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Harshini Chengareddty

and in the summer, there’d be a different music or art festival happening every weekend, so I remember very fondly the time I spent laying on picnic blankets in the sunshine. What has changed about your understanding of leadership? There... View Details

August 2015 (Revised June 2021)
Case

Amazon.com, 2021

By: John R. Wells, Benjamin Weinstock, Gabriel Ellsworth and Galen Danskin

In February 2021, Amazon announced 2020 operating profits of $22,899 million, up from $2,233 million in 2015, on sales of $386 billion, up from $107 billion five years earlier (see Exhibit 1). The shareholders expressed their satisfaction (see Exhibit 2), but not all... View Details

Keywords: Strategic Analysis; Retail; E-commerce; Amazon; Internet; Amazon.com; AmazonFresh; Jeff Bezos; Cloud Computing; Marketplaces; Streaming; E-reader Market; Digital Media; Mobile App; Online Retail; Shipping; Database; Tablet; Kindle; Kindle Fire; Smartphone; Delivery; Digital Platforms; Competition; Internet and the Web; Corporate Strategy; Digital Marketing; Business Growth and Maturation; Business Model; Business Organization; For-Profit Firms; Film Entertainment; Games, Gaming, and Gambling; Music Entertainment; Television Entertainment; Profit; Revenue; Global Strategy; Multinational Firms and Management; Taxation; Business History; Human Resources; Resignation and Termination; Books; Human Capital; Working Conditions; Business or Company Management; Goals and Objectives; Growth and Development Strategy; Growth Management; Management Practices and Processes; Industry Growth; Industry Structures; Media; Distribution; Distribution Channels; Order Taking and Fulfillment; Infrastructure; Logistics; Product Development; Supply Chain; Supply Chain Management; Organizational Culture; Public Ownership; Work-Life Balance; Problems and Challenges; Labor and Management Relations; Strategy; Adaptation; Business Strategy; Competitive Strategy; Diversification; Expansion; Integration; Horizontal Integration; Vertical Integration; Information Infrastructure; Information Technology; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Price; Applications and Software; Marketing; Marketing Strategy; Working Capital; Customer Focus and Relationships; Customer Value and Value Chain; Music Industry; Music Industry; Music Industry; Music Industry; Music Industry; Music Industry; Music Industry; Music Industry; Music Industry; Music Industry; Music Industry; Music Industry; Music Industry; Music Industry; United States; Washington (state, US); Seattle

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01 Mar 2024
News

In Harmony

time were military Jeeps”) to an American restaurant with rock music playing on the jukebox. “I remember distinctly eating a cheeseburger and drinking a milkshake,” he says. “It was the weirdest and most delicious meal I’d ever tasted.”... View Details

Keywords: Julia Hanna; photographs by Jun Michael Park; private equity; fiction; financial crisis; leadership; Korea

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2023 Reunion Presentations - Alumni

from the “Wynton Marsalis and Jazz at Lincoln Center” multimedia case will be shown during the session, featuring video interviews with Marsalis, executives at Jazz at Lincoln Center (JALC), and audience members. The case covers the history of jazz music, the evolution... View Details

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Blog | Social Enterprise | Harvard Business School

(MBA 2026) Faith Agili 24 Jul 2025 The HBS Summer Fellows Program enables students to apply their classroom training as they explore... Inside Upswell: A Perspective from Prelude Music Foundation Ana Treviño-Godfrey Jonathan Godfrey... View Details

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Topics - HBS Working Knowledge

Education (1) Mining (1) Misleading and Fraudulent Advertising (1) Mission and Purpose (20) Mobile Technology (8) Money (4) Monopoly (6) Moral Sensibility (25) Motivation and Incentives (146) Multi-Sided Platforms (5) Multinational Firms and Management (10) View Details

Research Summary

Unintended Consequences of Fundraising Tactics

Charity fundraisers use a variety of methods to increase donations, with three of the most common being matching funds, seed money, and thank you gifts. Field experiments have shown that matching funds (Eckel and Grossman, 2008) and seed money (List and Lucking-Reiley,... View Details

01 Dec 2019
News

Remix

documentary that (fingers crossed) appears destined for release in January. She’s just started her own record label, The 9th Floor, and is readying to launch the recording career of its first artist. It’s an ambitious lot, for sure. But to appreciate the fullness of... View Details

Keywords: Jen McFarland Flint; photographed by Chris Sorensen; #MeToo; DefJam; Arts, Entertainment

12 Mar 2006
Research & Ideas

New Research Explores Multi-Sided Markets

company that is vertically integrated to some extent into the content that runs on their devices. This can help in their current fight to establish the Blu-ray DVD standard, but has been a significant hindrance, because of internal conflicts of interest, in their... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Technology

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Sample Student Projects - Institute For Strategy And Competitiveness

Cluster (2012) Miami, Florida Marine Transportation Cluster (2012) South Carolina Automotive Sector (2012) Tennessee Music Cluster (2012) California Solar Energy (2011) Silicon Valley (California) Internet-Based Services (2011) Minnesota... View Details

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Partners - Case Method Project

DC Washington, DC Subjects: AP World History, Capstone in Sports, History, and Popular Culture, Film, Art and Music Appreciation DC 23 of 23 Cristina Velasquez Bell Multicultural High School (Columbia Heights Educational Campus)... View Details

01 Dec 2023
News

Drop Everything, Read This

The Bookshelf Rick Rubin is one of the greatest music producers of all time. His book, The Creative Act: A Way of Being, is about the creative process and is based on his experiences with era-defining musicians. He encourages the reader to be open to clues and... View Details

Keywords: Publishing Industries (except Internet); Information

30 Mar 2021
Research & Ideas

Commuting Hurts Productivity and Your Best Talent Suffers Most

Many of us have been there: mired in rush-hour traffic, listening to music or news to take our minds off the grind, wishing we didn’t feel so stressed before we’ve even reached the office. A late-night conversation with a fellow... View Details

Keywords: by Lane Lambert

15 Dec 2023
News

The Musts of 2023

rights. And his big conclusion was that there isn't enough money in the world to change a society that doesn't respect women. That this is something that happens through mass communications. And I think it's probably one of the reasons that many people have issues with... View Details

John A. Deighton

John Deighton is The Harold M. Brierley Professor of Business Administration Emeritus at Harvard Business School. He is an authority on consumer behavior and marketing, with a focus on digital and direct marketing. He teaches in the area of Big Data in Marketing,... View Details

Keywords: music; music; music; music; music; music; music; music; music; music; music; music; music; music; music; music

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Interviewing - Alumni

music and the tv; let your roommates or guests know that you will be doing a phone interview. If you are using a cell phone for an interview, be sure your phone is fully charged and that you take the call where you have good reception.... View Details

17 Jul 2023
Blog Post

Sustainability Career Advice from the Career & Professional Development Office

marketing to them. I had the opportunity to work with brands on exclusive show sponsorships, large tentpole events and the VH1 Save the Music Foundation to restore public school music programs. When my... View Details

20 Apr 2015
Research & Ideas

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

the proprietary Mac as the central hub of Apple's product line despite falling market share. Eventually he was persuaded to shift focus and allow the iTunes music platform to be used on PCs as well as on Apple iPods and iPhones. That... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Computer

Kyle Schirmann

Kyle Schirmann is a doctoral student in the Strategy unit at Harvard Business School. His primary interests are science-based innovation in the Global South and the creative and cultural industries. Before joining HBS, Kyle worked as a software engineer at Bloomberg... View Details

Keywords: music; music; music; music; music; music; music

March 2016 (Revised May 2018)
Case

Reinventing Best Buy

By: John R. Wells and Gabriel Ellsworth

On March 1, 2017, Best Buy Company, Inc., North America’s largest retailer of consumer electronics and appliances, announced a third year of comparable-store sales increases and a 20.8% increase in domestic comparable online sales. These results were in marked contrast... View Details