Product Failures - Publications - Faculty & Research

January 2006
Case

Jack Strang at SequenceLabs

By: Mukti Khaire, John J. Gabarro and Lynda M. Applegate

How can entrepreneur manage his firm if things go wrong despite having a great idea, a solid team, and financial backing? Jack Strang founded a biotech firm with his friend Peter Evans, to develop molecular pathway-based "cures" for metabolic disorders. The idea was... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Entrepreneurship; Business or Company Management; Venture Capital; Factories, Labs, and Plants; Business Growth and Maturation; Failure; Biotechnology Industry

Citation

Educators

Web

Research - Behavioral Finance & Financial Stability

productivities at collecting deposits and making loans. They find that deposit productivity is responsible for two thirds of the value of the median bank and most variation in value across banks. Variation... View Details

Web

Global Opportunity Fellowship GO: AFRICA - Alumni

complete tax documents for submission to HBS. Failure to supply these forms within 30 days from notification of award will lead to forfeiture of your GO Fellowship award. We suggest you consult your tax professional for questions about... View Details

15 Jun 2009
Research & Ideas

GM: What Went Wrong and What’s Next

worldwide. All of these automobiles were Model Ts, offered in one color: black. “Although there are many factors that contributed to the company's long, slow bleed, the three fundamental issues are management's consistent failure to do... View Details

Keywords: by Staff; Auto

2020
Working Paper

Determinants of Early-Stage Startup Performance: Survey Results

By: Thomas R. Eisenmann

To explore determinants of new venture performance, the CEOs of 470 early-stage startups were surveyed regarding a broad range of factors related to their venture’s customer value proposition, product management, marketing, technology and operations, financial... View Details

Keywords: Startups; Survey Research; Performance Analysis; Entrepreneurship; Performance; Analysis; Business Startups; Failure; Surveys

Citation

SSRN

Read Now

08 Mar 2004
Research & Ideas

Creating Value in Your Business Ecosystem

larger than the companies themselves: the success of their respective business ecosystems. These loose networks—of suppliers, distributors, outsourcing firms, makers of related products or services, technology providers, and a host of... View Details

Keywords: by Marco Iansiti & Roy Levien

28 Jan 2020
Book

Advanced Leadership Requires More Than Outside-The-Box Thinking

frequently invoke—is that everything can look like a failure in the middle. Leaders can’t just launch a project or a venture and assume it will all go according to plan. Especially if it’s new and different, which is true of every... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

Web

The 20th Century Zeitgeist - Leadership

Reconstruction Finance Corp. created to combat bank and business failures Introduction of Federal Deposit Insurance SEC established Federal regulations prohibit false advertising Influence: Low 40 1940 s 19 Military spending explodes... View Details

02 Dec 2002
Research & Ideas

The Secret of How Microsoft Stays on Top

the company has built over time, which is largely embedded in its software code libraries. This base is critical to internal innovation, as it makes product development more efficient and powerful. Additionally, it spawns external... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

14 Apr 2009
First Look

First Look: April 14, 2009

Competition Between Differentiated Products with Demand for More Than One Variety Author: Andrei Hagiu Abstract We analyze the existence of pure strategy symmetric price equilibria in a generalized version of Salop's (1979) circular model... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

02 Aug 2020
What Do You Think?

Is the 'Experimentation Organization' Becoming the Competitive Gold Standard?

the probability of success for ideas central to a strategy. Frequent testing has been especially relevant for retailers, whose merchandise displays offer endless opportunities to test product placement ideas. Now organizations whose... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett; Technology

30 Nov 2007
What Do You Think?

What Is Management’s Role in Innovation?

of their scarcest resources." Another senior executive will ask whether creativity scales. Can an innovator be more productive with the substantial resources that a large organization can provide? Or does the process work better in... View Details

Keywords: by Jim Heskett

11 Aug 2008
Research & Ideas

Strategy Execution and the Balanced Scorecard

resource capacity that are necessary to fulfill the sales and production needs of the strategic plan. Without this coupling, operational plans either provide too little or too much capacity for the strategic plan. A third challenge is... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

October 2019 (Revised January 2020)
Case

Dulcie Madden (A)—Growth or Exit?

By: Shikhar Ghosh, Christopher Payton and Shweta Bagai

This is part of a three-case series that follows Dulcie Madden's journey as a founder over five years. Case (A) is about managing growth and cash flow; Case (B) is about the exit decision and conditions on a sale; Case (C) shows Madden dealing with adversity and the... View Details

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Educators

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17 Sep 2021
Research & Ideas

The Trial of Elizabeth Holmes: Visionary, Criminal, or Both?

Theranos as another inspired but failed startup. Obviously, many people looking at the failure see a different story—a founder whose rush to become the next “unicorn” ignored the real risks its products have... View Details

Keywords: by Christina Pazzanese, Harvard Gazette; Biotechnology; Technology; Medical Devices & Supplies

25 Sep 2018
First Look

New Research and Ideas, September 25, 2018

operations. Product failures are, therefore, likely to impact firms’ subsequent innovation activities. Using 13 years of Food and Drug Administration data, we examine the effects of firm and competitor... View Details

Keywords: Dina Gerdeman

12 Mar 2021
News

My Favorite Case

lifelong lessons about personal priorities and career ambitions, humility, and confidence—and the incomparable kinship (and long memories) of sectionmates. “Suzuki Samurai” Suzuki and advertising agency executives are debating the product... View Details

Keywords: Business Schools & Computer & Management Training; Educational Services

14 Jun 2011
First Look

First Look: June 14

PublicationsThe Paradox of Excellence Authors:Thomas J. DeLong and Sara DeLong Publication:Harvard Business Review 89, no. 6 (June 2011) Abstract Why is it that so many smart, ambitious professionals are less productive and satisfied... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

18 May 2010
First Look

First Look: May 18

resistance the company had difficulties in its early years. But since Hugh Grant became CEO the picture has brightened with widespread adoption of the company's products. This case focuses on the company's product pipeline and the... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

October 2016
Case

Triangulate: Stay, Pivot or Exit?

By: Thomas Eisenmann, Shikhar Ghosh and Christopher Payton

Sunil Nagaraj, Triangulate's founder had spent a few years trying to launch a dating application that matched users based on their behavior on social media. Based on input from advisors, the company changed its focus from a B2B site to a B2C dating site with a unique... View Details