Smart - Publications - Faculty & Research

July 2019 (Revised May 2021)
Case

Acelerex

By: John R. Wells and Benjamin Weinstock

In early 2019, Randell Johnson, Founder and Chief Executive of Acelerex, was reflecting on the company’s first year of rapid growth and the challenges of scaling the business that lay ahead. Acelerex was riding the waves of change taking place in electrical power grids... View Details

Keywords: Energy; Energy Sources; Growth Management; Expansion; Global Strategy; Cash Flow; Energy Industry; Web Services Industry; Consulting Industry

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HBR Classics - Alumni

thinking and practice. As an exclusive benefit for HBS alumni, 77 of these HBR Classics are now available for free downloading. Please browse the collection below; login is required. Just click on a title to read online or download the case to your computer or View Details

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Faculty & Advisors - MBA

Ventures where he invests in seed-stage startups in the areas of smart hardware and machine intelligence applications. Prior to Ubiquity, Sunil spent 6 years as a VC with Bessemer Venture Partners where he was part of investments in... View Details

30 May 2024
News

How to Have Effective Conversations

– it really changes how we talk, because in my case, it makes us much, much more sensitive to what the other person is telling us. And once we understand that the goal of a conversation is not to convince the other person that we're right and they're wrong, or to... View Details

09 Jan 2012
Research & Ideas

Location, Location, Location: The Strategy of Place

time to enter or exit that location. Reducing your costs might not provide you with a competitive advantage at all." Walmart has been a smart expander since it opened its first store in Rogers, Arkansas, in 1962. Sam Walton slowly... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

16 Jan 2018
Blog Post

How Can I Prepare to Apply for Financial Aid at HBS?

annual credit report and resolve any problems right away. It can take a long time to get erroneous information corrected so it is smart to try to take care of this as soon as you can. For international applicants, check your credit score... View Details

28 Nov 2018
HBS Case

On Target: Rethinking the Retail Website

managers in the field make smart business decisions based on data. Those managers were encouraged to develop questions that could produce value if analysts could massage the data to provide accurate answers. For example, a manager might... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Retail

05 Jul 2006
What Do You Think?

How Important Is “Executive Intelligence” for Leaders?

Three words that best describe effective people in any organization: smart and happy. Both the order and the conjunction are important . . . ." Harry Tucci went even further, saying: "The concept of executive intelligence is a... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

30 May 2005
Research & Ideas

Six Steps for Making Your Threat Credible

threats will be more credible if you have a reputation for carrying through on them. In such instances, threats can be made credible by leveraging the shadow of the future. The author might suggest that while accepting the publisher's offer might be View Details

Keywords: by Deepak Malhotra

02 May 2005
Research & Ideas

Four VCs on Evaluating Opportunities

the technologist are issues we try to avoid. Robert Simon Director, Alta Partners There are two schools of thought in evaluating new opportunities. In the first, the venture capitalist says, "I invest in people first and foremost. View Details

Keywords: by Lauren Barley

24 Feb 2021
Lessons from the Classroom

What History's Biggest Wars Teach Us About Leading in Peace

understanding to the unique challenges you confront. The process is crucial in business as well as war and diplomacy because, as Malhotra says in his course syllabus, “being smart and well-intentioned is not enough.” For Malhotra, who has... View Details

Keywords: by Lane Lambert

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Past Issues - Alumni

does business Can Business Smarts Save the Charter School Revolution? Lesson Plans Alumni working in every corner of education weigh in on the best path forward Minding The Gap An innovative HBS/HGSE project designed to help advance urban... View Details

01 Jun 2023
News

Curb Appeal

Jessica Tisch (JD/MBA 2008) has a problem. And she couldn’t be happier about it. It’s a chilly February morning in Lower Manhattan, and Tisch, who was appointed commissioner of the Department of Sanitation (DSNY) last April, has only hours to pivot the world’s largest... View Details

Keywords: Alexander Gelfand; photography by Vance Jacobs; Justice, Public Order, and Safety Activities; Government

17 Oct 2019
Research & Ideas

‘Chick Beer’ for Women? Why Gender Marketing Repels More Than Sells

in mind that if they bring stereotypes to mind, they won’t sit well with women. John recommends testing messages with small groups to see how they go over before launching larger marketing campaigns. “In many cases, these labels are not View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Consumer Products

09 Mar 2022
Research & Ideas

War in Ukraine: Soaring Gas Prices and the Return of Stagflation?

modest but real support for Russia in this conflict, and obviously China is a major player in global supply chains. And so that is just introducing more geopolitical risk into multinational global business, broadly speaking. Forman: How can View Details

Keywords: by Avery Forman; Energy

19 Sep 2023
Blog Post

2023 Summer Internships in Business & Environment

modeling financial returns of customer DERs, such as behind-the-meter batteries and smart thermostats. Dennis' role prior to HBS was a Strategy Manger, Global Operations at Google. Nabig Chaudhry (MBA 2024, Section J), Summer Internship:... View Details

01 Sep 2023
News

Case Study: The Home Team

“Here’s a smart guy who had an actual home inspection, so why didn’t he have visibility that these systems were about to fail on him?” It’s standard practice in commercial transactions, and there also are capital reserve requirements for... View Details

Keywords: Jen McFarland Flint; Real Estate

01 Dec 2023
News

Action Plan: Life Study

Above: photo by Beth Perkins “There’s an artistic spark in everybody,” says Ted Hartley (MMP 4, 1956). “If you can get rid of that left-brain inner critic, you can explore what will open up in the right-brain side in all of us.” Hartley came to painting a little over a... View Details

Keywords: Julia Hanna

15 Feb 2024
News

Startup Shepherds

By their count, Catalina Daniels and Jim Sherman (both MBA 1991) listened to approximately 300 startup pitches in 2016, the first year the HBS classmates worked side by side as angel investors in New York. “You meet a lot of very smart... View Details

Keywords: April White

09 Nov 2022
In Practice

COP27: What Can Business Leaders Do to Fight Climate Change Now?

The US government’s newly passed Inflation Reduction Act will direct $370 billion toward advancing renewal energy and reducing greenhouse gas emissions—the country's largest investment in fighting climate change so far. As business and government leaders around the... View Details

Keywords: by Lynn Schenk and Danielle Kost

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