• Dec 2019
• Survey

A Recovery Squandered

In 2019, HBS faculty members of the U.S. Competitiveness Project conducted the sixth survey on U.S. competitiveness. This report—built on the latest survey findings and eight years of prior research on the competitiveness of the United States—highlights a disturbing pattern: structural failures in the U.S. political system continue to prevent meaningful progress on actions needed to improve U.S. competitiveness. Despite a decade of steady economic growth, the trajectory of the nation’s competitiveness remains disappointing.

• Sep 2015
• Survey

The Challenge of Shared Prosperity

The 2015 HBS survey on U.S. competitiveness reveals that business leaders are concerned about the economy’s ability to generate shared prosperity. America’s business environment is improving, but alumni doubt that firms in the U.S. will be able to improve living standards for the average American. Alumni see issues like inequality, middle-class stagnation, and economic immobility, as social as well as business challenges.

• Sep 2014
• Survey

An Economy Doing Half Its Job

This report presents the findings of HBS' 2013–14 survey on U.S. competitiveness. It highlights a troubling divergence in the U.S. economy: large and midsize firms are prospering, but middle- and working-class citizens and small businesses are struggling.

• Feb 2014
• Case

A Long, Bumpy and Unfinished Road: Education Reform in Memphis, Tennessee

Pitt Hyde, a Memphis business leader and the founder of the Hyde Family Foundation, works to ensure the success of the merger between the Memphis City School district and the Shelby County School system.

• Jan 2014
• Case

StriveTogether: Reinventing the Local Education Ecosystem

StriveTogether is building a network of communities that use Collective Impact as a way for the business community and other stakeholders to collaborate to improve public education in a locale.

• Feb 2012
• Case

Greater Minneapolis-St. Paul: Building on a Diversified Base (Abridged)

Starting in 2003, the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan region lagged the rest of the U.S. in job creation. Alarmed business and civic leaders coalesced around the Itasca Project, which set in motion a series of actions by groups of CEOs and politicians aimed at reversing these trends by creating jobs in all sectors of the economy.

• Nov 2011
• Case

The Big 3 Roar Back

By 2008, Detroit's "Big 3"—Ford Motor Company, General Motors, and Chrysler—were teetering, and two required federal government assistance to stay afloat. Within three years, remarkably, the Big 3 had turned around by improving competitiveness in quality, design, and cost, as well as through strong, decisive leadership on multiple fronts and improved union relations.

• Nov 2011
• Case

Envision Charlotte: Building an Energy Cluster (Abridged)

In 2006, Jim Rogers, CEO of Duke Energy, began to lay the groundwork to establish Charlotte as the "new energy hub of America." The Envision Charlotte initiative builds on the Charlotte region's economic development "energy capital USA" initiative.