Publications

August 1984 (Revised October 1992)
Background Note

Marketing Implementation

By: John A. Quelch

Describes a framework for evaluating marketing implementation problems and assesses the interfaces between marketing strategy and implementation. View Details

Keywords: Marketing Strategy

March 2021
Case

Yale Investments Office: November 2020

By: Josh Lerner, Jo Tango and Alys Ferragamo

David Swensen and the Investments Office staff must decide whether to continue to allocate the bulk of the university's endowment to illiquid investments—hedge funds, private equity, venture capital, real estate, natural resources—given the impact of the COVID-19... View Details

Keywords: University Endowment; Asset Allocation; Real Estate; Equities; Fixed Income; COVID-19; Asset Management; Private Equity; Venture Capital; Natural Resources; Resource Allocation; Investment; Investment Portfolio; Health Pandemics; Financial Crisis; Financial Services Industry; Real Estate Industry; Energy Industry; Connecticut

Career Coach

Rich Schneider

Rich (HBS’74) has been a Career Coach since 2009 and works with both students and alumni. He retired from a 35 year career in management consulting that year and is presently active in several capacities: Partner in Sage Partners, a consulting/venture development firm;... View Details

Keywords: Consulting; Consumer Products; Health Care; Manufacturing; Sports

October 2018
Case

Accomplice: Scaling Early Stage Finance

By: Ramana Nanda, Raffaella Sadun and Olivia Hull

Accomplice, an early-stage venture capital firm based in Boston, is raising its second fund in November 2017. Since 2009, the firm has followed a seed-led investment model, investing in tech companies at the earliest stages, often when products and business models are... View Details

Keywords: Early Stage Finance; Seed Finance; Scouts; Venture Capital; Business Startups; Private Equity; Investment Portfolio; Organizational Structure; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Partners and Partnerships; Networks; Adaptation; Corporate Strategy; Technology; Financial Services Industry; Massachusetts; Boston; Cambridge; United States

Karim R. Lakhani is the Dorothy & Michael Hintze Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School. He specializes in technology management, innovation, digital transformation and artificial... View Details

Keywords: biotechnology; communications; computer; health care; high technology; information technology industry; internet; pharmaceuticals; software; video games

April 2009
Article

Sovereign Wealth in Abu Dhabi

By: Rawi Abdelal

By the turn of the century, oil had already made the tiny emirate of Abu Dhabi rich beyond anyone's wildest dreams. A sovereign wealth fund, the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA), has invested extra oil revenues abroad for more than thirty years and amassed a... View Details

Keywords: Development Economics; Financial Management; Investment Funds; Sovereign Finance; Wealth; Diversification; Abu Dhabi

Find at Harvard

October 1992 (Revised December 1993)
Case

Vanguard Group, Inc. (A)

By: Jay O. Light

Deals with the general mission and strategy of a large mutual fund complex. View Details

Keywords: Investment Funds; Business Strategy; Mission and Purpose; Financial Services Industry

June 2003 (Revised December 2003)
Case

Nehemiah Strategy, The: Bringing it to Boston

By: Diana Barrett, Arthur I Segel and Sheila McCarthy

In 2003, Lee Stuart, who had successfully used the Nehemiah Strategy to create thousands of units of affordable housing in the South Bronx, was working with the Greater Boston Interfaith Organization to implement the strategy in Boston. She and her colleagues faced a... View Details

Keywords: Strategy; Boston

March 2023
Background Note

A Primer on OKRs

By: Suraj Srinivasan and Li-Kuan (Jason) Ni

The OKR framework is a popular goal-setting and strategy execution tool that uses goal setting through “Objectives” and measuring performance using “Key Results” on a periodic basis to measure and drive performance. The OKR framework has been adopted and practiced at... View Details

Keywords: Business Organization; Talent and Talent Management; Framework; Corporate Governance; Goals and Objectives; Growth and Development; Growth and Development Strategy; Growth Management; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Management Practices and Processes; Management Skills; Management Systems; Measurement and Metrics; Outcome or Result; Performance Effectiveness; Performance Evaluation; Performance Expectations; Performance Productivity; Performance Efficiency

Sep 09 2019
Testimonial

Mastering Leadership in a Global Context

2017
Working Paper

Why and How Investors Use ESG Information: Evidence from a Global Survey

By: Georgios Serafeim

Using survey data from a sample of senior investment professionals from mainstream (i.e., not SRI funds) investment organizations, we provide insights into why and how investors use reported environmental, social, and governance (ESG) information. The primary reason... View Details

Keywords: Investment Management; Sustainability; ESG; ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) Performance; Investment Fund; Investment Strategy; Corporate Accountability; Activist Shareholder; Engagement; Environment; Climate Change; Customers; Customer Satisfaction; Employee Engagement; Global Warming; Investment; Decision Making; Environmental Sustainability; Performance Expectations

SSRN

June 2023
Case

Launching Egypt’s First Digital Banking Platform: QNB Bebasata

By: Mark Egan, Billy Chan and Ahmed Dahawy

The leadership team at QNB Alahli, Egypt's second biggest private bank, looked back on their efforts to create a brand-new, fully digital banking platform since 2019. A digital-only banking service was unprecedented in Egypt, a country where over 90% of financial... View Details

Keywords: Digital Transformation; Banks and Banking; Innovation and Invention; Competitive Strategy; Business Model; Product Launch; Finance; Banking Industry; Egypt

07 Jan 2022
News

Five Must-Read Harvard Business Review Articles

Web

Faculty & Research

field of negotiation, shows you how to negotiate successfully today by adapting proven negotiation principles and strategies to the challenging new contexts you face—from negotiating across cultural and political differences to trying to... View Details

September 2022 (Revised December 2022)
Case

QED Invests in Africa

By: Álvaro Rodríguez Arregui and James Barnett

In March 2022, investors at venture capital firm QED consider strategy for establishing business in Africa. View Details

Keywords: Analysis; Investment; Geography; Markets; Operations; Strategic Planning; Strategy; Financial Services Industry; Africa; Nigeria; North America; Canada; Europe; Asia; Latin America

February 2017 (Revised November 2021)
Case

Digitalization at Siemens

By: David J. Collis and Tonia Junker

The case discusses the digitalization strategy of Siemens AG, a German-based company operating in manufacturing and electronics. The increasing impact of digital technologies on all of its business units had prompted CEO Joe Kaeser and his team to put digitalization at... View Details

Keywords: Company Management; Digital Technologies; Corporate Strategy; Competition; Information Technology; Information Infrastructure; Manufacturing Industry; Electronics Industry

February 1984 (Revised February 1986)
Case

E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Co.: Titanium Dioxide

By: W. Carl Kester, Robert R. Glauber, David W. Mullins Jr. and Stacy S. Dick

Disequilibrium in the $350 million TiO2 market has prompted Du Pont's Pigments Department to develop two strategies for competing in this market in the future. The growth strategy has a smaller internal rate of return than the alternative strategy due to large capital... View Details

Keywords: Forecasting and Prediction; Cash Flow; Investment Return; Growth and Development Strategy; Strategic Planning; Projects; Chemical Industry

October 2008 (Revised March 2011)
Case

Curled Metal Inc.—Engineered Products Division

By: Benson P. Shapiro and Frank V. Cespedes

Curled Metal Incorporated has declining sales but has developed a new product (curled metal pile driver pads) that, in field tests, deliver customer benefits that are many times CMI's manufacturing costs. Joseph Fernandez and Rajiv Sanwal of CMI's Engineered Products... View Details

Keywords: Price; Product Launch; Product Positioning; Business Strategy

2010
Book

Creating Value through Corporate Restructuring: Case Studies in Bankruptcies, Buyouts, and Breakups

By: Stuart C. Gilson

A collection of case studies illustrates real-world techniques, implementation, and strategies on corporate restructuring. Over the period 1981-1998, public companies with combined assets of over half a trillion dollars filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Over the same... View Details

Keywords: Restructuring; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Public Ownership; Value Creation