Publications

December 2023 (Revised February 2024)
Case

21Seeds: Taking Shots at Breakout Growth

By: Elie Ofek, Julian De Freitas, Michael Moynihan and Nicole Tempest Keller

21Seeds, a female-founded flavor-infused tequila startup launched in 2019, had made inroads into the alcoholic beverage industry by focusing on an underserved consumer segment in spirits—women, primarily in their 30s and 40s, many of whom were moms—and by following a... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Business Startups; Growth and Development Strategy; Brands and Branding; Product Positioning; Distribution Channels; Sales; Food and Beverage Industry

25 Sep 2000
Research & Ideas

Cyber-Marketing: Scouting the Digital Communications Frontier

marketing (namely, direct mail and telemarketing). Each significantly altered the marketing communications process and, in so doing, reshaped the advertising industry. However, unlike its predecessors,... View Details

Keywords: by Peter K. Jacobs

26 Apr 2024
HBS Case

Deion Sanders' Prime Lessons for Leading a Team to Victory

caught the eye of major brands and led to marketing contracts. Ultimately, Sanders would go on to become one of the only athletes in the world to simultaneously play professional football and baseball, winning two Super Bowls in the NFL... View Details

Keywords: by Avery Forman; Sports

05 Aug 2010
What Do You Think?

What Is Customer Opinion Good For?

products arise from strong insight, gut feel and imagination. Bad ideas, lousy products or services can be avoided by serious market research." Andy Robin pointed out that in the semiconductor business "one still had to spend a lot of... View Details

Keywords: by Jim Heskett; Technology

2017
Working Paper

The Benefits of Selective Disclosure: Evidence from Private Firms

By: Joan Farre-Mensa

Private firms’ ability to communicate confidentially with selected investors implies that valuation disagreements between firms and investors are larger at public firms than at private ones. Consistent with the notion that misvaluation concerns lead public firms to... View Details

Keywords: Finance; Equity; Private Companies; Corporate Cash; Precautionary Motives; Share Issuance; IPOs; Selective Disclosure; Private Ownership; Cash; Market Timing; Corporate Finance; Public Ownership; Corporate Disclosure; United States

SSRN

August 2007 (Revised September 2007)
Case

Gome: Bidding for China Paradise

Gome, China's largest electronics retailer, has the opportunity to acquire China Paradise, the number three player in the Chinese electronic retailer industry. This happened in the general context of a great market development and potential consolidation of the... View Details

Keywords: Acquisition; Trade; Market Entry and Exit; Performance; Opportunities; Competition; Consolidation; Corporate Strategy; Electronics Industry; Retail Industry; China

March 2022
Case

Abu Issa Holding: Navigating the Qatar Blockade

By: Mark Egan and Youssef Abdel Aal

The case follows Ashraf Abu Issa, CEO and chairman of Abu Issa Holding (AIH), as he contemplated the fate of his company’s regional expansion. AIH was a Qatari diversified holding company, whose primary business was luxury retailing and distribution. Abu Issa had set... View Details

Keywords: Luxury Retail; Expansion; Equity; Business Divisions; Growth and Development; Market Entry and Exit; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Consumer Products Industry; Saudi Arabia; United Arab Emirates

21 Mar 2004
Research & Ideas

Loyalty: Don’t Give Away the Store

written by Lal with HBS colleague David Bell, was published in Quantitative Marketing and Economics last June. Lal discusses his findings with Manda Salls. Salls: Frequent shopper programs have become part of the shopper's landscape. What... View Details

Keywords: by Manda Salls; Consumer Products; Retail

10 Sep 2015
Blog Post

Why We Recruit: EF Education First

opened in the 1980s. In 2009, we launched a formal recruitment program at HBS. We typically hire for senior roles that present opportunities for candidates to make an immediate impact and manage staff across a variety of functions (from operations to sales, integrated... View Details

09 Jul 2018
Research & Ideas

Overcoming the Challenges of Selling Brand New Technology (Hey, Need a 3-D Printer?)

startup figuring out how to market a 3-D printer. “You should approach a product launch as an organizational process, and start with the buyers, not the product” Although 3-D printers have been around since the 1980s, they didn’t find... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Technology; Consumer Products; Electronics; Industrial Products; Information Technology; Manufacturing; Medical Devices & Supplies; Retail

18 Nov 2009
HBS Case

Customer Feedback Not on elBulli’s Menu

six months that elBulli, his restaurant, is open. The world is beating a path to Chef Ferran Adrià's door, but why? "Creativity comes first; then comes the customer," he has said. So what can HBS students learn about marketing... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Food & Beverage

24 Feb 2020
News

Three HBS Faculty Members Win Awards in Global Case Centre Competition

June 2005
Case

CarMax

By: Rajiv Lal and David Kiron

Carmax is the largest multi-market used car dealer in the U.S., and has no format-to-format competitor in the $375 billion used car market. CarMax is trying to do what some analysts believed to be impossible: sell used cars profitably on a national scale, and at the... View Details

Keywords: Profit; Brands and Branding; Digital Platforms; Segmentation; Auto Industry

June 2005 (Revised March 2007)
Case

ACHAP (African Comprehensive HIV/AIDS Partnerships): the Merck/Gates Initiative in Botswana

By: V. Kasturi Rangan

By June 2004, ACHAP, a three-way partnership of The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Merck, and the Botswana government, had committed nearly $60 million of the $100 million toward various AIDS education, prevention, and treatment programs. It was time to evaluate... View Details

Keywords: Business or Company Management; Growth and Development Strategy; Social Marketing; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Performance Evaluation; Business and Government Relations; Partners and Partnerships; Health Industry

Find at Harvard

October 1994 (Revised July 1995)
Case

RCI Master Distributor: Evolution of Supplier Relationships

By: V. Kasturi Rangan

Traces the evolution of RCI as a master distributor from the time it was founded in 1946 until 1994. The second-generation owner of the distribution company faces several challenges unique to the 1990s environment that his father did not face. As Danny Schwartz... View Details

Keywords: Marketing Strategy; Distribution Channels; Problems and Challenges; Relationships; Situation or Environment; Corporate Strategy; Distribution Industry