Publications

October 2010
Case

innocent

By: William A. Sahlman and Harry Wake

This case describes a set of issues confronting the founders of innocent, a 10-year old beverage company that dominated the UK smoothie market. The team must decide how to proceed with expansion of the product line and outside the UK and Ireland. They must also decide... View Details

Keywords: Business or Company Management; Expansion; Capital Structure; Corporate Finance; Growth and Development Strategy; Food and Beverage Industry

November 2017
Case

iRobot: Moving Beyond the Roomba

By: Rajiv Lal and Scott Johnson

The makers of the Roomba, a robotic vacuum cleaner, connected the latest version of their product to the Internet. This new feature opened up a wealth of new opportunities and challenges for the company. View Details

Keywords: Irobot; Smart Home; Connected Home; Roomba; Vacuum; Mapping; Internet Of Things; Connected Products; Organizational Structure; Organizational Design; Information Infrastructure; Applications and Software; Digital Platforms; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Consumer Products Industry; Consumer Products Industry; Consumer Products Industry; Consumer Products Industry; United States

01 Jun 2010
News

MBAs on a Mission

included exploring the potential for ecotourism, organizing a women’s farming collective, and coordinating efforts to save crops from raids by elephants. He enjoyed the experience so much that he extended his term by a year to help a... View Details

Keywords: Sarah Auerbach;Deborah Blagg;Julia Hanna; Corporate Services; Management; Management, Scientific, and Technical Consulting Services; Professional Services

September 2007 (Revised October 2007)
Supplement

Children's Hospital and Clinics (B)

By: Amy C. Edmondson, Ingrid M. Nembhard and Kate Roloff

Explores the numerous initiatives Children's Hospital and Clinics has undertaken to improve patient safety since the late 1990s--from the perspective of 2007. The case thus updates the A case by revisiting the hospital to find out what happened as a result of the... View Details

Keywords: Safety; Change Management; Organizational Culture; Organizational Structure; Legal Liability; Leadership; Management Teams; Health Industry

16 Sep 2024
Blog Post

Creating a Candidate-Centered Recruiting Process

between transparency and equity, especially when there are unavoidable power dynamics, like in the recruiting process. “One of the ways to dismantle power structures and invite people to be their authentic selves is to proactively share... View Details

Keywords: All Industries

14 Mar 2017
First Look

First Look at New Research, March 14

considerably over time. While it was slightly positive on average in the period 1953–2009, it was unusually high in the early 1980s and negative in the 2000s, particularly in the downturns of 2000–2002 and 2007–2009. This paper specifies and estimates a model in which... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

20 Dec 2004
Research & Ideas

How an Order Views Your Company

the order management cycle? Benson Shapiro: In the late 1970s, when I was teaching the Industrial Marketing course in the MBA program at Harvard, it began to become clear to me that to really manage many businesses, one needed to deal... View Details

Keywords: by Sarah Jane Johnston

April 2016 (Revised January 2018)
Supplement

Project Deutschland: Unpeeling the Onion of a Distressed Real Estate Portfolio

By: Nori Gerardo Lietz and Ricardo Andrade

Keywords: Real Estate; Germany; Distress Investing; Non-performing Loan; Borrowing and Debt; Capital Structure; Private Equity; Negotiation Deal; Valuation; Real Estate Industry; Real Estate Industry; Germany; Europe

March 2016 (Revised October 2018)
Case

Project Deutschland: Unpeeling the Onion of a Distressed Real Estate Portfolio

By: Nori Gerardo Lietz and Ricardo Andrade

James Tallest analyzed the opportunity to invest in a distressed portfolio of high quality properties in Germany by acquiring one or more non-performing loans from Deutschland Bank. While he considers the many aspects of the deal that is about to unfold, he must decide... View Details

Keywords: Real Estate; Distress Investing; Non-performing Loan; Borrowing and Debt; Capital Structure; Private Equity; Negotiation Deal; Valuation; Real Estate Industry; Real Estate Industry; Germany; Europe

December 2019
Case

WeWork Files for an IPO

By: Lynn S. Paine and Will Hurwitz

For the board of The We Company—better known as WeWork—August 14, 2019, promised to be a pivotal day. It was then that WeWork’s IPO prospectus, known as an S-1 filing, would be made public, giving potential investors, the media, and the general public a window into the... View Details

Keywords: Capital Structure; Corporate Accountability; Corporate Governance; Going Public; Leadership; Management; Private Equity; Valuation; Venture Capital; Real Estate Industry; Real Estate Industry; United States

October 2022 (Revised December 2022)
Case

Reimagining Enel: Enabling Sustainable Progress

By: Michael L. Tushman and Kerry Herman

CEO Francesco Starace is considering what is next for Enel SpA, one of world's largest energy companies. From 2014 to 2022, he has wrought a dramatic transformation at Enel, restructuring the company's business units; redeploying senior talent across functions and... View Details

Keywords: Leadership; Leadership And Change Management; Leadership Style; Leadership Succession; Renewables; Energy; Transformation; Renewable Energy; Business Divisions; Digital Transformation; Restructuring; Organizational Structure; Energy Industry; Europe; Latin America; North America; Spain; Italy

03 Oct 2019
News

Skydeck Live: Galactic Returns

Photo courtesy of Laetitia Garriott de Cayeux Subscribe on iTunes Subscribe on SoundCloud More Skydeck episodes Dan Morrell: When Laetitia Garriott de Cayeux (MBA 2004) started at HBS in 2002, the private space industry was really just... View Details

Keywords: Space Research and Technology; Government

20 Feb 2020
Blog Post

Know Your Audience – Recruiting HBS Students for Technology

services and software space has been consistently strong. Students are also joining technology companies that overlap in retail, heath care, and other direct to consumer industries as they find roles in companies that align directly with... View Details

Keywords: Technology

July 1991 (Revised September 1995)
Case

Eastman Kodak Co.: Managing Information Systems Through Strategic Alliances

By: Lynda M. Applegate

In January 1988, Colby Chandler, Kodak CEO, created the Corporate Information Systems (CIS) and appointed Katherine Hudson head. She at once became the first head of IT and first woman corporate vice president in the company. Throughout 1989, Hudson inaugurated a... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Strategy; Information Technology; Partners and Partnerships; Organizational Structure; Success; Trends; Information Management; Service Operations; Manufacturing Industry