Publications

April 2008
Teaching Note

Viagen: Revolutioning the Livestock Industry (TN)

By: David E. Bell, Mary L. Shelman and Eliot Sherman

Teaching Note for [507021]. View Details

Keywords: Investment; Genetics; Production; Training; Customers; Supply Chain; Business Plan; Commercialization; Information Technology; Performance Efficiency; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Industry Structures; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry

December 2006 (Revised January 2008)
Case

ViaGen: Revolutionizing the Livestock Industry

By: David E. Bell, Reed Martin and Mary L. Shelman

ViaGen has invested heavily to develop cloning technology for the livestock industry. Cloning has the potential to significantly improve the genetics of livestock, leading to higher quality meat, healthier animals, and more efficient production. Since 2003, the firm... View Details

Keywords: Animal-Based Agribusiness; Business Plan; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Marketing Communications; Industry Structures; Business and Government Relations; Genetics; Commercialization; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry

May 2003
Case

Environmental Defense

By: Forest L. Reinhardt

Analyzes the strategy and management of Environmental Defense, a leading environmental advocacy group, emphasizing the group's activity in the energy and agribusiness industries. From a strategy formulation standpoint, the case encourages students to think of the... View Details

Keywords: Strategy; Nonprofit Organizations; Energy; Relationships; Agribusiness; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry

Find at Harvard

February 1985 (Revised September 1988)
Case

Caterpillar Tractor Co.

By: Christopher A. Bartlett

Describes the structure and evolution of the earth moving equipment industry worldwide in the post war era, particularly focusing on developments in the 1960s and 1970s. Describes Caterpillar's strategy in becoming the dominant worldwide competitor (industry market... View Details

Keywords: Business Growth and Maturation; Business Strategy; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry

19 Aug 2013
News

Bees Make a Sweet Deal for African Farmers

Yusuf Keshavjee Some years ago, Yusuf Keshavjee (OPM 17, 1991) was driving near Lake Victoria in Kenya when he noticed vendors by the roadside selling honey. Not an unusual sight in Africa, but it got Keshavjee to thinking about issues facing local farmers: branding,... View Details

Keywords: Agriculture; Agriculture; Agriculture; Agriculture

Fast Answer

Global Climate Change

padding-right:1px; padding-left:1px; border-top:none; border-right:1px solid black; border-left:none">This website provides search engine to locate CRS reports on various topics related to climate change,... View Details

12 Sep 2011
Research & Ideas

The Untold Story of ‘Green’ Entrepreneurs

agricultural equipment manufacturers. The industry offered few prospects now for small entrepreneurs without access to large capital resources. "These policies transformed wind energy into lucrative opportunity," Jones and... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

03 Feb 2009
First Look

First Look: February 3, 2009

from a small Nigerian export company into a $5 billion global leader in agricultural commodities with a core competence in Africa. Olam's growth had come by pursuing product and geographic adjacencies, and its "farm gate to factory... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

01 Dec 2017
News

Global Perspectives

data storage components. They also examined the gemstone and jewelry trade in Thailand, which produces 80 percent of the world’s jewelry, from high-end to mass-market, and met with villagers in Sumatra to discuss efforts to effect change in View Details

06 Mar 2018
First Look

First Look at Research and Ideas, March 6, 2018

Ambelang treated NatureSweet more like a consumer-packaged goods manufacturer than an agricultural producer, with a focus on consistency, branding, margin, and price stability, and a frontline-worker-centric production model inspired by... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

18 Jan 2012
Research & Ideas

Beyond Heroic Entrepreneurs

of sustainable agriculture and train community members in how to start their own gardens. In the next stage of their research, Battilana and Lee plan to follow the Echoing Green fellowship applicants for the next few years to answer... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

10 Apr 2025
Blog Post

IFC India 2025: SELCO - Decentralized Renewable Energy to Develop While Decarbonizing

systems. For example, the roti making machine has been able to quadruple the monthly income of women devoted to this economic activity from 500 INR to 2,000 INR all while consuming one twentieth of the energy that was required pre-automation. We also explored View Details

30 Jul 2024
Blog Post

Alumni Career Journey: Rob Self (MBA 2021) – Integrating Climate into Consulting

at BCG as a consultant and I was fortunate to get staffed on some climate and sustainability focused projects, including tractor electrification, off highway charging infrastructure, precision agriculture technologies, carbon capture and... View Details

25 Apr 2023
Blog Post

Harvard Climate Leaders Program

climate-related issues grew, particularly from an agricultural perspective. Daniel Tong: I am Brazilian, grew up in São Paulo, and majored in Chemical Engineering, even though I never worked in the space. I started my career at J.P.... View Details

Web

Climate Symposium 2024: Confronting Reality, Celebrating Innovation - Blog - Business & Environment

"Harnessing AI for Climate Solutions" focused on how to leverage AI for climate solutions, from assessing compliance with climate regulations and building software to manage and operate the grid to better spraying pesticides in precision View Details

01 Jun 2004
News

Books

post–Civil War era to commission-based canvassers hired and trained by manufacturers to sell agricultural products and books by Mark Twain and Ulysses S. Grant, for instance. “Drummers,” who acted as the middlemen between manufacturers... View Details

Keywords: book review; faculty books; Publishing Industries (except Internet); Information

22 Mar 2016
First Look

March 22, 2016

climate change, alternative uses for farmland, and a transition to the next generation of family ownership of the business. Purchase this case: https://cb.hbsp.harvard.edu/cbmp/product/516053-PDF-ENG Harvard Business School Case 516-067 The Promise of View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

30 Jan 2018
First Look

January 30, 2018

2017 Annual Review of Economics Agricultural Insurance and Economic Development By: Cole, Shawn A., and Wentao Xiong Abstract—This article provides a review of recent research on agricultural insurance (AI)... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

May 2024
Case

Naked Wines: The Profit vs. Growth Decision

By: Benjamin C. Esty and Edward A. Meyer

Nick Devlin faced a difficult strategic decision in October 2022. As the CEO of a UK-based subscription business connecting wine drinkers in the US, UK, and Australia with winemakers from around the world (which one journalist called the “Netflix of Wine”), he had to... View Details