Publications

Research Summary

Business and Low Income Sectors: The Creation of Economic and Social Value

In the last three decades, innovative commercial solutions have emerged in developing nations focusing on providing effective responses to the hugely underserved needs of low-income populations, both as consumers as well as active participants in productive value... View Details

December 2018 (Revised June 2021)
Supplement

Bulb 2018: Hypergrowth

By: John R. Wells and Benjamin Weinstock

After a wild and volatile year, Bulb, a new entrant in the UK residential energy market, ended March 2018 with 329,171 properties, 1.2% of the total residential energy market). This was 150% ahead of a plan for 130,000 properties and almost ten times the size the... View Details

2015
Article

Free at Last, Now What: The Soviet and Chinese Attempts to Offer a Roadmap for the Post-Colonial World

By: Jeremy Friedman

This article seeks to understand the motivations behind the People's Republic of China's attempt to present an alternative development model for the post-colonial world and challenge Soviet leadership in the international communist movement in mid-1960s. When the wave... View Details

Keywords: Development Economics; Business and Government Relations; China; United States; Soviet Union

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2018
Report

The Future of Nuclear Energy in a Carbon-Constrained World: An Interdisciplinary MIT Study

By: Joseph B. Lassiter III

The Future of Nuclear Energy in a Carbon-Constrained World study is the eighth in the MIT Energy Initiative’s "Future of" series, which aims to shed light on a range of complex and important issues involving energy and the environment. A central theme is... View Details

Keywords: Nuclear Energy; Carbon Emissions; Environment; Environmental Sustainability; Energy; Energy Policy; Energy Sources

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05 Apr 2024
Blog Post

How I Spent my 2+2 Deferral: Zoe Bhargava

join a sports tech startup along with that startup’s product team. I started as a Product Analyst, leveraging my skills and experience from Twitter and grew into a Product Manager role. I spent the following one and a half years learning A TON in a wildly different... View Details

Web

Loan Reduction - Entrepreneurship

founding a company. Get coaching, panels & workshops, and job postings. More (login required) Initiatives focus on societal challenges that are too complex for any one discipline or industry to solve alone. View Details

January 2020
Case

Ureed.com: The Marketplace for Language

By: Ashley V. Whillans, Esel Çekin and Alpana Thapar

Jordanian entrepreneur, Nour Al Hassan, founded Tarjama in 2008, tapping into an underserved and high demand need: Arabic translation service. Its lean model comprised of hiring full-time employees, mainly women, who worked from home. It steadily grew over the... View Details

Keywords: Language Translation; Freelancers; Entrepreneurship; Human Resources; Management; Expansion; Quality; Growth and Development Strategy

2009
Chapter

Organizational Design: Balancing Search and Stability in Strategic Decision Making

By: Jan Rivkin and Nicolaj Siggelkow

Managers often must make decisions that depend on decisions in other parts of the organization. These interactions create a network of interdependent choices and make strategizing difficult. In this chapter, the authors explore the intersection between organizing and... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Design; Strategy; Balance and Stability

15 Oct 2024
Cold Call Podcast

What Sequoia Capital Can Teach Leaders About Sustaining Long-Term Growth

Keywords: Re: Jo Tango & Christina M. Wallace; Financial Services

TeachingInterests

United States in the World 39 - History of American Democracy

By: David A. Moss

For Harvard College undergraduates and MBA students

Today we often hear that American democracy is broken - but what does a healthy democracy look like? How has American democratic governance functioned in the past, and how has it changed... View Details

Research Summary

Overview

By: Amy C. Edmondson

My research examines psychological safety and cross-boundary teaming within and between organizations. I am particularly interested in how leaders enable the learning and collaboration that are vital to performance in a dynamic environment. In one stream of my... View Details

2025
Book

After the Idea: What It Really takes to Create and Scale a Startup

By: Julia Austin

A lot of entrepreneurs are great at the idea part but do not anticipate the details required to actually run and scale a new venture. Drawing on my experience at renowned startups like Akamai Technologies, VMware, and DigitalOcean and the hundreds of founders and... View Details

August 2024
Case

Sky Therapeutics: Innovating in Digital Therapeutics

By: Satish Tadikonda, Olivia Reszczynski and William Marks

Shad Faraz and Alex Youssef were intrigued by the opportunities in the relatively new area of Digital Therapeutics. Despite initial successes, early entrants had struggled with reimbursement and revenue-predictability challenges. However, venture investors still... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Entrepreneurship; Mission and Purpose; Health Care and Treatment; Technological Innovation; Business Strategy; Health Industry; Technology Industry

August 2023 (Revised August 2023)
Case

Sky Therapeutics: Innovating in Digital Therapeutics

By: Satish Tadikonda, Olivia Reszczynski and William Marks

Shad Faraz and Alex Youssef were intrigued by the opportunities in the relatively new area of Digital Therapeutics. Despite initial successes, early entrants had struggled with reimbursement and revenue-predictability challenges. However, venture investors still... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Entrepreneurship; Mission and Purpose; Health Industry; Technology Industry

October 23, 2013
Article

Banyan Family Business Advisors On The Keys to Long-Term Resilience

By: Josh Baron and Rob Lachenauer

Family businesses have been found to excel in resilience during economic downturns compared to publicly-traded ones. This is attributed to their focus on resilience over performance. Key qualities of resilient family firms include managing low debt, practicing... View Details

Keywords: Performance Consistency; Economic Slowdown and Stagnation; Family Ownership; Family Business; Values and Beliefs; Business Strategy

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October 2022 (Revised January 2025)
Case

Founders First Capital Partners: An Approach to Capital Access Equity

By: Brian Trelstad, Mel Martin and Amy Klopfenstein

In June 2021, Kim T. Folsom, the founder and CEO of revenue-based financing firm Founders First Capital Partners (FFCP), must decide whether to issue another loan to OnShore Technology Group, an up-and-coming software validation company. FFCP provided revenue-based... View Details

Keywords: Finance; Financial Instruments; Financing and Loans; Interest Rates; Investment Return; Revenue; Capital; Financial Services Industry; North and Central America; United States

March 2022 (Revised April 2022)
Teaching Note

France Télécom (A), (B), and (C)

By: Ashley Whillans

This case series discusses the evolution of France Télécom (now Orange) from a national telephone monopoly to a private company. During this process, the company faced numerous challenges including the entry of new competition from other countries and a workforce that... View Details

Keywords: Competition; Compensation and Benefits; Employee Relationship Management; Business Organization; Well-being; Communications Industry; Telecommunications Industry; France

July 1997
Article

The Presidio Trust legislation: Preservation or Privatization?

By: Brian Trelstad

This analysis of the Presidio Trust legislation places the recent developments on the Presidio in the context of a century and a half of environmental planning. By first exploring the Presidio's history, and then tracing the more recent legislative background to the... View Details

Keywords: Presidio; Presidio Trust; National Parks; Urban Parks; Public-private Management; Natural Environment; Urban Scope; Planning