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11 Feb 2021
Blog Post

Good Leadership Is an Act of Kindness

powerful, fundamental leadership strategy is being largely overlooked. It is, in fact, the most innately human one: Be kind. According to a recent Gallup survey, less than half of employees (45 percent) feel strongly that their employer... View Details

Keywords: All Industries

March 2014
Article

Search Diversion and Platform Competition

By: Andrei Hagiu and Bruno Jullien

Platforms use search diversion in order to trade off total consumer traffic for higher revenues derived by exposing consumers to unsolicited products (e.g., advertising). We show that competition between platforms leads to lower equilibrium levels of search diversion... View Details

Keywords: Market Intermediation; Search; Two-Sided Markets; Platform Design; Platform Competition; Competition; Two-Sided Platforms

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19 Jul 2004
Research & Ideas

Why Innovations Sit on the Shelf

organization strategy to enable the different functions to work together to bring products to market more quickly. As Ludwig grappled with a way to jumpstart change at DIS, he began to suspect that people throughout the unit were talking... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Beer, Russell Eisenstat & Derek Schrader

17 Jul 2023
Research & Ideas

Money Isn’t Everything: The Dos and Don’ts of Motivating Employees

In a post-pandemic business world of hybrid work and quiet quitting, companies must rethink how they motivate employees. Good incentive plans and reward structures require a careful analysis of a company’s objectives, culture, and... View Details

Keywords: by Avery Forman

13 Jan 2012
Working Paper Summaries

The Impact of Modularity on Intellectual Property and Value Appropriation

Keywords: by Carliss Y. Baldwin & Joachim Henkel

August 2019 (Revised April 2021)
Case

Zillow Offers: Winning Online Real Estate 2.0

By: Luis Viceira, Marco Di Maggio and Allison Ciechanover

Founded in 2005, Zillow had become the leading online real estate and home-related marketplace. The brand was recognized as a trusted resource for players in the real estate market, providing information and transparency on home prices. Revenue, which was historically... View Details

Keywords: Real Estate; Corporate Culture; Intermediation; Brokerage; Startup; Evaluating Business Investments; Property; Information Technology; Business Model; Expansion; Business Startups; Real Estate Industry; Media and Broadcasting Industry; United States

15 Jul 2002
Research & Ideas

Going Green Makes Good Business Sense

and strategy with an emphasis on environmental management, Reinhardt recently shared his expertise with HBS alumni during reunion weekend. His talk, titled "Down to Earth: Applying Basic Business Principles to Environmental... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

25 Feb 2019
Research & Ideas

How Gender Stereotypes Kill a Woman’s Self-Confidence

cognitive ability in five areas: general science, arithmetic reasoning, math knowledge, mechanical comprehension, and assembling objects. They were asked to guess their total number of correct answers, as well as how their performance... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

February 1999
Case

Lifeline Systems, Inc. (B)

By: H. Kent Bowen and Marilyn Matis

In 1997, Lifeline Systems continues to grow its service business to $32 million, 56% of the company's total revenues. More local hospital Lifeline programs turn over their monitoring service to Lifeline Central, expanding the company's subscriber base by 30%. The... View Details

Keywords: Health Care and Treatment; Information Technology; Expansion; Cost Management; Growth and Development Strategy; Partners and Partnerships; Change; Customer Relationship Management; Service Operations; Age; Investment; Health Industry; Technology Industry; Cambridge; Boston

09 Jan 2006
Research & Ideas

What Really Drives Your Strategy?

"While companies might have an intended strategy, the strategy that actually emerges can be very different," says HBS professor Clark G. Gilbert. It is a topic that Gilbert and professor Joseph L. Bower have explored at length... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

November 2022
Case

Ajax Health: A New Model for Medical Technology Innovation

By: Regina E. Herzlinger and Ben Creo

This case teaches key success factors for both startup and established MedTech firms. It examines how to structure a firm to maximize innovation and financial returns with organizational structures that better align the incentives for the different skill sets... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Success; Innovation Strategy; Mergers and Acquisitions; Market Entry and Exit; Financial Strategy; Business Model; Partners and Partnerships; Entrepreneurship; Private Equity; Technology Industry; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry

December 2016
Article

Health Care Needs Real Competition

By: Leemore S. Dafny and Thomas H. Lee

The U.S. health care system is inefficient, unreliable, and crushingly expensive. There is no shortage of proposed solutions, but central to the best of them is the idea that health care needs more competition. In other sectors, competition improves quality and... View Details

Keywords: Competition; Health Care and Treatment; Health Industry; United States

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December 1993 (Revised March 1995)
Case

Medical Products Co.

By: Robert H. Hayes

In early 1990, the company is contemplating changes in its European plant network for producing hypodermic products, including the total production capacity to be provided, the number and location of plants over which to spread this capacity, and which products should... View Details

Keywords: Factories, Labs, and Plants; Decision Making; Forecasting and Prediction; Cost; Production; Performance Capacity; Performance Effectiveness; Strategic Planning; Competitive Strategy; Health Industry; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry; Europe

October 2006 (Revised October 2007)
Case

Google Advertising

By: Youngme E. Moon and David Chen

In mid-2006, Google is the number one search engine in America with 99% of its revenues deriving from its simple, text-only advertising services. It is on track to bring in roughly $9.5 billion in advertising revenue in 2006, which would place it fourth among American... View Details

Keywords: Digital Marketing; Disruptive Innovation; Media; Expansion; Internet and the Web; Advertising Industry; United States

May 2018
Case

Inditex: 2018

By: John R. Wells and Gabriel Ellsworth

In 2018, Inditex, based in Spain, was the largest specialist fashion retailer in the world, generating sales of $31.5 billion in 2017 from a portfolio of eight retail brands selling through a total of 7,475 stores located in 96 countries and from websites in 49... View Details

Keywords: Fashion; Succession; IPO; Competition; Initial Public Offering; Multinational Firms and Management; Management Succession; Growth and Development Strategy; Competitive Strategy; Apparel and Accessories Industry; Retail Industry; Fashion Industry

14 Sep 2007
Research & Ideas

How to Profit from Scarcity

illusion that supplies would be limited. In fact, there were very few supply shortages. In both cases, the marketers anticipated demand levels pretty well. As the mountains of press coverage and strong opening day sales attest, the scarcity illusion View Details

Keywords: by John Quelch; Consumer Products; Advertising

January 2014 (Revised April 2025)
Supplement

The PGA Tour (B)

By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell and Cole Magrath

In 1994, the PGA Tour (the "Tour"), the dominant incumbent professional golf circuit, had created tremendous value for its players. In the 1974 season, players competed for $8 million in prize money; by the 1994 season, the total prize purse had increased to $56... View Details

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