Publications

March 1999 (Revised July 1999)
Case

Crunch

By: Paul W. Marshall and Jeremy Dann

Entrepreneur Doug Levine runs a fitness company with an incredibly powerful brand. His company leverages the brand to expand, both in terms of facilities and lines of business. But he may need to make significant organizational changes in order to continue the growth. View Details

Keywords: Buildings and Facilities; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Expansion; Business Growth and Maturation; Business Startups; Brands and Branding; Service Industry; Health Industry

February 1991 (Revised July 1993)
Case

Cultural Change at Nissan Motors

By: John P. Kotter

Depicts the reformation of Nissan Motor Co.'s corporate culture and the company's subsequent turnaround in market share and profits. In 1985, Yutaka Kume became president of Nissan and thereafter, he continually emphasized the need for internal change throughout the... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Culture; Leadership; Behavior; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Change Management; Management; Auto Industry; Manufacturing Industry

01 Sep 2013
News

The New Rules of E-Commerce

One day in 2010 the CEO of Japanese e-commerce giant Rakuten announced that thousands of employees would soon conduct business in a tongue most of them knew nothing about: English. Within days all the signs at the Tokyo headquarters were in the new language. Founding... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne; e-commerce; News, Library, Internet, and Other Services; Information; Miscellaneous Store Retailers; Retail Trade

February 2025 (Revised April 2025)
Case

Institutional Neutrality, Restraint or Convenience?

By: Clayton S. Rose, Nicole Zelazko and Alexis Lefort

In the fall of 2023 and winter of 2024, college campuses across the U.S. experienced protests and encampments in the aftermath of the October 7, 2023 terrorist attack on Israel by the Islamist militant group Hamas, and Israel’s subsequent invasion of Gaza. These... View Details

Keywords: Distribution; Cost vs Benefits; Ethics; Governance; Leadership; Crisis Management; Risk Management; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Mission and Purpose; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Culture; Civil Society or Community; Social Issues; Adaptation; Disruption; Communication Strategy; Higher Education; United States

01 Jun 2022
News

June 2022 Alumni and Faculty Books

contemporaries Twain and Whitman, Homer captured the landscape of a rapidly changing country with an artist’s probing insight. His tale is one of America in all its complexity and contradiction, as he adapted to the restless spirit of... View Details

Keywords: Publishing Industries (except Internet); Information

Web

Design: At, Into, & Beyond - Race, Gender & Equity

occurs when an algorithm produces results that are systemically prejudiced due to erroneous assumptions in the machine learning process. ( + ) Code Switch The ability and propensity to adapt across shifting sociocultural contexts. Data... View Details

01 Mar 2019
News

Alumni and Faculty Books for March 2019

venture capital and adapts them for established organizations, leveraging these two distinct skills as a form of management for building in a future that is uncertain. Faculty Books Disciples of the State?: Religion and State-Building in... View Details

29 Apr 2016
News

The First Five Years: Kelly McKenna (MBA 2015)

setbacks. In order to be an effective partner, I had to recognize these differences and adapt my actions accordingly. I think this kind of mindset is important for any effective manager or teammate to be able to take on. “Making decisions... View Details

01 Mar 2014
News

Faculty and Alumni Books for March 2014

the customers who use them); adapts to new data as they become available; and has been applied to over 850 businesses acquired and integrated in one Fortune 150 company, ITW, which has consistently produced superior results. The book goes... View Details

01 Mar 2009
News

HBS Posts Strong Results in 2008

to analyze the crisis and adapt the curriculum to reflect changes in the culture of how business is done. “We have begun this important work already,” he added. Operationally, Light said the School “will continue to ensure that our... View Details

Keywords: Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools; Educational Services

November 2023
Supplement

'Care in Every Drop': Ayala Corporation and Manila Water (B)

By: Debora L. Spar, Paul Healy, Tricia Peralta and Julia Comeau

Since 1834, eight generations of the Ayala family have used their conglomerate to fund nation-building projects in the Philippines, including investments in tramcars, telecommunications, hospitals, and schools. In 1997, Ayala’s subsidiary, Manila Water, took control of... View Details

Keywords: Family Business; Economic Growth; Social Entrepreneurship; Climate Change; Natural Resources; Crisis Management; Failure; Privatization; Social Issues; Urban Development; Adaptation; Infrastructure; Utilities Industry; Philippines

August 2021
Case

Wymsee

By: Julia Austin, Sarah Mehta and Tom Quinn

Wymsee was a company that aimed to develop a mobile application (app) that would allow television audience members to identify and purchase clothing or accessories worn by characters in the program they were watching, with the Wymsee founders taking a percentage of... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Business Plan; Business Startups; Film Entertainment; Television Entertainment; Technological Innovation; Knowledge Acquisition; Product Positioning; Opportunities; Adaptation; Mobile Technology; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; Motion Pictures and Video Industry; Technology Industry; United States; New York (city, NY)

March 2019
Supplement

KITEA (B): Getting Ready to Face IKEA

By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell and Gamze Yucaoglu

The case opens in September 2015, when IKEA is about to open its first store in Morocco. It then chronicles the efforts of KITEA CEO Amine Benkirane and his son Othman between 2013 and 2015 to prepare KITEA for IKEA’s entry. After incurring losses for the first time in... View Details

February 2017
Case

GE Digital

By: Rajiv Lal and Scott Johnson

Known for manufacturing industrial equipment, GE has decided to invest in software and analytics capabilities to become a digital industrial company. They have also created a software platform that they hope will power the Industrial Internet. GE executives forecasted... View Details

Keywords: GE; General Electric; Manufacturing; Industrial Internet; Wind Power; Digital Manufacturing; Renewable Energy; Energy; Innovation and Management; Innovation Strategy; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Culture; Applications and Software; Growth and Development Strategy; Transformation; Green Technology Industry; Technology Industry; Manufacturing Industry; North America

14 Jan 2014
First Look

First Look: January 14

Business School Case 212-010 Adaptive Engineering, LLC The owner and CEO of Adaptive Engineering was facing an important decision: should he focus on rebuilding its core professional services business, which... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

01 Mar 2012
News

Shop Talk, Different Avenues

You launched in 2007, and 2008 was one of the worst years ever for retail, so you had a good deal of unsold inventory to offer customers. How did you adapt as the business environment became healthier and you saw a decrease in what was... View Details

Keywords: Julia Hanna; shopping; e-commerce; Clothing and Clothing Accessories Stores; Retail Trade

13 Nov 2020
News

Student Startups Help Fight COVID-19

startup, which is led by Sophia Richter, Tina Beilinson, and Julia Cole (all MBA 2020), quickly adapted its affordable online offerings to include classes geared to birth and postpartum challenges associated with the coronavirus. Hikma... View Details

01 Sep 2010
News

A CEO Goes Undercover

about John Briggs as he adapted to his new, unfamiliar job. In fact, I was eager for the undercover experience because I’d never worked the frontline jobs in the theme-park industry and didn’t want any CEO-type special treatment. Plus, I... View Details

Keywords: Joel Manby; reality television; social class; Amusement, Gambling, and Recreation Industries; Arts, Entertainment

February 2024
Teaching Note

Accelerating with Caution: Forecasting and Managing birddogs' Growth (A) and (B)

By: Mark Egan

Teaching Note for HBS Case Nos. 224-023 and 224-024. As 2017 was drawing to a close, birddogs’ founder and CEO, Peter Baldwin, was working with his CFO Jack Sullivan to prepare for 2018. A nascent direct-to-consumer apparel brand, birddogs had carved its niche in men’s... View Details

Keywords: Inventory Management; Forecasting Demand; Financial Constraints; Apparel; Startups; Corporate Finance; Forecasting and Prediction; Working Capital; Financing and Loans; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Demand and Consumers; Apparel and Accessories Industry; United States