Category winner:
Château Margaux: Launching the Third Wine

Elie Ofek and Eric E Vogt

Elie talks about wine being an excellent case topic and stepping into the unknown with a new case.

Keeping up with the latest trends

Elie said: “The marketing group at Harvard Business School prides itself on keeping abreast of the most critical issues facing marketing managers today.

“Moreover, there is often an attempt to examine how marketing issues relate to broader business phenomenon (such as strategy, entrepreneurship, leadership or ethics).

“The combination results in rich cases that serve as excellent pedagogical vehicles that instructors and students greatly appreciate.”

Case recognition

“Being among the top 40 bestselling authors two years in a row has been a great honour. It suggests that several of my cases are popular. Notwithstanding, the recognition this year that a particular piece of work has been especially well-received by the academic educator community is very rewarding. To know that one of my cases has had such a strong impact allows me to better gauge what type of materials are most effective. I hope to be able to keep working on cases that the community finds valuable.”

Picking a fascinating topic

“Wine is a topic that fascinates many people, and this is particularly true for business students (MBAs and executives) who often consume wine in various settings. It is very easy to relate to the product category as you can imagine.

“That said, it was not wine per se (though I am never one to refuse a glass of Château Margaux…) it was more the dilemmas facing the business, and the breadth of strategic issues involved, that drew me to work on this case.

“Furthermore, I had met the owner and other senior managers and was thoroughly impressed, and felt they brought a unique and insightful perspective to the issues at hand.

Different perspectives

“Almost every person has a different perspective on wine – as a consumer and as an observer of others consuming in social settings. Given that experiences with and attitudes towards wine are affected by local norms, people from different countries and of different age groups infuse diverse points into the discussion. Indeed, I have taught the case in many settings and every time there are comments and ideas that I had not heard or even thought about before.”

Stepping into the unknown

“There is always an element of ‘mystery’ or ‘the unknown’ when starting to work on a new case. You are often not entirely sure what the key issues to focus on are that will excite other academics and students, how best to present them to enable meaningful analysis and discussion, and ultimately whether the case will serve as a go-to vehicle to teach a particular concept or theme.

“You learn a lot in the process of interviewing key company figures (if it is a field-researched case) or gathering information from the public domain. It is part of the enjoyment in writing a case to iterate and see how various sections take shape in a manner you did not necessarily anticipate going in.”

About the authors

Elie Ofek is the T.J. Dermot Dunphy Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School.
e eofek@hbs.edu

Eric E Vogt was a Research Associate at Harvard Business School when the case was written. He is now CEO of eProvenance.
e eric.vogt@eprovenance.com