Publications

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2013
Teaching Note

Ningbo FOTILE Kitchen Ware Co., Ltd. (TN)

By: F. Warren McFarlan, Zheng Xiaoming, Yuren Fang and Hong Zhang

Since 2008, FOTILE has actively introduced philosophies of the traditional Chinese culture—such as benevolence, justice, courtesy, wisdom and faith—into its management, which it believes to compensate for deficiencies in Western management concepts and creates a new... View Details

Keywords: Human Resource Management; China; Human Resources; Leadership; Management; Strategy; China

April 1995 (Revised July 1996)
Case

Microsoft, 1995

By: Tarun Khanna, David B. Yoffie and Israel Yellen Ganot

Explores Microsoft's core desktop computing software business and its newer endeavors in 1995. Designed to explore the sustainability of its phenomenal success, and to examine the logic behind its renewed emphasis on some areas, particularly the home computing software... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Entrepreneurship; Corporate Strategy; Expansion; Software; Computer Industry

Find at Harvard

01 Sep 2023
News

Returning to the Roots

It’s not a role he sought or expected. But when his brother died of a brain tumor late last year, Florent Latour (MBA 1999) became CEO of Maison Louis Latour, a winemaker established in 1797 in the Burgundy region of France. The 11th generation of his family to lead... View Details

Keywords: Julia Hanna; wine; entrepreneurship; family business; innovation; climate change; Beverage and Tobacco Product Manufacturing; Manufacturing

24 Oct 2008
Working Paper Summaries

Platform Rules: Multi-Sided Platforms as Regulators

Keywords: by Kevin J. Boudreau & Andrei Hagiu; Technology

June 2007 (Revised June 2008)
Case

GE's Imagination Breakthroughs: The Evo Project

By: Christopher A. Bartlett, Brian J. Hall and Nicole Bennett

In September 2003, Jeff Immelt challenged the business leaders at GE to come up with "Imagination Breakthroughs," innovative new projects that would serve as the centerpiece of GE's organic growth initiative. Follows the company as these changes are driven through the... View Details

Keywords: Innovation and Management; Leading Change; Growth and Development Strategy; Business Processes; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Culture; Environmental Sustainability; Green Technology Industry

30 Nov 2021
In Practice

What's the Role of Business in Confronting Climate Change?

The 26th annual United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties, also known as COP26, ended with a hard-fought pact that called on businesses and governments to meet their climate change goals faster. The event followed an August report by the Intergovernmental... View Details

Keywords: by Lynn Schenk and Dina Gerdeman

09 Jul 2008
Research & Ideas

Starbucks’ Lessons for Premium Brands

Starbucks' announcement that it will close 600 stores in the United States is a long-overdue admission that there are limits to growth. In February 2007, a leaked internal memo written by founder Howard Schultz showed that he recognized... View Details

Keywords: by John Quelch; Retail

November 2017 (Revised October 2018)
Case

Brandless: Disrupting Consumer Packaged Goods

By: Jill Avery

Brandless, an online direct-to-consumer seller of upscale private-label consumer packaged goods, offered consumers a limited assortment of values-conscious products delivered directly to their homes with the simplicity of one fixed $3 price point that promised an... View Details

07 Jul 2008
Research & Ideas

Innovation Corrupted: How Managers Can Avoid Another Enron

growth and skyrocketing stock price made it difficult for most directors to challenge management's strategy and tactics. Still, board members understood that Enron was trying to move underperforming assets... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Energy; Utilities

28 May 2014
Working Paper Summaries

Leveraging Market Power Through Tying and Bundling: Does Google Behave Anti-Competitively?

Keywords: by Benjamin Edelman

Web

Curriculum - Business & Environment

Sustainability, Innovation, Strategy, Supply Chain Management The case describes BMW's electrification and decarbonization strategy, and how the company measured carbon emissions throughout the life cycle of its vehicles and used tools... View Details

31 Jul 2023
News

Striving for Imperfection

Subscribe on iTunes Subscribe on Spotify More Skydeck episodes Since he left HBS in 1990, Charles Conn (MBA 1990) has built a full and varied portfolio career. Early on, he was a partner at McKinsey and then a tech executive, founding Ticketmaster-Citysearch. Today,... View Details

Keywords: Management of Companies and Enterprises; Management

21 Feb 2018
Research & Ideas

When a Competitor Abandons the Market, Should You Advance or Retreat?

SolStock In late 2016 drug maker Eli Lilly announced it would stop research on the Alzheimer's drug solanezumab after results proved disappointing over three trials. For competitors such as Biogen, Merck, and Roche, this decision... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne; Pharmaceutical; Health

April 2017
Supplement

Imprimis (D)

By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell, Karen Elterman and Marc Appel

This case is a supplement to Imprimis (A, B, & C). It describes Imprimis’s 2015 decision to develop a $1 per pill compounded alternative to Daraprim, the branded drug that had recently undergone an extreme price hike, raising its price to $750 per pill. Imprimis also... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Growth and Development Strategy; Pharmaceutical Industry; United States

18 Apr 2023
Research & Ideas

The Best Person to Lead Your Company Doesn't Work There—Yet

had been with the PE-owned company less than a year from when it was acquired until the PE fund’s exit. Some 30,000 private equity deals valued at $4 trillion took place in the five years ending in 2021, the authors write. That equals the... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne; Financial Services

April 2017
Supplement

CIC: Catalyzing Entrepreneurial Ecosystems (B)

By: William R. Kerr, Sari Kerr and Alexis Brownell

CIC engages in "guerrilla warfare," offering free or highly discounted rates in order to get its empty offices filled before the opening day of its St. Louis branch. Opening day is a huge success, and CIC St. Louis grows rapidly, even opening a second building. In the... View Details

Keywords: Start-ups; Boston; Cambridge; St. Louis; CIC; Cambridge Innovation Center; Co-working Space; Entrepreneurial Ecosystems; Innovation Ecosystems; Entrepreneurship; Business Startups; Expansion; Growth and Development Strategy; Boston; Cambridge; St. Louis

January 2025 (Revised April 2025)
Case

Mercado Libre: The Best Is Yet to Come

By: Krishna G. Palepu, Fernando Fragueiro, Carla Larangeira and Mariana Cal

In 2024, Marcos Galperín, CEO and co-founder of Mercado Libre, reflected on its 25-year rise as Latin America’s largest marketplace, fintech leader, and most valuable public company. With operations spanning 18 countries and a robust ecosystem combining e-commerce,... View Details

01 Feb 2023
Blog Post

How I Spent My HBS 2+2 Deferral: Jada Haynes

office for two years. Because I knew that I was deferring admission to HBS, I then wanted to try something outside of consulting before matriculation. I spent a year in Retail Operations Strategy at lululemon and absolutely loved my job.... View Details

March 2008 (Revised June 2011)
Case

MySpace

By: Mikolaj Jan Piskorski, David T. Chen and Carin-Isabel Knoop

The case, set in late 2007, examines what MySpace—the largest online social network—should do to respond to its agile competitor, Facebook. Since its inception MySpace had experienced phenomenal growth, acquiring 20 million members in its first 20 months of operation,... View Details

Keywords: Open Source Distribution; Partners and Partnerships; Social and Collaborative Networks; Competition; Competitive Strategy; Internet and the Web; Digital Platforms; Information Technology Industry