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Reconceiving Products & Markets - Institute For Strategy And Competitiveness

safety, health, education, nutrition, living with disability, housing, financial security, etc.) Opening new markets by serving unmet needs in underserved communities, which often requires redesigned products or different distribution... View Details

July 2017
Case

Magpie: Developing and Using Buyer Personas

By: Frank V. Cespedes

The founders of a start-up platform for publishers have developed preliminary personas of target customers and are evaluating the implications for initial target buyers, messaging, and marketing programs. The case is useful for discussing the process of developing... View Details

Keywords: Buying Process; Marketing; Sales; Distribution Channels; Segmentation; Entrepreneurship; Social Media; Consumer Products Industry; Fashion Industry; United States

Citation

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2008
Working Paper

Collaborative Architectures for Innovation

By: Gary P. Pisano and Roberto Verganti

Collaborative innovation has become a hot topic in innovation today. Scholars, consultants, and the business press all urge companies seeking to boost innovative performance to become more "collaborative." Too often, however, companies fail to distinguish among the... View Details

Keywords: Competency and Skills; Governance Controls; Collaborative Innovation and Invention; Innovation and Management; Innovation Strategy; Social and Collaborative Networks

Citation

01 Dec 2023
News

Case Study: Staking a Claim

Illustration by Nhung Lê Kate Terry (MBA 2005) knows that no one attends their fifth-grade career fair and comes home hoping to pursue a career in insurance—but that’s exactly where she wound up. “I really fell in love with it,” she says. As cofounder and CEO of... View Details

Keywords: Jen McFarland Flint; Insurance Carriers and Related Activities; Finance

Research Summary

Moving Beyond Direct-to-Consumer

By: Leonard A. Schlesinger

Changing consumer behaviors have redefined what it means to be direct to consumer ("DTC"). What once began online a decade ago as a distribution and disintermediation strategy has since evolved into a multifaceted approach for the modern-day brand.

The... View Details

Teaching Interest

Digital Marketing Strategy

By: John A. Deighton

When the tools of marketing change, strategies change too. The focus of this course is on firms trying to navigate the transition from offline to online market-making and strategy development. Our concern is primarily with corporations that have products and... View Details

01 Jun 2023
News

Buy Big, Sell Small

distribution model by providing a digital platform where shop owners can order fast-moving consumer goods online or by phone from local wholesalers who combine their orders with others from nearby kiranas. “We’re like a Costco or Sam’s... View Details

Keywords: Deborah Blagg; retail; supply chain management; entrepreneurship; leadership; innovation; Miscellaneous Store Retailers; Retail Trade

27 May 2014
First Look

First Look: May 27

distribution strategy for Glass, a wearable computer that projected information on a display viewable with an upward glance. Options, which were not mutually exclusive, included 1) continuing to sell Glass directly through online... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

13 Mar 2012
First Look

First Look: March 13

which was founded by actor/director Robert Redford to promote independent filmmaking. Started as a "Lab" where independent filmmakers could work on their film projects, the Institute soon expanded to organize the Sundance Film Festival in order to facilitate... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

March 2023
Teaching Note

Ransomware Attack at Colonial Pipeline Company

By: Suraj Srinivasan and Li-Kuan Ni

Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 123-069. On the morning of May 7, 2021, Colonial Pipeline Company became aware that the company had been the victim of a malicious ransomware attack that had stolen and locked up company data. The extortionists demanded 75 bitcoins (worth... View Details

Citation

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09 Jun 2022
HBS Case

From Truck Driver to Manager: US Foods’ Novel Approach to Staff Shortages

the company was able to maintain its position as one of the top three food distribution companies in the US among rivals Sysco and Performance Food Group, capturing 10 percent of market share. US Foods’ strategy provides valuable lessons... View Details

Keywords: by Pamela Reynolds

12 May 2023
Blog Post

Independent Project: The Rise of Electric Heat Pumps

propane, which is present in only ~5% of U.S. homes. Propane is attractive because it is the greenest carbon fuel and is available for widespread distribution in areas that do not have easy access to natural gas (North Dakota, Montana,... View Details

Web

The Art of American Advertising: 1865 - 1910

cultural landscape after the Civil War. By the 1860s, the railroad industry had created a national network for the manufacture and distribution of industrial and consumer goods and, with it, the need for eye-catching, widespread... View Details

Web

Global Opportunity Fellowship GO: AFRICA - Alumni

(login required). Eligibility Eligibility and selection are determined by a Review Committee and awards are distributed on a funds-available basis. You are a graduating MBA student or an MBA alumni who graduated in the last five years. A... View Details

14 Feb 2008
Working Paper Summaries

Laws vs. Contracts: Legal Origins, Shareholder Protections, and Ownership Concentration in Brazil, 1890-1950

Keywords: by Aldo Musacchio

2018
Working Paper

Forecasting Airport Transfer Passenger Flow Using Real-Time Data and Machine Learning

By: Xiaojia Guo, Yael Grushka-Cockayne and Bert De Reyck

Problem definition: In collaboration with Heathrow Airport, we develop a predictive system that generates quantile forecasts of transfer passengers’ connection times. Sampling from the distribution of individual passengers’ connection times, the system also produces... View Details

Keywords: Quantile Forecasts; Regression Tree; Copula; Passenger Flow Management; Data-driven Operations; Forecasting and Prediction; Data and Data Sets

Citation

SSRN

Read Now

November 2008 (Revised February 2009)
Case

Omron: Sensing Society

By: Rosabeth M. Kanter and Ethan S Bernstein

"Leading profitable growth is only part of the goal. We cannot live without breathing, but we do not live in order to take a breath,” said Omron's President and CEO, Hisao Sakuta, in 2008. Omron, a $7B global supplier of sensors, control system components, advanced... View Details

Keywords: Change Management; Transformation; Competitive Advantage; Leadership; Goals and Objectives; Globalized Firms and Management; Innovation and Invention; Values and Beliefs; Mission and Purpose; Electronics Industry

Citation

Educators

February 2008 (Revised May 2008)
Supplement

Lincoln Financial Group (C)

LFG reorganizes its business in order to improve customer intimacy. However, to implement the strategy, they need to effect significant changes in the skills of their salespeople. This case series straddles human resource management, corporate strategy, and sales... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Salesforce Management; Customer Focus and Relationships; Financial Services Industry

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December 2018 (Revised May 2021)
Background Note

Making UK Energy Smarter

By: John R. Wells and Benjamin Weinstock

This case describes the history of the United Kingdom's domestic energy industry and the country's efforts to create a more competitive, greener, and distributed power sector. On July 24, 2017, the United Kingdom government and the industry regulator, the Office of Gas... View Details