Publications

February 2004
Teaching Note

Sampa Video, Inc. (TN)

By: Richard S. Ruback and Peter Tufano

Teaching Note to (9-201-094). View Details

Keywords: Service Operations; Service Delivery; Projects; Valuation; Financing and Loans; Strategy; Cost of Capital; Service Industry

06 Apr 2020
Research & Ideas

Where Do Workers Go When the Robots Arrive?

according to the research. One reason might be that costs are lower for companies that moved production offshore, and the resulting, more efficient firms developed higher-skilled service work, like computer... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne; Manufacturing

14 Jul 2003
Research & Ideas

Keeping Your Balance With Customers

acquisition as the biggest challenge. But lacking a CM strategy and able to respond to only short-term financial pressures, most organizations do an inadequate job of selection, retention, View Details

Keywords: by Robert S. Kaplan & David P. Norton

March 2012 (Revised October 2012)
Case

Hayman Capital Management

By: Robin Greenwood, Julie Messina and Jared Dourdeville

In late December 2011, Hayman Capital founder and portfolio manager Kyle Bass was reviewing Japanese government budget projections for 2012. The projections appeared contrary to Hayman Capital's views on Japan, where the fund had built a bearish position. Japan had the... View Details

Keywords: Investment Management; Speculative Bubbles; Japan; Government Policy; Financial Management; Price Bubble; Credit; Financial Strategy; Behavioral Finance; Government and Politics; Macroeconomics; Financial Services Industry; Japan

07 Aug 2017
Blog Post

A Summer Internship with the City of Boston

Kiernan Schmitt (MBA 2018) is a 2017 Social Enterprise Summer Fellow working with the City of Boston Department of Innovation and Technology this summer. Imagine if, when it came to delivering city services... View Details

14 Oct 2013
Research & Ideas

Blockbuster! Why Star Power Works

all—but I think the book holds four important lessons. First, the blockbuster strategy works. Second, bets on star talent bring important advantages but also major headaches, and the power of those at the... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Entertainment & Recreation

01 Jul 2019
Research & Ideas

The Airbnb Lesson for Startups? Success Takes More Than Technology

Harvard Business School Working Knowledge. [Image: baona] Related Reading Are You a Digital Manager? What’s Really Disrupting Business? It’s Not Technology How Uber, Airbnb, and Etsy Attracted Their First... View Details

Keywords: by Danielle Kost; Travel; Tourism

November 2019 (Revised February 2022)
Teaching Note

Innovation at Uber: The Launch of Express POOL

By: Chiara Farronato and Sarah Mehta

Teaching Note for HBS No. 619-003. Set in March 2018, the Case follows ride-sharing company Uber as it develops and launches a new product called Express POOL. The Teaching Note offers guidance for instructors who wish to use the case either with or without its dataset... View Details

Keywords: Innovation and Management; Innovation Leadership; Innovation Strategy; Technological Innovation; Information Technology; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Applications and Software; Digital Platforms; Decision Making; Technology Industry; California; San Francisco

October 2005
Case

Kinko's

Over the decades, Kinko's had forged a deep emotional bond with consumers by easing their anxiety and helping them solve pressing document processing problems. By 2003, however, consumer research revealed that a confusing retail experience had eroded some of this good... View Details

Keywords: Marketing Strategy; Customer Satisfaction; Service Industry

April 2009 (Revised May 2010)
Case

Partners In Health: HIV Care in Rwanda

By: Michael E. Porter, Scott S. Lee, Joseph Rhatigan and Jim Yong Kim

In 2005, Partners in Health (PIH) was invited by the Rwandan Ministry of Health to assume responsibility for the management of public health care in two rural districts in Eastern Rwanda and create an HIV treatment program at these sites. PIH successfully implemented a... View Details

Keywords: Developing Countries and Economies; Health Care and Treatment; Health Testing and Trials; Medical Specialties; Service Delivery; Nonprofit Organizations; Expansion; Health Industry; Rwanda

October 2013 (Revised December 2013)
Case

Intuit QuickBooks: From Product to Platform

By: Andrei Hagiu and Elizabeth J. Altman

This case focuses on the challenges and opportunities faced by a successful incumbent organization attempting to transform a large portion of its business from a traditionally product-centric operating mode to a platform-based one that leverages network effects to... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Digital Platforms; Competitive Advantage; Network Effects; Consumer Products Industry

January 2001 (Revised March 2003)
Case

Quantum Corporation: eSupplyChain Group

The eSupplyChain group has been recently formed with Quantum Corp.'s Hard Disk Drive Group to evaluate Internet/IT-based approaches to improving supply chain performance. The Hard Disk Drive Group has endured several quarters of poor financial performance and has... View Details

Keywords: Digital Platforms; Internet and the Web; Information Technology; Supply Chain Management; Business Strategy

May 2013
Supplement

Studio Moderna—A Venture in Eastern Europe

By: Jim Sharpe

This is the Spreadsheet Supplement for Studio Moderna—A Venture in Eastern Europe (HBS Case #808110). Includes Exhibit 3a, Exhibit 3b, Exhibit 5, and Exhibit 6. View Details

March 2002 (Revised August 2002)
Case

Microsoft.NET

By: Alan D. MacCormack and Kerry Herman

Set in the summer of 2000, following the unveiling of Microsoft's .NET initiative to the public. Three of the key figures in .NET's development are considering the next steps they would have to take to keep the initiative moving forward. Specifically, the challenges... View Details

Keywords: Applications and Software; Growth and Development Strategy; Change Management; Talent and Talent Management; Policy; Business Model; Web Services Industry; Web Services Industry

Find at Harvard

November 2003 (Revised August 2005)
Case

First Commonwealth Financial Corporation

By: Robert S. Kaplan

First Commonwealth Financial Corp., a financial institution in central and southwestern Pennsylvania, implemented the Balanced Scorecard for describing and implementing its new customer-focused strategy. Its founder and chairman decided that the Balanced Scorecard also... View Details

Keywords: Balanced Scorecard; Corporate Strategy; Customers; Corporate Governance; Governing and Advisory Boards; Customer Relationship Management; Executive Compensation; Financial Services Industry; Financial Services Industry; Pennsylvania

March 2011 (Revised January 2015)
Teaching Note

The IASB at a Crossroads: The Future of International Financial Reporting Standards

By: Karthik Ramanna

Teaching Note for 111084 and 113089. View Details

Keywords: Growth and Development; Strategy; Corporate Governance; Fair Value Accounting; Financial Reporting; Standards; Problems and Challenges; Emerging Markets; Financial Services Industry; China

04 Sep 2019
News

Case Study: Up in the Air

on IT services in 2018, and the direction of global tech trends, the shortage isn’t going away quickly. Berendt cofounded Talent Alpha in 2018 to fill that gap. The Kraków-based startup is building a... View Details

Keywords: Jen McFarland Flint; Management, Scientific, and Technical Consulting Services; Management, Scientific, and Technical Consulting Services

January 2000 (Revised March 2000)
Case

Cachet Technologies

By: Paul A. Gompers and Howard Reitz

Describes the decision facing Danny Lewin, Jonathan Seelig, and Tom Leighton, the founders of Cachet Technologies, an MIT spin-out. The firm has done poorly in the annual MIT business plan competition and the founders have to decide whether to continue. View Details

Keywords: Decision Making; Business Startups; Business Plan; Failure; Cooperative Ownership; Business Strategy; Financial Services Industry