Publications

March 1998 (Revised December 2000)
Case

Siebel Systems (A)

By: Michael J. Roberts, Joseph B. Lassiter III and Nicole Tempest

The case describes the early evolution of Siebel Systems, a sales force automation software company, focusing on issues surrounding Siebel's use of systems integrators as implementation partners and the relationship between implementation and the selling function. View Details

Keywords: Marketing; Software; Entrepreneurship; Business Startups; Sales; Information Technology Industry

01 Dec 2017
News

2017 in Retail: Voice-Activated, One-Hour-Delivery Shopping

retailer. They also have to consider the most relevant use of their space for the community in which they operate. Malls now have the opportunity to embrace technology, not fear it. Augmented reality and... View Details

Keywords: Ron Johnson (MBA 1984), founder and CEO, Enjoy

08 Apr 2021
Blog Post

HBS Entrepreneurship Immersion - Four Highlights

Since graduation, I have spent a lot of time in the entrepreneurial space! Currently, I am the CFO at Pilot.com, a $1.2Bn Series C FinTech startup backed by Sequoia Capital, Index Ventures, Stripe, and Bezos Expeditions. Pilot builds... View Details

September 19, 2017
Article

After Equifax Breach, Companies Advised to Review Open-Source Software Code

By: Ben DiPietro and Lou Shipley

It doesn’t make much sense: At a time when high-powered automated trading systems can execute stock sales in real time, some companies that rely on open-source software to help to run their businesses track their open-source use on spread sheets on paper.
Lou... View Details

Keywords: Software; Open-source; Security Vulnerabilities; Data Privacy; Hack; Applications and Software; Safety; Cybersecurity

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May 2019
Background Note

Geographic Inequality Primer

By: William Kerr, Joseph Fuller, Manjari Raman and Donald Maruyama

There are large and persistent divides between urban centers and rural areas in America due in part to structural causes. This primer focuses on the demographic differences between urban and rural areas within the United States and the unique challenges facing rural... View Details

Keywords: Inequality; Rural; Development; Equality and Inequality; Demographics; Rural Scope; Urban Scope; Development Economics; Problems and Challenges; Globalization; United States

June 2020 (Revised October 2020)
Case

What Went Wrong with Boeing's 737 Max?

By: William W. George and Amram Migdal

This case describes the development of the Boeing 737 Max airplane model and the events leading up to two tragic plane crashes, in which a total of 346 people died: the crash of Lion Air flight 610 on October 29, 2018, in Indonesia, and the crash of Ethiopian Airlines... View Details

Keywords: Communication; Communication Intention and Meaning; Communication Strategy; Forms of Communication; Announcements; Decision Making; Decision Choices and Conditions; Judgments; Ethics; Moral Sensibility; Values and Beliefs; Globalization; Global Strategy; Governance; Corporate Accountability; Governance Controls; Human Resources; Resignation and Termination; Leadership; Leadership Style; Management; Business or Company Management; Crisis Management; Management Practices and Processes; Management Skills; Management Style; Management Systems; Risk Management; Time Management; Markets; Demand and Consumers; Digital Platforms; Supply and Industry; Duopoly and Oligopoly; Industry Structures; Operations; Product Development; Organizations; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Culture; Outcome or Result; Failure; Success; Planning; Strategic Planning; Problems and Challenges; Relationships; Business and Community Relations; Business and Government Relations; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Risk and Uncertainty; Safety; Strategy; Transportation; Air Transportation; Aerospace Industry; Air Transportation Industry; Africa; Ethiopia; Asia; Indonesia; North and Central America; United States; Seattle; Chicago

08 Jul 2021
Blog Post

Managing Sustainable Advantage with Key ESG Co-Founders, Anne-Marie Schoonbeek and Heleen van Poecke

market opportunity, Schoonbeek and van Poecke set about building a scalable, cost-effective, and automated software solution to enable companies to manage View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Technology

19 Jan 2022
Blog Post

From Retail to HBS: How I’m Building a Career Path at the Intersection of Arts, Culture, and Business

be a common path, but that’s why your skillset and voice can uniquely augment the community, and why you have the ability to make real impact afterwards. Sara was also a... View Details

19 May 2016
Research Event

Crowdsourcing, Patent Trolls, and Other Research Insights Highlighted at Harvard Business School Symposium

and Society, is interested in analyzing and designing social computing systems to meet economic goals. With regard to the interaction of humans with machines, Chen asked: When thinking about social... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman & Carmen Nobel

April 1979 (Revised April 1981)
Case

Chaircraft Corp. (B)

Discusses the purchase and installation of automated cutting equipment in a medium-sized furniture factory. The equipment has so far failed to cut costs as expected and the management is attempting to discover what the problems are and what can be done to remedy them. View Details

Keywords: Production; Cost Management; Consumer Products Industry

August 2012 (Revised November 2012)
Case

Bonne Chance

With a competitor nipping at his heels, his bank reluctantly covering his recent overdraft, Jacob Zimmerman is considering expanding his Midwestern retail jewelry business by bringing on the new Swatch watch line to augment his high end Rolex offerings. Only 14 weeks... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurial Management; Entrepreneurs; Financial Crisis; Crisis Management; Bank Loan; Entrepreneurial Finance; Turnarounds; Negotiation; Liquidation; Entrepreneurship; Retail Industry; Fashion Industry; United States

11 Dec 2019
News

How AI shifts enterprise decision-making into self-driving mode

15 Dec 2015
News

The Year in Ideas 2015

1991): to provide continuous Internet access to the planet’s unconnected billions through, in Cassidy’s words, a “complex choreography where thousands of balloons are being steered and programmed all in an View Details

Keywords: Julia Hanna, Christine Lejeune, Dan Morrell, and April White

10 Jun 2021
Blog Post

Managing Sustainable Advantage with Key ESG Cofounders, Anne-Marie Schoonbeek and Heleen van Poecke

opportunity, Schoonbeek and van Poecke set about building a scalable, cost-effective, and automated software solution to enable companies to manage View Details

12 May 2020
News

The New-Market Conundrum

September 2019 (Revised January 2021)
Case

Vispera: Visual Intelligence for Retail

By: Yael Grushka-Cockayne and Gamze Yucaoglu

The case opens in 2019 as Aytul Ercil, co-founder and CEO of Vispera, computer vision technology provider for retail, is contemplating the company’s agenda trying to decide how to prioritize the impeding options. The case chronicles the founding of Vispera, the... View Details

Keywords: Computer Vision Technology; Visual Analysis; Retail; Information Technology; Business Model; Operations; Performance Efficiency; Competitive Strategy; Decision Choices and Conditions; Global Strategy; Technology Industry; Retail Industry; Turkey