Publications

April 2025 (Revised June 2025)
Case

Governing Sustainability in a Shifting Context (A)

By: Lynn S. Paine and Will Hurwitz

In early 2025, boards of directors had to rethink corporate responsibility and sustainability efforts amid rapidly-shifting social, legal, regulatory, and economic forces. While just a few years earlier, calls to address racial justice and climate change reached into... View Details

January 1998 (Revised July 2019)
Case

Cafes Monte Bianco: Building a Profit Plan

By: Robert L. Simons and Antonio Davila

Alert: This case has been revised since its original publication; all amounts have been converted to euros and the dates have been updated to 2020. If you’ve taught with this case in the past, please note that changes may affect teaching plans and classroom use. Using... View Details

Keywords: Strategic Planning; Cash Flow; Investment Return; Profit; Financial Statements; Food and Beverage Industry; Italy

May 2020
Article

Digitizing Disclosure: The Case of Restaurant Hygiene Scores

By: Weijia (Daisy) Dai and Michael Luca

Collaborating with Yelp and the city of San Francisco, we revisit a canonical example of quality disclosure by evaluating and helping to redesign the posting of restaurant hygiene scores on Yelp.com. We implement a two-stage intervention that separately identifies... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Disclosure; Consumer Behavior; Knowledge Dissemination; Food and Beverage Industry

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16 Dec 2013
HBS Case

D’O: Making a Michelin-Starred Restaurant Affordable

the philosophy of "POP cuisine," which aims for accessibility to a broad audience, in terms of both taste and cost. He maintains that he keeps food costs down and... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel & Joanie Tobin; Food & Beverage

December 2021 (Revised June 2022)
Case

Darden Restaurants: The Nine Square Feet

By: Joshua D. Margolis and James Barnett

In June 2021, Darden Restaurants CEO Gene Lee contemplates how to position the world’s biggest full-service restaurant more than one year into the COVID-19 pandemic. View Details

Keywords: COVID-19 Pandemic; Agribusiness; Change; Decision Making; Food; Human Resources; Leadership; Operations; Strategy; Health Pandemics; Opportunities; Food and Beverage Industry; United States

February 1982 (Revised August 1985)
Case

U.S. Retail Coffee Market (A)

Set in mid-1978, this case covers all aspects of the U.S. retail coffee market both cross-sectionally and historically. The market is recovering from dramatic price rises and volume drops. The overall issue is the forecast of future market evolution and the... View Details

Keywords: Marketing Strategy; Industry Growth; Market Timing; Food and Beverage Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; United States

January 2018 (Revised March 2018)
Case

Lagunitas Brewing Company

By: Joshua Margolis, Allison Ciechanover and Jeff Huizinga

The CEO of a California-based craft brewery manages new partnership with—and potential acquisition by—industry giant Heineken. View Details

Keywords: Culture; Non-profit; International; Organizational Behavior; Food; Leadership; Mergers and Acquisitions; Organizational Culture; Management; Partners and Partnerships; Food and Beverage Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; United States

15 Dec 2020
Research & Ideas

The Unspoken Messages of COVID-19 Restrictions

partnership with the online review platform Yelp helped the researchers evaluate consumers’ interest in dining at restaurants as well as ordering food for delivery and takeout. The team found that: People... View Details

Keywords: by Danielle Kost; Food & Beverage

May 1994 (Revised November 1994)
Case

PepsiCo: A View from the Corporate Office

By: Lynda M. Applegate and Leonard A. Schlesinger

Describes the three business segments of PepsiCo (beverages, snack foods, and restaurants). It then explores the competitive environment within each segment and the response of PepsiCo's businesses. It seeks to show how PepsiCo CEO, D. Wayne Calloway, in a very... View Details

Keywords: Business Divisions; Change; Governance Controls; Management Style; Organizational Structure; Situation or Environment; Competitive Strategy; Value; Food and Beverage Industry

November 2001 (Revised March 2011)
Case

Corona Beer

By: Rohit Deshpande, Gustavo Herrero and Kirsten O'Neil Massaro

In early June 1997, the CEO and vice chairman of Grupo Modelo were reviewing the performance of Corona beer in the U.S. market. Despite a much higher sales volume growth rate, Corona still trailed Heineken, the #1 imported beer brand in the U.S. market. Could Corona... View Details

Keywords: Brands and Branding; Marketing Strategy; Sales; Competitive Strategy; Food and Beverage Industry; Mexico; United States

July 2022
Case

General Mills: Responding to the Killing of George Floyd (A)

By: Debora L. Spar and Alicia Dadlani

Jeff Harmening, CEO of General Mills, one of the world's largest manufacturers of breakfast cereals and packaged foods, was deeply disturbed and instantly aware that he and General Mills would need to respond. George Floyd, an African-American man who had been accused... View Details

Keywords: Race; Decisions; Social Issues; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Food and Beverage Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; Minneapolis; Minnesota; United States

December 2004 (Revised June 2005)
Case

Chez Cora

By: David E. Bell, Hal Hogan and Carin-Isabel Knoop

Chez Cora is a chain of breakfast restaurants that successfully expanded from Quebec to Ontario. Is it organized appropriately for more growth? Could the concept work in the United States? If so, how should a migration to the United States be structured? Includes color... View Details

Keywords: Food; Global Strategy; Innovation Strategy; Growth Management; Service Operations; Food and Beverage Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; Canada; United States

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January 2017 (Revised February 2018)
Case

Godiva Japan: Think Local, Scale Global

By: Rohit Deshpandé, Esel Cekin and Akiko Kanno

This case tracks Jerome Chouchan’s strategies and execution for a successful turnaround of Godiva Japan’s operations, which were experiencing a decline in sales when he became the managing director of the company in 2010. Through various initiatives and innovations,... View Details

January 1993 (Revised April 1995)
Case

Fog of Business, The

In the mid-1980s, the Holland Sweetener Co. (HSC) was facing the decision whether to enter the European and Canadian aspartame markets, following the ending of NutraSweet's patents there. A major question facing HSC was whether NutraSweet would respond to entry in an... View Details

Keywords: Risk and Uncertainty; Patents; Competition; Market Entry and Exit; Food and Beverage Industry; Canada; United States; Europe

October 1996 (Revised November 1996)
Case

Boston Beer Company: Samuel Adams, Brewmaster Leading a Revolution

By: Ray A. Goldberg and Mollie H. Carter

Boston Beer Co. revolutionized the beer industry by identifying and responding to a new consumer segment. Using the excess capacity in the brewing industry to establish contract brewing arrangements and an extremely capable sales force, the company opened the... View Details

Keywords: Transformation; Leadership; Product Marketing; Product Development; Production; Quality; Salesforce Management; Segmentation; Food and Beverage Industry

January 2003 (Revised May 2003)
Case

Heineken NV: Workplace HIV/AIDS Programs in Africa (B)

Second in a three-part series that explores the multifaceted organizational and strategic choices that companies now face as a result of the global AIDS epidemic. Heineken is considering becoming one of the first companies to offer AIDS drugs (antiretroviral therapy)... View Details

Keywords: Health Disorders; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Employees; Food and Beverage Industry; Africa

25 Feb 2020
News

In My Humble Opinion: Mr. Coffee

prides itself on a handcrafted approach to coffee beverages that highlight natural flavors. Before coming to HBS, Keller served four years in the Navy; he cites teamwork as one of the greatest attractions of the work he did then View Details

Keywords: Julia Hanna

October 2005 (Revised February 2007)
Case

Ripe 'n Ready

By: Ray A. Goldberg and Laura Winig

Stoned fruit has quality variations, reducing consumption. Five independent growers formed a cooperative to provide quality control and a brand name--Ripe 'N Ready--that enabled retailers to differentiate their stores and producers to differentiate the products they... View Details

Keywords: Quality; Brands and Branding; Competitive Strategy; Food and Beverage Industry