's ability to source high-quality deals at competitive valuations, or prices. Buyout funds like Carlyle typically have two deal phases: sourcing and monitoring. These... View Details

Keywords: Financial Instruments; Leveraged Buyouts; Supply Chain Management; Marketing Channels; Sales; Financial Services Industry; Japan

Teaching Interest

Overview

The Business of Aesthetics is a new course for second-year students who are considering careers in sectors and companies whose long-term financial value is built on their ability to deliver aesthetic value. Such companies are rewarded not only for eliciting a high... View Details

Keywords: Aesthetics; Luxury Goods; Retail; Consumer Goods; Design; Creativity; Consumer Behavior; Brand Building; Experience Goods; Food and Beverage Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; Food and Beverage Industry

26 Jun 2020
Research & Ideas

Why Japanese Businesses Are So Good at Surviving Crises

delivers food to victims CEO Takeshi Niinami of Lawson, a chain of convenience stores, watched out his Tokyo office window as skyscrapers swayed. Just minutes before the tsunami reached the Tohoku shore, he... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

July 2018 (Revised August 2018)
Case

Rocky Mountain Condiments: Close Encounters with the Legal System for the First Time

By: Lena G. Goldberg

The founder of a Colorado start-up focused on developing a line of condiments confronts a host of legal issues that threaten the viability of her young enterprise. She is suing a co-packer for, among other things, breach of contract, theft of recipes and trade secrets,... View Details

Keywords: Law And Regulation; Start-ups; Founders' Agreements; Cross-Border Jurisdiction; Torts; Consumer Protection; Non-disclosure Agreements; Intellectual Property Protection; Fraud; Legal Remedies; Law; Lawsuits and Litigation; Laws and Statutes; Business Startups; Contracts; Intellectual Property; Food and Beverage Industry

Web

HBS - The year in Review

positive labor relations management, was deemed best to support the School’s brand and its educational mission. Its collaboration with Thompson Hospitality, the largest minority-owned food service management company in the country,... View Details

Profile

Merve Ciplak

As a management consultant with Bain & Co. in Istanbul, Merve Ciplak had “almost complete freedom” to work for up to six months, without penalty, in any industry of her choice on an ‘externship’ from the firm. Merve applied the opportunity to serve the U.N.’s World... View Details

15 Nov 2022
Book

Stop Ignoring Bad Behavior: 6 Tips for Better Ethics at Work

also advising the government—the drug-regulation division of the US Food and Drug Administration—on how to strengthen its oversight of pharma. In addition to this alleged conflict of interest, McKinsey recommended questionable sales... View Details

Keywords: by Pamela Reynolds

Web

Health Care - Faculty & Research

motivation and, contrary to existing laboratory evidence, financial incentives do not appear to crowd it out. Third, the responses to both types of incentives are stronger when their relative value is higher. Indeed, financial rewards are... View Details

22 Aug 2022
Research & Ideas

Can Amazon Remake Health Care?

First, the supply chain in health care is a mess. There are so many intermediaries selling to other people, and Amazon has done extremely well by streamlining the supply chain. So they must be thinking that the current insurers and other... View Details

Keywords: by Christina Pazzanese, Harvard Gazette; Health

November 2011 (Revised August 2012)
Background Note

Customer Discovery and Validation for Entrepreneurs

By: Frank V. Cespedes, Thomas Eisenmann and Steven G. Blank

Provides practical guidelines for conducting market research to explore and validate demand for entrepreneurial offering. Explains how the research objectives of entrepreneurs might differ from those relevant to managers evaluating product or service offerings to... View Details

Keywords: Customer Value and Value Chain; Entrepreneurship