by Jose Alvarez and Len Schlesinger - Publications - Faculty & Research

17 Jun 2017
Research & Ideas

Amazon, Whole Foods Deal a Big Win for Consumers

Source: 400tmax Editor's Note. Online retailing behemoth Amazon announced June 16 that it would acquire upscale grocery chain Whole Foods Market in a deal valued at more than $13 billion. Though the company has dabbled with the idea of a brick-and-mortar footprint in... View Details

Keywords: by Jose Alvarez and Len Schlesinger; Retail

10 Oct 2011
Research & Ideas

Retailing Revolution: Category Killers on the Brink

declined or held flat, and return on invested capital (ROIC) has suffered dramatically. This decline in ROIC has been exacerbated by the significant growth in store square footage before the recession.... View Details

Keywords: by Rajiv Lal & Jose B. Alvarez; Retail

10 Mar 2015
Research & Ideas

The Surprising Winners and Losers in the Retail Revolution

Point: Which Stores Will Survive? book excerpt Will The Internet Push Grocery Retailers Over The Edge? From Retail Revolution: Will Your Brick-and-Mortar Store Survive? By Rajiv Lal, Jose View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Retail

03 Feb 2016
Research & Ideas

The State of Customer Service Leadership

Harvard Business School professors Jim Heskett (now emeritus), Earl Sasser, and Len Schlesinger have been studying the service sector—the good View Details

Keywords: by Jim Aisner; Retail

31 Jul 2017
HBS Case

It’s Hard to Fix the Family Business Without Offending the Family

to change them.” Blame it on the alcohol Schlesinger’s student coauthors worked with Tam Le as part of the HBS Neighborhood Business Partnership, a field-based second-year course led by Schlesinger View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Food & Beverage

17 Mar 2015
Research & Ideas

Where Did My Shopping Mall Go?

Surprising Winners and Losers in the Retail Revolution Retail Reaches a Tipping Point—Which Stores Will Survive? book excerpt The Trends Shaping Retail's Future From Retail Revolution: Will Your Brick-and-Mortar Store Survive? View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Retail

25 Jul 2017
First Look

First Look at New Research and Ideas: July 25, 2017

cast may deviate dramatically from pure QV predictions because of the complex and refined nature of equilibrium play. Most plausibly, voting behavior and outcomes would be determined predominately View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

04 Mar 2024
What Do You Think?

Do People Want to Work Anymore?

(AdobeStock/Halfpoint) Sometimes we experience what Yogi Berra described as “déjà vu all over again.” It happened to me several weeks ago and left me wondering whether it’s déjà vu or whether things really have changed. Years ago, my... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

24 May 2011
First Look

First Look: May 24

PublicationsClusters and Competitiveness: Porter's Contribution Authors:Christian H.M. Ketels Publication:Chap. 10 in Competition and Competitive Advantage: The Ideas of Michael Porter, edited View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

02 Jun 2022
Research & Ideas

Blissful Thinking: When It Comes to Finding Happiness, 'Your Dreams Are Liars'

When Arthur Brooks was interviewing for his job, longtime Harvard Business School professor Len Schlesinger asked him, “What can you teach that really only you can teach—and that we need View Details

Keywords: by Dan Morrell

January 2014
Supplement

J.C. Penney's 'Fair and Square' Strategy (C): Back to the Future

By: Elie Ofek, Jill Avery and Jose B. Alvarez

Rehired in April 2013, Myron E. "Mike" Ullman III was brought back to stabilize the retailer's business. Under Ron Johnson's "Fair and Square" program, sales had declined rapidly and quarterly losses and expensive capital investments had put severe pressure on cash... View Details

Keywords: Decisions; Marketing Strategy; Retail Industry

Citation

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03 Feb 2015
First Look

First Look: February 3

the state level. Additional models examined whether this relationship was affected, both separately and jointly, by insurance mandates and the Great Recession. Results: The... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

05 Mar 2012
Research & Ideas

Is JC Penney’s Makeover the Future of Retailing?

perception, observed Lal and coauthor Jose B. Alvarez in Retailing Revolution: Category Killers on the Brink. TJX Companies—parent company of T.J. Maxx, Marshalls, View Details

Keywords: by Kim Girard; Retail

12 Jul 2020
Book

The Harvard Business School Faculty Summer Reader 2020

Schlesinger I have just begun Deaths of Despair and the Future of Capitalism by Anne Case and Nobel Prize-winner Angus Deaton. This book... View Details

Keywords: by Staff

Research Summary

Moving Beyond Direct-to-Consumer

By: Leonard A. Schlesinger

Changing consumer behaviors have redefined what it means to be direct to consumer ("DTC"). What once began online a decade ago as a distribution and disintermediation strategy has since evolved into a multifaceted approach for the modern-day brand.

The... View Details

Research Summary

Growing as a Purposeful Leader

By: Leonard A. Schlesinger

Leaders today have to lead in the context of extraordinary changes and challenges. The demands of today's stakeholders have risen significantly, and what is expected of senior leaders is quickly evolving in terms of their mission (more than profit),... View Details

31 Jul 2015
Research & Ideas

The Faculty Reader: Who is Reading What This Summer?

Schlesinger I have just begun Deaths of Despair and the Future of Capitalism by Anne Case and Nobel Prize-winner Angus Deaton. This book... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Information; Publishing

December 2019 (Revised March 2020)
Case

Impossible Foods

By: Jose B. Alvarez and Natalie Kindred

Impossible Foods founder and CEO Pat Brown started the company out of concern over livestock production’s impact on climate change. Impossible’s mission is to end consumption of animals by 2035, and its strategy is to develop and market plant-based foods so similar to... View Details

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December 2015 (Revised April 2019)
Case

Chicken Republic

By: Jose Alvarez and Natalie Kindred

Deji Akinyanju, founder of Nigerian fast-food chain Chicken Republic, and Ayo Oduntan, founder of an integrated Nigerian poultry operation (Amo Byng Group), are among a growing cadre of skilled food-industry entrepreneurs for whom the opportunities to serve the... View Details

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December 2022
Case

Mission Produce in 2022

By: Forest Reinhardt, Jose B. Alvarez and Natalie Kindred

Founded by CEO Steve Barnard in 1983, California-based Mission Produce was a leading supplier of Hass avocados with a global sourcing, marketing, and distribution network and $892 million in 2021 sales. Barnard had been influential in the global avocado trade’s... View Details