Publications

19 Jan 2022
Blog Post

From Retail to HBS: How I’m Building a Career Path at the Intersection of Arts, Culture, and Business

Sara Jetty (MBA 2021) grew up in Carmel, Indiana and received her B.S. from Indiana University. Prior to attending HBS, she held roles at BLK DNM, West Elm, and Bloomingdale’s. During her time at HBS, she... View Details

June 1984
Case

Federal Trade Commission and the Shared Monopoly Case against the Ready-to-Eat Cereal Manufacturers

By: Thomas K. McCraw and Richard S. Tedlow

Keywords: Business and Government Relations; Monopoly; Courts and Trials; Food and Beverage Industry; United States

Find at Harvard

30 Oct 2019
News

How to Recover Gracefully After Shutting Down Your Startup

01 Sep 2018
News

What I Do: Clare Reichenbach (AMP 185, 2013)

Foundation. Operating “at the intersection of pleasure and purpose,” in the words of CEO Clare Reichenbach (AMP 185, 2013), the nonprofit oversees annual industry awards (considered by many to be the Oscars of the View Details

Keywords: Julia Hanna; illustrations by Peter and Maria Hoey

March 2008 (Revised January 2023)
Supplement

Cadbury Schweppes: Capturing Confectionery (B)

By: David Collis, Toby Stuart and Troy Smith

In late 2002, global confectionery and beverage maker Cadbury Schweppes needed to decide whether or not to make an acquisition bid for Adams, an underperforming gum company which had been put up for sale by pharmaceutical giant Pfizer. Examining the decision from a... View Details

Keywords: Food; Mergers and Acquisitions; Corporate Strategy; Food and Beverage Industry

14 Jul 2020
Research & Ideas

Restarting Under Uncertainty: Managerial Experiences from Around the World

simultaneous increase in demand for home deliveries, which raised the need for operators in stores. The company worked with catering and cooking associations, whose operations were temporarily closed, to share labor. Instead of staying at... View Details

Keywords: by Raffaella Sadun, Andrea Bertoni, Alexia Delfino, Giovanni Fassio, and Mariapaola Testa

November 2006
Case

Organics: Coming Center Stage?

By: James E. Austin and Reed Martin

The organics movement has certainly come a long way. From hippie farming communes and a scattering of natural food stores in the 1960s, organics outgrew its origins as a counterculture curiosity of the 1970s to become the fastest growing segment of the food industry in... View Details

Keywords: Food; Supply and Industry; Consumer Behavior; Competitive Advantage; Competitive Strategy; Food and Beverage Industry; United States

December 2010 (Revised August 2012)
Case

The Full Yield

By: Ray A. Goldberg and Noemie Myriam Delfassy

New firm created to provide understanding of the role of food in health and nutrition. View Details

Keywords: Agribusiness; Business Startups; Entrepreneurship; Food; Health Care and Treatment; Nutrition; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry

November 2005 (Revised August 2007)
Case

ConAgra Foods: The Next Chapter

By: Ray A. Goldberg and Mary L. Shelman

In 2005, CEO Bruce Rohde has almost completed the integration of ConAgra Foods' collection of 90 independent operating companies into a focused, value-added firm and was beginning to think about his successor. ConAgra had become the second largest food company and No.... View Details

Keywords: Change Management; Corporate Strategy; Leading Change; Management Succession; Strategic Planning; Brands and Branding; Food; Agribusiness; Product Marketing; Management Teams; Transformation; Customer Focus and Relationships; Food and Beverage Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; United States

October 1992 (Revised September 1996)
Case

McDonald's Corporation

By: David M. Upton and Joshua D. Margolis

McDonald's has over many years built an operating strategy based on consistency and quality through a limited product range. Competitive forces have drawn the company into a much wider variety of foods and services in order to maintain growth. Now, new competitors... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Strategy; Diversification; Problems and Challenges; Environmental Sustainability; Quality; Competitive Strategy; Growth and Development Strategy; Operations; Integration; Food and Beverage Industry; United States

July 2019
Case

LaCroix Sparkling Water

By: Tomomichi Amano, Das Narayandas and Kerry Herman

Launched in 1981 as an “all occasion” sparkling water brand, LaCroix Sparkling Water has had a number of ups and downs as a brand. After being purchased by National Beverage in 1996, the brand was re-positioned as a new, colorful, fun alternative to the other sparkling... View Details

Keywords: Brands and Branding; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Industry Structures; Food and Beverage Industry

June 2018
Case

Feeding America (A)

By: Scott Duke Kominers and Alan Lam

This case describes how Feeding America, the third-largest nonprofit organization in the U.S., designed a marketplace for allocating donated food across its network of food banks. It considers the promises and pitfalls of using market-based allocation in the context of... View Details

Keywords: Social Enterprise; Nonprofit Organizations; Food; Resource Allocation; Fairness; Performance Efficiency; United States

July 2009 (Revised October 2011)
Case

VeeV on the Rocks?

By: Joshua D. Margolis, Christopher Marquis and Laura Winig

Three pressing challenges (equity split, extent of commitment to social responsibility, and product discoloration) confront VeeV, the world's first alcoholic beverage infused with acai berries. Brothers Courtney and Carter Reum founded VeeV in 2007 and the firm has... View Details

Keywords: Quality; Food; Business Growth and Maturation; Ethics; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Entrepreneurship; Business Startups; Equity; Food and Beverage Industry

05 Jul 2022
Op-Ed

Hear Me Out: Introverts Can Be Loud and You Might Like Microsoft Teams

Novel Approach to Staff Shortages" “The article was interesting and the initial ideas presented by US Foods could help. However, one major way to attract and retain delivery... View Details

Keywords: by Danielle Kost

08 Nov 2016
First Look

November 8, 2016

use standardized color, achieved by synthetic dyes, as part of their marketing strategies. Food manufacturers along with dye makers and regulators co-created the food-coloring business. Synthetic View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

August 2020 (Revised November 2021)
Case

Beyond Beer: Brewing Innovation at Molson Coors

By: Derek C. M. van Bever, Stephen P. Kaufman, James Barnett and Shaye Roseman

In March 2019, Molson Coors CEO Mark Hunter considered a request to pull forward $65 million CAD in anticipated future funding for Truss Beverages, a Toronto-based cannabis beverage company that Molson Coors created in a joint venture with a Canadian cannabis... View Details

Keywords: Budgets and Budgeting; Joint Ventures; Ethics; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Disruptive Innovation; Innovation Strategy; Market Entry and Exit; Food and Beverage Industry; United States; Canada; Colorado