Publications

15 Feb 2022
Book

When Working Harder Doesn’t Work, Time to Reinvent Your Career

a distance-learning program. But this detour didn’t derail the career of Arthur Brooks, now a Harvard Business School professor. Brooks explores his unlikely shift from budding musician to hard-charging head of a Washington, DC, thinktank... View Details

Keywords: by Avery Forman

02 Apr 2008
Research & Ideas

Four Companies that Conquered America

Editor's Note: Harvard Business School professor John Quelch writes a blog on marketing issues, called Marketing Know: How, for Harvard Business Online. It is reprinted on HBS Working Knowledge.Accounting... View Details

Keywords: by John Quelch

June 2020
Teaching Note

Armarium: Luxury Fashion Brands for Rent

By: Jill Avery and David Fubini

Armarium, a two-sided digital platform that offered consumers the opportunity to rent the most coveted, current season high fashion clothing and accessories from the top global luxury brands, had emerged from its first sales season with two distinct customer segments:... View Details

Keywords: Luxury Brand; Fashion; Sharing Economy; Two-sided Marketplace; Target Market; Customer Selection; Marketing; Brands and Branding; Luxury; Two-Sided Platforms; Business Model; Growth and Development Strategy; Customer Value and Value Chain; Fashion Industry; Consumer Products Industry; United States; North America

November 2003 (Revised March 2004)
Case

Dewberry Capital

By: William J. Poorvu

In 2003, key executives of Dewberry Capital, a fast-growing, Atlanta-based real estate company, are evaluating their growth strategy and the resultant organizational issues. John Dewberry, the entrepreneurial founder of the firm, has developed a portfolio of... View Details

Keywords: Buildings and Facilities; Selection and Staffing; Business Growth and Maturation; Entrepreneurship; Growth and Development Strategy; Real Estate Industry; Atlanta

March 2011 (Revised June 2012)
Case

Office of Technology Transfer - Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences

By: Willy Shih, Sen Chai, Kamen Bliznashki and Courtney Hyland

Gordon Zong is trying to teach Chinese universities and research institutes how to do effective technology transfer and IP licensing, but he is trying to do it in an environment with weak property rights and an underdeveloped support infrastructure. As the managing... View Details

Keywords: Multinational Firms and Management; Patents; Knowledge Management; Law Enforcement; Business and Government Relations; Research and Development; Biotechnology Industry; Pharmaceutical Industry; China

October 2008
Article

Creativity and the Role of the Leader

By: Teresa M. Amabile and Mukti Khaire

In today's innovation-driven economy, understanding how to generate great ideas has become an urgent managerial priority. Suddenly, the spotlight has turned on the academics who've studied creativity for decades. How relevant is their research to the practical... View Details

Keywords: Leadership; Commercialization; Managerial Roles; Creativity; Innovation and Management; Social and Collaborative Networks; Diversity

10 May 2020
News

The Brilliant Success of Shackleton’s Failure

Web

Leadership Initiative - Leadership

digital strategy and execution, innovation and new venture development. Sunand is a digital strategy thought leader with expertise in transforming traditional businesses and... View Details

Judo Strategy: Turning Your Competitors’ Strength to Your Advantage

Why do some companies succeed in defeating stronger rivals, while others fail? This is a question that, sooner or later, all ambitious competitors must face. Whether you’re a tiny start-up taking on industry giants or a giant moving into markets dominated by... View Details

October 2023 (Revised March 2024)
Case

Fantuan

By: Feng Zhu and David Lane

In 2023, CEO Randy Wu was considering the optimal growth strategy for Fantuan, a restaurant food delivery platform that had expanded from its 2014 founding in Vancouver, Canada to serve the Chinese demand for Asian cuisine in urban markets across Australia, Canada, the... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Customer Focus and Relationships; Diasporas; Entrepreneurship; Digital Platforms; Growth Management; Business Strategy; Diversification; Expansion; Growth and Development Strategy; Service Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; United States; Canada; United Kingdom; Australia

June 2011 (Revised June 2013)
Case

Sino-Ocean Land: Responding to Change

By: Nicolas P. Retsinas, Jeffrey Hu and Runjiao Xu

In 2010, Sino-Ocean Land Holdings Limited was a highly successful, large real estate developer based in Beijing, China. Sino-Ocean Land had three main business segments—property development, property investment/management, and other real estate related businesses. From... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Strategic Planning; Diversification; Property; Policy; State Ownership; Business Strategy; Business and Government Relations; Real Estate Industry; Beijing

December 2018 (Revised April 2020)
Case

Fluidity: The Tokenization of Real Estate Assets

By: Marco Di Maggio, David Lane and Susie Ma

In December 2018, the blockchain startup Fluidity was about to participate in its first tokenization deal, which would create digital access to property rights in a 12-unit Manhattan condominium complex. The deal was proof-of-concept for Fluidity, which hoped to... View Details

Keywords: Blockchain; Tokenization; Data Security; Revenue Model; Finance; Technological Innovation; Strategy

April 2008 (Revised May 2010)
Case

Visions of Web 3.0

By: Thomas R. Eisenmann and David Andrew Vivero

Explores the Semantic Web, a vision for the next generation of the World Wide Web in which information is stored in machine-readable formats. While the Semantic Web would make information more easily accessible, barriers to its adoption are very high because website... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Entrepreneurship; Strategy; Technology Adoption; Digital Platforms; Internet and the Web

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

16 Oct 2023
HBS Case

Advancing Black Talent: From the Flight Ramp to 'Family-Sustaining' Careers at Delta

Business School, who wrote a series of three case studies about the company’s focus on DE&I. For Bastian, the strategy is about providing more equitable opportunity for all Delta employees, including... View Details

Keywords: by Lane Lambert; Air Transportation

Web

Topics - HBS Working Knowledge

Model (23) Business Offices (4) Business Plan (2) Business Processes (4) Business Startups (39) Business View Details

17 Oct 2017
First Look

First Look at New Research and Ideas, October 17, 2017

Open/User Innovation, and Ecosystems: A Strategic Leadership Perspective By: Altman, Elizabeth J., and Michael Tushman Abstract—Platform, open/user innovation, and ecosystem strategies embrace and enable interactions with external... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

December 1992 (Revised March 1993)
Case

Dan Gordon

Describes Dan Gordon's first month on the job as Chief Operating Officer of Club Sports International (CSI), a chain of 7 health and fitness clubs. Describes the company's strategy and organization. The company needs Dan to tighten up its operations and create a base... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Governance Controls; Business or Company Management; Growth and Development Strategy; Organizational Design; Health Industry