Publications

September 2019 (Revised October 2019)
Case

Burunda Prince at The Farm, a Comcast NBCUniversal Innovation Hub (Powered by Boomtown)

By: Linda A. Hill, Eric Mankin and Emily Tedards

After a successful inaugural year, Burunda Prince, the Managing Director of Comcast’s startup business accelerator The Farm, was getting ready for an eventful 2019. Comcast was America's largest cable and internet service provider, having built a profitable business... View Details

2014
Teaching Note

Meizhou Dongpo Restaurant Group (TN)

By: F. Warren McFarlan, Weiku Wu and Jia Guo

Since the establishment of the first Meizhou Dongpo Restaurant in Beijing in 1996, Wang Gang and his wife Liang Di have opened more than 100 chain restaurants in China and foreign countries, and set up the group headquarters, logistics center, R&D center and central... View Details

Keywords: Internationalization; Management; Standardization; Strategy; China; Restaurants; China

January 2013 (Revised October 2013)
Case

Chef Davide Oldani and Ristorante D'O

By: Gary Pisano, Alessandro Di Fiore, Elena Corsi and Elisa Farri

This case examines the unique business model of Ristorante D'O, a high end gourmand restaurant located near Milan, Italy. Founded by Chef Davide Oldani, D'O offers meals at approximately one-third the price of other Michelin starred restaurants. Oldani has made this... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Expansion; Creativity; Competitive Strategy; Retail Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; Milan

April 2009
Case

Invest Early: Early Childhood Development in a Rural Community

By: Stacey M. Childress and Geoff Eckman Marietta

Invest Early was an early childhood development partnership in rural northern Minnesota between 14 different organizations, which worked together through an advisory board, governing board, and leadership team in order to deliver coordinated early childhood services to... View Details

Keywords: Early Childhood Education; Rural Scope; Management Teams; Managerial Roles; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Business and Community Relations; Partners and Partnerships; Social and Collaborative Networks

Find at Harvard

January 2008 (Revised March 2008)
Case

Glass Egg Digital Media

Glass Egg is an outsource games development firm in Vietnam. They are able to offer brand-name publishers-Microsoft EA, Atari-significant cost savings in the development of art assets for their video games. However, the firm's management find themselves at a point at... View Details

Keywords: Games, Gaming, and Gambling; Growth and Development Strategy; Marketing Strategy; Demand and Consumers; Product Development; Organizational Structure; Entertainment and Recreation Industry

April 2004 (Revised November 2004)
Background Note

Why Complex Systems Fail

Operationally excellent organizations create competitive opportunities for themselves that are not available to their peers. One view of the manager's competitive dilemma is to pick the right position for his organization, differentiating it, for example, as a... View Details

Keywords: Organizations; Complexity

21 Aug 2018
News

The Business Shelf: Driving Digital Strategy

Eaton Corp.: Portfolio Transformation and the Cost of Capital

In 2000, Eaton Corporation was broadly diversified industrial conglomerate. But its strategy was evolving and its focus was narrowing around “power management” and more recently on “intelligent power,” the use of digitally enabled products and services designed... View Details

Web

Careers - Health Care

pharmaceutical, medical device, and diagnostic companies, as well as financial services, consulting, health care delivery, and health services organizations. Recruiting Partners Recruiting partners include leading biotechnology,... View Details

03 May 2023
Research & Ideas

Why Confronting Racism in AI 'Creates a Better Future for All of Us'

system that impacts consumer behavior, so we help you figure out what happens here. Why does this product or service not get adopted? What do people think about these things? Ultimately, our work will speak to this. Companies shouldn’t be... View Details

Keywords: by Barbara DeLollis

09 Feb 2021
News

Investing in Entrepreneurship

leadership, modesty, and service to business and society,” added Matt Segneri (MBA 2010), who has served as the Bruce and Bridgitt Evans Executive Director of the Harvard Innovation Labs since early 2020. “His support will be instrumental... View Details

Keywords: Susan Young

09 Jun 2008
Lessons from the Classroom

Monetizing IP: The Executive’s Challenge

Model-Linker to the open source community to help the Linux community write software to connect Linux with Hewlett-Packard's RISC computer architecture. This strategy is similar to giving away the razor (the released code) to sell more razor blades (the related... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Web Services; Web Services

05 Oct 2020
Book

Want to Be Happier? Make More Free Time

time-smart changes (for, say, teachers or health care and service workers). We need to convince business leaders that time affluence is a competitive issue. The war for talent will demand that companies take time affluence seriously. The... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

04 Mar 2019
What Do You Think?

What’s the Antidote to Surveillance Capitalism?

provided by us willingly.” George Yurieff put it this way: “If you are concerned about your privacy and want to somehow protect yourself to some extent, start paying for services which you want to use stop posting (send directly to your... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett; Advertising; Consumer Products

November 1999
Case

Long-Term Capital Management, L.P. (A)

By: Andre F. Perold

Long-Term Capital Management, L.P. (LTCM) was in the business of engaging in trading strategies to exploit market pricing discrepancies. Because the firm employed strategies designed to make money over long horizons--from six months to two years or more--it adopted a... View Details

Keywords: Fluctuation; Capital; Financial Liquidity; Financing and Loans; Investment Funds; Investment Portfolio; Corporate Governance; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Management; Risk Management; Marketing; Motivation and Incentives; Financial Services Industry

20 Apr 2021
Book

A Simple Question That Can Guide Companies to Epic Success

they eschew efforts—even bold, cutting-edge proposals—that are unlikely to generate value for customers, employees, or suppliers. “Companies that raise customer willingness to pay in a distinctive manner attract the very customers that find the firm’s products and... View Details

Keywords: by Danielle Kost

October 2023
Case

Kevin O'Leary: Building a Brand in Shark-infested Waters

By: Reza Satchu and Patrick Sanguineti

For more than fifteen years, successful Canadian entrepreneur and investor Kevin O’Leary had developed his brand into a global powerhouse. Since his first appearance on the Canadian television program Dragons’ Den in 2006 and his meteoric rise to stardom through the... View Details

Keywords: Personal Brand; Crisis; Brands and Branding; Entrepreneurship; Crisis Management; Social Media; Public Opinion; Power and Influence; Financial Services Industry