Publications

Web

Impact of the New Medium - Edwin H. Land & Polaroid | Harvard Business School

paper with the use of a built-in cutter-blade. After one minute, they unlatched the back of the camera to peel away a print that was face down toward the negative. 74 The film packet, which retailed for $1.75, included eight exposures on... View Details

September 2003 (Revised January 2004)
Case

Wal-Mart Stores in 2003

By: Pankaj Ghemawat, Stephen P. Bradley and Ken Mark

Examines Wal-Mart's development over three decades and provides financial and descriptive detail of its domestic operations. In 2003, Wal-Mart's Supercenter business has surpassed its domestic business as the largest generator of revenues. Its international operation... View Details

Keywords: Wages; Fairness; Corporate Strategy; Operations; Labor Unions; Problems and Challenges; Gender; Globalized Firms and Management; Competitive Advantage; Retail Industry; United States

01 Aug 1998
News

Spangler Family Gift Endows New Campus Center

dining hall, freeing Kresge Hall's facilities for other uses; a large, comfortable lounge area; a business center with telephones and fax machines; two multipurpose rooms for receptions; a grill/pub area; a 350-person auditorium; administrative offices for the MBA... View Details

Keywords: Nancy O. Perry

October 1992 (Revised September 1993)
Case

L.L. Bean, Inc.: Item Forecasting and Inventory Management

By: Arthur Schleifer Jr.

L.L. Bean must make stocking decisions on thousands of items sold through its catalogs. In many cases, orders must be placed with vendors twelve or more weeks before a catalog lands on a customer's doorstep, and commitments cannot be changed thereafter. As a result,... View Details

Keywords: Forecasting and Prediction; Risk Management; Cost Management; Risk and Uncertainty; Demand and Consumers; Order Taking and Fulfillment; Retail Industry; United States

January 2022
Case

Walmart USA—Searching for Growth

By: Felix Oberholzer-Gee and Maria P. Roche

In 2022, Doug McMillon, president and CEO of Walmart, and his team looked back at a difficult but ultimately successful past year. The global pandemic had posed enormous challenges, but the company had weathered the storm successfully, raising same-store sales growth,... View Details

Keywords: Health Pandemics; Growth and Development Strategy; Sales; Business Strategy; Business and Shareholder Relations; Retail Industry

April 2004 (Revised September 2004)
Case

IKEA Invades America

By: Youngme E. Moon

In 2002, the IKEA Group is the world's top furniture retailer, with 154 stores worldwide. In the United States, IKEA operates 14 stores, all of which have been enormously popular despite their self-service requirements. The company's goal is to have 50 stores in... View Details

Keywords: Growth and Development Strategy; Brands and Branding; Product Positioning; Goals and Objectives; Competitive Advantage; Globalized Firms and Management; Retail Industry; United States

Profile

Brandon Graves

time, I couldn’t anticipate how much my initial opinions and viewpoints would change over an 80-minute case discussion. What is your favorite childhood memory? One of my favorite childhood memories is going to work with my mother. She worked in the View Details

August 2013 (Revised July 2014)
Case

Coffee Wars in India: Café Coffee Day Takes On the Global Brands

By: David B. Yoffie and Tanya Bijlani

Café Coffee Day (CCD) is contemplating how to respond to the entry of Starbucks into the Indian coffee chain market. The case study describes the emergence of CCD as the leading coffee chain in India, with over 1,400 cafes in India. In early 2013, Starbucks, the... View Details

Keywords: Strategy; Competitors; Competition; Market Entry and Exit; Retail Industry; India

08 Apr 2019
Sharpening Your Skills

The Life of Luxury and How to Sell It

Research released recently by iseecars.com seems to indicate a fleeting happiness with luxury cars. New buyers of BMW, Jaguar, Land Rover, Mercedes-Benz, and Porsche sell them more frequently in the first year than owners of other models. Car owners who drive their... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Retail; Retail; Retail

06 Nov 2008
Op-Ed

Selling Out The American Dream

zero. Consumer confidence has plummeted with the value of 401(k) plans and retirement nest eggs. Retail sales fell 1.2 percent in September, double the expected decline. Car sales are at a fifteen-year low. And credit card defaults look... View Details

Keywords: by John Quelch

02 Jun 2020
Research & Ideas

Coronavirus Careers: Cloud Kitchens Are Now Serving

creating their own cloud kitchens, analogous to retailers creating their own private labels. DoorDash, Uber Eats, Deliveroo, and Swiggy have already entered the cloud kitchen space by partnering directly with restaurants. Cloud kitchens... View Details

Keywords: by Lena Ye and Geoffrey Jones; Food & Beverage

17 Aug 2009
Research & Ideas

Quantifying the Economic Impact of the Internet

Internet provides to the rest of the U.S. economy is estimated at $175 billion. It comprises $20 billion of advertising services, $85 billion of retail transactions (net of cost of goods), and $70 billion of direct payments to Internet... View Details

Keywords: by John Quelch; Advertising; Publishing

Web

Case Studies - Social Impact Collaboratory

public school teachers (CalSTRS) was mandated by his board to “prioritize engagement with makers and retailers of firearms in California” following a series of gun-related tragedies in schools. While CalSTRS had a long history of... View Details

Teaching Interest

Doing Business in Africa

By: John D. Macomber

This course introduces frameworks and models for smart and focused investing and operations across sectors, nations, industries, and time frames in Africa. Students will learn tools and skills to help navigate the business landscape of Africa in terms of selection... View Details

Keywords: Africa

November 2000 (Revised March 2001)
Case

Iggy's Bread of the World

By: Kathleen L. McGinn and Alexis Lefort

In January 1994, Igor and Ludmilla Ivanovic opened the doors of their bakery, Iggy's Bread of the World. This case describes their unusual mission statement and the way in which they try to bring a social consciousness mentality to a for-profit business. Six years... View Details

Keywords: Growth Management; Mission and Purpose; Organizational Culture; Restructuring; Family Business; Power and Influence; Retail Industry; Retail Industry; Massachusetts

10 Nov 2015
Blog Post

Using an MBA for a Career Change

and do a ten day consulting project for a company in an emerging market. My team worked for Dafiti.com, the second largest e-commerce retailer in Brazil. I was impressed by how rapidly e-commerce companies could create jobs and started... View Details

December 2009
Case

TruEarth Healthy Foods: Market Research for a New Product Introduction

By: V. Kasturi Rangan and Sunru Yong

Topics covered include: consumer marketing, market research, new product introduction, and quantitative analysis. TruEarth Healthy Foods, a maker of gourmet pastas, sauces, and meals, wants to build on its successful introduction of fresh whole grain pasta by... View Details

Keywords: Market Research; Consumer Marketing; Brands; Food; Marketing Strategy; Consumer Behavior; Forecasting and Prediction; Product Launch; Brands and Branding; Retail Industry; Retail Industry