Publications

Profile

Prineeta Kulkarni

Prineeta Kulkarni originally "dreamed of becoming a scientist." She completed a dual biotechnology BS/MS at the University of Pune, but when it came time to launch her career, she shifted direction. "I wanted to see the real-world impact of my work,... View Details

Keywords: Healthcare/Biotech; Nonprofit/Government/Education

April 2022
Case

Pear Venture Capital

By: Jo Tango and Alys Ferragamo

Keith Bender, Principal at Pear Venture Capital, is working over the weekend to prepare for a Monday morning investment meeting. He has three startup pitch decks in front of him, and he must choose one to recommend at the meeting. He finds that each company has its... View Details

Keywords: Seed Investing; Seed Financing; Startup; Decision Choices and Conditions; Presentations; Business Startups; Investment; Venture Capital; United States

October 2017 (Revised October 2022)
Case

JetBlue: Relevant Sustainability Leadership

By: George Serafeim

In 2017, JetBlue, the airline founded on the mission to “bring humanity back to air travel,” was considering becoming one of the first companies to report its sustainability performance according to the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) standards. SASB... View Details

September 2019 (Revised July 2021)
Case

Gap, Inc., 2019

By: John R. Wells and Benjamin Weinstock

In 2000, The Gap, Inc. (Gap) was the world’s largest player in specialty fashion retailing, and companies such as Inditex of Spain, H&M of Sweden, and Fast Retailing of Japan were less than a quarter of Gap’s size. But after two decades of growth, Gap’s progress... View Details

Keywords: Strategic Change; Fashion; Multinational; Brands; Fast Fashion; Competition; Multinational Firms and Management; Performance Improvement; Management Teams; Brands and Branding; Change Management; Strategy; Retail Industry; Fashion Industry; Apparel and Accessories Industry; Sweden; Spain; United States

03 May 2022
Research & Ideas

Desperate for Talent? Consider Advancing Your Own Employees First

Job openings in the United States continue to hover at record high levels, exacerbated by the Great Resignation and a sputtering emergence from the pandemic. Competition remains fierce among companies struggling to find qualified workers. Yet many employers,... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne

12 Nov 2018
Blog Post

Student Portraits - Armed Forces Alumni Association

story. In just one conversation I knew I needed to overcome my self-doubt and follow my passion. One month later, I submitted my application to the United States Navy. REFLECTION ON SERVICE: I have been... View Details

October 2010 (Revised July 2012)
Supplement

Toni Sacconaghi at Sanford C. Bernstein

By: Linda A. Hill and Dana Teppert

Toni Sacconaghi, a senior sell-side equity research analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein covering U.S. IT hardware companies, thinks about the challenges and opportunities presented by the firm's new office in Hong Kong. Sacconaghi was previously the only analyst covering... View Details

Keywords: Employees; Knowledge Sharing; Knowledge Use and Leverage; Research; Social and Collaborative Networks; Financial Services Industry; Hong Kong; United States

Research Summary

Overview

The overarching goal of my research is to produce works that are influential and informative to both academics and practitioners in the field of operations management. To accomplish this, I collaborate with industry partners who provide knowledge about their field,... View Details

January 2020 (Revised March 2020)
Case

Huawei: A Global Tech Giant in the Crossfire of a Digital Cold War

By: William C. Kirby, Billy Chan and John P. McHugh

By 2020, Ren Zhengfei, CEO of Huawei, had transformed the small telephone switch manufacturer he founded in 1987 into a $120 billion telecommunications company poised to lead the lucrative rollout of fifth-generation (5G) cellular networks. However, an emerging... View Details

Keywords: International Strategy; Government And Business; Digital Infrastructure; Political Risk; Information Technology; Infrastructure; Business and Government Relations; Government and Politics; Information Infrastructure; Technology Industry; China; United States

09 Dec 2013
Research & Ideas

Cultural Disharmony Undermines Workplace Creativity

develop negative ideas about marriage, just as citizens of the United States and China may develop bad feelings about each other from watching their leaders squabble. So why wouldn't the same thing happen in... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

Profile

Brandon Lovell

When pushed, Brandon Lovell fights back. In his high school years in the South Bronx ("not the worst neighborhood, but pretty bad"), Brandon saw many students being bullied. The experience was formative: on the one hand, it motivated him to defend himself; on... View Details

Keywords: Tech; Financial Services

May 2021 (Revised August 2021)
Case

Airbnb During the Pandemic: Stakeholder Capitalism Faces a Critical Test

By: Benjamin C. Esty and Allison Ciechanover

As the COVID pandemic spread in early 2020, global travel ground to a halt. For Airbnb, the San Francisco-based platform for renting accommodations, the impact was both swift and severe as revenues plummeted more than 70% over the prior year. Responding to the sudden... View Details

Keywords: COVID-19 Pandemic; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Corporate Governance; Crisis Management; Leadership; Digital Platforms; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Mission and Purpose; Value Creation; Decision Making; Goals and Objectives; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Travel Industry; Tourism Industry; Service Industry; United States

18 Mar 2019
Research & Ideas

Stuck in Commuter Hell? You Can Still Be Productive

activity of the day. Many workers endure much lengthier commutes than the 76-minute roundtrip average; in fact, commutes are getting longer in general. One study found that the distance between employees’ homes and workplaces in the View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

June 2022 (Revised November 2022)
Case

Larry Miller

By: Francesca Gino, Frances X. Frei, Hise Gibson and Alicia Dadlani

Under the leadership of Larry Miller, chairman and former president of Nike’s Air Jordan brand, annual revenues for the Jordan brand soared from $150 million to over $4 billion. But for over 40 years, Miller guarded a secret. When he was younger, he spent nearly a... View Details

Keywords: Race; Ethnicity; Fairness; Values and Beliefs; Job Offer; Employment; Social Issues; Perspective; Personal Development and Career; Apparel and Accessories Industry; United States; Pennsylvania; Philadelphia; Portland; Oregon

08 Sep 2015
Research & Ideas

Knowledge Transfer: You Can't Learn Surgery By Watching

While some lessons can be learned by watching—a parent’s reaction after touching a hot stove can be a good lesson for a youngster on dangers in the kitchen—other lessons are harder to learn through observation alone. No matter how many times you watch a surgeon perform... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Health

August 2020 (Revised October 2024)
Case

Digital Marketing at HBS Online

By: Sunil Gupta and Rajiv Lal

In July 2020, the management team of Harvard Business School Online (HBS Online) had to decide how to allocate its marketing budget for fiscal year 2021 between various digital channels and its portfolio of courses. Since its launch in 2014, HBS Online had grown to... View Details

Keywords: Marketing Strategy; Advertising; Digital Marketing; Marketing Channels; Brands and Branding; Business Education; Education Industry; United States; Boston

23 May 2023
Research & Ideas

Lessons on Life, Graffiti, and Value: 'It's in That Darkness That You Can Actually Develop and Evolve'

James W. Riley has been confronted with questions of identity and alienation since he was a teenage graffiti artist navigating 1990s Los Angeles. “I’ve always had this notion of going places and being in spaces that maybe subtly said, ‘You don’t belong here,’” said... View Details

Keywords: by Christina Pazzanese, Harvard Gazette

March 2024 (Revised April 2024)
Case

Coursera's Foray into GenAI

By: Suraj Srinivasan, Michael Parzen and Radhika Kak

In early 2023, Maggioncalda, CEO of US EdTech firm Coursera, launched Project Genesis to develop a strategy for incorporating GenAI capabilities into the firm's offerings, asking his teams to focus on value to the firm and cost of implementation. The team identified... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; AI and Machine Learning; Brands and Branding; Business Strategy; Competitive Advantage; Technological Innovation; Education Industry; Technology Industry; United States