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- April 2020
- Background Note
U.S. Food Retail During the Pandemic: March 2020
By: José B. Alvarez and Natalie Kindred
This note, written in late March 2020 and mainly U.S. focused, looks at the unfolding impact of the coronavirus pandemic on food retailers and their suppliers. It allows student to consider the challenges facing food retail executives as they navigate urgent supply...
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- October 2019 (Revised October 2020)
- Case
Nehemiah Mfg. Co.: Providing a Second Chance
By: Michael Chu, Brian Trelstad and John Masko
In 2009, Dan Meyer and Richard Palmer, two veterans of the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) industry, founded Nehemiah Manufacturing to build FMCG brands while providing jobs to Cincinnati, Ohio’s beleaguered urban core. Two years later, the pair made their first...
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- 2019
- Working Paper
Real Exchange Rate Behavior: New Evidence from Matched Retail Goods
By: Alberto Cavallo, Brent Neiman and Roberto Rigobon
We use a dataset containing daily prices for thousands of matched retail products in nine countries to study tradable-goods real exchange rates. Prices were collected from the web-sites of large multi-channel retailers and then carefully matched into narrowly-defined...
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- April 2019 (Revised June 2019)
- Case
Wayfair
By: Jeffrey F. Rayport, Susie L. Ma and Matthew G. Preble
In 2016 Niraj Shah and Steve Conine, founders of online home goods retailer Wayfair, are faced with a decision about how to improve user experience on their e-commerce sites. A key driver of consumer interest and conversion to purchase in the home category is visual...
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- November 2018 (Revised April 2019)
- Case
Zespri Grows
By: David E. Bell and Natalie Kindred
Controlling about a third of global kiwifruit exports by volume and nearly half by value in 2018, Zespri was a grower-owned “corporatized cooperative” with the exclusive right to export New Zealand-grown kiwifruit (except to Australia). Zespri did not grow fruit but...
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Keywords:
Agribusiness;
Kiwi;
Kiwifruit;
Agriculture;
Global Supply Chain;
Branding;
Produce;
Coordinated Industry Structure;
Industry Coordination;
Countercyclical Supply;
New Product Development;
Product Strategy;
Differentiation;
Food;
Quality;
Trade;
Brands And Branding;
Marketing;
Strategy;
Global Strategy;
Change Management;
Organizational Change And Adaptation;
Globalization;
Globalized Firms And Management;
Competitive Strategy;
Resource Allocation;
Product Development;
Agriculture And Agribusiness Industry;
consumer Products Industry;
Food And Beverage Industry;
New Zealand
- November 2018 (Revised May 2019)
- Case
Almarai Company: Milk and Modernization in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
By: Kristin Fabbe, Safwan Al-Amin, Esel Cekin and Natalie Kindred
With SAR 14 billion ($3.7 billion) in 2017 revenues, Almarai was Saudi Arabia’s largest dairy producer, distributor, and marketer, with a large portfolio of branded dairy products, juices, bakery goods, and infant formula and a sales presence across the Gulf region,...
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Keywords:
Dairy;
Agriculture;
Kingdom Of Saudi Arabia;
Almarai;
Schorderet;
Food Security;
Public Policy;
Self Sufficiency;
Gulf;
Gcc;
Business And Government;
Agribusiness;
Marketing;
Distribution;
Change Management;
Leading Change;
Strategy;
Government And Politics;
Policy;
Diversification;
Integration;
Horizontal Integration;
Vertical Integration;
Food;
Brands And Branding;
Growth And Development Strategy;
Business And Government Relations;
Agriculture And Agribusiness Industry;
Food And Beverage Industry;
consumer Products Industry;
Saudi Arabia;
Middle East
- February 2018 (Revised April 2018)
- Case
Yunnan Baiyao: Transforming a Chinese State-Owned Enterprise
By: Michael Chu, William C. Kirby, Nancy Hua Dai and Yuanzhuo Wang
This case tells the story of how Wang Minghui, Chairman of Yunnan Baiyao Group since 1999, transformed a single-product traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) state-owned enterprise (SOE) into a major diversified consumer health player in China's highly competitive...
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Keywords:
State-owned Enterprise (soe);
Competition;
Traditional Chinese Medicine;
Yunnan;
Yunnan Baiyao;
Consumer Health;
Enterprise Transformation;
Transformation;
Health;
Business History;
State Ownership;
Private Ownership;
Business Strategy;
Commercialization;
Competition;
consumer Products Industry;
Health Industry;
Pharmaceutical Industry;
China
- January 2018
- Case
Kids & Company: Entering the U.S.
By: Boris Groysberg, Matthew G. Preble and Katherine Connolly Baden
In April 2017, Victoria Sopik and Jennifer Nashmi, CEO and CFO (respectively) of Kids & Company, a Canadian childcare provider that they had co-founded in the early 2000s and developed into a nearly 100-unit enterprise, are discussing how the company should proceed...
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Keywords:
Child Care;
Childcare;
Day Care;
Daycare;
Early Childhood Education;
Strategy;
Growth And Development Strategy;
Growth Management;
Business Strategy;
Competitive Strategy;
Competitive Advantage;
Expansion;
Leadership;
Marketing;
Product Marketing;
Brands And Branding;
Service Delivery;
Service Operations;
Product Design;
Product Development;
Cross-cultural And Cross-border Issues;
Selection And Staffing;
Customer Focus And Relationships;
Entrepreneurship;
Service Industry;
Education Industry;
United States;
Canada
- October 2017 (Revised August 2020)
- Case
RB
By: Joshua Margolis, Vincent Dessain and Jerome Lenhardt
As 2016 was approaching its end, Rakesh Kapoor, CEO of RB, one of the world’s major fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) companies, envisioned the prospect of a major acquisition that would add a line of health-related products that promised growth in the developing...
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- January 2017
- Case
Bayer AG: Bidding to Win Merck's OTC Business
By: Benjamin C. Esty, Marc Baaij and Arjen Mulder
Shortly after submitting their best and final offer to acquire Merck's Consumer Care Division (a collection of "over-the-counter" (OTC) products with sales totaling $2 billion), the Bayer M&A team was given a chance to revise their bid because another potential...
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Keywords:
Acquisition;
Bidding Strategy;
Valuing Synergies;
Negotiations;
Corporate Strategy;
Business Unit Strategy;
Bidding Process;
Valuation;
Auctions;
Discounted Cash Flow;
Cross-border M＆a;
Tax Shields;
Valuation;
Competitive Strategy;
Auctions;
Bids And Bidding;
Germany;
United States;
United Kingdom
- January 2016
- Case
Open Innovation at Fujitsu (A)
By: Amy C. Edmondson and Jean-François Harvey
This case study examines the open innovation journey at Fujitsu, a global information and communication technology company. The case ends with the location decision between Tokyo, Japan, downtown San Francisco or Sunnyvale, California, regarding establishing a small...
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Keywords:
Open Innovation;
Collaboration;
Culture Change;
Change Management;
Leadership;
Japan;
United States;
Inter-organizational Relationships;
Teaming;
Maker Movement;
Nascent Industries;
Change Management;
Leading Change;
Organizational Culture;
Emerging Markets;
Collaborative Innovation And Invention;
Information Technology Industry;
Technology Industry;
Sunnyvale;
Tokyo;
San Francisco
- April 2014
- Article
The Limits of Scale: Companies That Get Big Fast Are Often Left Behind. Here's Why.
By: Hanna Halaburda and Felix Oberholzer-Gee
The value of many products and services rises or falls with the number of customers using them; the fewer fax machines in use, the less important it is to have one. These network effects influence consumer decisions and affect companies' ability to compete. Strategists...
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- June 2011 (Revised May 2012)
- Case
Reckitt Benckiser: Fast and Focused Innovation
By: Rebecca M. Henderson and Ryan Johnson
Since its 1999 merger Reckitt Benckiser (RB), a global consumer goods company, led by its CEO Bart Becht, RB developed a reputation for rapid product innovation and industry leading profit margins. RB's stated strategy was to focus on its Powerbrands and high growth...
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- September 2010
- Case
Aaron's: Household Goods for the U.S. Base of the Pyramid
By: Michael Chu and Charles Augustus Smithgall IV
With $2.5 billion system-wide revenues, Aaron's, a major rent-to-own supplier to the U.S. base of the pyramid, continues to grow in the recession, but CEO R.C. Loudermilk, Jr. wonders how long the company can sustain the fast growth rate of its past. Founded in 1955,...
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- April 2010 (Revised October 2010)
- Case
Vale: Global Expansion in the Challenging World of Mining
By: Tarun Khanna, Aldo Musacchio and Ricardo Reisen de Pinho
In 2009 the management of Vale, a Brazilian diversified mining company and the largest iron ore producer in the world, was under pressure from at least two fronts. First, the emergence of China as the most important consumer of iron ore in the last few years had...
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- 2010
- Book
Renewing Unilever: Transformation and Tradition
By: G. Jones
Unilever's brands can now be found in one out of every two households in the world. This arresting and impressive fact shows the scope and scale of this unique global corporation. Geoffrey Jones, a leading business historian from the Harvard Business School, takes us...
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- February 2010 (Revised May 2012)
- Case
Dollarama Inc.
By: Andre F. Perold
Dollarama is the leading operator of dollar stores in Canada. The firm performed extraordinarily well after a leveraged buyout in 2004 and recently executed a highly successful IPO. The company sources its goods primarily from Asia. It has strong brand recognition and...
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- 2008
- Book
On Competition
By: M. E. Porter
Competition is one of society's most powerful forces for making things better in many fields of human endeavor. The study of competition and the creation of value, in their full richness, have preoccupied me for several decades. Competition is pervasive, whether it...
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- October 2006 (Revised May 2007)
- Case
Academia Barilla
By: David E. Bell and Mary L. Shelman
Barilla, the world's largest pasta company, has introduced a new high-quality, high-priced product line that features a range of authentic Italian food products sourced from artisan producers. Management believes the line will appeal to consumers seeking healthier...
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- December 2005 (Revised July 2006)
- Case
Bunge: Poised for Growth
By: David E. Bell and Mary L. Shelman
As CEO of the world's largest oilseed processor, Alberto Weisser of Bunge must not only decide how quickly to expand in fast-growing markets of Eastern Europe and Asia, but also how best to leverage the firm's global footprint and leadership position. The firm is...
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