Publications

July 2008 (Revised December 2011)
Case

ghSMART & Co., 2006: Pioneering in Professional Services

By: Noam T. Wasserman and Ashraf Haque

Geoff Smart, founder and CEO of ghSMART & Co., wanted to build ghSMART into the #1 management-assessment firm for CEOs and investors. However, he had just received two pieces of very bad news: the demise of an existing project and the loss of a $1 million engagement he... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Decision Choices and Conditions; Entrepreneurship; Corporate Governance; Growth and Development Strategy; Organizational Structure; Service Industry

July 2022 (Revised February 2025)
Case

A Soul and a Service: North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance

By: Tom Nicholas and John Masko

The North Carolina Mutual and Provident Association (the Mutual) was founded in 1898 as a for-profit entity selling life insurance catering to the Black community. The Mutual was entering a field crowded with established White-owned competitors that largely refused to... View Details

Keywords: Black Entrepreneurs; Insurance; History; Race; Prejudice and Bias; Entrepreneurship; Decision Choices and Conditions; Growth and Development Strategy; Insurance Industry; United States

07 Oct 2010
News

Why Wal-Mart Went Shopping in Africa

Keywords: Professor Rajiv Lal; Miscellaneous Store Retailers; Retail Trade

01 Jul 2021
Office Hours

Readers Ask: Which Companies Are Transforming Work?

The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated workforce shifts that had been gaining momentum before the public health crisis, thrusting employers and workers into a new era within months. Joseph Fuller, a professor at Harvard Business School and co-leader of the School’s View Details

Keywords: by Kristen Senz; Retail; Manufacturing

26 Jan 2016
First Look

January 26, 2016

environment in the rapidly changing Chinese art market, the founders and senior management of UCCA wondered what they could do to achieve growth and financial viability while continuing to realize their... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

October 1993 (Revised September 1994)
Case

Catalina Marketing Corp.

By: David E. Bell, Walter J. Salmon and Dinny Starr

Catalina Marketing is a very successful marketing service firm. Their current customers include major supermarket retailers and consumer products manufacturers nation-wide. Catalina provides a unique way for these clients to distribute coupons for their products via... View Details

Keywords: Advertising; Information Management; Expansion; Product; Salesforce Management; Information Technology; Growth and Development Strategy; Customer Value and Value Chain; Advertising Industry

Web

Bibliography - Option Pricing in Theory & Practice: The Nobel Prize Research of Robert C. Merton - Exhibits - Historical Collections

the American Mathematical Society , no. 4. New York, N.Y.: American Mathematical Society, 1951. * Samuelson, Paul A. Foundations of Economic Analysis . Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1947. * Samuelson, Paul A. " Rational Theory of Warrant Pricing. "... View Details

February 2024
Case

Chime Solutions

By: Shai Bernstein, William R. Kerr, Christopher Stanton, Raymond Kluender and Mel Martin

Just two years after launching its 10k by 2020 initiative to hire 10,000 employees by 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic forced Chief Executive Officer Mark Wilson to send nearly all of his staff at Chime Solutions (Chime) to work from home. Chime was a customer contact firm... View Details

Keywords: Working Capital; Service Operations; Recruitment; Performance; Change Management; Retention; Financial Institutions; Employee Relationship Management; Talent and Talent Management; Growth Management; Mission and Purpose; Communications Industry; Service Industry; United States

01 Dec 1997
News

New Releases

technologies. The Individualized Corporation by Sumantra Ghoshal and Christopher A. Bartlett (HarperBusiness) In an economy of explosive global growth and rapid technological advancement, traditional corporate organizations and View Details

Keywords: Robert Binstock

September 2024
Case

Open Door Legal: Universal Legal Access

By: Brian Trelstad, Taylor Greenthal and Sarah Mehta

This case is about Open Door Legal (ODL), a San Francisco-based civil legal aid nonprofit. CEO Adrian Tirtanadi founded the organization in 2012 with a mission to achieve universal access to legal representation for all city residents. By 2024, ODL had opened four... View Details

Keywords: Social Entrepreneurship; Law; Growth Management; Nonprofit Organizations; Civil Society or Community; Business Model; Expansion; Legal Services Industry; United States; California; Los Angeles; San Francisco

October 2021
Teaching Note

BRAC in 2020

By: Tarun Khanna and Shreya Ramachandran

Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 721-416. View Details

Keywords: Social Enterprise; Education; Health; Social Issues; Poverty; Programs; Management; Growth and Development Strategy; Global Strategy; Education Industry; Health Industry; Bangladesh; South Asia

Web

Blending Traditional Models of Philanthropy with Business | Social Enterprise | Harvard Business School

the organization's presence in the Middle East & North Africa. I now head up Endeavor's operations and expansion efforts in the Asia-Pacific region. In 2011, I moved to Singapore to better manage our growth... View Details

10 Jul 2000
Research & Ideas

The State of the Markets

Stock Exchange (NYSE); and Robert C. Gasser, managing director and head of U.S. equities at J. P. Morgan & Co. Financial exchanges today, Seifert began, must have the business systems of a technology company, with the requisite speed... View Details

Keywords: by James E. Aisner

27 Dec 2010
Research & Ideas

HBS Faculty on 2010’s Biggest Business Developments

From the problems posed by the Great Recession to the devastation in Haiti and the Gulf of Mexico, from the continuing economic growth of India and China to a cascade of entrepreneurial ventures, the year 2010 offered a wide assortment of... View Details

Keywords: by Staff

12 Apr 2018
Blog Post

Reading Between the Lines: How to Spot the Skills You Need Among the Resumes You Get

surface the underlying skills. “Ideally,” says Kristen Fitzpatrick, Managing Director, HBS Career & Professional Development, “applicants would articulate their accomplishments by broader functional skills, rather than within the... View Details

Keywords: All Industries

December 2007
Article

China + India: The Power of Two

By: Tarun Khanna

China and India are burying the hatchet after four-plus decades of hostility. A few companies from both nations have been quick to gain competitive advantages by viewing the two as symbiotic. If Western corporations fail to do the same, they will lose their competitive... View Details

Keywords: Competency and Skills; Economic Growth; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Multinational Firms and Management; Business History; Competitive Strategy; Cooperation; China; India

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May 2003 (Revised October 2003)
Case

BEA Systems, Inc.: Constant Reinvention to Cope with Market Waves

Developed in 1995 as a specialist software vendor, BEA Systems, Inc. had already transformed itself twice from a transaction processing product company to a server application provider. By July 2002, it had become the fastest company in history to reach $1 billion in... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Digital Platforms; Business Growth and Maturation; Management Practices and Processes; Applications and Software; Entrepreneurship; Organizational Culture; Web Services Industry; Information Technology Industry

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November 2008
Journal Article

Financial Constraints and Growth: Multinational and Local Firm Responses to Currency Crises

By: Mihir A. Desai, C. Fritz Foley and Kristin Forbes

This paper examines how financial constraints and product market exposures determine the response of multinational and local firms to sharp depreciations. U.S. multinational affiliates increase sales, assets, and investment significantly more than local firms during,... View Details

Keywords: Economic Growth; Financial Crisis; Currency; Private Equity; Foreign Direct Investment; Multinational Firms and Management; Emerging Markets; United States