Publications

February 2010 (Revised March 2010)
Supplement

Leading Change at Simmons (E)

By: Amy C. Edmondson and Susan Thyne

This case updates the “Leading Change at Simmons” series by examining Simmons' increasing debt under the ownership of Thomas H. Lee, a private equity firm. Charlie Eitel, the former CEO, wonders what the company's, and his, legacy will be after declaring bankruptcy... View Details

Keywords: Borrowing and Debt; Private Equity; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Leading Change; Operations; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Culture; Ownership; Performance Improvement; Consumer Products Industry

April 2010
Teaching Note

New Balance Athletic Shoe, Inc. (TN)

By: Robert S. Huckman

Teaching Note for [606094]. View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Production; Strategy; Performance Improvement; Brands and Branding; Networks; Management; Consolidation; Competition; Opportunities; Apparel and Accessories Industry

May 2013 (Revised March 2014)
Case

Benetton Group S.p.A., 2012

By: John R. Wells and Galen Danskin

On May 31, 2012, after 36 years on the Milan Stock Exchange, Benetton was officially delisted and taken private by Edizione, the Benetton family's holding company. Since 2000, Benetton shareholders had seen its market value fall from $4.3 billion to $720 million at the... View Details

Keywords: Strategy; Fashion; Retail; Privatization; Family Ownership; Performance Improvement; Problems and Challenges; Management Teams; Globalized Firms and Management; Change Management; Restructuring; Competitive Strategy; Retail Industry; Fashion Industry; Apparel and Accessories Industry; Italy

October 1993 (Revised October 1996)
Case

Paragould City Cable

By: Willis M. Emmons III

Unhappy with the prices provided by the local, privately owned cable television operator, the city of Paragould, Arkansas constructs a competing municipally owned cable system. Once in operation, Paragould City Cable faces vigorous competition from the incumbent... View Details

Keywords: Business Strategy; Television Entertainment; Competitive Strategy; Distribution Channels; Media; Public Sector; Programs; Growth and Development Strategy; Cost; Performance Improvement; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; Arkansas

Find at Harvard

23 Jul 2008
Sharpening Your Skills

Sharpening Your Skills: Balanced Scorecard in Action

Sharpening Your Skills dives into the HBS Working Knowledge archives to bring together articles on ways to improve your business skills. Questions To Be Answered How does the Balanced Scorecard (BSC) improve... View Details

10 Jan 2008
Sharpening Your Skills

Sharpening Your Skills: Operations Management

Sharpening Your Skills dives into the HBS Working Knowledge archives to bring together articles on ways to improve your business skills. Questions to be answered: Can "lean" productions methods improve... View Details

26 May 2015
Research & Ideas

Corporate Field Researchers Share Tricks of the Trade

world. Among economic scholars, field research often takes place within the walls of corporations, non-profits, small businesses, or government entities. Ideally, these organizations eventually can apply the findings of the research to View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

04 Oct 2004
Research & Ideas

Start to Measure Your E-commerce Success

payoffs of e-commerce operational and capital investments are necessary to demonstrate the value creation of e-commerce initiatives and to obtain additional resources for critical e-commerce projects. The measures are essential to monitor the key View Details

Keywords: by Marc J. Epstein

March 1999
Case

MotivAction plc (A)

By: William J. Bruns Jr.

The owner/manager of MotivAction is developing a package of incentives and bonuses that he hopes will stimulate sales growth, encourage development of new autonomous teams, and increase profitability. If they are adopted, these new incentives will replace others... View Details

Keywords: Employee Relationship Management; Compensation and Benefits; Motivation and Incentives; Performance Improvement; Growth and Development Strategy; Decisions; Profit; Organizational Culture

Find at Harvard

08 Jan 2016
Research & Ideas

Is it Worth a Pay Cut to Work for a Great Manager (Like Bill Belichick)?

world-beating performances out of some good-but-not-great players and even to motivate others to take pay cuts in order to play for him, an anomaly? Can unusually gifted managers improve employees’ View Details

Keywords: by Boris Groysberg & Abhijit Naik; Sports

July 2004 (Revised March 2007)
Case

Sony EyeToy

By: Anita Elberse and Youngme E. Moon

In early 2004, less than a year after its launch, Sony's EyeToy, a unique video gaming concept, had become a tremendous success across Europe. Developed for use with Sony's PlayStation 2 console, the revolutionary technology allowed users standing in front of a small... View Details

Keywords: Games, Gaming, and Gambling; Growth and Development Strategy; Brands and Branding; Marketing Strategy; Product Launch; Product Development; Performance Improvement; Software; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; Europe

12 Nov 2010
Research & Ideas

One Report: Integrated Reporting for a Sustainable Strategy

What a company externally reports shapes how it behaves internally. The key question is, "What should companies report?" A new reporting practice--"integrated reporting," which integrates measures of financial and non-financial View Details

Keywords: by Robert Eccles; Accounting

January 2014
Case

CleanSpritz

By: John A. Quelch and Alisa Zalosh

Sales of CleanSpritz all-purpose cleaning spray have been steadily declining for the past five years, and management believes the decline correlates to a growing environmental concern among U.S. consumers. CleanSpritz's management is considering several options to... View Details

Keywords: Product Positioning; Competition; Marketing Strategy; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Performance Improvement; Environmental Sustainability; Product Launch; Product Development; Consumer Products Industry

16 May 2012
Research & Ideas

Can Decades of Military Overspending be Fixed?

acquisition process. Reluctance to establish more appropriate incentives has been a serious deficiency in most DoD improvement programs during the past five decades. Contractors should be rewarded with higher profits for complying with... View Details

Keywords: by J. Ronald Fox; Service

12 Sep 2016
Research & Ideas

What Brands Can Do to Monitor Factory Conditions of Suppliers

first set had to do with the audit team’s training—as measured by the number of audit skill courses they’d taken—and whether the audit was announced or a surprise. They found that the biggest improvements came when a highly-trained team... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

June 2011 (Revised May 2012)
Case

Reckitt Benckiser: Fast and Focused Innovation

By: Rebecca M. Henderson and Ryan Johnson

Since its 1999 merger Reckitt Benckiser (RB), a global consumer goods company, led by its CEO Bart Becht, RB developed a reputation for rapid product innovation and industry leading profit margins. RB's stated strategy was to focus on its Powerbrands and high growth... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Global Strategy; Innovation Leadership; Leadership Style; Growth and Development Strategy; Brands and Branding; Product Development; Performance Improvement; Commercialization; Consumer Products Industry