Publications

August 1999 (Revised January 2002)
Case

Brita Products Company, The

By: John A. Deighton

Clorox's Brita skillfully exploits a tide of water safety concerns, growing a home water (filtration) business from inception to a 15% U.S. household penetration in ten years. The dilemma in the case arises as the period of increasing returns seems to be drawing to a... View Details

Keywords: Customer Value and Value Chain; Acquisition; Retention; Safety; Natural Environment; Emerging Markets; Investment Return; Equity; Demand and Consumers; United States

July 2022
Supplement

Solution for E-Commerce Analytics for CPG Firms (B): Optimizing Assortment for a New Retailer

By: Ayelet Israeli

July 2022
Teaching Note

eGrocery and the Role of Data and E-Commerce Analytics for CPG Firms

By: Ayelet Israeli

Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 521-077. View Details

Summer 2021
Article

Platform Leadership and Supply Chains: Intel, Centrino, and the Restructuring of Wi-Fi Supply

By: Roberto Fontana and Shane Greenstein

In this paper we examine Intel’s launch of Centrino and interpret it as platform leaders attempt to restructure a supply chain. We provide a narrative of key actions and how they coordinated changes and offer a framework of the predictable consequences for... View Details

Keywords: Mobile and Wireless Technology; Product Launch; Supply Chain; Restructuring; Framework

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14 Apr 2021
Research & Ideas

The High Cost of the Slow COVID Vaccine Rollout

officials took steps to speed vaccine development last year, the United States and other countries could have paid to build manufacturing infrastructure and shore up the supply chain needed to produce vaccines at higher capacity. That... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Health

24 Jul 2012
First Look

First Look: July 24

trained professionals with many years of experience. Loans evaluated under more permissive incentive schemes are rated significantly less risky than the same loans evaluated under pay-for-performance. Download the paper: http://www.hbs.edu/research/pdf/13-002.pdf... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

27 Jul 2020
Blog Post

HBS Summer Fellows Respond to COVID-19

world. Peter Le: Understand how global supply chain works and what are the potential drivers and hurdles for efficient global supply chain systems. Prerna Arya: Through this internship, I hope to learn more... View Details

03 Jul 2018
First Look

New Research and Ideas, July 3, 2018

Improvement in Global Supply Chain Working Conditions By: Short, Jodi L., Michael W. Toffel, and Andrea R. Hugill Abstract—Worker rights advocates seeking to improve labor conditions in global supply chains... View Details

Keywords: Dina Gerdeman

25 Feb 2014
First Look

First Look: February 25

http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2378899 Monitoring the Monitors: How Social Factors Influence Supply Chain Auditors By: Short, Jodi L., Michael W. Toffel, and Andrea R. Hugill Abstract—Supply View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

07 Mar 2007
Research & Ideas

How Do You Value a “Free” Customer?

Businesspeople understand that not all customers are created equal—the 80-20 rule suggests that over time a small percentage of a company's customer base can generate a high percentage of its sales and profit. Models for calculating customer lifetime value are built on... View Details

Keywords: by Sarah Jane Gilbert; Web Services

28 Nov 2006
Other Presentation

Value-Based Competition in Health Care: Issues for Singapore

By: Michael E. Porter

This presentation draws Michael E. Porter and Elizabeth Olmsted Teisberg: Redefining Health Care: Creating Value-Based Competition on Results, Harvard Business School Press, May 2006. Earlier publications about health care include the Harvard Business Review... View Details

Keywords: Integration; Competition; Customer Value and Value Chain; Insurance; Health Care and Treatment; Health Industry; Singapore

2003
Article

Developing a Management Systems Approach to Sustainability at BMW Group

By: Michael W. Toffel, Natalie Hill and Kellie McElhaney

This article describes how Designworks/USA, a subsidiary of BMW Group, developed a Sustainability Management System (SMS) by integrating the management of environmental, social, and traditional business issues. After several months of deploying the SMS throughout its... View Details

Keywords: Environmental Sustainability; Management Systems; Standards; Operations; Auto Industry

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06 Jan 2014
News

Sprouts Sees Healthy Growth Ahead

Keywords: Whiole Foods; Retail Trade; Agriculture

September 2010 (Revised December 2011)
Case

WildChina: Taking the Road Less Traveled

By: Mukti Khaire, Daniel Isenberg, Victoria Song and Shirley Spence

This case deals with supplier difficulties faced by WildChina—a travel service provider in China. WildChina is a classic case of a company that is trying to bring a local, within-country product to a market outside the country (in this case, travelers to China from... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Business Startups; Customer Focus and Relationships; Local Range; Globalized Markets and Industries; Supply Chain Management; Conflict Management; Travel Industry; China

July–August 2019
Article

Coupling Labor Codes of Conduct and Supplier Labor Practices: The Role of Internal Structural Conditions

By: Yanhua Bird, Jodi L. Short and Michael W. Toffel

Exploitive working conditions have spurred companies to pressure their suppliers to adopt labor codes of conduct and to conform their labor practices to the standards set forth in those codes. Yet little is known about whether organizational structures such as codes... View Details

Keywords: Organization Theory; Economic Sociology; Social Responsibility; Sustainability; Auditing; Process Improvement; Organizational Structure; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Supply Chain; Labor; Working Conditions

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30 Nov 2017
News

Happy Meals (Are Here Again)

Above: Chris Kempczinski is one of the alumni working to modernize McDonald’s. Nick Karavites owns 24 McDonald’s restaurants in the Chicago area and the surrounding suburbs, and when he visits them, he always keeps his eye out for a surefire sign of trouble: A customer... View Details

Keywords: Dan Morrell; photographed by Saverio Truglia

December 2001 (Revised January 2002)
Case

Nestle S.A.

By: Ray A. Goldberg and Hal Hogan

Peter Brabeck wants to focus Nestle as a wellness company in the global food system and do so in a way that provides both growth in sales and margins in both developed and developing countries. View Details

Keywords: Brands and Branding; Product Development; Supply Chain Management; Food; Multinational Firms and Management; Business Growth and Maturation; Sales; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; Switzerland