Publications

January 2021
Case

Bespoken Spirits: Disrupting Distilling

By: Benjamin C. Esty and Daniel Fisher

On October 7, 2020, Bespoken Spirits publicly announced it had received $2.6 million of seed funding for its “sustainable maturation process,” a process that could produce award-winning whiskeys in just days rather than years using a novel technology and data science. ... View Details

Keywords: Business Ventures; Business Strategy; Competitive Advantage; Disruption; Entrepreneurship; Environmental Sustainability; Cash Flow; Disruptive Innovation; Innovation Strategy; Brands and Branding; Business Model; Consumer Products Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; Service Industry; United States; California

February 2022
Case

Toraya

By: Lauren Cohen and Akiko Kanno

Mitsuharu Kurokawa was the 18th generation leader of a family firm that produced and sold premium Japanese sweets, Toraya Confectionery Co., Ltd. He had succeeded the business from his father, Mitsuhiro Kurokawa who had led the firm for thirty years. Mitsuharu was... View Details

Keywords: Branding; Luxury Brand; Succession; Family Business; Management Succession; Brands and Branding; Luxury; Marketing; Expansion; Globalization; Innovation and Invention; Customer Satisfaction; Food and Beverage Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; Japan

11 Jul 2019
Blog Post

Meet the MBA Class of 2020

TAKE MY SKILLS TO THE NEXT LEVEL.” HOME REGION Buenos Aires, Argentina UNDERGRAD EDUCATION Universidad de San Andres, 2010 PREVIOUS EXPERIENCE Lartirigoyen Group, Adecoagro, ExxonMobil Michelle Lee “TO SCALE FOOD BUSINESSES, YOU FACE... View Details

June 2018 (Revised October 2020)
Case

Global Brand Management of Anheuser Busch InBev's Budweiser

By: Jill Avery

Brian Perkins, chief architect of the $6 billion Budweiser brand, was excited about 2018, in which the company would launch Budweiser into several new markets in Africa and Latin America. He was feeling the pressure to finalize a global brand strategy that would define... View Details

05 Nov 2019
News

Alumnus Named McDonald’s CEO

Chris Kempczinski (MBA 1997) has been named the new CEO of McDonald’s. Previously serving as McDonald's USA President, Kempczinski was instrumental in the recent turnaround of the iconic burger chain, a process which was detailed at length in a 2017 HBS Alumni Bulletin... View Details

Keywords: Food Services and Drinking Places; Food Services and Drinking Places

November 2019 (Revised February 2020)
Case

Constellation Brands' Investment in Canopy Growth: Aiming High

By: Stuart C. Gilson and Sarah L. Abbott

In 2017, Constellation Brands, the U.S.-based beverage company, acquired a 9.9% equity interest in the Canadian marijuana company, Canopy Growth. In 2018, Constellation announced a subsequent investment in Canopy—taking its ownership interest to 37%. However, Canopy’s... View Details

Keywords: Equity Investment; Marijuana; Growth Investing; New Market Development; Beverage Industry; Equity; Investment; Strategy; Food and Beverage Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; Canada; United States

April 2002 (Revised May 2003)
Case

Nghe An Tate & Lyle Sugar Company (Vietnam)

By: Benjamin C. Esty, Frank J. Lysy and Carrie Ferman

In September 1998, Paul Cooper, Tate & Lyle's finance director for international investments, asked the International Finance Corp. (IFC) to consider lending up to $45 million to finance a $90 million sugar mill in northern Vietnam. Ewen Cobban, an IFC agricultural... View Details

Keywords: Business and Government Relations; Food and Beverage Industry; Viet Nam

Web

Harvard Business School

in the food and beverages industry. He began his career as product manager responsible for marketing at General Mills, and then went on to become marketing director at PepsiCo-Frito Lay, vice president of Marketing at Taco Bell, and vice... View Details

18 Jan 2018
News

The Lessons of All-Day Breakfast

Subscribe on iTunes Subscribe on SoundCloud More Skydeck episodes Dan Morrell: When Kristy Cunningham (MBA 1998) arrived at McDonald’s in 2014 as vice president of strategy and insights, she asked her team about the most common requests they were hearing from US... View Details

Keywords: Food Services and Drinking Places; Food Services and Drinking Places

14 Jul 2020
Research & Ideas

Restarting Under Uncertainty: Managerial Experiences from Around the World

simultaneous increase in demand for home deliveries, which raised the need for operators in stores. The company worked with catering and cooking associations, whose operations were temporarily closed, to share labor. Instead of staying at home, View Details

Keywords: by Raffaella Sadun, Andrea Bertoni, Alexia Delfino, Giovanni Fassio, and Mariapaola Testa

2023
Article

Association Between Regulatory Submission Characteristics and Recalls of Medical Devices Receiving 510(k) Clearance

By: Alexander O. Everhart, Soumya Sen, Ariel D. Stern, Yi Zhu and Pinar Karaca-Mandic

Importance: Most regulated medical devices enter the U.S. market via the 510(k) regulatory submission pathway, wherein manufacturers demonstrate that applicant devices are “substantially equivalent” to 1 or more “predicate” devices (legally marketed medical devices... View Details

Keywords: Recalls; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry

Find at Harvard

18 Jun 2024
Cold Call Podcast

How Natural Winemaker Frank Cornelissen Innovated While Staying True to His Brand

Keywords: Re: Tiona W. Zuzul; Food & Beverage; Agriculture & Agribusiness

06 Aug 2019
Cold Call Podcast

Super Bowl Ads Sell Products, but Do They Sell Brands?

these entirely digital consumers that are out there, like my sons who have no use for anything larger than a cell phone in front of them. Kenny: Why don't we dive into the Super Bowl, itself? There are some great statistics in the case about View Details

Keywords: Advertising; Sports; Entertainment & Recreation; Media & Broadcasting

01 Mar 2018
News

Every Trick in the Book

with plans for at least three more in 2018. (The company also expanded its commitment to a physical retail presence with the purchase of Whole Foods Market in 2017.) For 20 years, physical bookstores have fretted about losing customers to... View Details

Keywords: April White

20 Mar 2000
Research & Ideas

Incubators: The New Venture Capitalists?

a bank, a lending company, or an equity transaction company, or move up the food chain and be able to provide richer, higher services much like we see in what we're terming the incubation space today. "We're focused, obviously, on... View Details

Keywords: by Kenneth Liss

17 Dec 2008
Lessons from the Classroom

‘Ted Levitt Changed My Life’

both ways. Peter Levitt, a lawyer in Boston, says that his father often fine-tuned discussion points while eating breakfast at a diner on Western Avenue. After a big meal, Levitt père would skip lunch: "Dad enjoyed food so much that... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Education; Retail

September 2013 (Revised August 2015)
Background Note

Leadership and Teaming

By: Ethan Bernstein

Small differences in the leadership of teams can have large consequences for the success of their efforts. Many initiatives fail not because of a fatal error in judgment or insufficient ideas, knowledge, motivation, or capabilities to deliver a solution. They fail... View Details