Publications

21 Nov 2013
News

Case Study: BlackBerry and Thorsten Heins

which was facing numerous challenges: a rapidly decreasing market share, falling revenues, and cratering investor faith. Heins went about cutting costs—including the layoff of more than 5,000 workers in May 2012—scrapped plans to make the... View Details

Keywords: Telecommunications; Information; Management of Companies and Enterprises; Management

01 Apr 2002
News

Career Transitions, Continuing Education Focus of Washington, D.C., Club

to five local nonprofit groups, including the National Capital Chapter of the American Red Cross. CSI also plans to organize weekend volunteer projects in order to offer club members a variety of options for giving back to the community.... View Details

Keywords: Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools; Educational Services

01 Jan 2013
News

Thomas A. James, MBA 1966

Baker Scholar, James accepted a position as controller at his father's firm, by then a 75-person financial planning company that was called, as a result of a merger, Raymond James Financial (RJF). At the same time, he enrolled in law... View Details

Keywords: Susan Young

March 2010 (Revised April 2013)
Module Note

Competing with Social Networks: Designing Social Strategy

By: Mikolaj Jan Piskorski

This note outlines the process of designing a social strategy. View Details

Keywords: Social Enterprise; Strategy; Planning

2008
Article

Networking, Planning, and the Effect of Political Institutions on New-venture Survival

By: Shon R. Hiatt and Wesley Sine

Keywords: Planning; Government and Politics

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04 Jan 2021
News

Worried You Might Be in a Dying Industry?

18 Aug 2020
News

How to Reimagine the Second Half of Your Career

01 Apr 1998
News

Gardella Joins Alumni Career Services

Robert S. ("Bob") Gardella cheerfully admits that he found his position as assistant director of Alumni Career Services (ACS) in the most unlikely way: through an ad in the newspaper. Now his job is to help give HBS alumni the skills and knowledge to launch a career... View Details

Keywords: Caroline Chauncey

01 Jun 2003
News

Portraits from the Class of 2003

Elizabeth Chang “The moments that mean the most are never what was planned.” Reason Delayed Coming to HBS: mentor asked her to work on George W. Bush’s presidential campaign Message of Fortune Cookie She Gave Then Governor Bush: “After all the mayhem, you will emerge... View Details

01 Oct 2001
News

HBS Alumnae Chart Career Choices and Transitions

integrity in planning the next chapter of their lives," she said. "They want to do something that's right for them and the people they care about, and they are approaching these issues with great thoughtfulness." It was clear that the... View Details

Keywords: Laura Singleton; Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools; Educational Services; Professional Services

July 2019 (Revised August 2020)
Case

Peabody Essex Museum: What Next?

By: V. Kasturi Rangan and Jeffrey F. Rayport

The case describes the 25-year transformation of Peabody Essex Museum, which was created in 1993 by the merger of two sub-scale predecessor cultural institutions, operating since 1799, in Salem, Massachusetts. Dan Monroe, its founding CEO, began a process of building... View Details

Keywords: Museums; Strategy; Leadership; Transformation; Innovation Leadership; Strategic Planning

June 2008
Case

Threadless: The Business of Community (Instructor's Version)

By: Karim R. Lakhani and Zahra Kanji

The instructor version of Threadless includes the Threadless student version multimedia case as well as four additional videos that can be used to enhance class discussion. The first video presents community reaction to the proposal from the large retailer. The next... View Details

Keywords: Debates; Decisions; Strategic Planning; Society; Entertainment and Recreation Industry

July 2005 (Revised April 2008)
Case

The Rise of Kmart Corporation 1962-1987

By: John R. Wells and Travis Haglock

Tracks the development of the Kmart discount store chain from its inception in 1961 to its peak in 1990 and examines the contribution of each Kmart chief executive to the chain's success. In, parallel, compares the performance of Wal-Mart over the same period along a... View Details

Keywords: History; Strategic Planning; Leadership; Competitive Strategy; Performance Evaluation; Retail Industry; United States

February 1997
Case

Archer Daniels Midland: Direction and Strategy

By: Ray A. Goldberg and Thomas N. Urban Jr

Sets out the strategy and competitive competencies of one of the leading grain trade and processing companies in the world. An overview of the company's innovations in corn and oilseed by-products is provided. The strategy of the firm is to add by-products to corn,... View Details

Keywords: Innovation and Invention; Strategic Planning; Business Strategy; Value Creation; Food and Beverage Industry; Pharmaceutical Industry

September–October 2017
Article

Managing Our Hub Economy: Strategy, Ethics, and Network Competition in the Age of Digital Superpowers

By: Marco Iansiti and Karim R. Lakhani

A small number of digital superpowers—Alibaba, Amazon, Microsoft, and others—have become “hub firms” because they control access to billions of mobile customers coveted by all kinds of product and service providers. These hubs drive increasing returns to scale and... View Details

Keywords: Competition; Strategic Planning; Auto Industry; Technology Industry

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April 10, 2017
Article

The Different Approaches Firms Use to Set Strategy

By: Kimberly Teti, Mu-Jeung Yang, Nicholas Bloom, Jan Rivkin and Raffaella Sadun

Many senior executives struggle to describe how they make strategic decisions. That’s a serious problem since the process for making strategic decisions can shape the strategy itself. To understand better how companies really make strategic choices, we interviewed 92... View Details

Keywords: Strategic Planning; Decision Making

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01 Sep 2013
News

The Secret Sauce

says they "took the assignment seriously, crafted a plan, and spent the necessary time to implement it." That planning paid off: The Class of 1982 raised $24.4 million, exceeding their goal and establishing a new 30th Reunion gift record.... View Details

Keywords: Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools; Educational Services

June 2012 (Revised November 2012)
Case

The Rise of Circuit City Stores, Inc.

By: John R. Wells and Galen Danskin

In fiscal 2000, Circuit City was at the top of its game. The world's leading consumer electronics retailer had delivered record sales and profits for the first year of the new millennium. It was a fitting moment for Richard Sharpe, the CEO of the last 14 years, to step... View Details

Keywords: Change Management; Strategic Planning; Competition; Retail Industry; Consumer Products Industry; Electronics Industry; North America

2021
White Paper

The Future of Boston's Workforce: The Path Forward from COVID-19

By: Will Dorsey Eden, Joseph B. Fuller and Rachel Lipson

In response to the unprecedented disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic on Greater Boston’s economy and workforce, the Boston Foundation, Skillworks, and the Project on Workforce at Harvard partnered to convene workforce leaders from across the region to address how might... View Details

Keywords: COVID; COVID-19; Workforce; Pandemic; Labor Market; Health Pandemics; Labor; Employment; Organizations; Cooperation; Strategic Planning; Boston