Publications

March 2004 (Revised August 2004)
Case

Strategic Review at Egon Zehnder International (A)

By: Ashish Nanda

The case describes the history of the executive search firm Egon Zehnder International (EZI) from its inception through 2000. Internal and environmental changes lead EZI leaders to question whether the firm might be at an inflection point in its history. The EZI... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Change Management; Business Growth and Maturation; Business Strategy; Service Industry

06 Nov 2012
First Look

First Look: November 6

Publications The Architecture of Innovation: The Economics of Creative Organizations Author: Josh Lerner Publication: Harvard Business Press Books, 2012 Abstract Innovation is a much-used buzzword these days, but when it comes to creating... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

October 2024
Teaching Plan

Teamworks: Tackling a Forecasting Fumble

By: Lou Shipley and Stacy Straaberg

In late March 2018, Teamworks CEO Zach Maurides learned Q1 2018 sales were at risk for a large forecasting miss. Founded in 2004, Teamworks’s software application assisted support staff in messaging, scheduling, and sharing documents with collegiate and professional... View Details

Keywords: Acquisition; Business Growth and Maturation; Communication Strategy; Decisions; Forecasting and Prediction; Business Cycles; Technological Innovation; Sports; Growth and Development Strategy; Resource Allocation; Marketing; Sales; Business Strategy; Expansion; Sports Industry; Technology Industry; United States; North Carolina

December 1998 (Revised February 2003)
Case

Trilogy (A)

Trilogy is a rapidly growing company that is taking a highly unusual approach to capturing an enterprise software market (the "selling chain") that is also the target of much larger competitors. The case offers students an opportunity to assess the company's methods,... View Details

Keywords: Business or Company Management; Competition; Growth Management; Business Growth and Maturation; Software; Web Services Industry

March 1999 (Revised July 1999)
Case

Crunch

By: Paul W. Marshall and Jeremy Dann

Entrepreneur Doug Levine runs a fitness company with an incredibly powerful brand. His company leverages the brand to expand, both in terms of facilities and lines of business. But he may need to make significant organizational changes in order to continue the growth. View Details

Keywords: Buildings and Facilities; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Expansion; Business Growth and Maturation; Business Startups; Brands and Branding; Service Industry; Health Industry

November 2017
Teaching Note

Facebook Fake News in the Post-Truth World

By: John R. Wells and Gabriel Ellsworth

Teaching Note for HBS No. 717-473. In January 2017, Mark Zuckerberg, founder and CEO of Facebook, was surrounded by controversy. The election of Donald Trump as the next president of the United States in November 2016 had triggered a national storm of protests, and... View Details

January 2006
Case

Jack Strang at SequenceLabs

By: Mukti Khaire, John J. Gabarro and Lynda M. Applegate

How can entrepreneur manage his firm if things go wrong despite having a great idea, a solid team, and financial backing? Jack Strang founded a biotech firm with his friend Peter Evans, to develop molecular pathway-based "cures" for metabolic disorders. The idea was... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Entrepreneurship; Business or Company Management; Venture Capital; Factories, Labs, and Plants; Business Growth and Maturation; Failure; Biotechnology Industry

04 May 2010
First Look

First Look: May 4

Reexamination of Tunneling and Business Groups: New Data and New Methods Authors:Jordan I. Siegel and Prithwiraj Choudhury Abstract The last... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

September 2017
Case

Blackstone's Julia Kahr at the Summit

By: Paul A. Gompers, John D. Dionne and Amram Migdal

In 2009, Blackstone, the New York-based alternative asset and financial services firm, committed to invest up to $750 million into Summit Materials, a new company in the aggregates sector (i.e., construction materials, such as crushed stone, sand, gravel, cement,... View Details

29 Apr 2014
First Look

First Look: April 29

Business School faculty led in developing the method. A particular challenge in the writing of cases is finding the balance between enough complexity, so that the problem posed reflects reality and supports... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

04 Jan 2012
First Look

First Look: January 4

PublicationsCases about Redefining Global Strategy Authors:Pankaj Ghemawat and Jordan I. Siegel Publication:Harvard Business Publishing, 2011 An abstract is unavailable at this time. Publisher's Link:... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

October 2021 (Revised January 2022)
Case

Chia Network: Reimagining Programmable Money

By: William A. Sahlman and George Gonzalez

Chia Network developed a novel blockchain platform that was more eco-friendly, decentralized, and scalable than Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other blockchains. Now, company leadership must decide how to scale the startup and prioritize various partnerships, use cases, and... View Details

Keywords: Blockchain; Entrepreneurship; Business Startups; Growth and Development Strategy; Technology Industry; Financial Services Industry; United States

February 2008
Article

The Founder's Dilemma

By: Noam Wasserman

Most entrepreneurs want to make a lot of money and to run the show. New research shows that it's tough to do both. If you don't figure out which matters more to you, you could end up being neither rich nor king. View Details

Keywords: Business Growth and Maturation; Business Startups; Entrepreneurship; Profit; Growth and Development Strategy; Managerial Roles

Find at Harvard

March 1999 (Revised August 1999)
Case

SCORE! Educational Centers (D)

Describes Rob Waldron's actions upon assuming leadership of SCORE! Educational Centers, an after-school tutoring enterprise. Examines the issue of acquiring and growing a small, self-owned company into a professional organization. Focuses on the steps Waldron takes to... View Details

Keywords: Leadership; Business Growth and Maturation; Employee Relationship Management; Teaching; Recruitment; Education Industry; United States

September 2010 (Revised July 2021)
Case

Gone Rural

By: Andre F. Perold

Gone Rural employs 750 women in rural communities across Swaziland to produce handwoven baskets and other hand-crafted items. The women are mostly grandmothers caring for children orphaned as a result of the country's high AIDS-related death rate. The company has a... View Details

Keywords: Social Enterprise; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Growth and Development; Buildings and Facilities; Business Growth and Maturation; Corporate Finance; Business and Shareholder Relations; Swaziland

22 Aug 2019
News

Getting There

(via Bloomberg Technology) (via Bloomberg Technology) In an interview with Bloomberg Technology, Anthony Tan (MBA 2011) and Hooi Ling Tan (MBA 2011), the cofounders of Grab, chronicle the company’s explosive View Details

Keywords: Transit and Ground Passenger Transportation; Transit and Ground Passenger Transportation

August 1998
Case

HIMSCORP, Inc.

By: William A. Sahlman, Michael J. Roberts and Laurence E. Katz

Himscorp is an industry consolidation of records storage companies providing management and retrieval services of active medical records to healthcare institutions. Kent Dauten, a former general partner at Madison Dearborn Partners with 15 years of venture capital and... View Details

Keywords: Value Creation; Initial Public Offering; Business Exit or Shutdown; Business Growth and Maturation; Decision Choices and Conditions; Consolidation; Information Industry

May 1997 (Revised July 1997)
Case

Vermeer Technologies (F): FrontPage 97

By: Ashish Nanda

Vermeer engineers work at the breakneck pace of "Internet time" to develop the next version of their software product, winning accolades from Microsoft management. Even before this version ships, however, they are faced with another punishing development schedule for... View Details

Keywords: Business Growth and Maturation; Applications and Software; Business Startups; Product Development; Information Technology Industry