Publications

November 2002 (Revised April 2004)
Case

TCS: An Entrepreneurial Air-Express Company in Pakistan

Introduces Khalid Awan, co-founder of TCS, an entrepreneurial air-express company in Pakistan. Awan has succeeded in building a sizeable company despite serious obstacles, including pressure from the public postal system, an environment prone to corruption, and a... View Details

Keywords: Family Business; Emerging Markets; Entrepreneurship; Leasing; Transportation Industry; United Arab Emirates; Pakistan

February 2001 (Revised June 2002)
Case

Customer Value Measurement at Nortel Networks--Optical Networks Division

By: Das Narayandas

Since 1995, Nortel Networks' Optical Networks (ON) division has been incorporating customer satisfaction and loyalty measures into its business practices to increase customer value. Over the years, key process owners in various parts of the organization have become... View Details

Keywords: Business Divisions; Customer Focus and Relationships; Customer Satisfaction; Management Teams; Marketing Strategy; Value Creation; Telecommunications Industry

31 Jul 2023
News

Striving for Imperfection

Subscribe on iTunes Subscribe on Spotify More Skydeck episodes Since he left HBS in 1990, Charles Conn (MBA 1990) has built a full and varied portfolio career. Early on, he was a partner at McKinsey and then a tech executive, founding Ticketmaster-Citysearch. Today,... View Details

Keywords: Management of Companies and Enterprises; Management

17 Mar 2008
Research & Ideas

The Lessons of Business History: A Handbook

entrepreneurship, and the role of the state, also concerned Chandler, but they were not central to his concerns. There are also chapters on topics that Chandler had little or nothing to say, including corporate governance, industrial... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

April 2006 (Revised April 2007)
Case

Endeca Technologies: New Growth Opportunities

By: Paul A. Gompers and Kristin Perry

Steve Papa, CEO of Endeca Technologies, must decide whether to expand into a new market with a new application of his company's technology. Endeca has experienced significant success with its information access software in the online retail industry, and in September... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Market Entry and Exit; Production; Organizational Structure; Partners and Partnerships; Opportunities; Expansion; Internet and the Web; Applications and Software; Information Technology Industry

Find at Harvard

October 2023 (Revised May 2024)
Case

JSW Steel: Balancing Growth While Decarbonizing

By: Vikram S Gandhi and Radhika Kak

Sajjan Jindal, Chairman & Managing Director of JSW Steel, India's largest steel producer by market capitalization, was facing a dilemma. Steel demand in India was expected to grow exponentially over the next decade. However, given its traditional reliance on carbon,... View Details

Keywords: Decisions; Environmental Sustainability; Investment; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Growth and Development; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Pollutants; Pollution; Production; Steel Industry; India

2025
Chapter

Institutional Entrepreneurship and Climate Change

By: Ann-Kristin Bergquist and Geoffrey Jones

This chapter explores when and why private regulatory governance systems became the primary form of global environmental governance. The chapter explores two different historical paths in such private regulation and how they came about. The first path involved... View Details

Keywords: Institutional Entrepreneurship; Environment; Climate Change; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Environmental Regulation; Standards; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact

March 2003 (Revised October 2003)
Case

Mercury Rising: Knight Ridder's Digital Venture

Captures the efforts of newspaper publisher Knight Ridder to create a digital venture. Knight Ridder proves to be a pioneer in digital publishing, launching the first online newspaper site; builds a network of newspaper sites called Real Cities; and invests in... View Details

Keywords: Internet and the Web; Business Growth and Maturation; Market Entry and Exit; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Newspapers; Innovation and Invention; Journalism and News Industry

17 Jul 2023
Blog Post

Sustainability Career Advice from the Career & Professional Development Office

a position within the nonprofit space and specifically for an organization that had mission and purpose in their DNA. I was fortunate to find a position in the marketing department for HBS’s Career Professional Development team. I spent... View Details

09 Mar 2003
Research & Ideas

Six Keys to Building New Markets by Unleashing Disruptive Innovation

markets, but they can create new growth. The disruption of integrated steel mills by steel minimills demonstrates how low-end disruptors harness what we call asymmetries of motivation. Minimills first took hold in the steel industry in... View Details

Keywords: by Clayton M. Christensen, Michael E. Raynor & Scott D. Anthony

25 May 2011
HBS Case

QuikTrip’s Investment in Retail Employees Pays Off

group of retailers is challenging this notion of an industry built on the backs of crummy jobs, very prosperous companies that include Costco, Mercadona, Trader Joe's, and QuikTrip. What do they know that their competitors don't? In a new... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Retail

March 2011
Case

Semiconductor Manufacturing International Company in 2011

By: Willy Shih and Jia Cheng

When David Wang took over as the CEO of SMIC, he knew that if he was to capitalize on the company's strategic location in the China market, he would have to transform the company mindset and its operating structure from its roots in the manufacturing of DRAMs to the... View Details

Keywords: Growth and Development Strategy; Resource Allocation; Market Entry and Exit; Business Processes; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Culture; Customization and Personalization; Semiconductor Industry; China

March 2003 (Revised January 2004)
Case

CDC Capital Partners: December 2002

By: G. Felda Hardymon, Josh Lerner and Ann Leamon

Paul Fletcher, CEO of CDC Capital Partners, a private equity group investing in the world's poorest countries, is wrestling with questions raised by the imminent reorganization of the firm. Previously an arm of the United Kingdom's international aid agency, CDC is... View Details

Keywords: Private Equity; Investment Portfolio; Privatization; Venture Capital; Business and Government Relations; Emerging Markets; Infrastructure; Financial Services Industry; Financial Services Industry; United Kingdom

July 3, 2025
Article

A New Framework for Reducing Healthcare Disparities

By: Susanna Gallani, Mary Lynch Witkowski, Lidia M. V. R. Moura and Katie Sonnefeldt

Despite decades of initiatives to address healthcare inequities in the U.S., disparities across race, gender, geography, and income remain stubbornly persistent. This article introduces the Strategic Fingerprint Framework for Health Equity, a practical, principle-based... View Details

Keywords: Equality and Inequality; Demographics; Outcome or Result; Health Care and Treatment; Framework; Health Industry

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April 2012
Case

Danish National Advanced Technology Foundation

By: Willy Shih and Margaret Pierson

Danish National Advanced Technology Foundation (DNATF), a government agency, invests in public-private partnerships to stimulate commercialization of Danish scientific research within the country's industry. DNATF established a process for evaluating proposals, making... View Details

Keywords: Leadership; Commercialization; Management Practices and Processes; Experience and Expertise; Innovation and Invention; Public Ownership; Business and Government Relations; Technology Industry; Denmark

08 Nov 2011
First Look

First Look: Nov. 8

industry to measure to what extent waiting-time performance impacts different firms' market shares and price decisions. We report on a large-scale empirical industrial View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

March 2021 (Revised April 2021)
Case

Making Impact Investing Markets: IFC (A)

By: Shawn A. Cole, John Masko and T. Robert Zochowski

In 2017, the International Finance Corporation (IFC) faced the first big investment decision in its new Scaling Solar project. Founded in 1956, IFC was an international investment body with national governments as shareholders, whose mission was to promote economic... View Details

March 2004 (Revised November 2012)
Teaching Note

P&G Japan: The SK-II Globalization Project (TN)

By: Christopher A. Bartlett

Traces changes in P&G's international strategy and structure, culminating in Organization 2005, a reorganization that places strategic emphasis on product innovation rather than geographic expansion and shifts power from local subsidiary to global business management.... View Details

Keywords: Business Subsidiaries; Trade; Globalization; Global Strategy; Innovation Strategy; Business or Company Management; Beauty and Cosmetics Industry; Beauty and Cosmetics Industry; Hong Kong; Japan; Taiwan; Europe