Publications

15 Jan 2020
Video

Cem Boyner, Chair of Boyner Holdings, one of the largest retail groups in Turkey, describes how salespeople in his stores are instilled with a sense of how to serve customers in order to retain customer... View Details

September 1995 (Revised October 1995)
Case

Loblaw Companies Limited: Differentiation in the 90s and Beyond

By: Ray A. Goldberg, Thomas N. Urban Jr and Jane L. Wertz

Loblaw wants to develop long-term relationships with its customers and is testing a variety of strategies to do this. View Details

Keywords: Customer Relationship Management; Decision Choices and Conditions; Business or Company Management; Marketing Strategy

September 1991 (Revised May 1994)
Background Note

Note on the PC Network Software Industry--1990

By: David B. Yoffie

Examines the economics, technology, customer segments, and competitors of the PC networking software industry. View Details

Keywords: Customers; Economics; Competition; Applications and Software; Technology Adoption; Information Infrastructure

16 Aug 2010
Lessons from the Classroom

HBS Introduces Marketing Analysis Tools for Managers

Harvard Business Publishing has released new toolkits to help managers make key marketing decisions on market analysis, breakeven analysis, customer lifetime value, profit and pricing, and analyzing the competitive environment. The five... View Details

Keywords: by Sarah Jane Gilbert

19 Dec 2011
News

At Your Service

How did they start?

HOW TO ACQUIRE YOUR FIRST 1,000 CUSTOMERS ONLINE. Do’s and don'ts based on what worked for Uber, Airbnb and other tech startups. This slide deck goes into details of how some of of the most expected tech IPO companies of 2019 started their customer acquisition... View Details

February 1997 (Revised July 2001)
Background Note

Introduction to Activity-Based Costing

By: Robert S. Kaplan

Introduces the fundamental notions of activity-based costing (ABC). Motivates ABC by means of a simple example, a single and a diversified pen factory. Proceeds to show how ABC assigns costs more accurately to products and customers by: 1) identifying the activities... View Details

Keywords: Activity Based Costing and Management

March 2006 (Revised April 2006)
Case

NOK (A)

By: Das Narayandas and Kate Attea

Highlights issues that a multidivision firm faces as it moves from managing products for profit to managing customers for profit. View Details

Keywords: Business Divisions; Transformation; Customer Focus and Relationships; Profit; Management; Product Marketing; Organizations; Commercialization

June 2020
Case

Recovering Trust After Corporate Misconduct at Wells Fargo

By: Suraj Srinivasan and Jonah S. Goldberg

The case describes widespread misconduct at Wells Fargo Community Bank in the period leading up to 2017 and the company’s subsequent attempts to improve internal controls, company culture, and corporate governance. The case examines the potential causes of large scale... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Misconduct; Internal Controls; Banks and Banking; Crime and Corruption; Corporate Governance; Organizational Culture; Governance Compliance; Management Systems; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Performance Improvement; Governing and Advisory Boards

May–June 2023
Article

Unmasking Behaviors During the Pandemic with Video Analytics

By: Shunyuan Zhang, Kaiquan Xu and Kannan Srinivasan

In 2020, as the novel coronavirus spread globally, face masks were recommended in public settings to protect against and slow down viral transmission. People complied to varying extents, and their reactions may have been driven by a variety of psychological factors.... View Details

Keywords: COVID-19 Pandemic; Social Influence; Social Norms; Health Pandemics; Behavior

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Article

How Long Can a Company Thrive Doing Just One Thing?

By: Andy Wu and Scott Duke Kominers

The news that the chat app Slack was being sold to veteran customer relationship management company Salesforce for $27.7 billion raised a lot of eyebrows. Why sell after a year of explosive growth? The deal, however, epitomizes a question facing so-called best-of-breed... View Details

Keywords: Best-of-breed Companies; Competitive Advantage; Competitive Strategy

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Read Now

February 1997 (Revised April 1998)
Case

first direct (A)

By: Jeffrey F. Rayport

Describes the operations and strategy of the world's largest, fastest growing branchless bank. Using a person-to-person interface over conventional phone lines, First Direct provides standard banking and related financial products to nearly 700,000 customers throughout... View Details

Keywords: Service Delivery; Customer Satisfaction; Banks and Banking; Innovation and Invention; Banking Industry; United Kingdom

April 2019
Case

Afterpay U.S.: The Omnichannel Dilemma

By: Antonio Moreno, Donald Ngwe and George Gonzalez

In 2018, Nick Molnar, the founder of the Australia-based online payment service Afterpay began its expansion to the U.S. market. The service had gained a loyal following in Australia by enabling customers to pay for online purchases through four interest-free... View Details

December 18, 2023
Article

Are Everywhere Stores the New Face of Retail?

By: David R. Bell, Santiago Gallino and Antonio Moreno

Historically, customer engagement and product fulfillment occurred in the same place — a traditional retail store. But today, retailers are beginning to explore how they can create opportunities for customers to engage with products in native environments. A related... View Details

Keywords: Customer Focus and Relationships; Consumer Behavior; Distribution; Logistics; Retail Industry

March 2021 (Revised February 2025)
Teaching Note

Afterpay U.S.: The Omnichannel Dilemma

By: Antonio Moreno and Anibha Singh

Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 519-086. In 2018, Nick Molnar, the founder of the Australia-based online payment service Afterpay began its expansion to the U.S. market. The service had gained a loyal following in Australia by enabling customers to pay for online... View Details

October 2018
Case

BreezoMeter: Making Air Pollution Data Actionable

By: Frank V. Cespedes, Allison M. Ciechanover and Margot Eiran

The case focuses on an Israeli startup that provides actionable air pollution data and forecasts. The company has over 50 enterprise customers and its tool reached a million people daily in 67 countries. The co-founders wrestle with which markets and customers to focus... View Details

Keywords: Startups; Entrepreneurship; Business Startups; Pollutants; Analytics and Data Science; Sales; Marketing; Decision Choices and Conditions; Technology Industry; Israel; United States

August 2015 (Revised October 2017)
Case

Turnaround at Norsk Gjenvinning (A)

By: George Serafeim

Erik Osmundsen, CEO of Norsk Gjenvinning (NG), had initiated a program to strenghten corporate governance, eliminate corruption and improve compliance, and as a result the company had experienced a turnover of almost half of its top 70 line managers and strained... View Details

October 2024
Article

Canary Categories

By: Eric Anderson, Chaoqun Chen, Ayelet Israeli and Duncan Simester

Past customer spending in a category is generally a positive signal of future customer spending. We show that there exist “canary categories” for which the reverse is true. Purchases in these categories are a signal that customers are less likely to return to that... View Details

Keywords: Churn; Churn Management; Churn/retention; Assortment Planning; Retail; Retailing; Retailing Industry; Preference Heterogeneity; Assortment Optimization; Customers; Retention; Consumer Behavior; Forecasting and Prediction; Retail Industry

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December 2002 (Revised February 2003)
Case

Wyndham International: Fostering High-Touch with High-Tech

By: Lynda M. Applegate and Gabriele Piccoli

Examines a hotel chain's attempt to use information technology to achieve market dominance and build customer loyalty during a period of global industry decline. View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Competitive Strategy; Customer Focus and Relationships; Customer Satisfaction; Technological Innovation; Information Technology; Growth and Development Strategy; Business Strategy; Accommodations Industry