Publications

20 Apr 2015
Research & Ideas

The 5 Strategy Rules of Bill Gates, Andy Grove, and Steve Jobs

figured out a way to make a more efficient processor that nevertheless wouldn't be compatible with Intel's previous architecture. After agonizing about the decision for a year, Grove chose to stick to the... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Computer

Web

About the Center - Christensen Center for Teaching & Learning

of character...we want [the student] to start thinking about issues...to think about the ethics of someone in a company making 10 million dollars and someone making three thousand dollars a year...about how... View Details

13 Feb 2020
Book

Open Your Organization to Honest Conversations

and know-it-all, they won’t get anywhere,” Beer says. “People at the top have more decision rights, and that gives them a sense of distance and sometimes a false sense of confidence that they have the answers to everything. But they... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

Web

Faculty & Researchers - Managing the Future of Work

Manjari supports co-chairs William R. Kerr and Joseph B. Fuller on all project priorities. Her research efforts focus on location choices by global companies, the role of business in making cities and regions more competitive, shared... View Details

12 Mar 2006
Research & Ideas

New Research Explores Multi-Sided Markets

the profits come from the other side. Can you give an example or two and explain why these markets are structured like this? A: Dating clubs usually charge only the men, and credit card companies make their revenues mostly from merchants... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Technology

25 Jun 2012
Research & Ideas

Collaborating Across Cultures

Working on a $30 million historical epic about the Tang Dynasty to be set in China, Hollywood screenwriter David Franzoni struggled to make the story appeal to Western audiences. Then Franzoni hit upon an idea: tell the tale through the... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

September 2011 (Revised August 2013)
Case

The Pepsi Refresh Project: A Thirst for Change

By: Michael I. Norton and Jill Avery

In 2010, for the first time in 23 years, PepsiCo did not invest in Superbowl advertising for its iconic brand. Instead, the company diverted this $20 million to the social media-fueled Pepsi Refresh Project: PepsiCo's innovative cause-marketing program in which... View Details

Keywords: Risk Management; Marketing Strategy; Customer Focus and Relationships; Advertising Campaigns; Investment Return; Brands and Branding; Marketing Communications; Social Marketing; Cost vs Benefits; Food and Beverage Industry

28 Jun 2021
Research & Ideas

Keep or Cut Workers? How Companies Reacted to the COVID-19 Crisis

conduct an analysis to determine how companies were responding to the crisis. Were they retaining their staff and providing essential workers with extra pay, or were they cutting expenses through layoffs and furloughs? "It gave us a rare opportunity. Every View Details

Keywords: by Lane Lambert

May 2020
Case

Big Boom Beverages: Fight or Flight?

By: Stephen A. Greyser and William Ellet

Four college friends market a beverage that combines ingredients like those in a drink they consumed in college bars. It includes a caffeinated energy drink, malt liquor, and a soft drink flavoring. They launch the business, Big Boom Beverages (BBB), with their own... View Details

Keywords: Alcoholic Beverages; Energy Drinks; Regulation; Entrepreneurship; Ethics; Marketing Communications; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Reputation; Communication Strategy; Decision Making

April 2003 (Revised April 2009)
Case

Paul Levy: Taking Charge of the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center

By: David A. Garvin and Michael Roberto

On January 7, 2002, Paul Levy became CEO of the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. He took over a troubled organization, in serious financial difficulty. This multimedia case describes the situation Levy inherited, his negotiations prior to taking the job, and his... View Details

Keywords: Communication Strategy; Decision Choices and Conditions; Leadership Style; Leading Change; Managerial Roles; Organizational Culture; Health Industry

28 Aug 2006
Research & Ideas

Online Match-Making with Virtual Dates

"Improving Online Dating with Virtual Dates." Frost, now at Boston University, wrote her PhD dissertation at MIT's Media Lab on the topic, discussing the broader issues of impression formation, navigating options, managing expectations, and informing View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Publishing

August 2018 (Revised September 2019)
Case

Magnus Resch: Transforming the Art Market Through Transparency

By: Henry McGee and Sarah Mehta

Economist and entrepreneur Magnus Resch was on a mission to make the art market more transparent. To that end, in 2014, he began building the Magnus app, which catalogued the price and transaction history of millions of works of art. Users could download the app, take... View Details

Keywords: Art Market; Transparency; Art Pricing; Business Startups; Decision Making; Innovation Strategy; Culture; Business Strategy; Mobile Technology; Fine Arts Industry; Information Technology Industry

13 Nov 2023
Blog Post

HBS Veteran Spotlight: Lindsey Chrismon (MBA 2025)

orders or ensuring tasks are completed. It’s about understanding, empathy, and integrity. It is about building trust, not just as a leader, but as a fellow human being. Every decision I made, every action I took, was guided by the... View Details

2022
Working Paper

Are Experts Blinded by Feasibility?: Experimental Evidence from a NASA Robotics Challenge

By: Jacqueline N. Lane, Zoe Szajnfarber, Jason Crusan, Michael Menietti and Karim R. Lakhani

Resource allocation decisions play a dominant role in shaping a firm’s technological trajectory and competitive advantage. Recent work indicates that innovative firms and scientific institutions tend to exhibit an anti-novelty bias when evaluating new projects and... View Details

Keywords: Evaluations; Novelty; Feasibility; Field Experiment; Resource Allocation; Technological Innovation; Competitive Advantage; Decision Making

SSRN

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February 2024
Teaching Note

AB InBev: Brewing Up Forecasts during COVID-19

By: Mark Egan and C. Fritz Foley

Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 224-020. In July 2021, the CEO of AB InBev's European operations and his team strategized to position the company for success post-pandemic. As the world's largest beer company, boasting over 500 brands, revenue of $46 billion, and a... View Details

Keywords: Forecasting; Investor Relations; Beverage Industry; Corporate Finance; Decisions; Forecasting and Prediction; Health Pandemics; Analytics and Data Science; Digital Transformation; Crisis Management; Business Model; Food and Beverage Industry; United States; Europe

12 Aug 2019
Research & Ideas

How Scale Changes a Manager's Responsibilities

making all decisions solo), and still needs some oversight. More than 100 employees: Capable of borrowing the car for a weekend road trip with friends. Hand over the keys! If your leaders feel that you won’t... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Austin

April 2017 (Revised August 2020)
Case

The U-Turns of National Truck Stops

By: Nori Gerardo Lietz and Alexander W. Schultz

Raj Makam had spent months trying to restructure a 2006 investment he had made in National Truck Stops, Inc. (NTS) as a senior member of Oaktree Capital Management’s (Oaktree) Mezzanine finance business within their Corporate Debt platform. It was the first time they... View Details

Keywords: Mezzanine Financing; Corporate Debt; Bankruptcy; Real Assets; Financing and Loans; Borrowing and Debt; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Restructuring; Private Equity; Cost vs Benefits; Atlanta; New York (city, NY)

01 Dec 2023
News

A More Accommodating Approach

her career in new directions and add greater value to the company, she wanted to broaden her insights, skills, and network, which prompted her to enroll in HBS’s General Management Program (GMP) in 2021, a decision made more feasible... View Details

Keywords: Jennifer Gillespie

2022
Working Paper

Stories, Statistics and Memory

By: Thomas Graeber, Christopher Roth and Florian Zimmermann

For most decisions, we rely on information encountered over the course of days, months or years. We consume this information in various forms, including abstract summaries of multiple data points – statistics – and contextualized anecdotes about individual instances... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Information Types; Media; Cognition and Thinking