Publications

February 2013
Case

18 Months in a Startup: Zaggora.com

By: Tom Nicholas

The founders of Zaggora reflected back on a tumultuous year-and-a-half in which they had generated, from just $40,000 in personal savings, a multi-million dollar sportswear enterprise selling Hotpants to women. These were hotpants not of the 1960s hipster variety, but... View Details

Keywords: Internet and the Web; Growth Management; Problems and Challenges; Business Startups; Brands and Branding; Innovation and Invention; Corporate Finance; Apparel and Accessories Industry; Sports Industry

May 1994 (Revised October 1994)
Case

Motorola: Institutionalizing Corporate Initiatives

By: Shoshana Zuboff and Janis Lee Gogan

Motorola became a recognized quality leader in large part by becoming a leader in employee education and by encouraging "participative management." Through the Motorola Training and Education Center, later Motorola University, the company invested substantial resources... View Details

Keywords: Experience and Expertise; Customer Satisfaction; Training; Human Resources; Leadership; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Corporate Strategy; Education Industry

15 Oct 2019
News

Bridging Business and Engineering

Erez Perelson (MS/MBA 2020) hopes to build on his technical background and hone his entrepreneurial and management skills in the new joint degree program. (photo by Susan Young) Erez Perelson (MS/MBA 2020)... View Details

Web

Growing on the Job - Alumni

Harvard Manage Mentor Take A Course in Career Management Want a fulfilling career path? While others can help, it's up to you to make it happen. Learn how by getting to know... View Details

January 1989 (Revised September 1995)
Case

MSDI-Alcala de Henares, Spain

By: Timothy A. Luehrman

Merck & Co., Inc. is evaluating a proposed cost-saving investment by its Spanish subsidiary. The case introduces techniques of discounted cash flow valuation analysis in a multicurrency setting. Can be used to teach basic international parity conditions as they relate... View Details

Keywords: Business Subsidiaries; Cash Flow; Cost Management; Currency; Investment; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Valuation; Spain

November 1991 (Revised October 1993)
Supplement

British Airways: ""Go for It, America!"" Promotion (B)

By: Stephen A. Greyser

Provides details on the results of the campaign for British Airways (BA) in terms of expenditure by BA, press coverage, effect on bookings, and effect on overall market share. View Details

Keywords: Advertising Campaigns; Cost Management; Information Publishing; Marketing Strategy; Market Participation; Aerospace Industry

01 Jun 1998
News

Simmons Family Endows Professorship

important in shaping who we are as businesspeople," echoes David E. Simmons (MBA '85), president of Simmons Family, Inc., a firm established by Roy Simmons in 1978 that owns and operates radio stations in the western United States. "The... View Details

December 2022 (Revised February 2023)
Case

Marfrig's Quest for Sustainable Beef

By: Jose B. Alvarez, Pedro Levindo and Ruth Costas

Marfrig, one of the world’s leading meatpackers, strived to comply with its commitment to have a deforestation-free value chain in Brazil by 2030. The company also pledged to reduce its emissions of greenhouse gases in accordance with the guidelines set by the... View Details

Keywords: Agribusiness; Animal-Based Agribusiness; Plant-Based Agribusiness; Acquisition; Family Business; Communication Strategy; Environmental Management; Climate Change; Environmental Regulation; Environmental Sustainability; Bonds; Food; Global Strategy; Goods and Commodities; Government and Politics; Political Elections; Leading Change; Marketing; Product Marketing; Product Positioning; Supply Chain; Supply Chain Management; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Business and Government Relations; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Partners and Partnerships; Strategy; Adaptation; Business Strategy; Commercialization; Competitive Strategy; Corporate Strategy; Diversification; Expansion; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; Brazil; Latin America; Argentina; Uruguay; North America; United States; Europe; Asia; China

November 2024 (Revised December 2024)
Case

Moonfare and the Democratization of Private Equity

By: Victoria Ivashina and Srimayi Mylavarapu

Founded in 2016, Moonfare headquartered in Europe, was a pioneer in the “democratization” of private equity investments. Historically, private equity was accessible only to institutional investors like pension funds, endowments, sovereign wealth funds, and large family... View Details

Keywords: Private Equity; Customers; Wealth; Business Strategy; Segmentation; Technological Innovation; Product Launch; Financial Services Industry; Europe

2019
Article

Can Big Data Improve Firm Decision Quality? The Role of Data Quality and Data Diagnosticity

By: Maryam Ghasemaghaei and Goran Calic

Anecdotal evidence suggests that, despite the large variety of data, the huge volume of generated data, and the fast velocity of obtaining data (i.e., big data), quality of big data is far from perfect. Therefore, many firms defer collecting and integrating big data as... View Details

Keywords: Big Data; Analytics and Data Science; Decisions; Quality

Read Now

06 Dec 2022
HBS Seminar

Elizabeth Lyons, UC San Diego

Web

Frequently Asked Questions - Creating Emerging Markets

teaching or former Visiting Fellows hold academic positions. Important examples include the Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad and Los Andes in Bogotá, Colombia. The project does not pay the travel... View Details

October 2016 (Revised January 2017)
Supplement

Bally Total Fitness (B): The Fall, 2005–2016

By: John R. Wells and Gabriel Ellsworth

By many measures the largest health-club chain in the United States in the early 2000s, Bally Total Fitness sold most of its remaining fitness clubs to 24 Hour Fitness in 2014 and disappeared from the industry top 100 rankings. After Bally was bedeviled by accounting... View Details

Web

Understanding Health Systems, Payors, and Regulation - Health Care

Institute of Strategy and Competitiveness at HBS. He advocates that the goal of any health care system should be to increase the value it delivers to patients. This is the underlying thesis of Redefining Health Care: Creating Value-Based Competition on Results , the... View Details

June 2022
Case

The SAH Group: The Time is Right

By: Juan Alcacer and Alpana Thapar

In January 2021, Jalila Mezni, cofounder and CEO of the SAH Group, was preparing to present the company’s future growth plans to its board of directors. The Tunisian company was a leading producer and distributor of personal care and packaged hygiene products. In 2019,... View Details

Keywords: Growth Management; Expansion; Business Divisions; Product Positioning; Brands and Branding; Competition; Presentations; Consumer Products Industry; Tunisia; Kenya

01 Mar 2024
News

On the Radar

Illustration by Brian Stauffer Illustration by Brian Stauffer Our planet is teeming with trillions of viruses and bacteria, most of which are innocuous or even helpful, but some pose a significant risk to public health, animals, and crops. In recent decades,... View Details

Keywords: Janine White; Justice, Public Order, and Safety Activities; Government

October 2018
Case

Learning How to Honnold

By: Eugene F. Soltes, Sara Hess and Dutch Leonard

Alex Honnold is the world’s most accomplished free climber. To many, climbing sheer vertical faces of rock—like the famed El Capitan—without a rope is viewed as not simply risky but reckless. Honnold contrasts this sentiment by presenting his perspective on risk taking... View Details

Keywords: Risk Management; Goals and Objectives; Personal Development and Career; Perspective

January 2000
Case

Talbots - A Classic

By: V. Kasturi Rangan and Marie Bell

This case traces why the $1 billion women's clothing retailer decided to attract younger customers, what went wrong, and the actions taken to recover. By the end of 1999, the company has reestablished itself and faces several growth opportunities and must decide on the... View Details

Keywords: Customer Focus and Relationships; Decisions; Crisis Management; Product Positioning; Problems and Challenges; Segmentation; Fashion Industry