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- April 2022
- Case
The First Opium War and Global Free Trade
By: Jeremy Friedman and Allison Lazarus
The First Opium War (1839-1842) symbolized the peak of the era of European imperialism, with a political and cultural legacy that remains potent to this day. The British Empire, “acquired in a fit of absent-mindedness” as one observer famously claimed, seemed to be...
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Keywords:
Imperialism;
Narcotics;
Importing;
History;
Globalized Markets and Industries;
Trade;
Social Issues
- November 2021 (Revised March 2022)
- Case
AppHarvest: Rebuilding the Appalachian Economy Through Agriculture
By: Joshua Lev Krieger, William R. Kerr and Christian Godwin
In 2021, AppHarvest completed construction of a 60-acre indoor farming facility, one of the world’s largest, recorded its first sales, and went public in a multi-billion dollar IPO. Described as “a force of nature,” Jonathan Webb founded the company to bring jobs back...
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- November 2021
- Case
LKQ-Stahlgruber
By: Guhan Subramanian and Caeden Brynie
Through a combination of organic growth and acquisitions, LKQ Corp. became the leading aftermarket auto parts distributor in the U.S. by the early 2000s. Beginning in 2012, the company began similarly consolidating the European marketplace. However, by 2017, the...
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- 2021
- Chapter
Digital Transformation and the Salesforce: Observations, Warnings, and Recommendations
Sales is a crucial test for organizational change, including productive use (or not) of new technologies. Changes in selling always have wider organizational implications, because so many other decisions and resource commitments in firms depend upon demand forecasts...
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- April 2021
- Article
The Effects of Quota Frequency: Sales Performance and Product Focus
By: Doug J. Chung, Das Narayandas and Dongkyu Chang
This study investigates the comprehensive and multidimensional effects of quota (goal) frequency on sales force performance. We develop a theory of salespeople’s behavior—aggregate effort and the product type focus—in response to the temporal length of a sales-quota...
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- March 2021 (Revised May 2021)
- Case
M-KOPA: Empowering Lives
By: V. Kasturi Rangan, Wale Lawal and Pippa Tubman Armerding
The Pay As You Go solar power company in East Africa had sales of $71 million in 2019. It wished to grow to $300 million by 2025. M-KOPA, founded by three entrepreneurs in 2011, had grown nicely in Kenya and Uganda to reach nearly 750,000 households with an...
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- July 2020
- Technical Note
Digital Natives Growing Without a Sales Force
By: Das Narayandas, Michael Norris and Amram Migdal
This brief case describes the rise of so-called digital natives (also called born-in-digital) in the 2000s and 2010s that successfully grew without a sales force. The case highlights the emergence of business-to-business Internet and cloud-based companies and their...
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Keywords:
Government Administration;
Crisis Management;
Health;
Health Pandemics;
Innovation and Invention;
Innovation Leadership;
Innovation Strategy;
Technological Innovation;
Social Issues;
Information Technology;
Mobile and Wireless Technology;
Applications and Software;
Technology Adoption;
Information Technology Industry;
Australia;
North and Central America;
United States;
Illinois;
Chicago;
California;
San Francisco
- November 2019 (Revised April 2020)
- Case
Purple Innovation, Inc.: The Online to Offline Marketing Challenge
By: Elie Ofek and Nakisha Williams
This case focuses on Purple Innovation Inc. (Purple), a company that started out in the Direct to Consumer (DTC) mattress space. In late 2018, after a successful launch and IPO with sales predominantly originating from its website, Purple was looking to sustain its...
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- Article
Sales Methodologies and Selling
Sales methodologies play an important role. A common approach in a sales force allows for consistency, dissemination of best practices, acceleration of learning, and it helps the firm to scale because management then has common metrics to monitor and evaluate. However,...
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- June 2019 (Revised September 2019)
- Case
Parrot: Navigating the Nascent Drone Industry
By: Rory M. McDonald, Emilie Billaud and Vincent Dessain
In 2018, Henri Seydoux, CEO and Founder of Parrot, believed that his company was at an inflection point in its history. Parrot had been a European leader in consumer electronics since the 1990s, first developing Bluetooth kits for cars before moving on to electronic...
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Keywords:
Forecasting and Prediction;
Disruption;
Entrepreneurship;
Corporate Strategy;
Technological Innovation;
Leading Change;
Competitive Advantage;
Information Technology;
Competitive Strategy;
Consumer Products Industry;
Electronics Industry;
Entertainment and Recreation Industry;
Motion Pictures and Video Industry;
Technology Industry;
Video Game Industry;
Europe;
France;
Paris
- April 2019
- Teaching Note
The a2 Milk Company
By: Benjamin C. Esty and Daniel Fisher
The a2 Milk Company (a2MC) became the most valuable company listed on the New Zealand stock exchange in 2018 by capitalizing on a biochemical discovery related to the protein composition of cow's milk. Because many people find the A1 protein difficult to digest, and...
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Keywords:
Judo Economics;
Market Entry;
Innovation;
Barriers To Response;
Industry Attractiveness;
Advantage Horizon;
Sustainability;
First-mover Advantage;
Scope;
Strategy Execution;
Strategic Evolution;
Biochemistry;
Genetics;
Branding;
Commodity;
Milk;
Dairy;
Infant Formula;
Farming;
Porter's Five Forces;
Market Entry and Exit;
Disruption;
Innovation and Invention;
Competitive Advantage;
Corporate Strategy;
Value Creation;
Competition;
Brands and Branding;
Five Forces Framework;
Consumer Products Industry;
New Zealand;
Australia;
China
- February 2019 (Revised September 2021)
- Case
The a2 Milk Company
By: Benjamin C. Esty and Daniel Fisher
The a2 Milk Company (a2MC) became the most valuable company listed on the New Zealand stock exchange in 2018 by capitalizing on a biochemical discovery related to the protein composition of cow's milk. Because many people find the A1 protein difficult to digest, and...
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Keywords:
Judo Economics;
Market Entry;
Innovation;
Barriers To Response;
Industry Attractiveness;
Advantage Horizon;
Sustainability;
First-mover Advantage;
Scope;
Strategy Execution;
Strategic Evolution;
Biochemistry;
Genetics;
Branding;
Commodity;
Milk;
Dairy;
Infant Formula;
Farming;
Porter's Five Forces;
Competitive Advantage;
Corporate Strategy;
Value Creation;
Competition;
Disruption;
Innovation and Invention;
Five Forces Framework;
Market Entry and Exit
- January 2019 (Revised February 2019)
- Supplement
The a2 Milk Company
By: Benjamin C. Esty, Daniel Fisher and Greg Saldutte
The a2 Milk Company (a2MC) became the most valuable company listed on the New Zealand stock exchange in 2018 by capitalizing on a biochemical discovery related to the protein composition of cow's milk. Because many people find the A1 protein difficult to digest, and...
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Keywords:
Judo Economics;
Market Entry;
Innovation;
Barriers To Response;
Industry Attractiveness;
Advantage Horizon;
Sustainability;
First-mover Advantage;
Scope;
Strategy Execution;
Strategic Evolution;
Biochemistry;
Genetics;
Branding;
Commodity;
Milk;
Dairy;
Infant Formula;
Farming;
Porter's Five Forces;
Competitive Advantage;
Corporate Strategy;
Value Creation;
Competition;
Market Entry and Exit;
Disruption;
Innovation and Invention;
Five Forces Framework;
Consumer Products Industry;
New Zealand;
Australia;
China
- October 2018
- Case
Shield AI
By: Mitchell Weiss and A.J. Steinlage
Shield AI’s quadcopter – with no pilot and no flight plan – could clear a building and outpace human warfighters by almost five minutes. This was not to say that it was better than the warfighters or would replace their jobs, but it was evidence that autonomous robots...
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Keywords:
Public Entrepreneurship;
Artificial Intelligence;
AI;
Entrepreneurial Sales;
Government;
Defense;
Shield AI;
Brandon Tseng;
Ryan Tseng;
Andrew Reiter;
Robots;
Robotics;
UAV;
UAVs;
Government Sales;
Entrepreneurship;
Public Sector;
Sales;
Government Administration;
National Security;
Business and Government Relations;
AI and Machine Learning;
Technology Industry;
United States
- September 2018
- Case
Hunley, Inc.: Casting for Growth
By: John A. Quelch and James T. Kindley
Hunley, Inc. manufactures rods for the niche sport of fly fishing. It specializes in freshwater rods that are perceived as "middle-market" products, targeted at "avid" fly fishers. In the face of declining revenue and a decreasing price per unit sold, the company's...
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- June 2018
- Case
Meridian Systems
By: Frank V. Cespedes and Michael J. Roberts
The Meridian Systems case focuses on a start-up in the restaurant point of sale (POS) systems market. In early 2018, Meridian is getting ready to roll out a POS system based on a new technology—a tablet-based, Wi-Fi-enabled POS system (the "tablet" system, or...
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- June 2018
- Teaching Note
Meridian Systems (Brief Case)
By: Frank V. Cespedes and Michael J. Roberts
Teaching Note for HBS No. 918-533. The key issues discussed in the Meridian teaching note concern sales force deployment: decisions about how to focus sales efforts with respect to territories, customers, and products. The teaching note explains the strengths and...
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- May 2018 (Revised February 2019)
- Teaching Note
Greg Mazur and the Purchase of Great Eastern Premium Pet Foods
By: Richard S. Ruback, Royce Yudkoff and Ahron Rosenfeld
Teaching Note for HBS No. 211-085. Greg Mazur (HBS 1997) identified a small firm, Great Eastern Premium Pet Food, in December of 1998 that fit his search criteria and decided to offer the seller a cash price of $1.2 million plus an earn-out equal to 1% of revenue over...
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- April 2018
- Article
Effective Sales Training: What Are the Foundational Elements?
Across industries, turnover in sales positions averages about 25–30% annually. This means that, at many firms, the equivalent of the entire sales force must be replaced and trained every four years or so. No other function has an ongoing talent management task of that...
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- January–February 2018
- Article
More than a Paycheck: How to Create Good Blue-Collar Jobs in the Knowledge Economy
By: Dennis Campbell, John Case and Bill Fotsch
Fifty years ago a good blue-collar job was with a large manufacturer such as General Motors or Goodyear. Often unionized, it paid well, offered benefits, and was secure. But manufacturing employment has steadily declined, from about 25% of the U.S. labor force in 1970...
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