Profit Centers - Publications - Faculty & Research

01 Apr 2014
First Look

First Look: April 1

centers. It uses a transfer-pricing system designed to account for interdependencies between profit centers and to induce coordination. Further, profit View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

18 Aug 2011
Lessons from the Classroom

Business Plan Contest: 15 Years of Building Better Entrepreneurs

going quite well, Riesenfeld recalls: "At the peak we had thirty-five employees. We made over $1 million in our first year, raised a couple million more in funding, and had over one hundred customers." By mid-2010, however, it became clear that although the business... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Education

11 Feb 2019
Research & Ideas

The Business of Saving the Planet

"The fact that the benefits of addressing the problem of climate change almost certainly outweigh the costs ... does not make concerted global action to address the problem easy." —Climate Change in 2018: Implications for Business If there is one positive... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Energy; Green Technology

04 Feb 2014
First Look

First Look: February 4

celebrated its 10th anniversary as a center of the Milken Institute, Executive Director Margaret Anderson thought about what the organization should do to ensure it had even more impact in its next 10 years. FasterCures was a non-profit... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthlorne

03 Jul 2018
What Do You Think?

Should CEO Satya Nadella Cancel Microsoft’s Contract with ICE?

than many other of Microsoft’s customers. Others gave more weight to moral considerations, especially in view of Nadella’s stated mission, “to put empathy at the center of everything I pursue ” Only a few, however, put themselves in... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett; Computer; Technology

07 May 2013
First Look

First Look: May 7

service quality in the past. Furthermore, we show that it is the high quality incumbent's most profitable customers who are the most attracted by superior quality alternatives. Our results appear to have long-run implications whereby... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

11 Mar 2001
Research & Ideas

Digital Designs on the Inner City

the country's first public access technology center established in an inner city, said the center has 26 computers plus video and music editing equipment, and offers residents classes in computer... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

01 Jul 2008
First Look

First Look: July 1, 2008

of rapid profit improvement. The question facing CEO Thomas J. Wilson was how to maintain the momentum. This case tracks the evolution of Allstate's strategy over 20 years, examining the logic behind the strategic changes, and the... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

15 Feb 2000
Research & Ideas

Growing Pains: Prescriptions for U.S. Health Care

computer manufacturers to steel mills and retailing, he has discovered consistent patterns in the way technological innovation affects both companies and industries. Health care, he declares, is no exception. According to Christensen's research, competition and the... View Details

Keywords: by Staff; Health

28 Sep 2015
Research & Ideas

Six Lessons from Mobile Money Ventures in Developing Countries

In many emerging economies, the need to give people in poverty better access to financial services seems obvious. The mobile phone is a perfect vehicle, given their widespread adoption, even among the financially less well off. Designing a View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Financial Services; Telecommunications

15 Nov 2010
Lessons from the Classroom

Connecting Goals and Go-To-Market Initiatives

plan within their organization. A: There are many issues inherent in this question. But I would point to three issues that typically are front and center when companies get serious about developing and executing an integrated strategy in... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Retail

23 Apr 2014
HBS Case

Are Electronic Cigarettes a Public Good or Health Hazard?

percent of high school students have tried them, according to the Centers for Disease Control, and a growing percentage of middle school students are joining the list. In 2012, Goldman Sachs declared electronic cigarettes one of the top... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Food & Beverage; Advertising

11 Jun 2019
Book

These Aren't Beach Books, but Managers Should Read Them Anyway

greater burdens on managers but also creating new opportunities to shine. Varieties of Green Business: Industries, Nations and Time Making a business successful is a challenge in itself, but making a green business profitable is an even... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

10 Apr 2012
First Look

First Look: April 10

Corstjens and Rajiv Lal Publication:Harvard Business Review 90, no. 4 (April 2012) Abstract Most companies assume that the easiest way to grow is by investing overseas and that the developing world offers the best opportunities for boosting revenues and View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

11 Sep 2018
First Look

New Research and Ideas, September 11, 2018

demand information that the dealer obtains through the initial assessment and subsequent learning in the selling process. With the dealer's average net profit per car in the estimation sample being around $1150, the initial assessment is... View Details

Keywords: Dina Gerdeman

12 Mar 2006
Research & Ideas

Global Poverty Needs a Global Answer

first, these operations eventually become profitable. The WDC would be a center of research and learning about the impact of business on poverty reduction. Q: In what ways could the World Development Corporation be better than other... View Details

Keywords: by Cynthia Churchwell

17 Sep 2001
Research & Ideas

Why E-commerce Didn’t Die With the Fall of Webvan

centralized fulfillment center instead of selling from a large number of decentralized pharmacies, and then encourage those people—essentially by cutting the size of their co-pay—to place their orders by phone, renew their prescriptions... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Consumer Products; Retail

17 Aug 2011
Research & Ideas

Protecting against the Pirates of Bollywood

to make the $3.5 million Roadside Romeo. The first-of-its-kind animated Hindi movie barely broke even. All told, Hollywood studios invested an estimated $100 million on producing films in India between 2007 and 2009. But box-office View Details

Keywords: by Kim Girard; Motion Pictures & Video

25 Sep 2000
Research & Ideas

Cyber-Marketing: Scouting the Digital Communications Frontier

including one centered on the acceptance of high-speed Internet cable access by residents of a middle-class Toronto suburb during the past four years. That community, they say, is typical of many throughout the United States. To date,... View Details

Keywords: by Peter K. Jacobs

17 Aug 2010
First Look

First Look: August 17

advantage in the form of improved profitability by aggressively hiring the excluded group, namely women, in the local managerial labor market. Our results are economically meaningful and realistic in size, in addition to being robust to... View Details