Publications

September 1996 (Revised April 1997)
Case

GO Corporation

By: Josh Lerner, Thomas J. Kosnik, Tarek AbuZayyad and Paul C. Yang

GO faces a crisis in March 1991 when Microsoft announces the introduction of a competing operating system for pen-based computers. GO's managers must work with its venture financers, Kleiner Perkins, to redesign its financing, alliance, and product development... View Details

Keywords: Value Creation; Digital Platforms; Competition; Private Equity; Adaptation; Crisis Management; Information Technology Industry; Computer Industry

23 Sep 2014
First Look

First Look: September 23

individuals, and a purely peer-based performance review and stack ranking. As customer demand and market forces draw Valve into hardware in 2013, Valve questions whether their... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

05 Jun 2017
News

Uber hires HBS’s Frances Frei to fix its management mess

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

March 2021 (Revised August 2024)
Case

Hotwire.com: Navigating Through Turbulence

By: Jeffrey F. Rayport, Manny de Zarraga and Eric Levine

On September 10, 2001, after speaking at an industry conference at New York’s World Trade Center, Hotwire co-founder Spencer Rascoff boarded a flight from Newark to San Francisco. After returning home, Rascoff awoke the next morning to a phone call informing him that... View Details

Keywords: September 11; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Business Growth and Maturation; Disruption; Decisions; Job Cuts and Outsourcing; Growth Management; Digital Platforms; Problems and Challenges; Risk and Uncertainty; Expansion; Internet and the Web; Leading Change; Leadership Style; Air Transportation Industry; Tourism Industry; San Francisco

February 2008 (Revised April 2009)
Case

Citigroup: Re-Branding in 2007 (A)

By: Rohit Deshpandé and Carin-Isabel Knoop

With its history of growth through acquisition, Citigroup has a conglomeration of sub-brands that need to be integrated and rationalized. Ajay Banga, CEO of Citi's Global Consumer Group International, chairs a task force to work through the process of re-branding the... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Business Conglomerates; Customer Focus and Relationships; Globalization; Growth Management; Brands and Branding; Organizational Culture; Competitive Strategy; Financial Services Industry

01 Oct 2021
Blog Post

Alumni Spotlight: Career Advice from Alums Working in Climate

address plastic waste, conserve water resources and more. As more companies develop their climate strategies and implement projects, the question is not “will there be a job in... View Details

Keywords: Energy / Cleantech

18 Apr 2005
Research & Ideas

Selling Luxury to Everyone

Luxury is the new essential. Consumers know it and retailers are reaping the bounty. At a "Growth Strategies in the Luxury Goods Industry" panel on April 3 at the HBS Retail View Details

Keywords: by Julie Jette; Consumer Products

December 2018
Case

Choosy

By: Jeffrey J. Bussgang and Julia Kelley

Founded in 2017, Choosy is a data-driven fashion startup that uses algorithms to identify styles trending on social media. After manufacturing similar items using a China-based supply chain, Choosy sells them to consumers through its website and social media pages.... View Details

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

24 Sep 2001
Research & Ideas

Why the Internet Doesn’t Change Everything

deal of time trying to concoct a strategy for dealing with this unsettling cyber-priest. But there really wasn't much that they could do, so they left Gaillot and his liberal site alone. Partenia had won. In... View Details

Keywords: by Debora L. Spar

February 2019 (Revised June 2019)
Case

Where to Grow Next at Online Marketplace OLX

By: Thales Teixeira, Leandro A. Guissoni and Samy Dana

The CEO of OLX Brazil, an online classifieds platform business, is debating among multiple paths to grow sustainably (i.e., profitably) without the need for investor money. The options under consideration are (1) penetration growth by focusing on the core, (2) new... View Details

Keywords: Online Marketplace; Growth; Customer Acquisition; Facebook; Two-sided Network; E-commerce; Classifieds; Naspers; Schibsted; Innovation; Startup; Digital Platforms; Internet and the Web; Growth and Development Strategy; Business Model; Innovation and Invention; Business Startups; Decision Choices and Conditions; Brazil

24 Jul 2007
First Look

First Look: July 24, 2007

Company Harvard Business School Case 307-093 Digital China is the largest Chinese independent systems integrator (IBM and HP are larger). Describes their history and their... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

17 Nov 2015
First Look

November 17, 2015

front-line employees. The case, therefore, presents students, particularly in leadership, organizational behavior, operations management, and service operations courses, with an opportunity to think through... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

Career Coach

Amber Wade

intricacies of what a job in marketing, corporate communications, creative services or brand strategy and parsnips can look like! Whether it’s resume reviews, cover letter... View Details

05 Dec 2006
First Look

First Look: December 5, 2006

Bowman, Steve LaValle, Vikas Mittal, Das Narayandas, Girish Ramani, and Rajan Varadarajan Periodical:Journal of Service Research 9, no. 2 (November 2006): 184-194 Abstract Conceptually, customer relationship... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

11 Sep 2012
First Look

First Look: September 11

reasons why corporate strategies can fail. In its treatment and coverage of these issues, the note emphasizes similarities between the core principles of business unit strategy... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

March 2008 (Revised March 2014)
Case

Facebook

By: Mikolaj Jan Piskorski, Thomas R. Eisenmann, Aaron Smith, David Chen and Brian Feinstein

As Facebook topped one billion monthly users in October 2012, the online social network continued to face questions about how best to monetize its surging traffic. The company could invest further in new advertising products, which represented the majority of the... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Profit; Open Source Distribution; Social and Collaborative Networks; Competition; Competitive Strategy; Internet and the Web; Digital Platforms; Information Technology Industry

May 2017
Case

Vicki Fuller: Chief Investment Officer of New York State's $150+ Billion Employee Pension Fund

By: Steven Rogers and Valerie Mosley

Vicki Fuller traveled from a four-room tenement bordering Chicago’s infamous Cabrini-Green housing projects to speaking at conferences around the world and typically holding court wherever she went. As a teenager, she helped raise her siblings. As a Wall Street... View Details