Publications

September 2000 (Revised August 2011)
Teaching Note

AGENCY.COM (A) and (B) TN

By: Ashish Nanda and Thomas J. DeLong

Teaching Note for (9-800-061) and (9-800-062). View Details

Keywords: Internet and the Web; Entrepreneurship; Business Startups; Corporate Finance; Growth and Development; Consulting Industry; Consulting Industry; San Francisco

August 2022 (Revised February 2023)
Case

Braintrust: The Blockchain-Powered Talent Network

By: Christopher Stanton, Joseph B. Fuller and George Gonzalez

A San Francisco startup seeks to disrupt the freelancing industry through its user-owned talent network powered by the cryptocurrency, BTRST. View Details

Keywords: Freelancers; Blockchain; Cryptocurrency; Social and Collaborative Networks; Talent and Talent Management; Consulting Industry; Consulting Industry; United States

21 Jul 2003
Research & Ideas

Don’t Get Buried in Customer Data—Use It

With the advent of customer relationship management (CRM) in the late 1990s, companies came to believe that by using technology to tailor their offerings to individual consumers' needs, customer loyalty—and company profits—would... View Details

Keywords: by Jean Ayers

July 2000
Background Note

Industry Transformation

By: Michael E. Porter and Jan W. Rivkin

One of the steepest challenges a strategist faces is to navigate his or her company through a period of industry transformation--an era of rapid and wholesale changes in industry structure. This note considers how periods of transformation typically unfold. It then... View Details

Keywords: Technological Innovation; Management; Management Practices and Processes; Industry Growth; Industry Structures; Strategy; Competitive Strategy; Corporate Strategy; Consulting Industry; Consulting Industry

13 Feb 2017
Research & Ideas

Paid Search Ads Pay Off for Lesser-Known Restaurants

maybe they don’t. Why don’t we collaborate on an experiment testing their impact?” That was music to Donaker’s ears. Yelp had run experiments to optimize advertisements and had consultants try to figure out the impact of ads. But in the... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Food & Beverage

07 Apr 2003
Research & Ideas

Three Steps for Crisis Prevention

counterpart at Honeywell, Michael Bonsignore, were rushing to close the deal (United Technologies was also eager to acquire Honeywell), they "reportedly never held initial consultations with their... View Details

Keywords: by Michael D. Watkins & Max H. Bazerman

17 Nov 2011
Sharpening Your Skills

Sharpening Your Skills: Organizational Design

Questions To Be Answered: What are the best techniques for fostering innovation in multicultural teams? I want my functional experts to influence high-level strategy. How can managers get the best thinking out of support staff? What role does information View Details

Keywords: Re: Ranjay Gulati & Raffaella Sadun

18 Aug 2011
Lessons from the Classroom

Business Plan Contest: 15 Years of Building Better Entrepreneurs

asking, is this the right business model? But there are no answers. The market and technology are constantly changing," Riesenfeld remarks. Important Sounding Board The biotech industry presents similar challenges in a space littered with... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Education

01 Nov 2024
In Practice

Layoffs Surging in a Strong Economy? Advice for Navigating Uncertain Times

From tech to media to management consulting firms, layoffs are back. Downsizing during a healthy economy can help lay the foundation for efficient growth or make space for new roles that harness newer technology, such as artificial... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne; Technology; Technology

03 Oct 2017
First Look

First Look at Research and Ideas, October 3, 2017

Effects of Sex Selection on Intrahousehold Outcomes in India By: Hussam, Reshmaan Abstract—Sex ratios at birth have risen steadily over the last three decades across much of the developing world. Many attribute this rise to improved access to sex selection View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

23 May 2019
Book

These Entrepreneurs Take a Pragmatic Approach to Solving Social Problems

In 1908, Harvard Business School’s first dean, Edwin Francis Gay, welcomed the School’s inaugural class of 59 students by saying that HBS was challenged with encouraging its students to have the “intellectual respect for business as a profession, with the social... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Green Technology

14 Sep 2010
First Look

First Look: September 14, 2010

technologies in the U.S. While there are several startups in clean energy that are well-suited to the traditional venture capital investment model, our analysis highlights a number of structural challenges related to venture capital (VC)... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

November 2002 (Revised March 2007)
Case

Keane's Acquisition of Metro Information Services (A)

By: Francisco de Asis Martinez-Jerez

On August 21, 2001, Keane, Inc. announced the acquisition of Metro Information Services, Inc. This case analyzes the challenges facing firms and examines transactions whose major source of value creation hinges on intangible assets (e.g., people or knowledge). View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Value Creation; Goodwill Accounting; Problems and Challenges; Information Technology Industry; Information Technology Industry