Publications

01 Oct 2008
Research & Ideas

How Much Time Should CEOs Devote to Customers?

product managers spent on average only three percent of their time in contact with end consumers. Terry Leahy, CEO of Tesco, the UK supermarket chain, spends two days a week in stores interacting with employees and customers. But how far... View Details

Keywords: by John Quelch

01 Jun 2018
News

The Evolution of Modern Pricing Models

the same assortment. However, certain cheaper items required some extra clicks and scrolls to discover. TT: In the end, we were able to increase Zalora’s gross margins by up to 31 percent in some experimental conditions—and it did not require any change in prices or... View Details

September 2002
Case

Abercrombie & Kent

By: Frances X. Frei, Brian Corbett, Mark Partin and Daniel Rethazy

Describes Abercrombie & Kent, the outdoor adventure company that has provided services throughout the entire history of the outdoor adventure industry. Provides an opportunity to learn how the company successfully grown into a premier player in the industry by adapting... View Details

Keywords: History; Financial Management; Activity Based Costing and Management; Service Operations; Marketing Reference Programs; Product Development; Business Growth and Maturation; Balance and Stability; Marketing Channels; Transportation; Growth and Development Strategy; Travel Industry

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Profile

Pasha Nahass

like we were solving a riddle or a puzzle,” he says. “We created tangible products others could see and use.” In a combined undergraduate/graduate program, Pasha specialized in human computer interaction—“a cool combination of technology... View Details

Keywords: Tech

June 2014
Teaching Note

Google Glass

By: Thomas Eisenmann

In early 2014, business development executives at Google were formulating a distribution strategy for Glass, a wearable computer that projected information on a display viewable with an upward glance. Options, which were not mutually exclusive, included 1) continuing... View Details

Keywords: Partners and Partnerships; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Distribution Channels; Technology Adoption; Product Marketing; Computer Industry; Apparel and Accessories Industry; United States

September 2012
Supplement

Industrial Metrology: Getting In-Line? (B)

By: Willy Shih

Rainer Ohnheiser, the President of Carl Zeiss's Business Group Industrial Metrology (IMT), was focused on the threat that in-line metrology posed to Carl Zeiss IMT's core business. Historically, coordinate measurement machines (CMMs) that employed tactile measurement... View Details

Keywords: Performance Trajectories; Emerging Technologies; Manufacturing Tools; Carl Zeiss; Go-to-market Strategy; Disruptive Innovation; Technological Innovation; Production; Performance Improvement; Measurement and Metrics; Manufacturing Industry; Germany

May–June 2023
Article

The High Cost of Neglecting Low-Wage Workers: Six Mistakes That Companies Make—and How They Can Do Better

By: Joseph Fuller and Manjari Raman

Many companies blame outside factors for the trouble they’ve been having in finding and retaining frontline workers: the pandemic, the government’s stimulus checks, the intrinsic nature of low-wage work. The authors argue that in fact the real problem lies in six big... View Details

Keywords: Retention; Recruitment; Human Capital; Personal Development and Career; Compensation and Benefits; Performance Productivity

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September 2011
Teaching Note

Tengion: Bringing Regenerative Medicine to Life (TN)

By: Elie Ofek and Natalie Kindred

Teaching Note for 510031. View Details

Keywords: Partners and Partnerships; Production; Marketing; Cash; Health Care and Treatment; Medical Specialties; Research and Development; Biotechnology Industry

March 2005 (Revised November 2005)
Case

To Trade or Not to Trade: NAFTA and the Prospects for Free Trade in the Americas

By: Lakshmi Iyer

Discusses the impact of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) on the United States, Canada, and Mexico, a decade after it came into force in 1994. Keeping in mind NAFTA's effect on jobs, exports, productivity, and economic growth, policy makers had to decide... View Details

Keywords: History; Agreements and Arrangements; Performance Productivity; Jobs and Positions; Economic Growth; Trade; Foreign Direct Investment; North and Central America

May 2008
Teaching Note

Vegpro Group: Growing in Harmony (TN)

By: David E. Bell and Mary L. Shelman

Teaching Note for [508-001]. View Details

Keywords: Plant-Based Agribusiness; Customers; Production; Price; Ethics; Environmental Sustainability; Development Economics; Supply Chain; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Europe; United Kingdom; Kenya

December 2024
Case

Tencent Games

By: Rebecca Karp, Billy Chan and Nancy Hua Dai

For years, Tencent Games, a division of China’s largest internet company, had taken the lion’s share of revenue in the global gaming market with blockbuster titles such as “League of Legends” and “PUBG: Battlegrounds.” These games defined the game genres that they... View Details

Keywords: Decisions; Games, Gaming, and Gambling; Collaborative Innovation and Invention; Innovation and Management; Innovation Strategy; Growth and Development Strategy; Product Development; Organizational Culture; Business Strategy; Investment; Competitive Strategy; Video Game Industry; Europe; China

01 Mar 2011
News

Entrepreneurs’ Fund

month. Said Rumennik, “The Minimum Viable Product Fund, or MVP Fund, alleviates the daunting financial barrier preventing students from building initial prototypes or test products, and encourages them to connect with like-minded peers.”... View Details

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

01 Mar 2004
News

Toy Story

products — and such cheerleading is literally paying off. One company that has certainly ridden — and perhaps created — the wave of increased interest in the market is LeapFrog, the developer of the LeapPad system, a computerized device... View Details

Keywords: Susan Young; toys; Amusement, Gambling, and Recreation Industries; Arts, Entertainment

18 Feb 2013
Research & Ideas

Breaking Through a Growth Stall

product and the activities associated with making and selling it. Selling becomes a function of individual "heroic" efforts, not a scalable platform for profitable growth. Equally important, this inhibits adaptive learning—a... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

April 2017
Teaching Note

Basecamp: Pricing

By: Frank V. Cespedes

This Teaching Note accompanies HBS No. 817-067 “Basecamp: Pricing” in which a data analyst at Basecamp is evaluating the results of pricing research and its potential implications for the venture's latest version of its project management software product. View Details

Keywords: Analytics and Data Science; Price; Analysis; Customers; Product Marketing

June 1998 (Revised January 2002)
Teaching Note

Baker Precision Instruments, Inc., TN

By: Roy D. Shapiro and Donald Rosenfield

Teaching Note for (9-687-052). View Details

Keywords: Growth and Development; Production; Decisions; Technology; Planning; Performance Capacity; Management; Manufacturing Industry

November 1995 (Revised January 1998)
Case

Transformation of Pratt & Whitney North Haven (A)

By: H. Kent Bowen, Linda A. Hill, Andrew P. Burtis, Sylvie Ryckebusch and John Schiavone

Pratt & Whitney is a leader in the development and manufacturing of gas turbine engines for commercial and military aircraft. Economic conditions for the airline and defense industries are forcing the airplane engine builders to restructure. Ed Northern, a new general... View Details

Keywords: Transformation; Restructuring; Production; Opportunities; Economy; Aerospace Industry; Manufacturing Industry; Connecticut