Publications
Publications
Show Results For
- All HBS Web
(5,470)
- Faculty Publications (1,034)
- Fall 2018
- Article
What Problems Will You Solve with Blockchain?: Before Jumping on the Bandwagon, Companies Need to Carefully Consider how Ledger Technologies Fit into their Overall Strategy
By: Teppo Felin and Karim R. Lakhani
Distributed ledger technologies — collectively known as blockchain — have burst onto the business scene, accompanied by a significant amount of hype.They are widely expected to disrupt existing industries and lead to the creation of new types of companies. Some of the... View Details
- August 2018 (Revised April 2021)
- Case
The Fuji-Xerox Merger
By: Guhan Subramanian and Annie Zhao
In January 2018, Xerox, a well-known American digital document firm, convened its board of directors to decide whether to approve a merger with Japanese imaging company Fujifilm. Activist Xerox shareholders were suing to halt the transaction, and documents unearthed... View Details
- August 2018 (Revised June 2019)
- Case
Oaktree: Pierre Foods Investment
By: Victoria Ivashina and Mike Harmon
This case is a setting to discuss “loan to own” investment strategy that is often pursued by distressed investors. The aftermath of the 2007 financial crisis left many companies with poor liquidity and limited ability to obtain credit. One of these companies was Pierre... View Details
- August 2018 (Revised July 2019)
- Background Note
Conducting a Kaizen
By: Willy Shih
Kaizen, meaning change for the better in Japanese, is a set of activities directed at improving standardized work, equipment, and procedures for carrying out daily production or other business operations. It was popularized by Toyota as an integral part of its Toyota... View Details
- August 2018 (Revised July 2020)
- Case
Revenue Recognition at HBP
By: Paul Healy and Siko Sikochi
In early 2014, Paul Bills, CFO of Harvard Business Publishing (HBP), sat down with David Wan, the company’s CEO, to discuss budget preparations for the coming year. Bills noted that the performance of Corporate Learning, one of HBP’s three business units, would be... View Details
- August 2018
- Case
Tapping Growth at Lord Hobo Brewing Company
By: Ethan Rouen and Susanna Gallani
Lord Hobo Brewing Company accounts for its inventory process as it prepares to create its first set of professional financial statements for investors. View Details
- August 2018
- Case
BlackBuck (A)
By: Shikhar Ghosh and Shweta Bagai
The case presents the challenges of scaling an asset-heavy company (that relies on its operations). It highlights how decisions on the early team impact a company’s ability to scale, linkage between growth and cash flows, as well the organizational impact of high... View Details
- July 2018 (Revised March 2019)
- Teaching Note
Hilti (A): Fleet Management?
By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell and Jan Rivkin
This Teaching Note accompanies the case HBS No. 718-419, “Hilti (A): Fleet Management.” It provides guidelines for class discussion, as well as a board plan and transcripts of the associated videos, Hilti Fleet Management Video Supplements.
The associated case... View Details
The associated case... View Details
Keywords: Business Model Innovation; Total Customer Value; Innovation; Inventions; Business Models; Value Chains; Transformations; Focusing On Customers; Business Model; Restructuring; Transformation; Customer Value and Value Chain; Decision Making; Customer Focus and Relationships; Customer Relationship Management; Construction; Innovation and Invention; Leasing; Strategy; Liechtenstein; Switzerland; Europe
- June 2018 (Revised February 2019)
- Teaching Note
Home Nursing of North Carolina
By: Richard S. Ruback, Royce Yudkoff and Ahron Rosenfeld
In 2011, immediately after graduating HBS, Ari Medoff began a self-funded search for a small firm to buy and run as its CEO. After just three month of searching, he identified Home Nursing of North Carolina (HNNC), a home care agency based in Greensboro, NC, as a... View Details
- June 2018
- Article
Firm Turnover and the Return of Racial Establishment Segregation
By: John-Paul Ferguson and Rembrand Koning
Racial segregation between American workplaces is greater today than it was a generation ago. This increase has happened alongside the declines in within-establishment occupational segregation on which most prior research has focused. We examine more than 40 years of... View Details
- 2018
- Book
Kissinger the Negotiator: Lessons from Dealmaking at the Highest Level
By: James K. Sebenius, R. Nicholas Burns and Robert H. Mnookin (with a forward by Henry A. Kissinger)
As professors and practitioners with careers devoted to negotiation, we are often asked “Who are the world’s best negotiators? What makes them effective?” Inevitably Henry Kissinger’s name comes up as an elite, if controversial, negotiator from whom we can learn a... View Details
- May–June 2018
- Article
Layoffs That Don't Break Your Company: Better Approaches to Workforce Transition
By: Sandra J. Sucher and Shalene Gupta
Today layoffs have become companies’ default response to the challenges created by advances in technology and global competition. Yet research shows that job cuts rarely help senior leaders achieve their goals. Too often, they’re done for short-term gain, but the cost... View Details
- May 2018 (Revised January 2019)
- Teaching Note
Nashton Partners and Its Search Fund Process
By: Richard S. Ruback, Royce Yudkoff and Ahron Rosenfeld
Teaching Note for HBS No. 212-006. In 2008, Jay Davis (HBS’ 08) and Jason Pananos (HBS’ 08) formed Nashton Partners and raised $500,000 from investors to fund their search. After 30 months of searching, and exhausting the money they raised to fund their search, Davis... View Details
- March 2018
- Case
Zensar Technologies Ltd.
By: Joseph B. Fuller and Tanvi Deshpande
Zensar, an established mid-tier IT services company based in India, is known for its customer-centric approach and close-knit culture. Sandeep Kishore has recently stepped in as the MD and CEO, replacing the previous CEO of 15 years. Kishore is developing his strategy... View Details
- March 2018
- Article
In Pursuit of Enhanced Customer Retention Management: Review, Key Issues, and Future Directions
By: Eva Ascarza, Scott A. Neslin, Oded Netzer, Zachery Anderson, Peter S. Fader, Sunil Gupta, Bruce Hardie, Aurelie Lemmens, Barak Libai, David T. Neal, Foster Provost and Rom Schrift
In today’s turbulent business environment, customer retention presents a significant challenge for many service companies. Academics have generated a large body of research that addresses part of that challenge—with a particular focus on predicting customer churn.... View Details
- March 2018
- Article
Making the Numbers? 'Short Termism' and the Puzzle of Only Occasional Disaster
By: Hazhir Rahmandad, Rebecca Henderson and Nelson P. Repenning
Much recent work in strategy and popular discussion suggests that an excessive focus on "managing the numbers"—delivering quarterly earnings at the expense of longer-term investments—makes it difficult for firms to make the investments necessary to build competitive... View Details
- January 2018 (Revised October 2019)
- Case
ZBJ: Building a Global Outsourcing Platform for Knowledge Workers (A)
By: Feng Zhu, Weiru Chen and Shirley Sun
ZBJ.com (ZBJ), an online platform that connects knowledge workers to small- and medium-sized enterprises, is China’s largest outsourcing platform. Founded by Mingyue Zhu in 2006, ZBJ had grown into a unicorn with 4,000 employees and a daily transaction volume of RMB15... View Details
- January 2018
- Case
Ak Gıda: IPO or Strategic Sale
By: Suraj Srinivasan and Eren Kuzucu
In 2015, Yıldiz Holding, one of the world’s largest producer of confections, biscuits and crackers, was at the end of its divestiture process from Ak Gida, one of the leading dairy companies in Turkey. The company had adopted a dual track process, pursuing an initial... View Details
Keywords: Valuation; Private Sector; For-Profit Firms; Business Model; Business Strategy; Competitive Advantage; Growth and Development Strategy; Value Creation; Decision Making; Growth Management; Mergers and Acquisitions; Initial Public Offering; Business Conglomerates; Business Exit or Shutdown; Family Business; Joint Ventures; Food and Beverage Industry; Turkey
- January 2018 (Revised January 2019)
- Case
ZappRx
By: Jeffrey J. Bussgang and Olivia Hull
In October 2015, ZappRx founder Zoe Barry is deciding between two business models for her health technology start-up. Her product, a software application that aims to expedite the prescription fulfillment process for patients with rare diseases, has attracted interest... View Details
- January 2018 (Revised August 2020)
- Background Note
Continuous Software Development: Agile's Successor
By: Jeffrey J. Bussgang, Samuel Clemens and Olivia Hull
In recent years, the twin software development methodologies of continuous delivery and continuous deployment have risen to prominence in the start-up world and beyond. These methods have enabled technology companies large and small to accelerate their product... View Details
Keywords: Continuous Improvement; Continuous Development; Continuous Delivery; Continuous Integration; Product Development Processes; Computer Programming; Agile; Waterfall; Software Applications; Software Engineering; Applications and Software; Information Technology; Technological Innovation; Product Development; Customer Focus and Relationships; Entrepreneurship; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Structure; Quality; Product Marketing; Product; Infrastructure; Information Infrastructure; Computer Industry; Technology Industry; Information Technology Industry; Web Services Industry; Massachusetts; Boston