Publications

September 2014
Supplement

Netflix: Designing the Netflix Prize (B)

By: Karim R. Lakhani, Wesley M. Cohen, Kynon Ingram, Tushar Kothalkar, Maxim Kuzemchenko, Santosh Malik, Cynthia Meyn, Stephanie Healy Pokrywa and Greta Friar

This supplemental case follows up on the Netflix Prize Contest described in Netflix: Designing the Netflix Prize (A). In the A case, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings must decide how to organize a crowdsourcing contest to improve the algorithms for Netflix's movie... View Details

Keywords: Crowdsourcing; Prizes; Digitization; Algorithms; Recommendation Software; Disruption; Transformation; Collaborative Innovation and Invention; Technological Innovation; Knowledge Sharing; Applications and Software

November 1999
Case

net.Genesis, Inc.

By: Robert J. Dolan, Rajiv Lal and Perry Fagan

Net.Genesis is planning a strategy for the developing Internet market. In particular, it is creating the category of e-business intelligence and striving to be the brand leader in it. View Details

Keywords: Emerging Markets; Strategic Planning; Expansion; Brands and Branding; Knowledge Use and Leverage; Marketing Communications; Internet and the Web; Change Management

Profile

Payam Shodjai

I did was half technical, half business – involving technical, marketing, legal and strategic issues." The business side of technology inspired Payam "to get a more formal education in business that would open opportunities five... View Details

April 2017 (Revised February 2020)
Case

edaixi (eWash): Digital Transformation of Laundry Services (A)

By: Feng Zhu, Weiru Chen, Chuang Chen and Ciwu Lin

Founded in 2013 as a laundry service featuring online ordering for home pickup and delivery, China’s edaixi (eWash) illustrated the online-to-offline (O2O) business model. As yet unclear in 2016 was the optimal way to organize third-party laundry service providers,... View Details

Keywords: Laundry; O2O; Online-to-offline; Business Model; Service Operations; Ownership Type; Digital Platforms; Transformation; China

30 May 2023
News

Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai on Leadership, AI, and Big Tech

15 Jul 2008
First Look

First Look: July 15, 2008

the technology bubble to examine the hypothesis that inexperienced investors play a role in the formation of asset price bubbles. Using age as a proxy for managers' investment experience, we find that around the peak of the View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

June 2015 (Revised August 2018)
Case

American Electric Power: Facing the Challenges of Distributed Generation

By: Richard H.K. Vietor and Hilary White

American Electric Power, like most utilities in the USA, is currently exposed to distributed generation and the problem of net-metering. Solar installations in particular have been heavily subsidized, by the state and by regulation, which does not allow grid operators... View Details

01 Mar 2006
News

Robots to the Rescue

and pack it for shipment. But Mountz has a better idea. As founder and CEO of Kiva Systems based in Woburn, Massachusetts, he has developed a fulfillment system that relies on robotic vehicles to locate and deliver merchandise to human packers. “We’re View Details

Keywords: robotics; Architectural, Engineering, and Related Services; Professional Services

23 Jun 2017
News

A 'Pillar' of Entrepreneurship

tech CEOs in town I know who have been highly successful,” says Wilcox. “I’m looking for drive, intelligence, and charisma. I also look for whether or not the person has a streak of humility and a self-awareness of their own limitations, because I don’t think any... View Details

Keywords: Management of Companies and Enterprises; Management

24 Feb 2023
News

Dean Datar Meets with Alumni in Palm Beach

Society (BiGS), which he described as an interdisciplinary research enterprise that will position HBS as an intellectual hub for examining the most critical issues and opportunities of our times—from climate change and environmental... View Details

19 Aug 2024
News

Quantum Leap

Subscribe on iTunes Subscribe on Spotify More Skydeck episodes Dan Morrell: Hi, this is Dan Morrell, host of Skydeck. Quantum computing has long been talked about as one of the next big things—the kind of technology, like AI, that will change everything. But to our... View Details

20 Feb 2018
News

David Perry’s Green Revolution

from the soil. Perry sees an opportunity for Indigo Ag to lead or catalyze a change in the way industrialized agriculture is done. Indigo Ag recently opened their expanded global headquarters in Charlestown, which features 65,000 square... View Details

25 Mar 2021
Research & Ideas

Steer Clear of the Blind Spots That Derail Experiments

bring data and experiments into their organizations." However, the use of experiments remains spotty, with even data-driven companies still figuring out how to make the most of them. After observing several technology companies making the... View Details

Keywords: by Danielle Kost

24 Apr 2014
News

A World of Reading

two and a former Amazon.com executive. When he went on a world tour with his family, he saw a padlock on an unused library at an orphanage in Ecuador. “It was my ah-ha! moment, when I realized we really can change the world,” says Risher.... View Details

Web

Design: At, Into, & Beyond - Race, Gender & Equity

So many facets of design work require that we anticipate need, weigh multiple parameters, and make necessary changes to safeguard public resources. Some of the design world’s most compelling questions stem from ideas of exclusion,... View Details

September 2020 (Revised March 2022)
Case

JOANN: Joannalytics Inventory Allocation Tool

By: Kris Ferreira and Srikanth Jagabathula

Michael Joyce, Vice President of Inventory Management at JOANN, championed an effort to develop and implement an inventory allocation analytics tool that used advanced analytics to predict in-season demand of seasonal items for each of JOANN’s nearly 900 stores and... View Details

Keywords: Analytics; Machine Learning; Optimization; Inventory Management; Mathematical Methods; Decision Making; Operations; Supply Chain Management; Resource Allocation; Distribution; Technology Adoption; Applications and Software; Change Management; Fashion Industry; Consumer Products Industry; Retail Industry; United States; Ohio

01 Sep 2017
News

Is Private Equity Blockchain’s Killer App?

along with the plan. It worked with IBM to solidify blockchain’s functionality and security and found a willing, technologically progressive client in the Swiss private equity firm Unigestion. The final piece was bringing in similarly... View Details

Keywords: Dan Morrell

February 28, 2020
Article

How Tesla Sets Itself Apart

By: Lou Shipley

Tesla and its flamboyant, and sometimes erratic, innovator Elon Musk have turned the more than a century old industry upside down in a mere 16 years. Traditional automakers are ill prepared to compete in today’s software-centered world. Unlike nimble Tesla, they are... View Details

Keywords: Strategy; Information Technology; Transportation; Business Model; Technological Innovation; Disruption; Auto Industry