Publications

21 Sep 2011
News

Innovators don't ignore customers

01 Oct 2012
Research & Ideas

Better by the Bundle?

bundle—known as an Extra Value Meal—for cheaper than the products would cost if purchased individually. “Bundling is pervasive in several markets, and it works in many cases” But those same customers might not value being given only the... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

March 2023 (Revised May 2025)
Case

On

By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell, Karolin Frankenberger and Sascha Mader

Founded in 2010, in just one decade, the Swiss company On had established itself as a main player in global sports footwear and apparel. Based on an unconventional strategy which one of the founders labeled as “obsessively distinct,” On grew its sales with a compound... View Details

05 Jul 2006
Working Paper Summaries

What Roosevelt Took: The Economic Impact of the Panama Canal, 1903-29

Keywords: by Noel Maurer & Carlos Yu

22 Apr 2025
Blog Post

HBS Career Journeys | Rhea Choudhury (MBA 2024)

Rhea Choudhury (MBA 2024) reflects on how HBS broadened her perspective, leading her from engineering to a passion for mission-driven work through a National Park Service... View Details

September 2020 (Revised December 2021)
Case

Building India's 2.0: PayNearby

By: Lauren Cohen and Spencer C. N. Hagist

Headquartered in Mumbai, India, FinTech startup Nearby Technologies has seen its flagship brand, PayNearby, rapidly flourish across most of its target market within just four years. The unprecedented success of its payment app, which allows users to access banking... View Details

Keywords: Fintech; Developing Markets; Payments; Financial Inclusion; Finance; Entrepreneurship; Emerging Markets; Competitive Strategy; Banking Industry; India

Ananth Raman is a professor in the Technology and Operations Management area where he has taught courses on various aspects of Operational Excellence—supply chain management, technology and operations management, and service operations—to MBA students... View Details

Keywords: apparel; retailing; software

August 2016 (Revised July 2017)
Background Note

Brand Portfolio Strategy and Brand Architecture

By: Jill Avery

While companies choose to brand their products and services in many different ways, there are some central tenets that help define an optimal brand portfolio and associated brand architecture. Brand portfolio strategy involves the design, deployment, and management of... View Details

Keywords: Brand Management; Brand Portfolio; Brand Extension; Brand Portfolio Strategy; Brand Architecture; Consumer Behavior; Marketing; Brands and Branding; Marketing Strategy

Article

Can You Cut 'Turn Times' Without Adding Staff?

By: Ethan Bernstein and Ryan W. Buell

The president of RSA Ground, the subsidiary of Rising Sun Airlines responsible for servicing its planes at airports across Japan, goes undercover as a service crew member to discover how and whether his employees can speed up cleaning, checking, restocking, and... View Details

Keywords: Employee Empowerment; Employee Motivation; Turnaround; Service Operations; Employees; Motivation and Incentives; Leadership; Air Transportation Industry; Japan

Read Now

January 2021
Article

'Mobile'izing Agricultural Advice: Technology Adoption, Diffusion and Sustainability

By: Shawn A. Cole and A. Nilesh Fernando

We examine the role of management in agricultural productivity by evaluating a mobile-phone based agricultural advice service provided to farmers in India. Demand for advice is high, and advice changes practices, increasing yields in cumin (28%) and cotton (8.6% for a... View Details

Keywords: Agricultural Extension; Informational Inefficiencies; Technology Adoption; Agribusiness; Information; Mobile Technology; India

Find at Harvard

November 2019
Case

Gillette: Cutting Prices to Regain Share

By: Benjamin C. Esty and Daniel Fisher

After losing market share to low-priced competitors such as Harry’s and Dollar Shave Club for several years, Gillette decided to fight back by launching new products and increasing advertising. When these efforts failed to stem the losses, Gillette decided to cut the... View Details

Keywords: Marketing Strategy; Product Positioning; Business Strategy; Competition; Price; Public Equity; Retail Industry; Consumer Products Industry; United States

January 2019 (Revised October 2019)
Case

Rural Taobao: Alibaba's Expansion into Rural E-Commerce

By: Tarun Khanna, Ryan Allen, Adam Frost and Wesley Koo

Alibaba's Rural Taobao initiative had been launched in 2014 as a public service initiative to increase e-commerce adoption in China’s remote rural areas. In the first two iterations of the initiative, dubbed “1.0” and “2.0,” Alibaba had partnered with local businesses... View Details

Keywords: Strategy; Business Growth; Ecommerce; Corporate Social Responsibility; Business And Government; Emerging Market; Digital Platforms; Internet and the Web; Emerging Markets; Rural Scope; Growth and Development Strategy; Competitive Strategy; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Business and Government Relations; Decision Making; E-commerce; China

Benjamin Esty is the Roy and Elizabeth Simmons Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School. Over the years, he has taught a variety of courses ranging from advanced corporate finance and project finance to competitive strategy and leadership. He... View Details

Keywords: financial services; financial services; financial services; financial services; financial services; financial services; financial services

September 2002 (Revised October 2002)
Case

Bank of America (A)

By: Stefan H. Thomke and Ashok Nimgade

Describes how Bank of America is creating a system for product and service innovation in its retail banking business. Emphasis is placed on the role of experimentation in some two-dozen real-life "laboratories" that serve as fully operating banking branches and as... View Details

Keywords: Motivation and Incentives; Problems and Challenges; Innovation and Management; Risk and Uncertainty; Change; Failure; Banks and Banking; Learning; Banking Industry

14 Oct 2008
Research & Ideas

Should You Bring Advertising Expertise In-House?

services to "make" internally as opposed to what it buys in the marketplace. A firm may integrate "forward" into the channels used to distribute its output... View Details

Keywords: by Sarah Jane Gilbert; Advertising

29 Nov 2018
Blog Post

"There's No Substitute for Finding the Right Role": James Correa, MBA 2015

When James Correa was coming to the conclusion of his military service as a logistics officer (Captain) in the US Army, "There was only one desire for View Details

January 2007 (Revised October 2007)
Case

Procter & Gamble: Organization 2005 (A)

By: Mikolaj Jan Piskorski and Alessandro L. Spadini

In response to a huge crisis in 2000, the new CEO of Procter & Gamble has to decide whether to continue with an unusual organizational design or to revert to the old matrix organization. Describes all the organizational designs used by Procter & Gamble from the 1920s... View Details

Keywords: Global Strategy; Globalized Firms and Management; Organizational Design; Organizational Structure

General Partner, Flybridge Capital Partners

Former entrepreneur turned VC, HBS Senior Lecturer, author of three, dad of three, husband of one, civic leader, and fan of all Boston sports.

Jeffrey J. Bussgang is a Senior... View Details

January 2000 (Revised September 2002)
Case

Hitting the Wall: Nike and International Labor Practices

By: Debora L. Spar and Jennifer Burns

In the mid-1990s Nike, one of the world's most successful footwear companies, is hit by a spate of alarmingly bad publicity. After years of high-profile media attention as the company that can "just do it," Nike is suddenly being portrayed as a firm that relies on... View Details

Keywords: Wages; Developing Countries and Economies