Publications

18 Apr 2022
HBS Case

Dick’s Sporting Goods Followed Its Conscience on Guns—and It Paid Off

societal issues, according to two new Harvard Business School case studies. “Increasingly, business leaders are expected to take stands on societal issues—to do societal good. It’s gone beyond ‘do no harm,’” says George A. Riedel, the... View Details

Keywords: by Jay Fitzgerald

15 Feb 2000
Research & Ideas

The Right Connections

notable investors. Higgins contends that an IPO team's connections are a crucial component of any startup's portfolio. "There's no question that the new company must show promise that it has a good View Details

Keywords: by Judith A. Ross

December 2009
Case

Hungerit

By: David E. Bell, Sarah Morton and Mary Louise Shelman

Hungary's top producer of poultry products is deciding the company's future strategy in the face of new opportunities in Central and Eastern Europe, a changing retail market in Hungary, and the possibility of increased global competition. View Details

Keywords: Opportunities; Corporate Strategy; Competitive Strategy; Global Strategy; Animal-Based Agribusiness; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Hungary

07 Apr 2023
Research & Ideas

When Celebrity ‘Crypto-Influencers’ Rake in Cash, Investors Lose Big

With limited regulatory enforcement and few gatekeepers, crypto influencers with large social-media audiences can move global markets with a single tweet. The most prominent, including celebrities like Kim Kardashian and Lindsay Lohan, can reportedly pull in large sums... View Details

Keywords: by Kristen Senz

07 Sep 2017
News

Faber-Castell Doubles Down on the Pencil

October 2017 (Revised April 2019)
Case

Eastern Bank: Innovating Through Eastern Labs

By: Karen Mills, Dennis Campbell and Aaron Mukerjee

Eastern Bank is a 200-year-old New England mutual bank with a community focus. Eastern specializes in small business lending, having made strategic investments to become the top SBA lender in New England in the midst of the Great Recession, when other banks were... View Details

Keywords: Banks and Banking; Technological Innovation; Entrepreneurship; Management

William Kerr is the D’Arbeloff Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School. Bill is Senior Associate Dean for Faculty Development and Research, co-director of Harvard’s Managing the Future of Work initiative, and faculty chair of the... View Details

Keywords: communications; computer; consulting; high technology; information technology industry; management consulting; manufacturing; telecommunications; venture capital industry

October 1979 (Revised March 1986)
Case

PC&D, Inc.

By: Evelyn T. Christiansen and Richard G. Hamermesh

Covers history of PC&D from 1960 to 1975 as it grows from a single business firm to a diversified firm. Emphasizes the use of subsidiaries for product development and fast growth. Other issues include problems of a new CEO in keeping control of fast growing divisions. View Details

Keywords: Leadership; Business Subsidiaries; Diversification; Growth Management; Product Development

02 Jul 2019
News

The high price of breaking up global supply chains

March 2020
Case

Thingtesting: Launching a Brand Discovery and Testing Digital Community

By: Ayelet Israeli and Jill Avery

Thingtesting, a brand discovery and testing digital community devoted to uncovering and exploring direct-to-consumer brands, had just received seed funding and was contemplating a second year of growth. The new year brought many challenges, as founder Jenny Gyllander... View Details

March 1995
Case

Procter & Gamble: Improving Consumer Value Through Process Redesign

The evolution of Procter & Gamble's development of efficient consumer response (ECR) involved a series of trials, a resolve to distribute diapers on the basis of product movement, a conscious effort to move to a new means of distribution across all lines, a first cut... View Details

Keywords: Technology; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Customer Value and Value Chain; Consumer Products Industry

October 2018
Case

Accomplice: Scaling Early Stage Finance

By: Ramana Nanda, Raffaella Sadun and Olivia Hull

Accomplice, an early-stage venture capital firm based in Boston, is raising its second fund in November 2017. Since 2009, the firm has followed a seed-led investment model, investing in tech companies at the earliest stages, often when products and business models are... View Details

Keywords: Early Stage Finance; Seed Finance; Scouts; Venture Capital; Business Startups; Private Equity; Investment Portfolio; Organizational Structure; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Partners and Partnerships; Networks; Adaptation; Corporate Strategy; Technology; Financial Services Industry; Massachusetts; Boston; Cambridge; United States

November 2023
Case

Apple Inc. in 2023

By: David B. Yoffie and Sarah von Bargen

Under CEO Tim Cook, Apple became the first trillion dollar market cap company, the first two trillion dollar company, and the first three trillion dollar company. Since the COVID pandemic, Apple gained over 20% of the world smartphone market and 50% of the U.S. market,... View Details

Keywords: Competitive Advantage; Product Positioning; Emerging Markets; Competitive Strategy; Technological Innovation; Revenue; Technology Industry

April 1999 (Revised September 1999)
Case

Compaq Computer: Consumer Notebook Group

By: David E. Bell and Ann Leamon

Presents the background for a video of a focus group on Compaq Computer's new consumer notebook. Engineers, manufacturers, and retailers had collaborated on the product design, which has been approved by the executive committee. A launch is scheduled for nine months... View Details

Keywords: Human Resources; Product Launch; Product Design; Outcome or Result; Social and Collaborative Networks; Corporate Strategy; Computer Industry

24 Jan 2015
News

Boost the right kind of innovation

April 2005 (Revised February 2006)
Case

L'Oreal and the Globalization of American Beauty

By: Geoffrey G. Jones, David Kiron, Vincent Dessain and Anders Sjoman

Examines L'Oreal's acquisition of leading U.S. cosmetics brands, including Maybelline, Redken, and Kiehl's, and their subsequent renewal and globalization. Reviews the history of L'Oreal, now the world's largest cosmetics company, from its origins in France in 1907.... View Details

Keywords: Management; Corporate Strategy; Problems and Challenges; Brands and Branding; Business History; Globalization; Acquisition; Consumer Products Industry; Consumer Products Industry; France; United States

August 1999 (Revised February 2000)
Case

Cisco Systems, Inc.: Acquisition Integration for Manufacturing (A)

By: Steven C. Wheelwright, Charles A. Holloway, Nicole Tempest and Christian G. Kasper

Describes the procedures and processes used by Cisco Systems in its acquisition of high-technology firms. Its goal is to retain key engineering talent and to leverage existing product development efforts, but to quickly merge acquired companies its own systems and... View Details

Keywords: Information Technology; Leveraged Buyouts; Acquisition; Integration; Mergers and Acquisitions; Production; Activity Based Costing and Management; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Innovation and Management; Technological Innovation; Talent and Talent Management; Human Resources; Manufacturing Industry; Technology Industry; England

02 Mar 2007
What Do You Think?

What Is the Government’s Role in US Health Care?

Newman), the high cost of new technology, artificial restrictions on the supply of drugs (Sergey Mirkiin) and healthcare providers (David Stahl and Michael Robbins), the size and complexity of the problem itself (James Sullivan),... View Details

Keywords: by Jim Heskett; Health

February 2002 (Revised December 2003)
Case

H-E-B Own Brands

By: V. Kasturi Rangan and Marie Bell

H-E-B is a $9 billion grocery chain located in Southwest Texas. This case focuses on H-E-B's private label strategy, a product category that accounts for 19% of H-E-B's sales and one that earns gross margins 50% higher than national brands. A leader in its markets,... View Details

Keywords: Growth and Development; Market Entry and Exit; Supply Chain Management; Private Ownership; Sales; Strategy; Competitive Strategy