Publications

January 2024 (Revised May 2024)
Case

Uncle Nearest: Creating a Legacy

By: Hise Gibson, Archie L. Jones, Nicole Gilmore and Ai-Ling Jamila Malone

Fawn Weaver, as a Black woman and industry outsider in a capital-intensive, highly regulated, competitive and male-dominated spirits industry, successfully overcame numerous obstacles to launch a premium American whiskey brand, Uncle Nearest in 2017, which became the... View Details

Web

Competitiveness of States & Regions - Institute For Strategy And Competitiveness

growth at the microeconomic level. More about Michael Porter’s competitiveness frameworks Clusters & Regional Competitiveness Clusters are groups of interconnected companies, specialized suppliers, service providers, and associated... View Details

Web

Presentations - Institute For Strategy And Competitiveness

bypass graft (CABG) surgery at two U.S. hospitals, Intermountain and Baylor Heart, and Narayana Health (NH), in India. All three hospitals use modern... January 2020 Value-Based Health Care Delivery: Systems Integration and Growth by... View Details

October 2020
Case

HOPE and Transformational Lending: Netflix Invests in Black Led Banks

By: John D. Macomber and Janice Broome Brooks

Following the killing of George Floyd on Memorial Day in 2020, the large US corporation Netflix elected to make a "transformational deposit" of $10 million into Hope Credit Union (HCU), a small Black led community development finance institution (CDFI) based in... View Details

Keywords: Banking; Rural Entrepreneurship; Economic Development; Black Entrepreneurs; Economic Growth; Credit; Banks and Banking; Entrepreneurship; Rural Scope; Development Economics; Race; Investment; Decision Making; Banking Industry

July 1999 (Revised June 2000)
Case

Edward Jones

By: Michael E. Porter and Gregory C. Bond

Edward Jones is a leading, highly profitable retail brokerage firm with a unique strategy very different from those of its rivals. The case describes Jones's activities and allows a rich discussion of its positioning choices, supporting activities, and tradeoffs. Jones... View Details

Keywords: Financial Institutions; Business or Company Management; Goals and Objectives; Growth and Development Strategy; Growth Management; Business Strategy; Competition; Competitive Strategy; Banking Industry; Financial Services Industry

15 Nov 2016
First Look

November 15, 2016

underperforming brands as candidates for pruning or revitalization, and pinpoints gaps in the portfolio that indicate growth opportunities for new brands. Purchase this case: https://cb.hbsp.harvard.edu/cbmp/product/517021-PDF-ENG Harvard... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

15 Jun 2021
News

Zone Defense

goal but with no real clear path,” he adds. “I think that skill set has transitioned well to the world of entrepreneurship.” Tseng says the company is on track for continued rapid growth in 2021. The drones he envisioned are a reality,... View Details

Keywords: April White; drone technology; military; security; entrepreneurship; leadership; Air Transportation; Transportation

08 Aug 2005
Research & Ideas

A Balanced Scorecard Approach To Measure Customer Profitability

"percentage of unprofitable customers," or "dollars lost in unprofitable customer relationships." Such customer profitability measures provide a valuable signal that satisfaction, retention, and growth in customer... View Details

Keywords: by Robert S. Kaplan

July 2023 (Revised April 2025)
Case

'Bugs' Burger Bug Killers

By: Ryan W. Buell and William Fulmer

In the height of its success, Bugs Burger Bug Killers (BBBK; Burger has a soft 'g' - it rhymes with merger) was the largest independent extermination company in America, growing at more than 20% per year. BBBK built its business on the promise of pest eradication,... View Details

Keywords: Mission and Purpose; Business Growth and Maturation; Business Model; Service Industry

Web

Social Progress Imperative - Institute For Strategy And Competitiveness

between economic growth and a wide variety of social indicators, yet there is growing awareness that economic measures alone do not fully capture social progress. In April 2013, the Social Progress Imperative launched its first research... View Details

October 2023 (Revised October 2024)
Case

UnDosTres: Building the Paytm of Mexico

By: Álvaro Rodríguez Arregui, Max Hancock and Amy Klopfenstein

Arpit Gupta, Naveen Sharma, and Vikram Deswal co-founded the mobile payment app UnDosTres in Mexico City in 2015. In the past, Gupta had worked at Paytm, an India-based payment app valued at over $1 billion. In Mexico, the co-founders hoped to recreate Paytm’s success.... View Details

Keywords: Technology Adoption; Advertising; Digital Platforms; Growth and Development Strategy; Adaptation; Technology Industry; Financial Services Industry; Mexico; India

07 Jan 2019
Research & Ideas

The Better Way to Forecast the Future

to are probability forecasts, outlining the likelihood of the storm going in one direction versus another. In economics, the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia coordinates probability and point forecasts for predicted growth in gross... View Details

Keywords: by Roberta Holland; Air Transportation; Transportation

January 2023 (Revised December 2023)
Case

OhmConnect: Energizing the Future

By: Jeffrey F. Rayport, Jennifer Fonstad and Nicole Tempest Keller

Founded in 2013, OhmConnect was a free consumer web app that alerted customers about peak hours of electricity demand, and paid them to lower their energy use at home during these periods. The company sold the aggregated reductions generated by thousands of households... View Details

Keywords: App Development; Renewable Energy; Electricity Usage; Regulations; VC; Technology; Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC); Scalability; Applications and Software; Growth and Development Strategy; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Business Model; Venture Capital; Energy Industry; United States; California; Texas; Europe

February 2009 (Revised September 2011)
Case

Big Spaceship: Ready to Go Big?

By: Boris Groysberg and Michael Slind

Big Spaceship, a digital marketing agency, faced a rather big challenge: How to scale the distinctive culture that was essential to its competitive strategy? Renowned for the cutting-edge websites that it developed to market major Hollywood movies and leading consumer... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Innovation and Management; Human Capital; Growth and Development Strategy; Marketing; Organizational Culture; Organizational Design; Groups and Teams; Competitive Strategy; Value Creation

April 2009
Case

Young Presidents' Organization

By: Mikolaj Jan Piskorski, John D. Macomber and David Chen

The board of Young Presidents' Organization needs to decide on the future of its Networks Initiative, designed to connect its geographically dispersed membership base through 60 different interest-based networks. So far, one half of these networks have been considered... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Governing and Advisory Boards; Leadership Development; Growth and Development Strategy; Organizations; Social and Collaborative Networks

Find at Harvard

29 Oct 2019
Sharpening Your Skills

Robots in the Boardroom

advantage for companies–if they know how to use it. Man vs. Machine: Which Makes Better Hires? Computers make better hiring decisions than managers when filling simpler jobs. Research Papers Some Facts of High-Tech PatentingThis study details the View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

October 2023
Case

Hey Jane: Delivering Abortion Pills to the Doorstep

By: Rembrand Koning, Geraldine Pena-Galea and Sarah Mehta

This case tells the story of Hey Jane, a telehealth clinic founded in 2020 that provides virtual medication abortion services to eligible patients in nine U.S. states. By January 2023, the company had served more than 20,000 patients and raised nearly $10 million in... View Details

Keywords: Operations; Business Startups; Health Care and Treatment; Growth and Development Strategy; Health Industry; Technology Industry; United States

April 2017
Case

Yushan Bicycles: Learning to Ride Abroad

By: Christopher A. Bartlett and Paul S. Myers

Yushan Bicycles, one of Taiwan's leading bicycle manufacturers, is pursuing an international expansion strategy by increasing demand for its range of traditional and electric bicycles and shifting its product mix toward higher-margin models sold through specialty... View Details

Keywords: Globalized Firms and Management; Growth and Development Strategy; Competitive Strategy; Conflict Management; Learning; Bicycle Industry; Taiwan; Australia