Publications

February 2014 (Revised August 2014)
Case

3D Systems

By: Karim R. Lakhani and David Lane

In late 2013, Rajeev Kulkarni needed to decide how best to facilitate the emergence of a broad base of users and content to promote the sale of 3D Systems' consumer-focused 3D printers. As yet, neither the company nor users had identified an indispensable application... View Details

Keywords: 3D Printing; Business Ecosystems; 3D Systems; Growth and Development Strategy; Marketing Strategy; Copyright; Two-Sided Platforms; Product Development; Customization and Personalization; Manufacturing Industry

21 Aug 2019
News

Analyzing Homelessness

his company relocated to a site near a shelter and soup kitchen on the city’s west side, where many Cicero employees volunteer or work pro bono on strategy development. He finds cause for optimism in his work with city and state task... View Details

01 Mar 2018
News

Making Sense of the Modern Startup

MBA course, in which he would combine then-emerging thinking at HBS about entrepreneurship with some new kinds of financial strategies he had been roughing out. Entrepreneurial Finance seemed like a logical name for the course. Almost... View Details

Keywords: Jeffrey L. Cruikshank (PMD 51, 1986)

2005
Book

Best Face Forward: Why Companies Must Improve Their Service Interfaces With Customers

By: Jeffrey F. Rayport and Bernard J. Jaworski

Keywords: Technology; Digital; Services; Strategy; Internet and the Web; Service Delivery; Marketing

Find at Harvard

03 Mar 2014
News

Former SBA Chief Karen Mills on How to Jump Start the Economy Now

Keywords: Government

18 Feb 2013
Research & Ideas

Breaking Through a Growth Stall

often inadequate for scaling. SG&A (selling, general, and administrative) costs then rise faster than revenues, and resource-constrained ventures are forced to raise a dilutive round of capital, operate in small niches, or go out of... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

01 Apr 2002
News

Charting the Luminary Leadership in Professional Service Firms

both with each other and with the needs of the firm’s stars. Because these firms compete in a dynamic environment, maintaining alignment is a perpetual and difficult task. Tierney: Think about this from the star’s viewpoint. What happens when the firm decides to pursue... View Details

Keywords: professional service firms; Publishing Industries (except Internet); Information

15 May 2023
News

From Scientist to Business Leader

tuberculosis. After several years working in the lab, Kim began to wonder if she was in the right role. Then COVID hit, and demand for the company’s products surged. “My CEO asked if I could step away from the bench into a business View Details

March 1992
Case

Applied Materials

By: Steven C. Wheelwright

Describes three subsequent generations of product development effort at an equipment firm supplying the semiconductor industry. The firm is partway into the third generation development and must decide whether and how to accelerate product development to respond to... View Details

Keywords: Product Development; Competitive Strategy; Decision Making; Industry Structures; Industrial Products Industry; Semiconductor Industry

February 1998
Teaching Note

Aladdin Knowledge Systems TN

By: Das Narayandas

Teaching Note for (9-598-018). View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Competition; Marketing; Sales; Distribution; Safety; Globalization; Integration; Information Technology Industry; Europe; United States

31 Mar 2011
News

Building an Online Swap Shop

the holidays. He also recalled how the idea for thredUP came to him at HBS. “The original concept for how to deal with two-sided marketplaces, which is what thredUP is, came from HBS associate professor Andrei Hagiu’s Strategy &... View Details

Keywords: Clothing and Clothing Accessories Stores; Retail Trade

01 Oct 1999
News

Four Promoted to Full Professor

Clayton M. Christensen has a joint appointment in the Technology and Operations Management and General Management units. His research focuses on the management of technological innovation, developing organizational capabilities, and... View Details

18 Sep 2017
Blog Post

Applying HBS Lessons in an African Context

example, in my first semester Technology and Operations Management class where we studied a New Zealand yacht racing case, I used my experience from doing a churn reduction model for a South African Telecom View Details

20 May 2013
Research & Ideas

The Long-Term Fix to US Competitiveness

is that people who should be allies are at cross-purposes with each other." The US Competitiveness Project put forth this definition: "The United States is a competitive nation to the extent that firms operating in the U.S. can... View Details

Keywords: by Stephanie Schorow & Harvard Gazette

07 Apr 2003
Research & Ideas

Three Steps for Crisis Prevention

challenges, not on the hard work of winning hearts and minds, Shapiro ultimately lost his company. He was forced to sell Monsanto to Pharmacia-Upjohn, which bought it for its pharmaceutical division, valuing the agricultural biotechnology View Details

Keywords: by Michael D. Watkins & Max H. Bazerman

December 2024 (Revised March 2025)
Case

WayCool: Addressing Food Loss

By: Rajiv Lal and Kairavi Dey

Headquartered in Chennai, India, WayCool started by focusing on solving the growing challenge of food losses and low farmer incomes. Dasari and Jayaraman, surprised at the amount of fruits and vegetables lost in the agricultural supply chain, set up the company with... View Details

Keywords: Agribusiness; Entrepreneurship; Business Model; Food; Supply Chain; Loss; Expansion; Distribution Channels; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Asia; India; Bangalore; Chennai

01 Dec 2022
News

You’ve Made Some DEI Progress. Don’t Stop Now

March 2011 (Revised April 2021)
Case

The Whiz Kids

By: Tom Nicholas and David Chen

In October 1945, Henry Ford II received a telegram in his office at the Ford Motor Company in Dearborn, Michigan written by Charles "Tex" Thornton, a U.S. Air Force colonel. The telegram presented an opportunity for Ford to deploy a system of statistical control which... View Details

Keywords: Ford Motor Company; Statistical Control; Management Systems; Accounting; Operations; Strategy; Mathematical Methods; Auto Industry; United States