Publications

March 2024 (Revised August 2024)
Case

Darktrace: Scaling Cybersecurity and AI (A)

By: Jeffrey F. Rayport and Alexis Lefort

In 2023, Darktrace CEO Poppy Gustafsson was contemplating her growth strategy at a leading U.K.-based cybersecurity venture, launched in 2013 by a group of anti-terror cyber specialists, University of Cambridge mathematicians, and artificial intelligence (AI) experts.... View Details

Keywords: Technology; Talent; Scaling; Entrepreneurship; Cybersecurity; Leadership; Business Growth and Maturation; Recruitment; Resignation and Termination; AI and Machine Learning; Growth and Development Strategy; Organizational Culture; Going Public; Technology Industry; United Kingdom; Europe; United States

Program

Owner/President Management

rewarding—even life-changing—experience. To apply, you will submit the application, telling us about your professional background, your organization, and your current responsibilities, goals, and challenges. Answering Your Questions Our Program Advising View Details

23 Sep 2014
First Look

First Look: September 23

http://hbr.org/product/Opening-the-Valve--From-S/an/415015-PDF-ENG Harvard Business School Case 415-016 Opening the Valve: From Software to Hardware (B) The (B) case provides significant detail on Valve's initial decisions but keeps the... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

September 2019 (Revised February 2020)
Teaching Note

Commonwealth Bank of Australia: Unbanklike Experimentation

By: Ryan W. Buell and Leslie K. John

Email mking@hbs.edu for a courtesy copy.

This Teaching Note explains the theory of the case and teaching plan for the case: Commonwealth Bank of Australia: Unbanklike Experimentation (619-018). In August 2017,... View Details

Keywords: Transparency; Experimentation; Banks and Banking; Credit Cards; Customer Focus and Relationships; Competitive Strategy; Banking Industry; Australia

This teaching case profiles Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), a venture capital firm launched in 2009 that quickly broke into the VC industry's top ranks. The case recounts the firm's history; describes its co-founders' motivations and their strategy for disrupting an... View Details

Program

The Business of Entertainment, Media, and Sports

sale of creative goods and services Balance risks and rewards to manage multiple new releases simultaneously Execute strategic marketing decisions that take into account different industry players' roles View Details

Keywords: Media & Entertainment; Media & Entertainment

Research Summary

Management Control Systems in Multiunit Companies

By: Tatiana Sandino

Professor Sandino conducts research on early-stage multiunit companies that introduce management control systems to help maintain operations, as well as company culture, as they grow, but also to enable adaptation to the different markets that they serve. Building... View Details

June 2013 (Revised August 2020)
Case

Bonnie Road

By: Arthur I Segel, John H. Vogel, Jr. and Lisa Strope

Victor Alexander was intrigued by the packet of papers that lay in front of him. The papers comprised a brochure that Garden State Bank had put together in an effort to sell the Bonnie Road Distribution Center in Somerset, New Jersey, for $9.7 million. It was April... View Details

Keywords: Real Estate; Investment; Acquisition; Buildings and Facilities; Property; Partners and Partnerships; Decision Choices and Conditions; Distribution Industry; Real Estate Industry; Texas

March 2021
Article

Opting-in to Prosocial Incentives

By: Daniel Schwartz, Elizabeth A. Keenan, Alex Imas and Ayelet Gneezy

The design of effective incentive schemes that are both successful in motivating employees and keeping down costs is of critical importance. Research has demonstrated that prosocial incentives, where individuals’ effort benefits a charitable organization, can sometimes... View Details

Keywords: Incentives; Prosocial Behavior; Behavioral Economics; Field Experiments; Recycling; Prosocial Motivation; Decision Making; Motivation and Incentives; Behavior

Find at Harvard

21 Mar 2011
Research & Ideas

Are We Thinking Too Little, or Too Much?

you've done something the same way for 10 years, it might be time to reconsider.” "Academics traditionally have taken two different approaches to decision-making," says Norton, who teaches in the Marketing Unit. "One view is that people often View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

September 1999 (Revised March 2001)
Case

Charles Schwab Corporation (A)

By: F. Warren McFarlan and Nicole Tempest

A look at the industrial restructuring in the brokerage industry made possible by e-commerce. Focuses the student's attention on the decision alternatives facing Charles Schwab, one of the industry leaders in January 1998. In a word, the challenge is "Do they slash... View Details

Keywords: Restructuring; Internet and the Web; Price; Decision Choices and Conditions; Business Strategy; Competitive Strategy; Financial Services Industry

October 2000 (Revised December 2004)
Case

Richard Spellman (A)

Describes Richard Spellman's decision to leave his existing employer and join an Internet start-up as CEO. Focuses on the terms of a restricted stock agreement and employment agreement that must be negotiated. Includes first drafts of these two agreements. View Details

Keywords: Contracts; Agreements and Arrangements; Internet and the Web; Executive Compensation; Personal Development and Career; Business Startups; Management Teams

July 2006
Case

Citigroup: Euro Zone Bond Trading (A)

By: Lynn S. Paine, Christopher Bruner and Aldo Sesia

Describes the development and execution of a bond trading strategy by a London-based team of Citigroup eurozone bond traders. The trades, which involved two of Europe's leading electronic trading platforms, gave rise to a European-wide controversy over the traders'... View Details

Keywords: Debt Securities; Financial Markets; Bonds; Ethics; Values and Beliefs; Decision Making; Lawfulness; Business Strategy; Banking Industry; Financial Services Industry; Europe

Program

Leadership for Senior Executives

Summary Uncertainty and change are relentless challenges for today's leaders. Between expanding globalization, rapid technological shifts, and evolving social norms, how can leaders make the right strategic View Details

Article

Managing Perceptions of Distress at Work: Reframing Emotion as Passion

By: Elizabeth Baily Wolf, Jooa Julia Lee, Sunita Sah and Alison Wood Brooks

Expressing distress at work can have negative consequences for employees: observers perceive employees who express distress as less competent than employees who do not. Across five experiments, we explore how reframing a socially inappropriate emotional expression... View Details

Keywords: Decision Making; Emotions; Perception