Publications

April 2016 (Revised June 2017)
Teaching Note

Dollar General Bids for Family Dollar

By: Jonas Heese, Paula A. Price and Suraj Srinivasan

In spring 2015, Dollar General CEO Rick Dreiling was looking ahead to retiring at year's end but worried about ensuring continued growth for the company he had built since 2008 into a market leader in the U.S. discount retail world. Dollar General operated over 11,500... View Details

Keywords: Dollar General; Family Dollar; Dollar Tree; Antitrust; Board Of Directors; Activist Investors; Federal Trade Commission; Acquisition; Valuation; Corporate Strategy; Retail Industry

April 1985
Supplement

Cleveland Twist Drill: Jim Bartlett, Video

By: Richard G. Hamermesh and Daniel F. Muzyka

Presents a question and answer session with Jim Bartlett, president of Cleveland Twist Drill. Edited into three parts. Bartlett provides additional insights into the case situation and also describes subsequent events at the company. View Details

Keywords: Management Teams; Corporate Strategy; Policy; Construction Industry; Consumer Products Industry

January 1996 (Revised April 1997)
Case

Deutsche Allgemeinversicherung

Describes the application of statistical process control in a service industry. In this case, Annette Kluck must decide how to adopt manufacturing-based principles to a service process ranging from customer account setup to legal services. View Details

Keywords: Quality; Analysis; Service Operations; Business Strategy; Service Industry

09 Nov 2015
News

Why Simple Brands Win

Keywords: brand management; branding

01 Mar 2017
News

Swimming with the Stream

customers. Gandhi, who released her first EP, Voices, in October and heads off on tour this month, has done stints at both Spotify and Interscope Records, which provided her with unique insight as she planned promotion and distribution for the EP. Here, she offers an... View Details

Keywords: Dan Morrell

June 2001 (Revised August 2003)
Case

Home Depot, Inc. in the New Millennium

By: Krishna G. Palepu and Jeremy Cott

After nearly two decades of spectacular performance, Home Depot reported a disappointing performance in the year 2000. The company began expanding its business scope as a result of saturating its growth in the core business. This case explores whether the disappointing... View Details

Keywords: Growth Management; Expansion; Valuation; Performance; Business Strategy; Corporate Finance; Retail Industry

14 Apr 2021
News

Eliminate Strategic Overload

16 Jul 2024
Research & Ideas

Weighing Digital Tradeoffs in Private Equity

added Suraj Srinivasan, the Philip J. Stomberg Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School. “Pursuing a digital strategy is an especially valuable source of differentiated value creation by PE funds.” Yet digital... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Financial Services

March 2019
Supplement

KITEA (C): A Surprise Delay

By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell and Gamze Yucaoglu

This case describes the delay of IKEA’s store opening in Morocco in 2015. After Sweden ordered an internal review of its position on the independence of Western Sahara, a territory Morocco regarded as part of its own, the Moroccan government declared that IKEA did not... View Details

Keywords: Private Sector; For-Profit Firms; Business Strategy; Strategic Planning; Competitive Strategy; Competitive Advantage; Adaptation; Corporate Strategy; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Retail Industry; Africa; North Africa; Morocco

January 2013
Supplement

Austal, Ltd. (B)

By: Willy Shih, Margaret Pierson and Dawn H. Lau

Austal, Ltd. was an Australian builder of high-speed passenger ferries. It had translated that expertise into a foothold in the defense market on the US Navy Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) program with an Alabama assembly facility. In January 2009 it had just completed the... View Details

Keywords: Geographic Location; Global Strategy; Globalized Markets and Industries; Job Cuts and Outsourcing; Growth and Development Strategy; Business Strategy; Corporate Strategy; Ship Transportation; Transportation Industry; Australia; United States; Alabama; Philippines

01 Jun 2007
News

Up from the Ashes

structures, whereas the relevant problem is how it creates and destroys them.” Creative destruction constantly sweeps out old products, old enterprises, and old organizational forms, replacing them with new ones. “Every piece of business View Details

Keywords: Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools; Educational Services

01 Dec 2010
News

Money and Markets Dominate New Course Offerings

business or investing in emerging markets. New half-courses The Art of Marketing Science is intended for students interested in gaining a deeper understanding of consumer behavior and, most importantly, gaining expertise in changing consumer behavior. Assembling Global... View Details

Keywords: curriculum

17 Jan 2017
First Look

First Look at New Research: January 17

style, and thus set prices that limit market penetration. The winning strategy diverges from this approach in almost every respect. When innovators develop products that people want to pull into their lives, they create markets that serve... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

Profile

Fola Folowosele

bar that I set for myself as well. How has HBS prepared you for your summer internship and long term career? I split my summer into two parts - I interned at PUMA for the first month before spending the rest of my summer as an internal View Details

Keywords: Consulting; Consumer Products

September 1999 (Revised June 2001)
Case

eBay, Inc.

By: Stephen P. Bradley and Kelley Porter

eBay was the world's largest and most popular person-to-person trading community on the Internet. In early 1999, the company was doing very well and seemed to have solved many of its early problems. However, on March 30, 1999, Amazon.com announced that it was entering... View Details

Keywords: Technological Innovation; Growth and Development Strategy; Marketing Strategy; Planning; Competition; Competitive Strategy; Competitive Advantage; Retail Industry; Web Services Industry