Publications

September 1999 (Revised April 2000)
Case

drugstore.com

By: Richard L. Nolan

On a clear day in August 1999 in the new headquarters of drugstore.com, against a backdrop of the Blue Angels flying in formation over Lake Washington practicing for their hydroplane Seafare Cup performance, Peter Neupert was pleased with his company's IPO performance.... View Details

Keywords: Business Growth and Maturation; Internet and the Web; Problems and Challenges; Business Startups; Retail Industry

Article

Assent-maximizing Social Choice

By: Katherine A. Baldiga and Jerry R. Green

We take a decision theoretic approach to the classic social choice problem, using data on the frequency of choice problems to compute social choice functions. We define a family of social choice rules that depend on the population's preferences and on the probability... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Theory; Measurement and Metrics; Mathematical Methods; Society

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October 1990 (Revised November 1992)
Case

Ceramics Process Systems Corp. (A)

By: Clayton M. Christensen

A small ceramics company started by a group of MIT professors struggles with some basic technology strategy issues. A plan to take "one commercializable step" at a time in order to get a foothold in the market goes awry because of incompatibility between the company's... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Technology; Problems and Challenges; Market Entry and Exit; Innovation Strategy; Technological Innovation; Research and Development; Production; Manufacturing Industry; Cambridge

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01 Oct 1998
News

Andresen Becomes First European and First Exec. Ed. Graduate to Endow HBS Professorship

Andresen's 1986 departure). Andresen took time out to attend Harvard's Advanced Management Program in 1974 in order "to test my standards of management," he says. "I had been working nonstop for over five years View Details

29 Jan 2025
Blog Post

Finding Professional Purpose: Building an Impactful Career that Reflects your Values with Lisa Tanzer (MBA 1993)

leadership, working my up to CMO, and then President and CEO roles. I worked on educational toys and entertainment properties (Hasbro), contributed to View Details

01 Sep 2023
News

That Was Then, This Is Now

It started with a question. But before that, it started in the classroom. Tony Deifell (MBA 2002) loved the discussions in his LEAD course, taught by Professor (and now former Dean) Nitin Nohria; wanting to make them more tangible, Deifell adapted the idea of... View Details

Keywords: Photographed by Tony Deifell (MBA 2002); edited by Julia Hanna. Above: Heidi Brooks, photographed in 2003 and 2023.; life experience; family; leadership

January 2013
Supplement

The Great East Japan Earthquake (E): Yamato Transport's Response

By: Hirotaka Takeuchi, Leonard Kosinski, Christina Royce, Anna Stetsovskaya and Evgeny Vasilyev

CEO Kikawa of Yamato Transport gave orders to his managers right after the triple disaster hit the Tohoku region of Japan to do whatever it takes to save lives and not to worry about costs. He also felt that he had to confront the government to make donations to the... View Details

Keywords: Japan; Earthquake; Yamato Transport Company; Natural Disasters; Business and Shareholder Relations; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Transportation Industry; Japan

28 Nov 2017
News

The no-excuses way to manage healthcare growth

October 2019 (Revised August 2020)
Case

The Predictive Index

By: Lynda M. Applegate and James Weber

Mike Zani and Daniel Muzquiz needed to decide next steps to create a new category in the human resources consulting industry and scale their company.
Zani and Muzquiz, serial entrepreneurs, acquired Predictive Index in 2014. Previously, as clients of the... View Details

Keywords: Human Resources; Selection and Staffing; Talent and Talent Management; Recruitment; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Venture Capital; Change Management; Disruptive Innovation; Digital Platforms; Growth and Development Strategy; Consulting Industry; Service Industry; United States

29 Jan 2025
Blog Post

Finding Professional Purpose: Building an Impactful Career that Reflects your Values with Lisa Tanzer (MBA 1993)

properties (Hasbro), contributed to taking an early e-commerce company in the educational toy space through an IPO and strategic exit (SmarterKids.com), and helped develop TV... View Details

Keywords: All Industries

16 Oct 2018
Blog Post

A Pathway to Pursue Aspirations

While Mizuho Kanai (MBA 2018) was fulfilling her summer internship at NPR, her manager recommended that she read an HBS case study about how the Sesame Workshop CEO, Jeff Dunn (MBA 1981), was changing the institution. “I was blown away,”... View Details

Keywords: Nonprofit / Government

14 Jul 2023
Blog Post

A Pathway to Pursue Aspirations

While Mizuho Kanai (MBA 2018) was fulfilling her summer internship at NPR, her manager recommended that she read an HBS case study about how the Sesame Workshop CEO, Jeff Dunn (MBA 1981), was changing the institution. “I was blown away,”... View Details

January 2018 (Revised January 2019)
Case

ZappRx

By: Jeffrey J. Bussgang and Olivia Hull

In October 2015, ZappRx founder Zoe Barry is deciding between two business models for her health technology start-up. Her product, a software application that aims to expedite the prescription fulfillment process for patients with rare diseases, has attracted interest... View Details

Keywords: Speciality Drugs; Hub Services; Pivot; Speciality Prescriptions; Health Care and Treatment; Customization and Personalization; Internet and the Web; Business Model; Decision Choices and Conditions; Pharmaceutical Industry; Massachusetts

2016
Book

Building the Future: Big Teaming for Audacious Innovation

By: Amy C. Edmondson and Susan Salter Reynolds

Machiavelli famously wrote, "There is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things." That's what this book is about—innovation far more audacious... View Details

Keywords: Teaming; Innovation; Leadership; Groups and Teams; Innovation and Invention

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May 2, 2023
Editorial

Onboarding NextGens

By: Christina R. Wing and Rohit K. Gera

The process of onboarding the next generation into a family business can be both fulfilling and challenging. In many cases, the NextGen feel that they have been a part of the family business for their entire lives, and taking their place within the company feels... View Details

Keywords: Family Business; Family and Family Relationships; Employees

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Research Summary

Performance Impact of Continuous Replenishment Systems

By: Janice H. Hammond

Janice H. Hammond has conducted (with Ted Clark of Hong Kong University of Science and Technology) a survey of U.S. retailers to determine how the implementation of continuous replenishment programs between manufacturers and retailers affects supply channel... View Details

15 May 2007
First Look

First Look: May 15, 2007

economic models predict that they do not systematically differ. With online grocery data, we show that people are decreasingly impatient the further in the future their choices will take effect. In general, as the delay between View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

April 2009
Case

Supply Chain Optimization at Hugo Boss (A)

By: Ananth Raman, Nicole DeHoratius and Zahra Kanji

We evaluate the impact of a supply chain pilot implemented at Hugo Boss. This pilot entailed altering the way in which Hugo Boss orders from its suppliers. We explore the challenge of assessing the impact of supply chain change, the link between operational performance... View Details

Keywords: Order Taking and Fulfillment; Logistics; Supply Chain Management; Performance Evaluation; Sales; Apparel and Accessories Industry; Apparel and Accessories Industry; Europe

June 2012
Article

Leadership Is a Conversation

By: Boris Groysberg and Michael Slind

Globalization and new technologies have sharply reduced the efficacy of command-and-control management and its accompanying forms of corporate communication. In the course of a recent research project, the authors concluded that by talking with employees, rather than... View Details

Keywords: Employees; Management Style; Interpersonal Communication; Leadership; Cooperation; Partners and Partnerships