Publications
Publications
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- All HBS Web
(1,903)
- Faculty Publications (528)
- December 2017 (Revised March 2019)
- Case
Armarium: Luxury Fashion Brands for Rent
By: Jill Avery, David Fubini, Natasha Dossa and Devon Stewart
Armarium, a two-sided online platform that offered consumers the opportunity to rent the most coveted, current season high fashion clothing and accessories from the top global luxury brands, had emerged from its first sales season with two distinct customer segments:... View Details
Keywords: Brand Management; Retailing; Sharing Economy; Luxury Brand; Ecommerce; Startup; Fashion; Brand Positioning; Customer Acquisition; Internet Marketing; Marketing; Marketing Channels; Marketing Strategy; Brands and Branding; Business Startups; Luxury; Consumer Behavior; Growth and Development Strategy; Social Media; E-commerce; Fashion Industry; Retail Industry; Apparel and Accessories Industry; United States; North America
- December 2017 (Revised March 2018)
- Case
Kellogg Company/eighteen94 capital
By: David Bell, Damien McLoughlin and Natalie Kindred
With 33,000 employees and revenues of $13 billion in 2016, Kellogg Company was the world’s largest producer of branded packaged cereal and a leader in branded convenience foods. Founded in 1906 and based in Michigan, the company had a proud history of product and... View Details
Keywords: CPG; Consumer Packaged Goods; Cereal; Battle Creek; Michigan; Breakfast; Snack; Agribusiness; Change Management; Growth Strategy; Corporate Venture Capital; Innovation; Startup; Brand; Brand ＆ Product Management; Advertising; Demand and Consumers; Innovation and Invention; Venture Capital; Food; Brands and Branding; Marketing; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; Consumer Products Industry; United States; Michigan; North America
- Article
How a Fast-Growing Startup Built Its Sales Team for Long-Term Success
By: Frank V. Cespedes and David Mattson
It’s common for leaders of sales teams to focus almost exclusively on short-term tactics and current operations while failing to think and act in a way that supports the longer-term needs of their businesses—and it’s hard to fault them. The biggest problem with a... View Details
- January 2018
- Supplement
Jumia Nigeria PowerPoint Supplement
Founded in 2012, Jumia Nigeria, a startup effort by Germany-based Rocket Internet, aimed to become an African Amazon. The company entered the nascent market and immediately enjoyed an uptick in consumer spending fueled by the strength of Nigeria’s oil-based economy. By... View Details
- November 2017 (Revised September 2020)
- Supplement
Miami's Tech Future (B): Building the Entrepreneurial Ecosystem
In 2017, Miami was rated #1 among U.S. cities for startups, but about 40th for “scale-ups” – growth companies. This case shows how leaders of incubators and accelerators supported startups and a culture of entrepreneurship, but also describes some factors limiting... View Details
- November 2017 (Revised September 2020)
- Supplement
Miami's Tech Future (C): Reaching Another Miami
The effects of Miami’s startup scene have not reached many “left-behind” lower-income Black communities, which are disproportionately affected by problems such as segregation and racial discrimination, lack of transportation access, crime, education quality, government... View Details
Keywords: Technology; Change; Transformation; Progress; Scaling; Startup; Community Engagement; Community Impact; Community Relations; Future; Income Inequality; Business; Change Management; Business Startups; Information Technology; Diversity; Race; Equality and Inequality; Social Issues; Business and Community Relations; Miami; Florida
- November 2017 (Revised October 2018)
- Case
Brandless: Disrupting Consumer Packaged Goods
By: Jill Avery
Brandless, an online direct-to-consumer seller of upscale private-label consumer packaged goods, offered consumers a limited assortment of values-conscious products delivered directly to their homes with the simplicity of one fixed $3 price point that promised an... View Details
Keywords: Brand; Brand Management; Retailing; Retailing Industry; Private Label; Direct To Consumer Marketing; Ecommerce; Digital Marketing; Consumer Packaged Goods; Startup; Marketing; Marketing Strategy; Disruption; Food; Product Marketing; Marketing Channels; Consumer Behavior; Brands and Branding; Venture Capital; E-commerce; Consumer Products Industry; Beauty and Cosmetics Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; Retail Industry; United States; North America
- Article
Are You Suited for a Start-up?
By: Jeffrey Bussgang
Relative to established organizations, start-ups can be hard to figure out. What are the jobs to be done? The best entry points? How can you tell whether a company has potential for success and is the right fit for you?
The author advises that you first assess... View Details
- November 2017
- Case
One Life; One Love (A)
By: Thomas DeLong and Kerry Herman
Katie Hood, CEO of the One Love Foundation (One Love), a group dedicated to the prevention of relationship violence, had grown the organization's base of funding support to $6 million by 2017 and broadened its mandate to include relationships across many demographics.... View Details
- October 2017 (Revised October 2022)
- Case
Jumia Nigeria: from Retail to Marketplace (A)
By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell and Namrata Arora
Founded in 2012, Jumia Nigeria, a startup effort by Germany-based Rocket Internet, aimed to become an African Amazon. The company entered the nascent market and immediately enjoyed an uptick in consumer spending fueled by the strength of Nigeria’s oil-based economy. By... View Details
- October 2017 (Revised November 2017)
- Case
Lovepop
By: Robert F. White, Ramana Nanda and Olivia Hull
As they prepare to graduate from Harvard Business School, the co-founders of greeting card company startup Lovepop need capital to cover the company’s operating costs and must choose between two seed financing offers. One offer is from an angel group and the other from... View Details
- 2017
- Book
Entering StartUpLand: An Essential Guide to Finding the Right Job
Many professionals aspire to work for startups. Executives from large companies view them as models to help them adapt to today's dynamic innovation economy, while freshly minted MBAs see magic in founding something new. Yes, startups look magical, but they can also be... View Details
- September 2017 (Revised March 2023)
- Case
Careem: Raising a Unicorn
By: Shikhar Ghosh and Alpana Thapar
This case follows two ex-McKinsey consultants, Magnus Olsson and Mudassir Sheikha, who in search of their true purpose decide to found Careem, a Dubai-based ride-hailing service. Following its launch in July 2012, Careem experiences rapid growth of 30% per month in the... View Details
- September 2017 (Revised January 2025)
- Case
Dinesh Moorjani and Hatch Labs
By: Christopher Stanton, Shikhar Ghosh, Allison Ciechanover and Jeff Huizinga
This case is about Tinder. It discusses different business models and ways of structuring the initial team. With a $6 million investment from IAC/Interactive in 2010, Dinesh Moorjani founded Hatch Labs to build mobile apps. His mission was to attract entrepreneurial... View Details
- August 2017 (Revised July 2019)
- Case
GROW: Using Artificial Intelligence to Screen Human Intelligence
By: Ethan Bernstein, Paul McKinnon and Paul Yarabe
Over 10% of all 2017 university graduates in Japan used GROW, an artificial intelligence platform and mobile app developed by Tokyo-based people analytics startup IGS, to recruit for a job. This case puts participants in the shoes of IGS founder and CEO Masahiro... View Details
Keywords: Big Data; Artificial Intelligence; Talent and Talent Management; Recruitment; Selection and Staffing; Human Resources; Information Technology; AI and Machine Learning; Analytics and Data Science; Financial Services Industry; Air Transportation Industry; Advertising Industry; Manufacturing Industry; Technology Industry; Japan
- May 2017 (Revised November 2017)
- Teaching Note
BrightStar Care: The Evolution of a Leadership Team
By: Boris Groysberg, Colleen Ammerman and Olivia Hull
Teaching Note for HBS No. 417-020. View Details
Keywords: Health Care Services; Entrepreneurs; Board Of Directors; Boards Of Directors; Health Care Industry; Growth Strategy; Organizational Change; Brand Positioning; Entrepreneurial Organizations; Entrepreneurial Management; Franchising; Family-owned Business; Home Health Care; Managing Growth; Management Styles; Organizational Development; Talent Management; Women Executives; Women And Leadership; Business Startups; Family Business; Small Business; Talent And Talent Management; Governing And Advisory Boards; Health Care And Treatment; Human Capital; Leadership Development; Leadership Style; Business Or Company Management; Growth And Development Strategy; Management Analysis, Tools, And Techniques; Management Skills; Management Style; Management Succession; Management Systems; Management Teams; Brands And Branding; Marketing Strategy; Strategy; Health Industry
- May 2017 (Revised June 2017)
- Case
ATH Technologies (A): Making the Numbers
By: Robert Simons and Jennifer Packard
An exercise that takes students through five stages of growth in an entrepreneurial start-up in the medical devices industry: 1) founding, 2) growth, 3) push to profitability, 4) refocusing process, and 5) takeover by new management. At each stage, students must... View Details
Keywords: Strategy And Execution; Management Control Systems; Balancing Innovation And Control; Performance Management; Business Growth and Maturation; Business Startups; Profit; Geographic Location; Governance Controls; Innovation and Invention; Management Succession; Performance Evaluation; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry
- May 2017
- Case
ATH Technologies: Making the Numbers
By: Robert Simons and Jennifer Packard
An exercise that takes students through five stages of growth in an entrepreneurial start-up in the medical devices industry: 1) founding, 2) growth, 3) push to profitability, 4) relocation process, and 5) takeover by new management. At each stage, students must... View Details
Keywords: Balancing Innovation And Control; Performance Evaluation; Strategy And Execution; Management Control Systems; Risk Management; Business Growth and Maturation; Business Startups; Profit; Geographic Location; Governance Controls; Innovation and Invention; Management Succession; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry
- May 2017
- Supplement
Buffer.com (B)
By: Susanna Gallani, Tiffany Y. Chang, Brian J. Hall and Jee Eun Shin
Buffer decided to release its salaries and compensation calculation formula to the public, and the public reaction was greater and more positive than they would have imagined. The company experienced both an increase in volume and a change in the kinds of inbound... View Details
Keywords: Compensation; Compensation Design; Company Values; Culture; Transparency; Attraction; Selection; Performance Measurement; Performance Measures; Performance Metrics; Startup Management; Compensation and Benefits; Organizational Culture; Values and Beliefs; Performance Evaluation; Measurement and Metrics
- May 2017 (Revised November 2017)
- Case
Cotopaxi: Managing Growth for Good
By: Andy Wu and Laura Huang
Cotopaxi, an innovative outdoor gear business targeting millennials, focuses on profit and social impact. This registered benefit corporation was formed by Davis Smith who coalesced his experiences as a Wharton MBA student along with professional knowledge from an... View Details