Publications

January 2014 (Revised June 2014)
Case

23andMe: Genetic Testing for Consumers (A)

By: John A. Quelch and Margaret L. Rodriguez

On November 22, 2013, the direct-to-consumer genetic testing provider, 23andMe, received a letter from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) ordering the company to halt the sale and promotion of its genetic testing kit. The FDA stated that the product was... View Details

Keywords: Public Health; Genome Testing; Health Care; Ancestry; 23andMe; Marketing; Product Launch; Health; Health Care and Treatment; Health Testing and Trials; Genetics; Strategy; Health Industry; United States

31 Oct 2014
Op-Ed

Ebola’s Call To Arms About Disaster Preparedness

lesson in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. The risk-management tools and safety margins needed to manage normal disruptions in the market were completely inadequate to handle a major catastrophe. We got rid of the buffers against... View Details

Keywords: by Gautam Mukunda; Health

2012
Article

Behavioral Economics and the Psychology of Fruit and Vegetable Consumption

By: Joe Price and Jason Riis

Behavioral economics is an emerging paradigm that challenges the assumptions and predictions of classical economics. This new paradigm emphasizes that consumers do not always make optimal use of available information nor do they always make choices and tradeoffs in a... View Details

Keywords: Plant-Based Agribusiness; Food; Social Marketing; Decision Choices and Conditions; Consumer Behavior; Nutrition

Read Now

26 Feb 2018
Working Paper Summaries

Different Strokes for Different Folks: Experimental Evidence on Complementarities Between Human Capital and Machine Learning

Keywords: by Prithwiraj Choudhury, Evan Starr, and Rajshree Agarwal; Information Technology

September 2017 (Revised January 2018)
Case

Innovation at Parker Hotels

By: Srikant M. Datar and Caitlin Bowler

In this case students explore challenges changing demographics and preference pose to global hotel brands. Students then use human-centered design tools to generate concepts hoteliers might embrace to win over Millennials who tend to seek out local over global options. View Details

Keywords: Innovation; Innovation and Invention; Problems and Challenges; Demographics; Strategy; Accommodations Industry

23 Jul 2020
Research & Ideas

How Countries Use Financial Policy to Fight COVID-19

The fiscal and monetary response to the coronavirus pandemic has been emergent, global, and deep. Some countries have more sophisticated fiscal and monetary tools—and the ability to use them swiftly—than others. The ability to compare policy actions fairly may be key... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne

December 1999 (Revised May 2000)
Case

Morgan Stanley: Becoming a "One-Firm Firm"

By: M. Diane Burton, Thomas J. DeLong and Katherine Lawrence

John Mack, the newly appointed president of Morgan Stanley, feels strongly that the firm needs to change in order to compete in a changing investment banking environment. Mack and his senior team undertake initiatives in order to transform the culture and working style... View Details

Keywords: Human Resources; Goals and Objectives; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Culture; Performance Evaluation; Competitive Strategy

07 Dec 2015
Research & Ideas

The Rise of Personalized Entrepreneurial Finance and Other VC Trends

industries in different ways. Venture capital, for example, was once mostly reserved for institutional investors backed by endowments and pension funds. Today, it increasingly includes individual investors who are using technological View Details

Keywords: Re: Josh Lerner; Financial Services; Banking

September 2014 (Revised January 2015)
Module Note

Building Effective Working Relationships

By: Lakshmi Ramarajan

This note introduces a framework for deliberately building effective interpersonal relationships. First, we will define the necessary attributes of these relationships. Next, we will discuss common barriers to effectiveness. Lastly, we will provide tools to build and... View Details

Keywords: Interpersonal Relations; Power And Influence; Networks; Interpersonal Communication; Performance Effectiveness

November 2002 (Revised May 2003)
Case

Education in Chile: A Venue for Individual, Business and Community Involvement

Describes the alliance between a private businessman in Chile and a municipality to manage the local public education system. Describes the institution of a performance-based culture, including the use of management tools to align visions and incentives among key... View Details

Keywords: Partners and Partnerships; Social Entrepreneurship; Social Issues; Education; Business and Community Relations; Education Industry; Chile

January 2002
Exercise

Socrates, Inc.

By: Alan D. MacCormack and Kerry Herman

Socrates, Inc., a provider of e-learning tools and technologies to educational institutions and, potentially, corporations, must decide which of several opportunities to pursue next and which priorities to focus on in terms of better structuring the firm's processes... View Details

Keywords: Business Plan; Business Startups; Internet and the Web; Opportunities; Business Processes; Organizational Structure; Decision Choices and Conditions; Organizational Design; Education Industry; Information Technology Industry

Find at Harvard

September 2014 (Revised September 2015)
Exercise

Project Planning

By: Willy Shih, Pian Shu and Jill Avery

This exercise introduces the basic tools of project management: the project timeline, the task list, and the Gantt chart. It is an exercise for the FIELD 2 course. View Details

Keywords: Project Management; Management Practices and Processes; Manufacturing Industry; Service Industry; United States

20 Oct 2011
Research & Ideas

Getting the Marketing Mix Right

Businesses rely on solid marketing strategies to boost sales—yet the tools used to evaluate these strategies often provide misleading results, leaving managers with the inability to accurately measure how they can get the best bang for... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

09 May 2011
Research & Ideas

Moving From Bean Counter to Game Changer

practices, routines, and technologies. Some of these tools have the potential to become part of the bank's decision-making processes, others do not. Then the team looked at ways that the tool-makers could expand their influence. They used... View Details

Keywords: by Kim Girard; Banking

May 2009 (Revised January 2011)
Case

HubSpot: Inbound Marketing and Web 2.0

By: Thomas J. Steenburgh, Jill Avery and Naseem Ashraf Dahod

This case introduces the concept of inbound marketing, pulling customer prospects toward a business through the use of Web 2.0 tools and applications like blogging, search engine optimization, and social media. Students follow the growth of HubSpot, an entrepreneurial... View Details

Keywords: Customer Relationship Management; Entrepreneurship; Price; Growth and Development Strategy; Marketing Communications; Social and Collaborative Networks; Segmentation; Web

23 Dec 2002
Research & Ideas

Partnering and the Balanced Scorecard

Often overlooked in essays on leadership is the role of the organization's measurement and management system. Effective leaders, however, know that measurement and management systems play a critical role in communication; in establishing the culture and values of the... View Details

Keywords: by Robert S. Kaplan & David P. Norton

December 2000 (Revised March 2001)
Case

DoubleTwist, Inc.

By: Joseph L. Bower and Christina L. Darwall

John Couch, CEO of DoubleTwist, has transformed a software products company into an Internet application service provider, racing to provide databases and tools for those working to explore the human genome. Crafting strategy and building organizational capability are... View Details

Keywords: Growth Management; Product Development; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Corporate Strategy; Customization and Personalization; Information Technology Industry

June 2021
Supplement

Reversing Course on a Reverse E-Auction (C)

By: Kym Lew Nelson, James K. Sebenius and Alex Green

Global consumer products powerhouse LSP has found enormous savings in a trial run of a new competitive bidding tool for their procurement organization known as a reverse e-auction. But when Jen Baldwin is asked to achieve the same savings from her suppliers for a... View Details

Keywords: Reverse E-auctions; Bids and Bidding; Auctions; Complexity; Cost vs Benefits

December 2022 (Revised November 2023)
Module Note

What Is the Game? Understanding the Environment

By: Maria P. Roche

As a strategist, one of your main tasks is to size up the external environment of your organization in its entirety. In this module, you will learn basic concepts and tools that will allow you to better understand the environment in which your organization operates. View Details

Keywords: Strategic Planning; Organizational Culture; Organizational Structure