Publications

01 Dec 2015
News

How Do I Get Your Job?

choosing this industry as opposed to another. The film business is a little tricky for MBAs to navigate. It doesn’t have the same clear path that other, more traditional fields do. Leaving that aside, the broader field of media View Details

June 2016 (Revised May 2017)
Case

Searching for a New CEO: TiVo 2016

By: David B. Yoffie

In 2015, TiVo initiated a search for a new CEO. This case provides a profile of the CEO search and background on the company. View Details

Keywords: Technological Change; Succession Planning; Information Technology; Strategy; Strategic Planning; Management Succession; Forecasting and Prediction; Change; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; Entertainment and Recreation Industry

01 Jun 2024
News

Turning Point: On the Line

staff of Truth Be Told (Apple) at Disney. What made it so bizarrely poetic is that Disney was where this freshly minted Harvard MBA had begun his entertainment industry career. I’d long dreamt of living a... View Details

Keywords: labor strike; television; media; unions

November 1994 (Revised May 1996)
Case

Walt Disney's Dennis Hightower-- Taking Charge

By: Ashish Nanda

In 1987, Dennis Hightower, was recruited from outside for a newly created position as head of Disney Consumer Products European operations. Hightower has to win initial acceptance of entrenched country managers, integrate the company's diverse subsidiaries closer... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Leadership; Change Management; Corporate Strategy; Personal Development and Career; Consumer Products Industry; Consumer Products Industry; Europe

13 Dec 2022
Cold Call Podcast

Metaverse Seoul: How One City Used Citizen Input to Pilot a Government-Run Metaverse

Keywords: Re: Mitchell B. Weiss; Entertainment & Recreation; Entertainment & Recreation

09 Jan 2020
Blog Post

Navigating Grey in the Ever-Evolving Tech Community

getting to know others, both current students and alumni, in the industries I was most passionate about. Coincidentally, there was also a lot of overlap with the Tech Club (of which I was also a member)... View Details

24 Feb 2009
First Look

First Look: February 24, 2009

restaurants. This case examines four such services: Entertainment Book, Restaurant.com, Rewards Network, and OpenTable. Despite key functional similarities, each of the services chooses an importantly... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

26 May 2016
News

Alan F. Horn, MBA 1971

creator of All in the Family. “I had no experience in the entertainment business, I had never been to Hollywood, and I didn’t know anyone there,” says Horn. “He said, ‘You’re perfect,’ View Details

Keywords: Susan Young

February 2002 (Revised February 2002)
Case

Roundabout Theatre Company, The (A)

Todd Haimes is the artistic director of the Roundabout, a nonprofit theatre. He must decide if he is willing to accept a large sponsorship from American Airlines and, in doing so, allow the airline to the name the Roundabout's new Broadway theatre. In making this... View Details

Keywords: Business or Company Management; Nonprofit Organizations; Decision Making; Financing and Loans; Theater Entertainment; Fine Arts Industry

01 Dec 2016
News

Inside the Bestseller List with James Andrew Miller

the curtains.” Miller’s new book fits that successful mold—but comes with a marketing challenge. Powerhouse is about Creative Artists Agency, a powerful force in the entertainment industry but a lesser-known... View Details

October 1989 (Revised June 1993)
Case

RKO Warner Video, Inc.: Incentive Compensation Plan

By: George P. Baker III

Details the design and implementation of an incentive bonus plan for video store managers. The problem for top management of the chain is to induce the store managers to "sweat the details," to keep the stores neat and well organized, and to deal courteously and... View Details

Keywords: Acquisition; Change; Strategic Planning; Performance Improvement; Sales; Management; Employee Relationship Management; Situation or Environment; Success; Motion Pictures and Video Industry; Motion Pictures and Video Industry

01 Jun 2012
News

Desperate Sections

In April, this year’s HBS Show, An Offer You Can’t Refuse, explored in song and dance what happens when, in a metaphorical sense, entire HBS sections face the prospect of wearing cement overshoes and... View Details

Keywords: Performing Arts, Spectator Sports, and Related Industries; Performing Arts, Spectator Sports, and Related Industries

April 2001 (Revised August 2002)
Case

Frasier (B)

By: Guhan Subramanian and Michelle Kalka

Supplements the (A) case. View Details

Keywords: Negotiation; Television Entertainment; Media and Broadcasting Industry

January 2020
Case

Ninja: Which Platform Wins Esports' Biggest Star?

By: Anita Elberse and Michal T. Leszczynski

It is July 2019, and the business of esports and gaming is booming. Tyler Blevins—better known as Ninja—has risen to stardom playing the immensely popular shooter game Fortnite. He has become the most followed streamer in the world and, helped by his management company... View Details

Keywords: Esports; Platforms; Superstar; Games, Gaming, and Gambling; Internet and the Web; Personal Development and Career; Decision Making; Digital Platforms; Video Game Industry; Video Game Industry

September 2004 (Revised February 2010)
Case

The Passion of the Christ (A)

By: John A. Quelch, Anita Elberse and Anna Harrington

Bob Berney, president of Newmarket Films, must decide on a distribution and marketing strategy for Mel Gibson's controversial new movie, The Passion of the Christ. Fueled by Gibson's star power as well as an extensive prescreening campaign among Christian leaders and... View Details

Keywords: Advertising Campaigns; Film Entertainment; Marketing Strategy; Product Launch; Product Positioning; Distribution Channels; Religion; Motion Pictures and Video Industry