Services - Publications - Faculty & Research

September 2009 (Revised November 2021)
Case

OnStar: Not Your Father's General Motors

By: Clayton M. Christensen

After two years of less than stellar performance resulting in sales well below plan, senior management at General Motors (GM) mobile telecommunications service start-up, OnStar, recognized that without a substantial change in their strategy, support for the venture... View Details

Keywords: Change Management; Decision Choices and Conditions; Growth and Development Strategy; Corporate Strategy; Technology; Risk and Uncertainty; Joint Ventures; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Product Positioning; Risk Management; Auto Industry; Telecommunications Industry

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Conventional wisdom holds that the more contact an operation has with its customers, the less efficiently it will run. But when customers are partitioned away from the operation, they are less likely to fully understand and appreciate the work going on behind the... View Details

August 2023 (Revised September 2023)
Case

T.G.S. Transportation: Battery Electric or Hydrogen?

By: Willy C. Shih

Peter Schneider, the President of T.G.S. Transportation, Inc., faced a choice. His company operated drayage trucks that moved containerized cargo between the Ports of Los Angeles, Long Beach, and Oakland to customers across the State of California, with a focus on the... View Details

Keywords: Decarbonization; Clean Technology; Energy; Energy Policy; Renewable Energy; Environmental Sustainability; Truck Transportation; Transportation Industry; United States; California

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Blog | Social Enterprise | Harvard Business School

Impact Measurement Inclusive Finance International Development K-12 Education Leadership Fellows Leadership in Challenging Times MBA Programs Microfinance Non Profit Management Nonprofit Supportive Services Public Sector Public-Private... View Details

06 Jun 2018
Research & Ideas

Cut Salaries or Cut People? The Best Way to Survive a Downturn

because those agents deciding to leave had other options. For instance, customer service reps at a nearby call center for a global entertainment provider earned $15 an hour when first hired, and $.50 raises every six months. “While the... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne

10 Feb 2015
First Look

First Look: February 10

intermediary's technology. We develop a model to show that the intermediary would want to restrict sellers from charging buyers more for transactions it intermediates. With this restriction an intermediary can profitably raise demand for its View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

14 Jul 2008
Research & Ideas

HBS Cases: Reforming New Orleans Schools After Katrina

the ground there, and became interested in a start-up called New Schools for New Orleans (NSNO) through the work that our student teams have done every January since the storm as part of the HBS New Orleans Service Immersion. This year... View Details

Keywords: by Sarah Jane Gilbert; Education

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Curriculum - Business & Environment

the context of a company that provides a vital public service that has important environmental implications. The Role of ESG in Investment Strategy Marketing Aleph Farms: A New Culture of Meat Aleph Farms, an Israeli food-tech start-up,... View Details

16 Jul 2012
Research & Ideas

Are You a Strategist?

strategy-is a dangerous mirage," Montgomery warns. "The longer you can keep an advantage vibrant, the better. But any advantage is better thought of as part of a bigger story, one frame in a motion picture." Although a company may change what it makes, the View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

September 2022 (Revised January 2023)
Case

DBS: Purpose-Driven Transformation

By: Ranjay Gulati, Adina Wong, Dawn H. Lau and Joseph Mesfin

Singapore-based bank DBS went through three waves of purpose-driven transformation, overhauling the bank’s systems, upgrading employee skills, and re-centering its customer focus, with the bank’s purpose growing bolder with each key milestone achieved. Find out how the... View Details

Keywords: Transformation; Alignment; Business Strategy; Balanced Scorecard; Technology Adoption; Mission and Purpose; Change Management; Financial Services Industry; Financial Services Industry; Asia; Singapore

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Becoming a Board Member - Alumni

Joining a Non-Profit Board Why am I interested in this cause? Why is this the right organization for me? Is the organization at the right stage for me to add value? How will I contribute to the organization, in terms of time, expertise and/or philanthropically? What do... View Details

16 Nov 2010
Lessons from the Classroom

Data.gov: Matching Government Data with Rapid Innovation

lack of trust in government officials," he explained. "There is no point in adding services over a foundation we don't trust. The number-one priority of Data.gov should be to restore confidence in our government. The average... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Technology

January 2021
Supplement

Bespoken Spirits: Disrupting Distilling

By: Benjamin C. Esty and Daniel Fisher

On October 7, 2020, Bespoken Spirits publicly announced it had received $2.6 million of seed funding for its “sustainable maturation process,” a process that could produce award-winning whiskeys in just days rather than years using a novel technology and data science. ... View Details

Keywords: Business Ventures; Business Strategy; Competitive Advantage; Disruption; Entrepreneurship; Environmental Sustainability; Cash Flow; Disruptive Innovation; Innovation Strategy; Brands and Branding; Business Model; Service Industry; Service Industry; Service Industry; United States; California

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Faculty & Researchers - Managing the Future of Work

Business School Case, 2023. With Frank Nagle, Maria P. Roche, Nataliya Langburd Wright, and Sarah Mehta. Hugging Face: Serving AI on a Platform , Harvard Business School Case, 2022. With Daniel Yue, Kerry Herman, and Sarah Gulick. AWS and Amazon SageMaker: The... View Details

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Planned Giving - Alumni

help in crafting language that reflects your wishes and makes a lasting difference at HBS. Who should an executor or an attorney representing an estate in probate contact? Please contact the Trust Administration team within Harvard’s Alumni and Development View Details

14 Apr 2009
First Look

First Look: April 14, 2009

philosopher John Rawls) can be reconciled for roommate problems. Finally, we extend our results to two-sided matching problems. Download the paper: http://www.hbs.edu/research/pdf/09-111.pdf Lean Principles, Learning, and Software Production: Evidence from Indian... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

15 Jul 2013
Research & Ideas

Five Imperatives for Improving Health Care

business management expertise can be harnessed to improve everything from delivering affordable essential services to the poor to making the US more competitive in world markets. In the future, the Forum on Healthcare Innovation will turn... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Health

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Team - Case Method Project

working in historical interpretation and education with the National Park Service to Case Method Institute. She received her B.A. in History and B.A. in International Relations from University of California, Davis. While completing her... View Details

23 Oct 2000
Research & Ideas

The Strategy-Focused Organization

strategy. Heads of shared service units—marketing, human resources, and information technology, among others—were included in the membership of the leadership team to ensure that information about customers, people, and technology were... View Details

Keywords: by Robert S. Kaplan & David P. Norton

January 2003 (Revised May 2005)
Case

Zipcar: Refining the Business Model

By: Myra M. Hart, Michael J. Roberts and Julia Stevens

Zipcar is a start-up organized around the idea of "sharing" car usage via a membership organization. This case describes several iterations of the Zipcar business model and financial plan. These iterations include a very early version and a version developed just prior... View Details