M348C
Jennifer Aaker, Debra Schifrin
2014
Stories play an important role in business. They are a powerful tool for persuasion and useful in the context of understanding customers, building brands and leading teams. The case explores how stories can drive the growth of a company, focusing on Brit…
M348B
Jennifer Aaker, Debra Schifrin
2014
Stories play an important role in business. They are a powerful tool for persuasion and useful in the context of understanding customers, building brands and leading teams. Set in 2014, the case explores how stories can drive the growth of a company…
M348A
Jennifer Aaker, Debra Schifrin
2014
Stories play an important role in business. They are a powerful tool for persuasion and useful in the context of understanding customers, building brands, and leading teams. This case explores how stories can drive the growth of a company, focusing on…
E461
Jim Lattin, Kirk Bowman, Justin Kiessig
2014
The Trunk Club: Hiring, Motivating, and Managing A Sales Team case begins with a description of the company’s business model and the path that led the main protagonist, Brian Spaly, to the CEO post. Five sections compose the main body of the case. The…
E464
George Foster, Sara Rosenthal
2013
This case profiles the launch and growth of Tough Mudder, a startup founded by Will Dean and Guy Livingstone in the mud run/adventure challenge space. Dean, an avid triathlete and marathoner, found these solitary endurance events boring, and wanted to…
E475
Jonathan Levav, Russell Siegelman, Justin Randoplh
2013
The case profiles the protagonist, David Neeleman, a serial “airline” entrepreneur (previous founder and CEO of the US Airline, JetBlue), as he develops the concept for Azul Airlines International – a low-cost, customer service-centric Brazilian airline…
M353
Jennifer Aaker, Sarah Joyce
2013
Circle Du Soleil was one of the most successful entertainment companies in the world, a cross between a vibrant acrobatic show and a compelling narrative musical framework that captivated audiences since 1984. However, building one of the world’s…
E507B
John Glynn, Tim Hsia
2013
Case describes the funding landscape for enterprise technology startups and how there has been a renewed interest in these types of companies in 2012 and 2013. The case highlights recent IPOs within this sector and the venture capitalists who have created…
E507A
John Glynn, Tim Hsia
2013
Case describes the funding landscape for enterprise technology startups and how there has been a renewed interest in these types of companies in 2012 and 2013. The case highlights recent IPOs within this sector and the venture capitalists who have created…
M346
Jennifer Aaker, Jake Poses, Debra Schifrin
2013
The case describes how five organizations (Salesforce.com, Indiegogo, Ferrari, Thumbtack’s Team Philippines, and the U.S. military) developed successful strategies to foster happiness within their organizations and align it with their business objectives…
M347
Sridhar Narayanan, Taylan Yildiz
2013
Star Digital, a multichannel video service provider with over US$100 million in annual advertising spends, was gradually increasing its online advertising spend. The company was extremely active in managing its substantial advertising budget, using…
E470
Andrew Rachleff, Sara Rosenthal
2013
The Airbnb case describes the very early days of this startup, beginning with the founders’ original concept of renting out air beds and serving breakfast (“Airbed and Breakfast”) in their apartment to conference attendees as an alternative to expensive…
E433
Robert Chess, Sara Rosenthal
2013
The Sunrun case profiles the evolution of this residential solar financing startup, focusing on the company’s hypergrowth during its early years. The case begins with Sunrun’s launch by two GSB graduates, Ed Fenster and Lynn Jurich, together with one of…
M354
Jennifer Aaker, Maile Lesica, Barbara McCarthy, Tina Sharkey, Tamsin Smith
2012
Stories drive almost everything we do, whether it is the motivation for why we raise our children a certain way, or the backstory for choosing one product over another at the grocery store. In ways that logical arguments and data are not, stories are…
M345
Jennifer Aaker, Sara Gaviser Leslie, Debra Schifrin
2012
The Business Case for Happiness discusses why it is important for employees and customers to be happy, how happiness positively impacts the bottom line, and how an organization can design for happiness. Research shows that employee happiness leads to…
M343
Jennifer L Aaker, Debra Schifrin
2012
In 2012 the New York-based airline JetBlue served 70 cities with 650 daily flights. JetBlue prided itself on being a fun, low-cost airline with high-quality customer service and popular amenities not found on other airlines. But while it had loyal…
M341
Jennifer Aaker, Debra Schifrin
2012
In 2012 BabyCenter was the largest parenting platform and parenting media company in the world. It provided expert advice to pregnant women and new mothers while connecting these women to each other online and in person. The company had 110 employees…
E401
George Foster, Arar Han
2011
Robert Eberhart is an American electronics executive living abroad in Japan as market president. He’s ready to move on to something new and discovers that the changing distribution laws in Japan may provide him a chance to upend the supply chain for…
E395
Arar Han, James Lattin, Mark Leslie
2011
James Gutierrez has started a socially responsible consumer lending company focused on serving the underbanked Hispanic market. The company has gone through a succession of sales directors and Gutierrez has now pinned his hopes on his operations director…
M338
Lyn Denend, Baba Shiv
2011
In 2010, the New Zealand Merino Company Limited (NZM) secured a combination of government and private funding to help it further advance its efforts to revolutionize the country’s sheep industry. Specifically, the company’s top priorities were to expand…
M337
Jennifer Aaker, Sara Leslie
2010
This case describes how Bonobos, an internet apparel retailer, leveraged social media to connect with its customers and prospects. Through connecting directly with customers using social media, the company found that consumers were not only interested…
M330
Jennifer Aaker, Sara Leslie, Carole Robin
2010
The case is meant to provide an overview of research on happiness. It offers a definition for happiness and explains many of the determinants of happiness while dispelling some myths we hold about what makes us happy and how we can obtain happiness (ie…
M335
Jennifer Aaker, Sara Leslie, David Rogier
2010
Coca-Cola (“Coke”) is one of the best-known brands in the world and the world’s sixth-largest advertiser based on dollars spent needed a cost-effective way to build deeper connections with consumers, especially teens, and its flagship Coke product. The…
M336
Jennifer Aaker, David Hoyt, Sara Leslie, David Rogier
2010
JetBlue created its first Twitter account in May 2007 (twitter.com/JetBlue). The company’s goal was to target its frequent flyers, the loyal TrueBlue users. Realizing the power of Twitter, JetBlue created a cross-departmental working group from marketing…
