Publications

Web

National Markets - The Art of American Advertising

industrial goods.” Pamela Walker Laird, Advertising Progress: American Business and the Rise of Consumer Marketing , 1998 2 In the American economy of the early 1800s, many household items, such as soap or clothing, were made at home and... View Details

April 2019 (Revised December 2021)
Case

Sears: The Demise of an American Icon

By: Kristin Mugford and Sarah L. Abbott

In 2019, ESL Investments’ $5.2 billion offer to purchase Sears Holdings out of Chapter 11 bankruptcy, was accepted, despite opposition from the company's unsecured creditors and other parties. ESL, which was led by Eddie Lampert, had acquired a stake in Sears following... View Details

Keywords: Bankruptcy; Reorganization; Bonds; Restructuring; Business Divisions; Transformation; Fairness; Borrowing and Debt; Credit; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Corporate Governance; Motivation and Incentives; Retail Industry; United States

03 Apr 2012
First Look

First Look: April 3

business of "daily deals"- in which retailers offer a heavily discounted product or service available for purchase for brief (often 24-hour) windows. The case explores the complicated sharing of risks and rewards between... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

Web

Transitioning From the Military to Business School - MBA

Sciences Partners & Families Peek SVMP Social Enterprise Student Life Student Loans Student Profile Sustainability Video Blog Industries Industries Architecture Construction Consulting Consumer Packaged... View Details

June 2020
Case

What IKEA Do We Want?

By: Juan Alcácer, Cynthia A. Montgomery, Emilie Billaud and Vincent Dessain

In 2018, Swedish furniture maker IKEA was undergoing a significant transformation. Challenged by the rise of online shopping and changing consumer behavior, and mourning the death of its founder, the Company's top executives knew they had to step out of their comfort... View Details

Keywords: Business Strategy; Transformation; Leading Change; Mission and Purpose; Business Model; Emerging Markets; Customer Focus and Relationships; Organizational Culture; Disruption; Consumer Products Industry; Retail Industry; Europe; Netherlands; Sweden; China; India; United States

07 Apr 2020
Research & Ideas

What Customers Need to Hear from You During the COVID Crisis

As the COVID-19 virus pandemic began to sweep across the world, Doug McMillon and his team at Walmart watched in horror. Suddenly, they realized, tomorrow would be nothing like “business as usual” and everything in the company’s marketing plan, from View Details

Keywords: by Jill Avery and Richard Edelman

12 Feb 2021
News

How Dunkin’ Donuts Took Over the World

joining the family business, but had no idea that I'd be asked to assume responsibility for the overall business. When I went off to school, early on, the business was an industrial feeding business with lots of these trucks that went... View Details

Keywords: brands; leadership; management; strategy; operations; career; Retail Trade; Retail Trade

June 2017 (Revised January 2019)
Case

Signet Jewelers: Assessing Customer Financing Risk

By: Gerardo Pérez Cavazos, Suraj Srinivasan and Monica Baraldi

Marc Cohodes, a renowned short seller, has identified weaknesses in Signet's business strategy, which he argues is heavily reliant on providing loans to customers with subprime credit scores. He believes that the company accounts for its receivables portfolio using... View Details

Keywords: Short Selling; Bad Debt Expense; Accounting; Financial Reporting; Financial Statements; Finance; Financing and Loans; Valuation; Retail Industry; Retail Industry; United States

14 Aug 2012
First Look

First Look: August 14

LauHarvard Business School Case 212-026 ATR KimEng is a Philippino asset management business. It is making an important decision on its own strategy going forward: should it stay independent or be taken over by a large bank in the region. Through this case, we discuss... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

May 2020 (Revised March 2022)
Case

The Coronavirus (COVID-19) Pandemic and the Global Economy (A)

By: Alberto Cavallo and Christian Godwin

In April 2020, the world struggled to contain the exponential escalation of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Dozens of countries had imposed restrictions on travel, work, and social gatherings. A large share of the global population was under lockdowns and... View Details

12 Nov 2013
First Look

First Look: November 12

development of Kvadrat's retail sales operations, the implementation of new Human Resources practices, and the execution of a new organizational design. Was such an extensive growth, turnaround, and internal development agenda feasible?... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

March 2018 (Revised July 2018)
Case

Whole Foods Under Amazon

By: Dennis Campbell, Tatiana Sandino, James Barnett and Christine Snively

In August 2017, Amazon acquired Whole Foods Market for $13.7 billion. Whole Foods was struggling with high costs and faced growing competition from traditional supermarkets offering more organic products. Prior to the acquisition, Whole Foods began rolling out a new... View Details

Keywords: Performance Efficiency; Performance Improvement; Employee Relationship Management; Acquisition; Change Management; Food and Beverage Industry; Food and Beverage Industry

25 Jul 2017
First Look

First Look at New Research and Ideas: July 25, 2017

was still the world’s largest company, with over $480 billion in annual revenue and operations in 28 countries. Although it had mostly vanquished its rival discount retailers in the U.S., it was struggling to find the right growth... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

13 Apr 2016
Research & Ideas

Why Your Company Wants to be a 'Cognitive Referent' (Hint: SpaceX)

pretty exciting to say why the mutual fund industry is terrible, why financial gurus don’t really know anything, and stuff like that, but it also requires a ton of time and energy.” Also different was how the firms chose to launch, either... View Details

Keywords: by Roberta Holland; Retail; Retail; Retail

01 Mar 2023
News

Step Change

chairwoman. After, the more prevalent mindset was “I’ll just go do it,” the “it” being a new venture addressing any of a host of gaps in the marketplace. At a panel in 2016, Shousha remembers bankers droning on about opening bricks-and-mortar View Details

Keywords: Julia Hanna; photographed by Abdelrahman Gabr – Koree; entrepreneurship; women; venture capital; Egypt; developing economies; Finance

November 2023 (Revised March 2024)
Case

Infarm: Betting the (Indoor) Farm on Food Security

By: Elie Ofek

In the summer of 2023, the co-founders of Infarm, a controlled environment agriculture (CEA) company, were contemplating a major pivot going forward. While Infarm had successfully shown it could grow over 75 products—mainly herbs, leafy greens and mushrooms—in modular... View Details

Keywords: Plant-Based Agribusiness; Business Model; Market Entry and Exit; Science-Based Business; Business Strategy; Transition; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Europe; North America; Toronto; Northeastern United States

September 2023
Case

Trilling Foods: Managing People with Data

By: Alexandra C. Feldberg and Jeffrey T. Polzer

Trilling Foods, a regional bricks-and-mortar grocery chain, has recently provided its frontline managers with new tools for using data. Allison Andersen, Trilling’s VP of Data Science, has spearheaded these efforts. Yet, as she works with Kent Wade, the general manager... View Details

Keywords: Digital Transformation; Management Practices and Processes; Training; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Food and Beverage Industry; Food and Beverage Industry