Publications

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January 2014 (Revised March 2014)
Case

SAP 2014: Reaching for the Cloud

By: Karim R. Lakhani, Marco Iansiti and Noah Fisher

In May 2014, Bill McDermott will become the sole CEO of SAP AG, the world leader in the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) field. The case occurs in January 2014 at SAP's investors meeting, at a time when the company's stock is near record high. A 2010 strategy... View Details

Keywords: Cloud Computing; Platform; Strategy And Execution; Strategy And Leadership; Enterprise Resource Planning; Software; Information Technology; Digital Platforms; Applications and Software; Information Technology Industry; Germany

Research Summary

Overview

The research activity of Stefano Denicolai regards the management of innovation and technology. His recent works investigate if and how the investment in intangible assets (IA) - especially knowledge assets, such as patents or copyright - impacts on the firm... View Details

15 Dec 2014
Research & Ideas

Deconstructing the Price Tag

spends millions or even billions in developing a product to reveal its costs," Buell says. Raw Honesty Appreciated Yet in the retail industry—and perhaps in other industries where customers may take for... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Retail

May 2009 (Revised October 2009)
Case

Verne Global: Building a Green Data Center in Iceland

Verne Global, a pioneering startup created to build the first large-scale data center in Iceland, faces critical challenges regarding its green strategy. Verne Co-Founder Isaac Kato is tasked with evaluating how the company can most successfully market and sell the... View Details

Keywords: Buildings and Facilities; Business Startups; Marketing Strategy; Product Marketing; Sales; Environmental Sustainability; Pollutants; Green Technology Industry; Service Industry; Iceland

October 2001
Supplement

BMW AG: The Digital Auto Project-An Interview With Chris Bangle, Head of Global Design

By: Stefan H. Thomke

Chris Bangle describes how BMW is trying to reduce its development time by half with the aid of computer-aided technologies. To leverage these technologies in the very competitive automotive industry, he talks about how BMW is faced with the challenges of changing its... View Details

Keywords: Interpersonal Communication; Management Practices and Processes; Time Management; Product Development; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Problems and Challenges; Competition; Information Technology; Auto Industry

November 2022 (Revised March 2024)
Case

Replika AI: Monetizing a Chatbot

By: Julian De Freitas and Nicole Tempest Keller

In early 2018, Eugenia Kuyda, co-founder and CEO of San Francisco-based chatbot Replika AI, was deciding how to monetize the app she had built. Launched in 2017, Replika was a consumer AI “companion app” developed by a team of AI software engineers originally based in... View Details

Keywords: Mental Health; Subscriber Models; TAM; Monetization Strategy; Marketing Strategy; Product Marketing; AI and Machine Learning; Applications and Software; Product Positioning; Health Disorders; Technology Industry

February 2008 (Revised May 2010)
Case

Laurence Longren: End Game

By: Howard H. Stevenson and Shirley M. Spence

This case examines a successful 64-year old as he considers his goals, and how he should be spending his time, at this stage of his life. It briefly recounts his life story, and provides a special focus on personal financial planning and wealth management issues. View Details

Keywords: Age; Financial Management; Time Management; Personal Development and Career; Planning

14 Jun 2011
First Look

First Look: June 14

financial markets played in these events. Purchase this case:http://cb.hbsp.harvard.edu/cb/product/711088-PDF-ENG Caesars Entertainment: CodeGreen George Serafeim, Robert G. Eccles, and Tiffany A. ClayHarvard Business School Case 111-115... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

04 Apr 2000
Research & Ideas

The Right Way to Restructure Conglomerates in Emerging Markets

Western corporate strategies have long been held up as role models for businesses in emerging markets. The reaction to recent financial crises in Asia and Latin America has only served to reinforce this practice. The multilateral View Details

Keywords: by Tarun Khanna & Krishna Palepu

March 2008 (Revised February 2009)
Case

Transparent Value LLC

By: Sharon P. Katz, Krishna G. Palepu and Aldo Sesia, Jr.

Leading index company Dow Jones recently signed a license and joint marketing agreement with Transparent Value LLC, the creator of a new fundamentals-based valuation methodology. The agreement allowed Dow Jones to offer a family of indexes based on the Transparent... View Details

Keywords: Asset Management; Stocks; Price; Performance Expectations; Mathematical Methods; Valuation

June 2022
Teaching Plan

Lifebank Nigeria

By: Brian Trelstad, Pippa Tubman Armerding and Wale Lawal

The aspiration of addressing maternal deaths in Nigeria, which were mostly caused by blood shortages, led Temie Giwa-Tubosun to found LifeBank in 2015. LifeBank developed an online platform that enabled hospitals to connect and purchase blood from local blood banks and... View Details

Keywords: Systems Design; Social Business; Business At The Base Of The Pyramid; Health Care; Blood; Social Enterprise; Health Care and Treatment; Growth and Development Strategy; Finance; Health Industry; Transportation Industry; Africa; Nigeria

Web

Live from Klarman Hall - Alumni

purposeful life in an age where the foundations of our society can be changed by AI and the core processes of sciences, like biology and physics, can be accelerated to where we could get a hundred years of development in a decade? What is... View Details

February 2022 (Revised January 2023)
Case

Creating and Measuring Purpose at Viega

By: Ethan Rouen, Suraj Srinivasan and James Barnett

At its headquarters in Attendorn, Germany, Viega’s chairwoman Anna Viegener gathered the company’s leadership team to discuss their progress on formalizing purpose-driven leadership as a strategic driver within the organization. Viega manufactured and distributed... View Details

Keywords: Growth and Development; Employee Relationship Management; Leadership; Mission and Purpose; Expansion; Measurement and Metrics; Germany

26 May 2003
Research & Ideas

What Your Competition is Telling You

competitors can help grow the market for your products and services, thereby boosting your sales at a time when, with the U.S. slowdown entering its third year, new revenue is exceedingly hard to find. Moreover, the presence of a... View Details

Keywords: by David Stauffer

07 Apr 2015
First Look

First Look: April 7

strategies for launching them for 10 years. In this article he draws on research on dozens of platform sites and products to offer a framework for building a successful platform business. It involves asking five basic questions: (1) Can I... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

Program

The Business of Entertainment, Media, and Sports

Summary Nowhere has the impact of digital technology been felt more keenly than in the entertainment world, where it has dramatically changed how products are developed and managed—and how talent connects... View Details

Keywords: Media & Entertainment; Media & Entertainment

January 2003 (Revised October 2003)
Case

Satera Team at Imatron Systems, Inc. (A), The

By: Teresa M. Amabile and Elizabeth Schatzel

Escalating conflict has erupted within the Satera product development team, resulting from the conflicting cognitive styles of the two senior mechanical engineers. The conflict has taken a toll on both project progress and team morale, endangering one of the most... View Details

Keywords: Decision Making; Entrepreneurship; Human Resources; Management; Business or Company Management; Groups and Teams; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry

Research Summary

Overview

By: Iavor I. Bojinov

Over the last decade, technology companies like Amazon, Google, and Netflix have pioneered data-driven research and development processes centered on massive experimentation. However, as companies increase the breadth and scale of their experiments to millions of... View Details

November 1994
Case

Pilkington Float Glass--1955

By: Kim B. Clark

The case examines the development of the float glass process at Pilkington in the mid-1950s. Pilkington has pursued the development of a radically new process for flat glass production, but has experienced serious problems at each stage of development. The senior... View Details

Keywords: Transformation; Decision Choices and Conditions; Technological Innovation; Product Development; Research and Development; Commercialization; Technology