Publications

January 2000 (Revised May 2001)
Case

kate spade

Kate Spade's founders try to finance and grow their luxury handbag and accessories business. As the case ends, the founding team must decide among four potential strategic partners offering to purchase different shares of Kate Spade at various valuations. Includes... View Details

Keywords: Growth Management; Partners and Partnerships; Business Growth and Maturation; Brands and Branding; Apparel and Accessories Industry

March 1993
Background Note

Note on Information Technology and Strategy

By: Richard L. Nolan and Katherine Seger

Provides a context for the evolution of information technology in business organizations, explains the emergence of information as an important resource to be managed, and provides a framework for assessing the strategic potential of information in the firm. View Details

Keywords: Information; Information Management; Information Technology; Business Strategy; Competitive Strategy; Cooperation; Adoption; Body of Literature; Archives; Annual Reports; Information Technology Industry

June 2012 (Revised August 2012)
Case

MF Global: Where's the Money?

By: Clayton S. Rose, Pamela Chan and Raghav Chopra

When MF Global failed in October of 2011, it was discovered that $1.6 billion of segregated customer assets was missing. Safeguarding these assets was the firm's responsibility, and in the words of one SEC official, its "sacred obligation." What is known about the... View Details

Keywords: Financial Firms; Customer Obligations; Bankruptcy; Regulation; Financial Crisis; Brokerage; Asset Management; Ethics; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Financial Management; Crisis Management; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Financial Services Industry

2011
Case

CSCEC: Transformation and Development

By: F. Warren McFarlan, Donghong Li and Hong Zhang

In 2001, CSCEC, the largest residential building constructor in China, greeted its new General Manager, Wenjie Sun, who was the President of China Overseas, a Hong Kong-listed subsidiary of CSCEC. In the following 9 years, Sun strived to advance the transformation and... View Details

Keywords: Innovation; Organizational Values; Strategy; Transformations; China

July 2019
Case

Four Products: Predicting Diffusion (2019)

By: John Gourville

One job of product managers, marketers, strategic planners, and other corporate executives is to predict what the demand will be for a new product. This task is easier for certain classes of new products than for others. For new consumer package goods, for instance,... View Details

Keywords: Diffusion Processes; Product Adoption; Marketing; Forecasting and Prediction; Demand and Consumers; Product; Adoption; Product Launch

Carl Kester is a Baker Foundation Professor and the George Fisher Baker Jr. Professor of Business Administration, Emeritus at Harvard Business School. He is a member of the Finance Unit. He served as Deputy Dean for Academic Affairs (2006-2010), Chairman of the... View Details

Keywords: asset management; asset management; asset management; asset management; asset management; asset management; asset management

2015
Working Paper

Match Your Own Price? Self-Matching as a Retailer's Multichannel Pricing Strategy

By: Pavel Kireyev, Vineet Kumar and Elie Ofek

Multichannel retailing has created several new strategic choices for firms. With respect to pricing, an important decision is whether to offer a "self-matching policy." Self-matching allows a multichannel retailer to offer the lowest of its online and in-store prices... View Details

Keywords: Price Self-matching; Multichannel Retailing; Pricing Strategy; Marketing Strategy; Price; Distribution Channels; Supply and Industry; Retail Industry

Read Now

Professor David B. Yoffie is the Max and Doris Starr Professor of International Business Administration at Harvard Business School. A member of the HBS faculty since 1981, Professor Yoffie received his Bachelor's degree summa cum laude and Phi Beta... View Details

Keywords: communications; computer; e-commerce industry; electronics; financial services; information; information technology industry; internet; retail financial services; semiconductor; soft drink; telecommunications; video games

Web

Employment Data

Finance 38% General Management 13% Marketing 11% Other 5% Strategic Planning 8% Locations United States: 88% Mid-Atlantic 5% Midwest 6% Northeast 49% South 5% Southwest 6% West 17% International: 12% Asia 5%... View Details

Program

The Women's Leadership Forum

Summary While today's companies are making a concerted effort to grow leaders from within, many are missing a crucial opportunity by not fully utilizing the talents of executive women. In this women's leadership program, you will join an exceptional group of seasoned... View Details

February 2009
Case

HP: The Computer is Personal Again

By: Rajiv Lal and Cathy Ross

In September 2008, Todd Bradley, executive vice president of Hewlett-Packard Company's Personal Systems Group (PSG), gathered his thoughts before a meeting with his top executives and managers for product design and marketing. On the agenda was a discussion of... View Details

Keywords: Revenue; Product Positioning; Corporate Strategy; Computer Industry; Retail Industry

24 Jan 2017
First Look

First Look at New Research: January 24, 2017

Publisher's link: https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=52122 January 2017 Strategic Finance Managing Healthcare Costs and Value By: Kaplan, Robert S., Michael E. Porter, and Mark L. Frigo... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

Judo Strategy: Turning Your Competitors’ Strength to Your Advantage

Why do some companies succeed in defeating stronger rivals, while others fail? This is a question that, sooner or later, all ambitious competitors must face. Whether you’re a tiny start-up taking on industry giants or a giant moving into markets dominated by... View Details

January 2023 (Revised June 2024)
Case

Zaoui & Co. (A): Consigliere for High Stakes M&A Transactions

By: Ashish Nanda, Alex Kitsberg and Zack Kurtovich

In September 2019, Zaoui & Co.’s close-knit team of professionals convened for their annual off-site. In its nine years of operation, the boutique investment bank founded by the brothers Michael (HBS ’83) and Yoel Zaoui (Stanford GSB ’88), had garnered a track record... View Details

Keywords: Professional Service Firm; Entrepreneurship; Finance; Strategy; Investment Banking; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Growth and Development Strategy; Europe; United Kingdom

24 Nov 2009
First Look

First Look: Nov. 24

divisions. Our two studies allow us to demonstrate that spontaneous within-game dialogue and manipulated pre-game talk lead to the same results. Download the paper: http://www.hbs.edu/research/pdf/10-039.pdf PublicationsCost Structure Patterns in the Asset View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

09 Oct 2020
HBS Seminar

Jeffrey L. Furman, BU, Questrom Sch of Business

02 Aug 2011
First Look

First Look: August 2

the practice of business strategy for 30 years. The problem lies instead in what strategic leaders are not trained to do. In caricature, Porter's view casts strategists as practitioner economists who expertly analyze and View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

26 Oct 2021
Blog Post

Tap into Top Talent with the HBS Leadership Fellows Program

Fellows Program? The Leadership Fellows Program was launched at Harvard Business School in 2001. The program was designed to provide social-sector organizations with access to analytical and strategic talent to deliver high-impact results... View Details

Keywords: Social Enterprise

November 1996 (Revised June 1997)
Case

Harvard Business School Publishing

By: David A. Garvin and Artemis March

Linda Doyle, president and CEO of Harvard Business School Publishing Corp., has succeeded in turning around the organization after several difficult years. She has launched several strategic and organizational initiatives, and has instilled a new philosophy and vision.... View Details

Keywords: Change Management; Leading Change; Business or Company Management; Goals and Objectives; Growth and Development Strategy; Organizational Structure; Strategic Planning; Problems and Challenges