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Article

Hurry or Wait: The Pros and Cons of Going Fast or Slow on Climate Change

By: Eleanor Denny and Jurgen Weiss

Climate change risk will likely force the de-carbonization of our electricity sector and thus involve massive investments in long-lived assets using many new and emerging technologies. Since technological progress (independent or dependent on deployment) will likely... View Details

Keywords: Electricity Sector; Environmental Risks; Fat Tails; Greenhouse Gas Emissions; Climate Change; Information Technology; Investment; Technological Innovation; Cost vs Benefits

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2012
Case

Robert Whelan and the Student Loan Crisis (A)

By: Rosabeth M. Kanter and Olivia Leskinen

Robert Whelan and the Student Loan Crisis (A) 2009 AL Fellow Bob Whelan developed an idea with partners that was a seed before his fellowship year and seemed to address a significant national challenge - college financing - with a creative concept and experience from... View Details

September 2012 (Revised December 2012)
Case

Addleshaw Goddard LLP (Abridged)

By: Robert G. Eccles, Amy C. Edmondson and James Weber

Addleshaw-Goddard (AG), the 15th largest law firm in the UK, is seeking ways to serve larger clients on more important legal matters. Part of this strategy involves its "Client Development Centre (CDC)," an innovative idea and set of services launched by Dr. Jim Hever... View Details

Keywords: Price; Innovation and Invention; Service Operations; Partners and Partnerships; Competitive Advantage; Diversification; Legal Services Industry; United Kingdom

March 2010 (Revised January 2011)
Case

Carrot or Stick? Getting Paid for Innovation at Tessera Technologies

By: Willy C. Shih

Tessera Technologies has been very successful developing technologies for the semiconductor and mobile device industry, and then licensing them broadly to manufacturers. In addition to licensing patents, it also supplies know-how to help manufacturers move into... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Innovation Strategy; Patents; Courts and Trials; Rights; Mobile Technology; Semiconductor Industry; California

June 2005 (Revised July 2006)
Case

fortu PowerCell GmbH

By: Michael J. Roberts, William A. Sahlman, Vincent Dessain, Monika Stachowiak and Anders Sjoman

Describes the financing, strategy, and growth decisions facing fortu, a young German battery company. The company is contemplating a facility in East Germany, where state subsidies make the finances appealing. A sudden offer to license fortu technology for application... View Details

Keywords: Technological Innovation; Financing and Loans; Business Startups; Growth and Development Strategy; Battery Industry; Germany

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16 Mar 2023
News

Collaborating for Climate

01 Sep 2012
News

Case Study Pioneer

HBS’s first director of case development, Andrew Towl (MBA 1936), whose three-decade career at the School was instrumental in establishing the influence of the case method worldwide, died in June at the age of 101. Towl conducted case-writing workshops and programs in... View Details

Keywords: Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools; Educational Services

01 Dec 2019
News

Accelerating a Gas-on-demand Startup

Service with a Smile: Classmates Nick Alexander (left) and Bryan Frist with one of Yoshi’s service-on-demand vehicles. (photo by Cayce Clifford) The first purpose-built, drive-in gas station opened in Pittsburgh in December 1913. The gleaming Gulf station finally made... View Details

Keywords: April White; startups; on-demand economy; entrepreneurship; Personal Services

11 Sep 2018
News

Bringing Government Up to Code

Subscribe on iTunes Subscribe on SoundCloud More Skydeck episodes Dan Morrell: Minnie Ingersoll (MBA 2002) worked at Google for more than 11 years, and she would usually take the bus to get there. And every day, on her walk to the bus stop, she'd pass by a spray... View Details

26 Jan 2016
News

The First Five Years: Jill Applebaum (MBA 2015)

What inspired you to launch Spruce & Co? “My mom is a total germophobe, and throughout the years I’ve picked up on some of her anti-germ tendencies. After living in tech-obsessed San Francisco for five years and becoming glued to my devices, I realized I didn’t have a... View Details

11 May 2015
News

What It Will Take to Fix America’s Crumbling Infrastructure

Keywords: infrastructure; leadership; innovation; government policy; women in business; Transportation

25 Apr 2014
News

Investing in Innovation

On April 25, Harvard Business School launched a campaign that will position the School for leadership in management education in the 21st century. The primary objectives of The Harvard Business School Campaign are to: Inspire significantly increased levels of... View Details

Keywords: HBS Fund; Educational Services

01 Mar 2011
News

Fixing What Ails the Drug Industry

In 2008, private investors and the National Institutes of Health plowed more than $100 billion into pharmaceutical research. And yet, “We’re not seeing the new diagnostics, treatments, preventative approaches, and cures that we might have expected,” FDA commissioner... View Details

Keywords: pharmaceutical research; Health, Social Assistance

February 2010 (Revised September 2011)
Case

Local Motors: Designed by the Crowd, Built by the Customer

By: Michael I. Norton and Jeremy Dann

In the wake of the meltdown among U.S. auto manufacturers in 2009, Jay Rogers, CEO of Local Motors, has a new approach for the automotive industry: decide which models are produced through online design competitions, and then allow customers to "build their own cars"... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Customer Focus and Relationships; Collaborative Innovation and Invention; Product Design; Product Development; Creativity; Social and Collaborative Networks; Customization and Personalization; Auto Industry; Manufacturing Industry; United States

2024
Book

The Everything Token: How NFTs and Web3 Will Transform the Way We Buy, Sell, and Create

By: Steve Kaczynski and Scott Duke Kominers

We demystify the coming digital revolution, showing how NFTs will transform our online and offline interactions.

NFTs aren’t just pictures on the internet, or a fad that has come and gone. Rather, they’re a new technology for creating digital assets and... View Details

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November 2019 (Revised April 2021)
Technical Note

Rechargeable Batteries, 2017: Gigafactory Wars in the Offing?

By: John R. Wells and Benjamin Weinstock

In 2017, the global market for rechargeable lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries was 126 gigawatt-hours (GWh) valued at $37 billion, growing by $10 billion in two years. Once confined largely to consumer electronics and appliances, the rapid increase in demand was spurred by... View Details

January 2019
Case

Data.gov (Abridged)

By: Karim R. Lakhani, Robert D. Austin and Yumi Yi

This case presents the logic and execution underlying the launch of Data.gov, an instantiation of President Obama's initiative for transparency and open government. The process used by Vivek Kundra, the federal CIO, and his team to rapidly develop the website and to... View Details

Keywords: Safety; Rights; Analytics and Data Science; Internet and the Web; Ethics; Cost vs Benefits; Innovation and Management; Information Management; Public Administration Industry; Information Industry; United States

October 2013 (Revised April 2015)
Case

Myomo: Getting Sales in Motion

By: Frank V. Cespedes, Shikhar Ghosh and Matthew Preble

In late 2012, the management team of Myomo, a startup which had designed a unique myoelectric arm brace for patients with dysfunctional arms, was deciding which of the three sales models the company had tested to pursue as its sales strategy going forward. Each model... View Details

Keywords: Technological Innovation; Information Technology; Marketing Strategy; Decision Choices and Conditions; Health Care and Treatment; Business Startups; Sales; Growth and Development Strategy; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry; Health Industry