Selling - Publications - Faculty & Research

22 May 2017
Lessons from the Classroom

A Luxury Industry Veteran Teaches the Importance of Aesthetics to Budding Business Leaders

Winners were announced in class the following afternoon. The judges (clockwise from top left): Goldman, Brown, Regis, Kay, Gudmundsdottir, and Jónsdóttir (Photo courtesy of Pauline Brown) With few exceptions, the presentations seemed to target a millennial customer... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Beauty & Cosmetics; Apparel & Accessories; Auto; Tourism

16 Aug 2004
Research & Ideas

Luxury Isn’t What It Used to Be

people sometimes forget that you must have a great product behind a luxury brand—not a good product, a great product. If you can sell the experts, you can eventually sell the world," he says. "But... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Consumer Products

04 Nov 2010
What Do You Think?

Why Do We Chase Stars?

and agony of doing the hard work themselves." (Phil Clark); "It's about selling the dream that the star will add to the bottom line fast with new clients, etc." (Jacoline Loewen); "Rather than create succession plans... View Details

Keywords: by Jim Heskett

23 Aug 2006
Op-Ed

The Real Wal-Mart Effect

benefits from the company's low prices. Wal-Mart operates 2-1/2 times as much selling space per inhabitant in the poorest one-third of states as in the richest one-third. And within these states, it focuses on poorer districts and... View Details

Keywords: by Pankaj Ghemawat & Ken A. Mark; Retail

Web

Entrepreneurial Support - Business & Environment

overcome them in order to drive impact at scale. For the full listing, click here . HBS EC Course - Public Entrepreneurship - Mitchell Weiss This course is designed for students who may found, join, or fund private startup companies that View Details

Profile

Brandon Tieu

HubSpot's impending decision of whether to focus on selling to larger enterprise customers or small-medium businesses. The former CEO came to class and explained their rationale to focus on larger customers. However, what struck me most... View Details

29 Jul 2013
Research & Ideas

A Manager’s Moral Obligation to Preserve Capitalism

capitalism, a manager's moral obligation is put aside his or her own self-interest in order to preserve the interests of the system as a whole. Of course, that's not an easy sell to someone in a highly competitive market trained to... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

01 Jun 2024
News

Firm Foundation

Courtesy Tracy Britt Cool Courtesy Tracy Britt Cool Tracy Britt Cool (MBA 2009) has been playing the long game as long as she can remember. The former Berkshire Hathaway executive grew up in a family business: Her father was a third-generation farmer in Manhattan,... View Details

Keywords: Janelle Nanos; private equity; Warren Buffett; career path; investment strategy; family business; Finance

01 Feb 2010
Research & Ideas

The ‘Luxury Prime’: How Luxury Changes People

anything in your research surprise you? A: The findings are not so much surprising as illuminating. We expected a relationship between luxury and self-interests. However, self-interested behaviors are often conflated with those that do harm to others (e.g., View Details

Keywords: by Sarah Jane Gilbert

06 Dec 2017
What Do You Think?

Is It Time To Break Up Amazon, Apple, Facebook, or Google?

it has acquired Whole Foods, the market value of US big name retailers selling foods immediately drops 10 to 20 percent. The exchange of information and news, fake or fact, among large segments of the world’s population is controlled by... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett; Technology; Web Services

25 Feb 2020
News

Task Force

settling on merchandising—a $40 billion pain point for brands selling into the Latin American market. A finalist in the alumni track of last spring’s New Venture Competition, Zubale (the name, roughly translated from Spanish, means “rise... View Details

Keywords: Julia Hanna; gig economy; Retail Trade

01 Mar 2003
News

Dick Franyo: From Banker to Barkeeper

promotional and charitable events, which often are tied to the cleanup of the Chesapeake Bay. (One percent of the bar’s revenues are donated to The Chesapeake Bay Foundation and other conservancy causes.) “At the Boatyard, what we’re really View Details

Keywords: Deborah Blagg; Food Services and Drinking Places; Hospitality

20 Feb 2019
Research & Ideas

Rocket-tunity: Can Private Firms Turn a Profit in Space?

founded by billionaire Branson, wants to sell short, suborbital flights, in which passengers get a taste of zero gravity and see the Earth’s curvature. Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo commercial vehicle made its inaugural trip into space... View Details

Keywords: by Scott Wallask; Aerospace; Tourism; Transportation

26 Nov 2001
Op-Ed

Why Corporate Budgeting Needs To Be Fixed

exceeding. But the price for his little white lie was extremely high: The company based its demand planning on his sales forecast and consequently ran out of its core product in one of its largest markets at the height of the holiday View Details

Keywords: by Michael C. Jensen

01 Dec 2004
News

Marquis Jet Takes Off

with the persistent group, Santulli finally said yes. Allard and his partners launched Marquis Jet in January 2002, selling 245 jet cards for an average of $150,000 each during that first year and 1,000 in 2003. As hoped, the company... View Details

Keywords: Roger Thompson; Air Transportation; Transportation

23 May 2018
News

Claudio L. Haddad, OPM 12, 1987

undertaking. His career path includes serving as director of the Central Bank of Brazil and building Banco Garantia into one of South America’s most prestigious banks before selling it to Credit Suisse First Boston in 1998. “Claudio has... View Details

Keywords: Susan Young

Web

Understanding Entrepreneurial Opportunity in Kazakhstan - Global Activities 2020

where to do so, a nitty-gritty view of the process outsiders aren’t always privy to. Lomtadze and the students debated if Kaspi.kz was still a bank, with the majority deciding—as Lomtadze did—that the company was now a technology platform. And the students wondered—as... View Details

16 Aug 2022
Op-Ed

Now Is the Time for Entrepreneurs to Play Offense

teams, customer bases, and platforms. "There is a ton of money out there looking for great companies to invest in." One of my portfolio companies has executed three acquisitions in the last six months at prices that are 2-3 times lower than what the View Details

Keywords: by Jeffrey Bussgang

20 Feb 2017
Research & Ideas

Having No Life is the New Aspirational Lifestyle

an aspirational lifestyle. “The new conspicuous consumption is about saying, I am the scarce resource, and therefore I am valuable” The finding suggests a new way for marketers to sell their products and services to consumers by... View Details