Publications

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December 2015
Case

The Hain Celestial Group

By: David E. Bell, José B. Alvarez, James Weber and Mary Shelman

Hain Celestial manufactured natural and organic food and personal care products to be sold to retailers of these products. The company had grown successfully and profitably through acquisitions and organically for two decades. In late 2015, Hain faced challenges on... View Details

Keywords: Agribusiness; Strategy; Marketing; Consumer Products Industry; United States

March 2008 (Revised June 2011)
Case

MySpace

By: Mikolaj Jan Piskorski, David T. Chen and Carin-Isabel Knoop

The case, set in late 2007, examines what MySpace—the largest online social network—should do to respond to its agile competitor, Facebook. Since its inception MySpace had experienced phenomenal growth, acquiring 20 million members in its first 20 months of operation,... View Details

Keywords: Open Source Distribution; Partners and Partnerships; Social and Collaborative Networks; Competition; Competitive Strategy; Internet and the Web; Digital Platforms; Information Technology Industry

February 2025
Teaching Note

Influencer-Led Brand Building: Hairitage and the McKnights

By: William R. Kerr and James Palano

Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 825-066. Mindy McKnight started in 2009 as an early influencer on social media whose videos of creative hairstyles for girls launched her family on an entrepreneurship journey. The McKnights transitioned from YouTube ad revenue to brand... View Details

Keywords: Family Business; Social Media; Entrepreneurship; Brands and Branding; Product Launch; Power and Influence; Expansion; Beauty and Cosmetics Industry

November 2011
Article

KFC's Radical Approach to China

By: David E. Bell and Mary L. Shelman

Global companies face a crucial question when they enter emerging markets: how far should they go to localize their offerings? Typically they try to sell core products or services pretty much as they've been sold in Europe or the United States, with headquarters... View Details

Keywords: Food; Food and Beverage Industry; China

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October 1994 (Revised August 2006)
Case

Sport Obermeyer Ltd.

By: Janice H. Hammond and Ananth Raman

The case describes operations at a skiwear design and merchandising company and its supply partner. Introduces production planning for short-life-cycle products with uncertain demand and allows students to analyze a reduced version of the company's production planning... View Details

Keywords: Product; Supply Chain; Demand and Consumers; Production; Planning; Globalized Markets and Industries; Forecasting and Prediction; Industry Growth; Apparel and Accessories Industry; Apparel and Accessories Industry; United States; Hong Kong

December 2022
Supplement

Freelancer, Ltd. Case Supplement

By: Christopher Stanton, Karim R. Lakhani, Jin Hyun Paik and Nina Cohodes

Over the course of the 2010s, the rapid advancement of mobile technologies and the rise of online freelancing platforms seemed to portend a radical transformation of labor markets into on-demand, flexible talent pools. Even though several Fortune 500 companies,... View Details

Keywords: Labor Markets; Freelancers; Change Management; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Globalized Firms and Management; Human Capital; Employment; Digital Platforms; Global Range; Adoption; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Growth and Development Strategy; Computer Industry; Computer Industry; Computer Industry; Computer Industry; Australia; United States; Philippines

07 Apr 2021
Research & Ideas

How Teams Work: Lessons from the Pandemic

to chart teams’ interactions as they transitioned to remote work. The name of the firm and its industry are confidential, but its teams routinely traveled together to visit clients prior to the pandemic. Drawing on past research about... View Details

Keywords: by Kristen Senz

28 Nov 2005
Research & Ideas

Unilever: Transformation and Tradition

were not strong enough to prevent the growth of private labels in Europe, but they were sufficient to maintain Unilever's strong position in higher margin products. It was able to leverage knowledge of brands and products between... View Details

Keywords: by Geoffrey Jones; Consumer Products

02 Nov 2023
News

Seeding Startups

Shirish Nadkarni (MBA 1987) was the director of product planning for Microsoft’s MSN when he decided he was ready to become an entrepreneur. He had recently led the growing internet portal’s 1997 acquisition of Hotmail, the first free, web-based email solution, and the... View Details

Keywords: April White

2020
Working Paper

Why Do Firms Automate Production, and How Do They Adjust? Evidence from the Bell Telephone System over the 20th Century

By: Daniel P. Gross and James J. Feigenbaum

Over the course of the 20th century, AT&T's operating companies replaced telephone operators with mechanical switching and dial telephones. Yet it took AT&T 30 years from the invention of the technology to begin using it, and another 60 years to finish installing it... View Details

Keywords: Employment; Labor; Technology Adoption; Technology Networks; History; Telecommunications Industry; United States

December 2010 (Revised February 2012)
Case

Yum! China

By: David E. Bell and Mary Shelman

Since the first KFC opened in China in 1987, Yum--under Sam Su's leadership--had built the largest restaurant company by far in mainland China. Averaging one new restaurant opening a day for the past five years, in 2010 Yum ran over 3,600 restaurants in 650 cities and... View Details

Keywords: Business Processes; Business or Company Management; Growth and Development Strategy; Strategy; Business Strategy; Food and Beverage Industry; Beijing Shi

February 1999
Case

Lifeline Systems, Inc. (B)

By: H. Kent Bowen and Marilyn Matis

In 1997, Lifeline Systems continues to grow its service business to $32 million, 56% of the company's total revenues. More local hospital Lifeline programs turn over their monitoring service to Lifeline Central, expanding the company's subscriber base by 30%. The... View Details

Keywords: Health Care and Treatment; Information Technology; Expansion; Cost Management; Growth and Development Strategy; Partners and Partnerships; Change; Customer Relationship Management; Service Operations; Age; Investment; Health Industry; Health Industry; Cambridge; Boston

30 Mar 2003
Research & Ideas

The Future of IT Consulting

to automatically direct product to geographical points of demand. Q: Can you describe some of the enablers and drivers behind the growth of the IT consulting industry? How has globalization impacted this growth? A: The enablers and... View Details

Keywords: by Sarah Jane Johnston; Consulting

September 1986
Case

BOC Group: Ohmeda (A)

The president of Ohmeda, a wholly owned company of the BOC Group, plans to grow the company's medical equipment sales from $95 million in 1985 to $158 million in five years by focusing on the sale of "high-tech" equipment. At the same time, the president expects to... View Details

Keywords: Marketing Communications; Salesforce Management; Marketing Channels; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry

May 2024
Case

LinkedIn Corporation, 2024

By: David B. Yoffie, George Gonzalez and Emily Grandjean

By 2024, the LinkedIn profile was well established as the professional identity of record on the Internet. Following a multi-year effort to expand the platform’s user base, as well as a period of rapid growth during the COVID-19 pandemic, LinkedIn’s membership had... View Details

Keywords: Platform; Business Strategy; Competitive Strategy; Goals and Objectives; Social Media; Network Effects; Growth and Development Strategy; Performance Evaluation; Technology Industry; Technology Industry; Sunnyvale

01 Oct 2001
Research & Ideas

How To Make Restructuring Work for Your Company

appropriately staged over a number of years. This situation could be said to characterize the mainframe computer industry during the 1980s, when business customers moved away from mainframes towards UNIX-based "open... View Details

Keywords: by Stuart C. Gilson

16 Jun 2020
Research & Ideas

Your Customers Have Changed. Here's How to Engage Them Again.

to give them a better chance of surviving. In contrast, industries with increasing customer demand—grocery stores, online entertainment, teleconference providers, and their suppliers—need to adjust to this directional reality at a slower,... View Details

Keywords: by Rohit Deshpandé, Ofer Mintz, and Imran S. Currim; Retail; Service

October 2024 (Revised December 2024)
Case

Kering Eyewear

By: Rohit Deshpandé, Dante Roscini and Elena Corsi

In June 2024, Roberto Vedovotto, CEO of Kering Eyewear, prepared to discuss the future of the recently acquired brands LINDBERG, a Danish optical eyewear brand, and Maui Jim, an American sunglasses brand. Vedovotto founded Kering Eyewear in 2014, convincing... View Details

Keywords: Marketing Strategy; Brands and Branding; Product Marketing; Mergers and Acquisitions; Business or Company Management; Growth and Development Strategy; Luxury; Fashion Industry; Fashion Industry; Fashion Industry; Italy; Europe; China