Publications

September 2011
Module Note

Orientation to Leadership Intelligence Days, 2011

By: Joshua D. Margolis and Anthony J. Mayo

Julie Bornstein, senior vice president of Sephora Direct, is seeking to double her budget for social media and other digital marketing initiatives for 2011. A number of digital efforts implemented in the past two years seem to be bearing fruit and there is a desire to... View Details

Keywords: Budgets and Budgeting; Borrowing and Debt; Investment Return; Resource Allocation; Marketing Communications; Marketing Strategy; Consumer Behavior; Online Technology; Beauty and Cosmetics Industry

2008
Working Paper

Economic Factors Underlying the Unbundling of Advertising Agency Services

By: Mohammad Arzaghi, Ernst R. Berndt, James C. Davis and Alvin J. Silk

This paper addresses a longstanding puzzle involving the unbundling of services that has occurredover more than two decades in the U.S. advertising agency industry: How can the shift from the bundling to the unbundling of services be explained and what accounts for the... View Details

Keywords: Transformation; Framework; Service Operations; Decisions; Relationships; Price; Diversification; Geography; Cost; Advertising Industry; United States

Read Now

April 2003 (Revised December 2003)
Background Note

Winning the Influence Game: Corporate Diplomacy and Business Strategy

Provides a framework for influencing key outside players--businesses, governments, and NGOs--in support of business strategy. This could mean negotiating contracts with major customers and suppliers, concluding acquisitions and alliances, and securing financing from... View Details

Keywords: Negotiation; Business Strategy; Power and Influence

December 1996 (Revised July 2002)
Background Note

Note on Marketing and the Internet

By: John A. Deighton, Alison Berkley and John Barabino

The World Wide Web is new, a comprehensive marketing environment. It is a medium for direct marketing, for retailing and distribution, for the delivery of service and product elements, for marketing research, and even for posting and testing prices. This note explores... View Details

Keywords: Marketing; Internet and the Web; Digital Marketing

Find at Harvard

October 2016 (Revised April 2018)
Case

DataXu: Selling Ad Tech

By: Frank V. Cespedes, John Deighton, Lisa Cox and Olivia Hull

DataXu served marketers by buying digital advertising for brands using its demand-side platform. It sought a way to build a more predictable revenue stream in the very transactional media marketplace, and hoped that two new marketing analytics products would give it a... View Details

Keywords: Sales Management; Pricing; Programmatic Ad Buying; ＂Marketing Analytics＂; Advertising Technology; Sales; Digital Marketing; Marketing Strategy; Advertising Campaigns; Product Launch; Product Positioning; Media; Technology Industry; Advertising Industry; Boston; Massachusetts

17 Aug 2016
Working Paper Summaries

Venture Capital Data: Opportunities and Challenges

Keywords: by Steven N. Kaplan and Josh Lerner; Financial Services; Banking

June 2018
Teaching Note

Sandra Brown Goes Digital

By: Rosabeth Moss Kanter and Jonathan Cohen

As a middle manager at a biotechnology company, Sandra Brown harnessed digital tools and social media to engage others and build campaigns for change in the company. This Teaching Note presents strategies for teaching the Sandra Brown case series, which follows Brown's... View Details

Keywords: Change Leadership; Change Management; Digital; Engagement; Stakeholder Engagement; Grassroots Movement; Health Care Industry; Career Path; Innovation; Leading Change; Management; Innovation and Management; Personal Development and Career; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Quality

December 2017
Case

Charity or Bribery?

By: Eugene Soltes and Brian Tilley

Filip Kowalski, a senior manager at the pharmaceutical company Healthgen, leads sales for the firm’s Polish division. While pitching Healthgen’s products, he develops a relationship with a director of a regional health fund who also runs a private foundation. After a... View Details

Keywords: Bribery; Crime and Corruption; Law; Ethics; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; United States; Europe

April 2012 (Revised March 2013)
Case

Social Strategy at Harvard Business Review

By: Mikolaj Jan Piskorski and David Chen

The Harvard Business Review (HBR) Group was an early adopter of social media, boasting a robust presence on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. Now the company is seeking to evolve the Group's efforts from social media to social strategy—and start moving both revenue... View Details

Keywords: Competitive Advantage; Social and Collaborative Networks; Web; Publishing Industry; United States

September 1993 (Revised July 1995)
Background Note

Public Policy and the Manager: Conceptual Framework

By: Willis M. Emmons III

Government intervention in markets may have significant effects--both positive and negative--on a firm's strategic options and its performance outcomes. Thus the ability to analyze the origins, implications, and dynamics of public policy is a critical managerial skill... View Details

Keywords: Policy; Management Skills; Government and Politics; Adoption; Business Strategy; Performance Evaluation; Economic Systems

26 Mar 2013
Video

Booya Fitness, Inc. - Episode 1- Getting Guidance

November 2013 (Revised September 2014)
Case

Man Jit Singh at Sony Entertainment Television (A)

By: Linda A. Hill, Dana M. Teppert and Allison J. Wigen

Explores the role of CEO Man Jit Singh and his senior management committee in leading Multi Screen Media Pvt. Ltd. (formerly SET Pvt. Ltd.), a leading television broadcaster in India. Describes Singh's decision to evaluate employees based on values as well as... View Details

Keywords: Performance Appraisals; Performance Management; Performance Evaluation; Leadership Style; Managerial Roles; Organizational Culture; Groups and Teams; Management Teams; Change Management; Decision Making; Emerging Markets; Media and Broadcasting Industry; India

26 Nov 2018
HBS Seminar

Emily Truelove, MIT Sloan School of Management

27 Jul 2021
Video

Aroon Purie

Aroon Purie, Chairman and Editor-in-Chief of India Today, describes diversifying first into different magazine variations by launching regional editions of India Today, Business Today, men’s health, and moving into women’s lifestyle magazines and acquiring... View Details

November 2022
Case

GE: A New Way Forward?

By: David J. Collis and Haisley Wert

One of the most iconic American companies, General Electric (GE) was founded in 1892 in New York state. Named among the original dozen companies on the Dow Jones index in 1896, it was the list’s most tenacious holdout, maintaining its “blue chip” stock status for over... View Details

Keywords: Strategy; GE; Conglomerate; Conglomerates; Corporate Strategy; Management; History; Leadership; Problems and Challenges; Change Management; Transformation; Strategic Planning; Value Creation; New York (state, US)

April 2005 (Revised May 2005)
Case

Executive Compensation at General Electric (A)

By: V.G. Narayanan and Michele Jurgens

Faced with falling share prices and the critical eye of the media focused on Jack Welch's retirement plan, newly appointed CEO Jeff Immelt had the challenge of reassessing GE as a leader of corporate integrity and good governance. Presents the changes Immelt initiated... View Details

Keywords: Executive Compensation; Employee Stock Ownership Plan; Governing and Advisory Boards; Media; Governance; Corporate Accountability

December 2022 (Revised January 2023)
Case

Cann: High Hopes for Cannabis Infused Beverages

By: Ayelet Israeli and Anne V. Wilson

Founded in 2018 by Jake Bullock and Luke Anderson, Cann sold “social tonics,” or cannabis-infused beverages. By 2022, the company had several notable celebrity investors and talent partners, had sold over 10 million beverages to consumers, was distributing in six... View Details