Publications

July 2022
Case

Yinglan Tan: Scaling a Venture Capital Firm in Southeast Asia

By: Josh Lerner and Richard Zhu

Yinglan Tan considered the future of his young Singapore-based venture capital firm. On the one hand, the intuition that was behind the initial creation of Insignia in 2017 had been proven correct. The venture capital market in Southeast Asia had grown rapidly, driven... View Details

Keywords: E-commerce; Scalability; Globalized Markets and Industries; Venture Capital; International Finance; Growth and Development; Expansion

30 Sep 2021
Blog Post

Driving Social Impact Through Consumer Behavior: Nonprofit to Finance to Retail with Nicole Krantz (MBA 2022)

From a young age, Nicole Krantz (MBA 2022) knew she wanted to make a positive change in the world. The question she has carried with her as she builds her career is how to best combine her interests and skills to do that in her unique... View Details

Keywords: Retail

September 2016 (Revised April 2020)
Case

Dwyane Wade

By: Anita Elberse and Jennifer Schoppe

In July 2016, while on his annual China tour to help promote the sportswear brand Li-Ning, basketball superstar Dwyane Wade and his long-time business manager, Lisa Joseph-Metelus, face a decision regarding one of his other business partnerships—that with the American... View Details

Keywords: Branding; Fashion; Superstar; Celebrity Endorsement; Innovation; Creative Industries; Talent; General Management; Sports; Entertainment; Brands and Branding; Marketing; Management; Strategy; Personal Development and Career; Consumer Products Industry; Fashion Industry; Sports Industry; China

October 2013 (Revised February 2019)
Case

Chobani: Growing a Live and Active Culture (Abridged)

By: Joshua D. Margolis and Matthew Preble

Hamdi Ulukaya, CEO of the Greek yogurt company Chobani, Inc., was reflecting on what explained his young company's meteoric rise. The company held over half of the U.S. Greek yogurt market and nearly 20% of the total yogurt market. The company's innovative approach to... View Details

Keywords: Innovation; Culture; Growth Strategy; Growth Management; Yogurt; Innovation Strategy; Leadership; Organizational Culture; Entrepreneurship; Marketing; Growth and Development Strategy; Agribusiness; Manufacturing Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; United States; Canada; Australia

25 May 2015
Blog Post

RapidSOS Wins the HBS New Venture Competition

HBS is an incubator of ideas. Students come to campus for two years to collaborate, innovate, and dream big. There are many entrepreneurial opportunities and resources available for budding startups and young entrepreneurs – and one... View Details

March 2020 (Revised September 2020)
Case

Board Director Dilemmas—Pushing Senior Management

By: David G. Fubini, Suraj Srinivasan and Amram Migdal

This case explores a new board director who wants more detail from the management team than his fellow directors are willing to press for. New board director Sam Pesca is frustrated that CFO Alex Marotta provides only a minimal two-page financial summary at board... View Details

Keywords: Board Of Directors; Corporate Governance; Governing and Advisory Boards; Management Teams

June 2008 (Revised August 2008)
Case

The Suzlon Edge

By: Richard H.K. Vietor and Juliana Seminerio

With prices of oil, coal and gas at historically high levels, the wind industry had installed more than 20,000 MW of wind energy, representing a $37 billion investment in 2007. Besides high prices, wind energy represented a solution for consumers seeking an energy... View Details

Keywords: Family Business; Cost vs Benefits; Renewable Energy; Globalized Firms and Management; Growth and Development Strategy; Integration; Climate Change; Environmental Sustainability; Energy Industry; India

December 2014 (Revised May 2015)
Case

Growth Hacking at Bazaart (A)

By: Jeffrey Bussgang and Matthew G. Preble

The four founding members of Bazaart—a young Israeli company whose sole product was its eponymous mobile application (app) which allowed users to create collages from photographs and other images—face an important strategic decision in June 2014. Since its founding... View Details

Keywords: Growth Hacking; Customer Acquisition; Startup Marketing; Startup; Startup Nation; Business Startups; Growth and Development Strategy; Customers; Marketing; Social Marketing; Fashion Industry; Technology Industry; Israel

14 Feb 2011
Research & Ideas

Clay Christensen’s Milkshake Marketing

Updated to clarify a failure rate figure included in an earlier version. When planning new products, companies often start by segmenting their markets and positioning their merchandise accordingly. This segmentation involves either... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Retail; Service; Consumer Products; Food & Beverage

25 Apr 2023
Op-Ed

How SHEIN and Temu Conquered Fast Fashion—and Forged a New Business Model

fashion crowd in 2019. Today, its revenues exceed $24 billion, making it the world’s biggest fashion retailer. It offers a rapidly changing assortment of affordable clothing, shoes, accessories, and beauty products for young women and,... View Details

Keywords: by John Deighton; Fashion; Retail; Consumer Products

18 Oct 2010
Lessons from the Classroom

Venture Capital’s Disconnect with Clean Tech

government or a large corporate player first. Those business school students and young venture capitalists frequently share a common misconception about start-ups in the heavily publicized clean-technology field, according to Lassiter,... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Energy; Utilities; Financial Services

Benson P. Shapiro

Benson P. Shapiro is a well-known authority on marketing strategy and sales management with particular interests in pricing, product line planning, and marketing organization. He is also the Malcolm P. McNair Professor of Marketing Emeritus at the Harvard Business... View Details

February 2016 (Revised May 2016)
Case

Dinr: My First Start-up (A)

By: Shikhar Ghosh and Kristina Maslauskaite

In May 2012, a young employee at Google's London office, Markus Berger, was thinking whether he should quit his job and go after his dream of becoming an entrepreneur. Berger's idea was to create Dinr, a company that would offer an upscale food ingredient delivery... View Details

Keywords: Exit Strategy; Startup; Start-up; Business Exit or Shutdown; Business Startups; Entrepreneurship; Food

03 Apr 2008
Working Paper Summaries

Bridge Building in Venture Capital-Backed Acquisitions

Keywords: by Paul A. Gompers & Yuhai Xuan

Eugene F. Soltes

Eugene Soltes is a Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School where his work focuses on corporate integrity and risk management. His research utilizes data analytics to identify organizational cultures and compliance systems that can effectively... View Details

Anita Elberse

Anita Elberse is the Lincoln Filene Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School.

Professor Elberse develops and teaches an MBA course covering the "Businesses of Entertainment, Media, and Sports," which ranks among the most sought-after... View Details

Keywords: advertising; arts; broadcasting; communications; consumer products; e-commerce industry; electronics; entertainment; fashion; home video games; information; marketing industry; motion pictures; music; publishing industry; sports; telecommunications; video games

May 2020
Case

Big Boom Beverages: Fight or Flight?

By: Stephen A. Greyser and William Ellet

Four college friends market a beverage that combines ingredients like those in a drink they consumed in college bars. It includes a caffeinated energy drink, malt liquor, and a soft drink flavoring. They launch the business, Big Boom Beverages (BBB), with their own... View Details

Keywords: Alcoholic Beverages; Energy Drinks; Regulation; Entrepreneurship; Ethics; Marketing Communications; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Reputation; Communication Strategy; Decision Making

November 2014
Teaching Note

Claritas Genomics

By: Robert F. Higgins and Matthew G. Preble

Dr. Patrice Milos is the first CEO of Claritas Genomics (Claritas) and she faces a number of challenges in scaling the young company. Claritas was formed around a lab spun out from Boston Children's Hospital (BCH) which had performed genomic tests for the hospital. Now... View Details

Keywords: Healthcare; Healthcare Startups; Genetic Testing; Genetics Diagnostics; Spinning Out Hospital Services; Spin-out; Health Care and Treatment; Genetics; Entrepreneurship; Biotechnology Industry; Health Industry; United States