Publications

Profile

Joel Hurd

the porch of my cabin, closing my eyes, and listening to the wind blow through the pines. For all I knew that was heaven. What is the best thing about your home town? Home is all View Details

September 2017 (Revised June 2019)
Case

Dianrong: Marketplace Lending, Blockchain, and 'The New Finance' in China

By: Christopher J. Malloy, Lauren H. Cohen and Anthony K. Woo

This case examines the strategic positioning of Dianrong, one of the largest online peer-to-peer (P2P) lending platforms in China, in its attempt to become a foundational player in the expansion of the FinTech sector in Asia. Dianrong had recently announced the... View Details

Keywords: Financing and Loans; Internet and the Web; Supply Chain; Finance; Innovation and Invention; Competition; Product Positioning; Strategy; Financial Services Industry; China

Profile

Era Jain

skills to complement my technical background and provide me with a launch pad to kick start my entrepreneurial journey. Coming to HBS is like.... Taking risks with no downside. HBS has given me the freedom of two years to try out View Details

Profile

Mark McNeill

had in me. It was close... but I won! What is the best thing about your home town? The collective spirit of Japan which manifested itself in the wake of the Great East Japan... View Details

04 Dec 2019
Book

Creating the Experimentation Organization

Thomke. “Companies better get on this if they don’t want to be at a major competitive disadvantage.” On the other hand, he says, companies that begin transforming themselves now can reap the benefits of hundreds or even thousands View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

22 Feb 2021
Book

Reaching Today's Omnichannel Customer Takes a New Sales Strategy

flounders in the early-stage firm. Those people didn’t suddenly get stupid or lose individual capabilities. In business, there’s no such thing as performance in the abstract. There is only performance in a given context—here, not... View Details

Keywords: by Kristen Senz

01 Jun 2023
News

Pet Project

simple-ingredient, raw-food diet. Spies couldn’t find such a thing in the pet aisle, so she started making it herself and quickly maxed out the freezer of her San Francisco kitchen with dog food. Within a... View Details

Keywords: Jen McFarland Flint; Miscellaneous Store Retailers; Retail Trade; Sporting Goods, Hobby, Musical Instrument, and Book Stores; Retail Trade

06 Jan 2016
What Do You Think?

Why Do Leaders Get Their Timing Wrong?

suggested. They included such things as Fizzinnf’s suggestion that we merely ask employees whether their needs are being met, a factor contributing to a leader’s “exercise of judgment and discretion.” Mauro... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett; Auto; Fashion

11 Mar 2021
News

Leading with Heart

the first thing that has really shaped me is me falling in love with my wife who was 14 years old when I saw her. I was 16. The minute I saw her, I knew this is the woman I want to marry. And I keep joking with her that she has really... View Details

03 Nov 2021
Blog Post

Recent Grad Reflections: From Being Cold Called to Becoming a Case Protagonist

they were able to view things with fresh eyes; ironically many of these students caveated their outstanding comments by starting with “my apologies if this doesn’t make sense since I don’t know much about... View Details

24 May 2021
Op-Ed

Can Fabric Waste Become Fashion’s Resource?

COVID-19 has broken fashion’s supply chain. As a result, an already wasteful industry has become more wasteful. Even before the pandemic, the global apparel industry was producing about 92 million tons of textile waste a year. That’s about one garbage truck’s worth of... View Details

Keywords: by Geoffrey Jones and Shelly Xu; Fashion

January 2013 (Revised June 2018)
Case

Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google 2018

By: John Deighton and Leora Kornfeld

Four businesses had, by 2012, grown to dominate the infrastructure that all firms rely on to reach online customers. Will the balance of power among the four persist, will one take command at the expense of the other three, or are all four more vulnerable than they... View Details

Keywords: Internet and the Web; Competitive Advantage; Infrastructure; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Growth and Development; Service Industry; Retail Industry; United States

18 Jul 2022
Research & Ideas

After the 'Crypto Crash,' What's Next for Digital Currencies?

well. In late 2017-2018, there was a significant downturn, and many of today’s top crypto companies emerged out of that. So, I think from an entrepreneurship perspective, there’s a lot View Details

Keywords: by Christina Pazzanese, Harvard Gazette; Financial Services; Technology

04 Mar 2019
What Do You Think?

What’s the Antidote to Surveillance Capitalism?

information not addressed to anyone specific. As the saying goes, ‘The only thing free is the cheese in the mouse trap.’” Government was cited as both an antidote to surveillance capitalism and a threat because View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett; Advertising; Consumer Products

01 Feb 2021
What Do You Think?

Has the New Economy Finally Arrived?

educating first generation college students and moving away from prioritizing candidates coming from more privileged backgrounds.” Measurement was on the minds of several respondents. Steve Hopkins said that diversity “needs to be an... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

September 1988 (Revised September 1993)
Case

Mrs. Fields Cookies

By: James I. Cash Jr.

Mrs. Fields Cookies is a small company selling freshly baked goods through privately owned specialty stores (each store sells only Mrs. Fields products). The company has about 8,000 employees worldwide and less than 150 information systems people for a unique leverage... View Details

Keywords: Acquisition; Information Management; Organizational Structure; Customer Relationship Management; Business Growth and Maturation; Networks; Internet and the Web; Food and Beverage Industry; Information Technology Industry