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Career Path - MBA

experience that won’t end after graduation. The HBS Career & Professional Development team ensure students have the tools they need to continue growing post-graduation. Your Personalized Experience First Year Career Visioning Meet with a... View Details

04 Feb 2014
News

How Microsoft’s Global Search Ended at Home

February 2013 (Revised September 2013)
Case

Elasto Therm: The Next Step

By: Jim Sharpe and James Weber

Julia and Nate Burstein were living their dream running their own business and balancing the demands between their work and family obligations while creating a company that was responsive to their employees' and their customers' needs. The Bursteins had joined a large... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurial Management; Entrepreneurs; Pricing; Pricing Policies; Pricing Strategy; Pricing Structure; Sales Force Management; Acquisitions; Work/family Balance; Family-owned Business; Entrepreneurship; Growth and Development Strategy; Expansion; Work-Life Balance; Manufacturing Industry; Rubber Industry; United States

October 2020 (Revised February 2024)
Case

Divesting Harvard's Endowment

By: Daniel Green, Luis M. Viceira and Holly Fetter

By early 2020 Harvard University was facing growing pressure from students, faculty, and alumni to divest its $40 billion endowment of financial stakes in fossil fuel producers. Its previous policy of avoiding the issue was quickly becoming outdated—$21 trillion of... View Details

Keywords: Divestment; Harvard University; ESG; Higher Education; Investment Portfolio; Environmental Sustainability; Strategy; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact

September 2015 (Revised February 2017)
Case

MOD Pizza: A Winning Recipe?

By: Boris Groysberg, John D. Vaughan and Matthew Preble

Scott and Ally Svenson, the founders of MOD Pizza, had to make a number of decisions in planning how to scale their small company. They wanted to grow MOD from 45 stores as of May 2015 to 200 stores by the end of 2016, and while the two believed that MOD could manage... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Employees; Employee Relationship Management; Selection and Staffing; Leadership; Growth and Development Strategy; Marketing; Service Delivery; Organizational Culture; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Mission and Purpose; Service Industry; United States

November 2019 (Revised December 2019)
Case

Marcus by Goldman Sachs

By: Rory McDonald, Samir Junnarkar and David Lane

Five years on from the 2008 financial crisis, Goldman Sachs remained wounded. Revenues at the global investment bank had stagnated below pre-crisis levels, and the firm had yet to rebound from a substantial decline in securities-trading revenues. Marcus by Goldman... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Entrepreneurship; Banks and Banking; Innovation Leadership; Growth and Development Strategy; Growth Management; Organizational Culture; Financial Services Industry; United Kingdom

March 1999 (Revised August 1999)
Case

SCORE! Educational Centers (A)

Describes the start-up, strategy, organizational design, and operations of SCORE! Educational Centers, an after-school tutoring enterprise. Alan Tripp, founder and CEO, is faced with growing organizational stresses and a looming venture capital deadline. Examines... View Details

Keywords: Strategy; Management Style; Leadership; Organizational Design; Teaching; Entrepreneurship; Education Industry; United States

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Faculty & Research

future leaders – operative under an honor code that allowed students to take exams without supervision, an unprecedented practice in Ghana. This case follows Awuah’s efforts to establish and grow Ashesi University and provides insight... View Details

November 2021 (Revised April 2022)
Case

EbonyLife Media (A)

By: Andy Wu, Feng Zhu, Pippa Tubman Armerding and Wale Lawal

Founded by Mosunmola “Mo” Abudu in 2012 with a mission to bring high-quality African stories to the world, EbonyLife was the company behind many of Nigeria’s biggest films and TV shows. The company began as a television channel on the Africa-wide direct broadcast... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Mission and Purpose; Growth and Development Strategy; Digital Platforms; Consumer Behavior; Media and Broadcasting Industry; Nigeria; Africa

2007
Report

Aggregating Impact: A Funder's Guide to Mission Investment Intermediaries

By: Mark R. Kramer and Sarah E. Cooch

Despite the wide range of impact investment intermediaries that are available and the advantages they can offer, many funders remain unaware of this growing trend to deliver both social impact and financial returns. This study from 2007 provides an overview of these... View Details

Keywords: Financial Intermediaries; Foundations; Impact Investment; Development Economics; Mission and Purpose; Investment; Strategy

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June 2005
Case

Growth and Profitability at Fresenius

By: Joel Podolny, Vincent Dessain, Monika Stachowiak and Anders Sjoman

In March 2005, Mark Schneider, CEO of Fresenius, is considering the group's strategic and organizational future. The highly decentralized 7 billion euro German health care group is active in three different business units, with the largest, FMC AG, listed separately... View Details

Keywords: Globalized Firms and Management; Diversification; Organizational Structure; Growth and Development Strategy; Health Industry; Germany

September 1999 (Revised October 2000)
Case

Eggrock Partners, LLC (A)

By: Thomas J. DeLong, Myra M. Hart and Sharon Peyus

Explores the challenges of choosing how to grow a professional services firm (PSF). Before developing a growth strategy, the partners need to agree on what business(es) the company should be in. Each of the three partners has differing views of what the company should... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Business or Company Management; Growth and Development Strategy; Business Model; Expansion; Business Processes; Industry Structures; Customer Focus and Relationships; Employees; Partners and Partnerships; Service Industry

Find at Harvard

January 2020 (Revised April 2020)
Case

Fossil Fuel Divestment (Abridged)

By: Michael W. Toffel and Sarah Gulick

The president of Harvard University is facing growing pressure from students, alumni, and other climate change activists that are urging the university to divest its multi-billion dollar endowment from fossil fuel companies. The case summarizes the arguments for and... View Details

Keywords: Divestment; Harvard University; Higher Education; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Environmental Sustainability; Climate Change; Public Opinion; Ethics; Education Industry

September 2019
Case

JTC: Stronger Together with Shared Ownership

By: Ethan Bernstein and Daniela Beyersdorfer

Nigel Le Quesne, CEO of Jersey-based financial services firm JTC, firmly believed that "shared ownership" was at the heart of his company’s successful track record. The firm had seen its revenues, profits, and number of clients and staff grow steadily throughout its... View Details

Keywords: Ownership; Employee Ownership; Leadership Style; Compensation and Benefits; Organizational Culture; Employee Stock Ownership Plan; Going Public; Mission and Purpose; Management Practices and Processes; Human Resources; Financial Services Industry; Channel Islands; Europe; United States

April 2005 (Revised November 2005)
Case

Information Technology at COSCO

By: F. Warren McFarlan, Guoqing Chen and David Lane

Describes the current status of IT applications at the second largest container shipping company in the world: China-based COSCO. Describes the challenges the company has faced in dealing with its development and shows a series of organizational and application... View Details

Keywords: Information Technology; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Problems and Challenges; Shipping Industry; China