Publications

Register to Read

Program

Leading and Building a Culture of Innovation

career decisions Who Should Attend General managers who lead companies, business units, divisions, or other large-scale organizations, as well as executives with cross-functional responsibilities Change management executives Leaders... View Details

April 2021
Teaching Note

GreenFire Energy, 2020: Geothermal Innovation

By: John R. Wells and Benjamin Weinstock

In June 2020, after ten years of effort, GreenFire Energy Inc. (GreenFire) demonstrated its new geothermal electricity generation technology, ECO2G™. While conventional geothermal electricity only supplied 0.5% of US demand, the new technology promised to increase this... View Details

Keywords: Green Energy; Geothermal; Entrepreneur; Renewables; Geothermal Electricity; Green Technology; Renewable Energy; Energy Generation; Technological Innovation; Entrepreneurship; Strategy; Commercialization

September 2020 (Revised May 2024)
Case

Hot Wheels: Launching The Mixed Play Experience

By: Elie Ofek, Andres Terech and Nicole Tempest Keller

Chris Down, Global Brand General Manager for Hot Wheels, and his team from the Advanced Play Group within Mattel, Inc., had developed an entirely new “mixed play” product experience that blended familiar Hot Wheels play in the physical world with breakthrough play in... View Details

Keywords: Toys; Go-to-market Strategy; Product Development; Technological Innovation; Product Launch; Product Positioning; Decision Making; Marketing; Strategy; Los Angeles

December 2022
Article

Shaping Nascent Industries: Innovation Strategy and Regulatory Uncertainty in Personal Genomics

By: Cheng Gao and Rory McDonald

In nascent industries—whose new technologies are often poorly understood by regulators—contending with regulatory uncertainty can be crucial to organizational survival and growth. Prior research on nonmarket strategy has largely focused on established firms in mature... View Details

Keywords: Technological Change; Innovation; Qualitative Methods; New Categories; Entrepreneurship; Technological Innovation; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Risk and Uncertainty; Strategy

Read Now

August 2020 (Revised November 2022)
Case

George Soros: The Stateless Statesman

By: Geoffrey Jones and Wendy Ying

This case traces the business career and philanthropic activities of George Soros. The Hungarian-born Soros made a fortune as a hedge fund investor after establishing Quantum Fund on the tax haven island of Curaçao in the Netherlands Antilles in 1973 where he was... View Details

Keywords: Hedge Fund; Philanthropy; Populism; Finance; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Political Elections; Personal Development and Career; Leadership Style; Financial Services Industry; Europe; Hungary; United Kingdom; North and Central America; United States

Web

Health Policy (Management) - Doctoral

the yearlong Health Policy Core Seminar, two MBA elective courses, and one course in two of the following areas: political analysis, decision sciences, medical sociology, or economics. You will take the Health Policy General Exam at the... View Details

June 2018
Background Note

Introduction to Life Settlements

By: Alexander Braun, Lauren H. Cohen, Christopher J. Malloy and Jiahua Xu

Life insurance is an asset owned by the majority of American adults (61%). Note that this 61% penetration rate is essentially at parity with home ownership (64%) and higher than that of 401(k) retirement account ownership (53%). Life settlements, or life insurance... View Details

Keywords: Insurance; Assets; Value; Markets; Investment Return

Career Coach

Okan Okutgen

Okan (Princeton BSE ‘11, HBS MBA ’15) has years of experience in the tech startup world as a go-to-market leader, general manager and strategic finance leader. He has served as Head of Global Sales Operations & Strategy, Head of APAC... View Details

Roberto Verganti

Roberto Verganti (rverganti@hbs.edu) is in the Technology and Operations Management Unit at Harvard Business School. He teaches Design Theory and Practice for the View Details

Keywords: automotive; computer; consumer products; electronics; fashion; food; furniture; high technology; home appliances; industrial goods; pharmaceuticals; semiconductor; software; telecommunications; textiles

Andy Zelleke

Andy Zelleke is the MBA Class of 1962 Senior Lecturer of Business Administration. A member of the General Management unit, he is the Faculty Chair of HBS’ Middle East & North Africa Research Center.

Since Spring 2021, Dr. Zelleke has taught “Unpacking... View Details

Keywords: federal government; professional services; defense; financial services

March 2001
Article

Strategy and the Internet

By: M. E. Porter

Many of the pioneers of Internet business, both dot-coms and established companies, have competed in ways that violate nearly every precept of good strategy. Rather than focus on profits, they have chased customers indiscriminately through discounting, channel... View Details

Keywords: Strategy; Online Technology

21 May 2018
Blog Post

Harnessing The Power of Collaboration to Create Opportunity in Chicago

Operating Officer of Accion Chicago, a nonprofit that helps communities grow by providing capital, coaching and connections to aspiring entrepreneurs who build businesses and generate jobs in their neighborhoods. I spent most of my career... View Details

Keywords: Nonprofit / Government

October 2016
Case

Addicaid: Scaling a Digital Platform for Addiction Wellness and Recovery

By: Robert S. Huckman and Sarah Mehta

In 2013, Sam Frons founded Addicaid—a mobile application (app) that allowed people in addiction recovery to track their progress, check in with counselors, and connect with others in recovery programs. The app was grounded in cognitive behavioral therapy and used the... View Details

Keywords: Digital Health Interventions; Substance Use Disorder; Addiction Treatment; Addiction Recovery; Scale; Innovation; Health; Health Disorders; Health Industry; New York (city, NY)

Sep 2016
Survey

Problems Unsolved & A Nation Divided

America retains and enjoys many strengths. However, various economic indicators show that the U.S. economy has failed to deliver strong growth and shared prosperity for nearly two decades. These structural issues pre-date the Great Recession and are compounded by... View Details

2008
Book

The Oxford Handbook of Business History

By: G. Jones and Jonathan Zeitlin

The Handbook of Business History contains 25 original chapters from around the world to present a comprehensive, critical and interdisciplinary examination of current research in business history. The Handbook reveals business history as a wide-ranging and... View Details

Keywords: Business History; Research; Economics; Government and Politics

December 1980 (Revised June 2006)
Case

University Health Services: Walk-In Clinic

The walk-in clinic for general outpatient care at a major university experiences complaints about excessive waiting times. The system is changed to provide for initial screening of arriving patients in order to route them to appropriate health care providers. The... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Service Delivery; Health Care and Treatment; Performance Evaluation; Health Industry