Publications

September–October 2020
Article

Managing Churn to Maximize Profits

By: Aurelie Lemmens and Sunil Gupta

Customer defection threatens many industries, prompting companies to deploy targeted, proactive customer retention programs and offers. A conventional approach has been to target customers either based on their predicted churn probability or their responsiveness to a... View Details

Keywords: Churn Management; Defection Prediction; Loss Function; Stochastic Gradient Boosting; Customer Relationship Management; Consumer Behavior; Profit

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06 Mar 2025
Blog Post

IFC India 2025: Sustainability in Action: Inside Hindustan Unilever’s Public Sanitation and Plastic Recycling Facilities

Professor Vikram Gandhi’s Immersive Field Course (IFC) “Development while Decarbonizing: India’s Path to Net-Zero" delved into the critical aspect of decarbonization and sustainability goals amid India's... View Details

Blog

Two-Year Action Plan Update: Q+A with Terrill Drake, Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer at Harvard Business School

learning and development work. We've been working on a set of learning objectives for stakeholders—faculty, staff, and students—with competencies associated with each learning... View Details

Web

Rewiring the Workplace: Behavioral Economics and the Future of Inclusive Organizations - Blog: RGE Report

example of how collective bargaining created a major shift for gender-equal treatment. The U.S. Women’s team achieved their goal by surpassing their male counterparts, winning consistent international championships View Details

25 Aug 2016
Video

Latam Club

Web

The VideaHealth AI Factory: CEO Florian Hillen on Speed, Scale, and Innovation | Information Technology

dental diagnostics. The Founder and CEO, Florian Hillen, was convinced that their AI could vastly improve the health outcomes of patients across the globe, setting the goal to reach one billion patients.... View Details

March 2002 (Revised March 2002)
Case

Note on Regulatory Choices

For many firms, government interaction is expansive, influencing the conduct of firms and industry structure. The visible hand of government, in the form of a regulatory scheme, plays a role in firm affairs along with the invisible hand of market forces. Deregulation... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Governance Compliance

25 Aug 2016
Video

Health Care Club

Research Summary

Secrets of Succession (Financial Times, December 6, 2002, with Nicholas Carr)

By: Rakesh Khurana

Boards often choose a new chief executive in response to outside pressures, skewed perceptions and simple convenience. In this extended essay, we argue for a return to objectivity and rigour in the selection process. View Details

February 2021
Case

Rolex SA

By: Doug J. Chung

Rolex SA was one of the most successful watchmakers in the world. In recent years, the global demand for Rolex watches, especially the stainless-steel sports models, had dramatically increased, resulting in a supply shortage worldwide. The shortage in supply further... View Details

Keywords: Watches; Pricing; Marketing; Strategy; Demand and Consumers; Price; Marketing Channels

January 1998 (Revised March 1998)
Case

Staples (C)

By: Myra M. Hart, Marco Iansiti and Barbara Feinberg

The search for appropriate hardware and software to support the launch of a new large-scale retail operation forces the management team to define their goals at a very detailed level and to make all underlying assumptions explicit. View Details

Keywords: Goals and Objectives; Information Infrastructure; Applications and Software; Business Startups; Management Teams; Retail Industry

March 1988
Case

Richardson-Vicks--1985 (B)

Considers takeover defenses erected by Richardson-Vicks. The objective is to determine whether these defenses can by breached by a determined suitor, like Unilever. View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Consumer Products Industry

23 Feb 2015
Video

Tech Club

2019
Working Paper

Managing Churn to Maximize Profits

By: Aurelie Lemmens and Sunil Gupta

Customer defection threatens many industries, prompting companies to deploy targeted, proactive customer retention programs and offers. A conventional approach has been to target customers either based on their predicted churn probability, or their responsiveness to a... View Details

Keywords: Churn Management; Defection Prediction; Loss Function; Stochastic Gradient Boosting; Customer Relationship Management; Consumer Behavior; Profit

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11 May 2021
Blog Post

Q+A on the Socioeconomic Inclusion Task Force with Holly Fetter (MBA 2020) and Alexxis Isaac (MBA 2020)

therein. It was a powerful way to start the conversation. How did you gather the data?Alexxis: Our main goal was understanding the state of socioeconomic inclusion at HBS, and we approached that through... View Details

Dec 04 2014
Testimonial

Recalibrating Your Approach to Leadership

March 1999 (Revised February 2001)
Background Note

New Product Development Imperative, The

By: Steven C. Wheelwright and Edward T Smith

Introduces students to the best practices for managing new product development projects. Includes concepts and tools related to structuring teams consistent with the project objectives as well as concepts and processes for improving project execution. View Details

Keywords: Management Practices and Processes; Product Development; Performance Improvement; Problems and Challenges; Groups and Teams

March 1976 (Revised June 1993)
Case

Communications Satellite Corp.

Describes the FCC hearings which were designed to determine Comsat's cost of equity. Comsat's risks are examined, and expert testimony is given. Objective of the case is to estimate Comsat's cost of equity. View Details

Keywords: Government Administration; Equity; Telecommunications Industry; United States