Publications

August 2014 (Revised May 2016)
Case

Husk Power

By: Joseph B. Lassiter III and Sid Misra

In late 2013, Husk Power Systems found itself falling further and further behind plan. The founding CEO had decided to resign. His co-founder is faced with the decision of quitting his corporate job in the US to head to India and help form a new management team. Husk... View Details

November 2015 (Revised January 2016)
Teaching Note

McDonald's Corporation: Managing a Sustainable Supply Chain—From Amazon Soya to Cage Free Eggs

By: Michael W. Toffel

This case provides an opportunity for students to consider how large, multinational corporations should respond when targeted by activists regarding environmental and social concerns in their supply chains. Greenpeace targeted McDonald's because its chicken supplier... View Details

Keywords: Supply Chain; Supply Chain Management; Welfare; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; Service Industry; Brazil; United States; United Kingdom

November 2010
Case

Esquel Group: Building a Sustainable Partnership with Cotton Farmers in Xinjiang (A)

By: James K. Sebenius and Jason Cheng Qian

Esquel Group, leading manufacturer of quality shirts, sought to negotiate long-term partnerships with often-exploited farmers in Xinjiang (western China) to procure a superior cotton variety. Seeking to secure a large supply of specialty cotton in an ethical and... View Details

Keywords: Contracts; Agreements and Arrangements; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Leasing; Business and Community Relations; Business and Government Relations; Partners and Partnerships; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Hong Kong; Xinjiang Uygur Zizhiqu

14 Dec 2010
First Look

First Look: Dec. 14

asset class. In recent years, a growing number of individual and institutional investors have allocated a portion of their capital into agricultural farmland. Private investors, public companies, and sovereign wealth funds are now all... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

06 Nov 2006
Research & Ideas

How South Africa Challenges Our Thinking on FDI

still contains many subsistence farmers or folks who are living off of meager agricultural incomes and transfers from the state or their relatives in the big cities. So to compete with all of those site-specific issues would be a... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

08 Aug 2017
First Look

First Look at Research and Ideas, August 8, 2017

remain attractive to doctors, insurance providers, and individual patients? Purchase this case:https://cb.hbsp.harvard.edu/cbmp/product/517065-PDF-ENG Harvard Business School Case 906-408 Brazil Sugar and the WTO: Agricultural Reform in... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

19 Jul 2011
First Look

First Look: July 19

jobs and dignified salaries. As of March 2010, La Fageda has opened up a new production facility to make ice cream in an urban area outside of its well-known agricultural farm. Students are faced with understanding La Fageda's business... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

22 Aug 2011
Research & Ideas

Getting to Eureka!: How Companies Can Promote Creativity

answer it, they looked not to high-tech modern prizes but to a comparatively unglamorous series of awards sponsored by the Royal Agricultural Society of England (RASE) back in the nineteenth century. For decades, explains Lerner, the RASE... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

20 Nov 2018
Cold Call Podcast

Building a Nonprofit Marketplace to Feed America

Keywords: Re: Scott Duke Kominers; Agriculture & Agribusiness; Agriculture & Agribusiness; Agriculture & Agribusiness

June 1987 (Revised May 1990)
Case

John Deere Component Works (B)

By: Robert S. Kaplan

Having installed an activity-based system, the division is now exploring the insight provided by that system. In particular, it is studying the economics of lot-size process planning and product mix management. View Details

Keywords: Activity Based Costing and Management; Production; Business or Company Management; Planning; Cost Accounting; Cost Management; Product Marketing; Management Practices and Processes; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry

April 2020
Supplement

Luvo (B)

By: José B. Alvarez and Natalie Kindred

This case, a follow on to HBS No. 517-049 "Luvo," provides a brief look at changes that have occurred at Luvo, now called Performance Kitchen, since the timing of the first case (mid-2016). Set in January 2020, “Luvo (B)” touches on developments such as the company's... View Details

Keywords: Consumer Behavior; Health; Health Care and Treatment; Nutrition; Food; Strategy; Product Positioning; Product Marketing; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; United States; Canada

10 Jan 2012
First Look

First Look: January 10

Cynthia A. Montgomery, Michael Shih-ta Chen, and Dawn LauHarvard Business School Case 712-414 CARD (Center for Agricultural and Rural Development) is a Philippines-based microfinance organization that began as an NGO and has since... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

18 Aug 2009
First Look

First Look: August 18

Corporation (MCC), provides aid to developing countries, focusing on poverty reduction through economic growth. It measures results through an economic rate of return based on increases in farmer incomes anticipated over twenty years. As MCC and Ghana finalize a $547... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

08 May 2018
First Look

First Look at New Research and Ideas, May 8, 2018

focusing on its strategy and growth since the IPO and challenges for the future. Purchase this case: https://cb.hbsp.harvard.edu/cbmp/product/318077 Harvard Business School Case 717-478 Precision Agriculture at Deere & Company No... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

10 Feb 2009
First Look

First Look: February 10, 2009

b01/en/common/item_detail.jhtml?id=809095 GLOBALGAP: Food Safety and Private Standards Harvard Business School Case 509-004 In response to new laws governing liability and several food safety scares in the 1990s, European retailers drove the creation of a universal... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

March 2021 (Revised January 2023)
Background Note

The Pandemic's Impact on the U.S. Food System

By: José B. Alvarez and Natalie Kindred

This note is intended not as a comprehensive account but as a starting point for discussion about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the U.S. food system. Written in late 2020, the note describes, in part through the voices of industry leaders, how the pandemic... View Details

Keywords: COVID-19 Pandemic; Agribusiness; Risk and Uncertainty; Risk Management; Leadership; Change Management; Safety; Health; Health Pandemics; Disruption; Adaptation; Supply Chain; Supply Chain Management; Consumer Behavior; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; United States

31 Jan 2012
First Look

First Look: Jan. 31

financial management and the usefulness of formal hedging of agricultural production risks was offered to randomly selected farmers in Gujarat, India. The authors evaluate the effect of the financial literacy training and three marketing... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne & Carmen Nobel

August 1972 (Revised November 2002)
Case

Prelude Corporation

Describes a company that is seeking to restructure the lobster fishing industry by applying technology and management to what has been essentially a cottage industry. The student is expected to identify and evaluate the strategy pursued by the company to date and then... View Details

Keywords: Technology; Strategy; Leading Change; Animal-Based Agribusiness; Industry Growth; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry