Publications

August 2019
Teaching Note

MoviePass

By: Willy C. Shih

Teaching Note for HBS No. 619-052. View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Resource Allocation; Two-Sided Platforms; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; United States

2020
Working Paper

Building the Professional Firm: McKinsey & Co.: 1939-1968

By: Amar Bhidé

This case history analyzes how the founders of McKinsey & Co. built one of the world's leading management consulting firms by developing a “system” of professional norms, approach to serving clients, personnel policies, organization, governance, and ownership. The... View Details

Keywords: McKinsey ＆ Co.; Company History; Professional Norms; Vision; Organizations; Business History; Business Model; Strategy; Consulting Industry

SSRN

Read Now

02 Oct 2013
News

Comeback Kids: How the Boston Red Sox went from last place to World Series

01 Sep 2014
News

Innovation: Revenge of the Nerds

business owners in need of strategic planning and competitive analysis. When the team pitched the HourlyNerd model to classmates at FIELD 3’s simulated stock market, which allows peer “investors” to evaluate... View Details

Keywords: April White

01 Sep 2005
News

Ideas: Books

emerging technologies, new business models resulting from broadband deployment, security concerns, regulatory obstacles, and other subjects. In Their Time The Greatest Business... View Details

Keywords: Business Schools & Computer & Management Training; Business Schools & Computer & Management Training

May 2017
Supplement

Betfair (C)

By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell, John Heilbron and Neil Campbell

Prompted by a takeover bid from CVC, Betfair reassesses the strengths and weaknesses of the exchange model. View Details

Keywords: Betfair; Exchange; Betting; Betting Markets; Diversification; Market Design; Business Model; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; Europe

March 2013 (Revised March 2014)
Case

C12 Energy

By: Joseph B. Lassiter III and James McQuade

C12 aimed to build not only a company, but an entire industry around carbon capture and sequestration (CCS). "You change the world by building a market, and you build a market by building a profitable company that other people copy," said Dawe, C12 Energy's CEO. "In... View Details

Keywords: Carbon Sequestration; Sustainability; Cleantech; Oil And Gas; Business Model; Energy; Entrepreneurship; Environmental Sustainability; Green Technology Industry; Energy Industry; North America

December 2011 (Revised February 2012)
Case

Doug Rauch: Solving the American Food Paradox

By: Jose B. Alvarez and Ryan Johnson

Keywords: Food; Policy; Social Issues; Business Model; Strategy; Food and Beverage Industry; Retail Industry; United States

January 2014 (Revised April 2025)
Teaching Note

The PGA Tour

By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell and Cole Magrath

Teaching Note for HBS Case Nos. 714-442, 714-443, 714-444, 714-445, 714-446, 714-447. View Details

Keywords: PGA Tour; Tim Finchem; Deane Beman; Golf; Professional Golf; Business Model; Value Creation; Adaptation; Sports; Business Strategy; Sports Industry; United States

01 Dec 2015
News

Case Study: Bionic Banking

new to the firm: A majority of the team are computer programmers and developers, employing sophisticated algorithms to manage more than $275 million in assets. This active model would pit Alpha Architect against big banks, but with an... View Details

01 Dec 2020
News

The Camel and the Unicorn

what Alex calls the “camel approach”—a sort of counter to the Silicon Valley unicorn model. Lazarow: It is this notion of building sustainability and resilience into the business model from day one. Of... View Details

October 1998
Case

Conduit Communications

By: William A. Sahlman and Jon Biotti

Keywords: Business Model; Growth and Development Strategy; United Kingdom

Find at Harvard

January 2009 (Revised June 2009)
Case

KenCall - Can Nik Nesbitt's Venture Succeed in Kenya?

Nik Nesbitt is preparing a presentation of his Kenyan contact center startup to a group of angel investors visiting for the first time. The task has given him cause for some soul searching: has it been worth it to battle the impoverished infrastructure and... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Entrepreneurship; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Kenya

January 2003 (Revised April 2003)
Case

KIPP National, 1999 (A): Designing a School Network

Covers the origin, evolution, and nature of the KIPP Academies, two high-performing public middle schools founded in 1995 by Michael Feinberg and David Levin in Houston and New York. In January 2000, Feinberg and Levin meet with Scott Hamilton, managing director of the... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Middle School Education; Expansion; Education Industry; Houston

01 Jun 2010
News

Alumni Books

numbers one never thinks about, even though they play a crucial role in most aspects of life. Seizing the White Space: Business Model Innovation for Growth and Renewal by Mark W. Johnson (MBA ’96) (Harvard... View Details

Keywords: mathematics; statistics; Finance

February 2004
Case

Aspire Public Schools

Set in the fall of 2003, covers managerial challenges facing the CEO and COO of Aspire Public Schools, a nonprofit charter school management company. In operation since 1999 and funded by prominent national foundations and venture philanthropies, Aspire operates 10... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Business or Company Management; Expansion; Social Entrepreneurship; Education; Education Industry; California