Publications

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January 2013 (Revised March 2017)
Case

CloudFlare, Inc.: Running Hot?

By: Thomas R. Eisenmann and Alex Godden

In July 2012, the cofounders of CloudFlare, a Silicon Valley startup that protects websites and accelerates their traffic, are considering the implications of five employees' resignations over the prior three months. Was this natural attrition for a high-tech venture... View Details

Keywords: Management Practices and Processes; Employee Relationship Management; Organizational Structure; Organizational Culture; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Growth Management; Internet and the Web; Entrepreneurship; Resignation and Termination; Business Startups; Information Technology Industry; Web Services Industry; California

January 2025
Teaching Note

AGENTS.inc: Pathways to Growth at an AI Startup

By: Frank Nagle and Susan Pinckney

Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 724-444. In 2024, AI agent startup company AGENTS.inc faced multiple strategic decisions that could shape the company’s ability to grow into the future AI agent market leader. View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; AI and Machine Learning; Growth and Development Strategy; Open Source Distribution; Entrepreneurial Finance; Competition; Computer Industry; Technology Industry; Europe; Germany

September 2011
Case

Vibco Industrial Vibrators

By: Das Narayandas, Kerry Herman and Matthew Preble

Karl Wadensten, president of Vibco Vibrators, was deciding whether to grow his small company through a marketing push for one of two technologies that he believed could launch his company to the next level of sales, or if he should continue to grow his company through... View Details

Keywords: Budgets and Budgeting; Customer Relationship Management; Decision Choices and Conditions; Marketing; Product Launch; Customization and Personalization; Expansion; Manufacturing Industry

03 Oct 2005
Research & Ideas

The Truck Driver Who Reinvented Shipping

to maritime trade so phenomenal that he has been compared to the father of the steam engine, Robert Fulton. As a youth growing up on a farm in a small town of Maxton, North Carolina, McLean learned early on about the value of hard work... View Details

Keywords: by Anthony J. Mayo & Nitin Nohria; Manufacturing; Transportation; Aerospace

17 Mar 2015
Research & Ideas

Where Did My Shopping Mall Go?

not all equal in facing these threats. While some retailers will manage through this revolution, many will perish. The old strategy of containing shrink and growing incremental store traffic two percent per... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Retail

01 Nov 2019
Video

James Mwangi

James Mwangi, CEO and Managing Director of CBS Group and Equity Group Holdings, discusses innovation in microfinance business models in Kenya.

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October 2000 (Revised April 2001)
Case

Cost of Capital at Ameritrade

By: Mark L. Mitchell and Erik Stafford

Ameritrade Holding Corp. is planning large marketing and technology investments to improve the company's competitive position in deep-discount brokerage by taking advantage of emerging economies of scale. In order to evaluate whether the strategy would generate... View Details

Keywords: Developing Countries and Economies; Asset Pricing; Cash Flow; Cost of Capital; Investment; Marketing; Mathematical Methods; Competition; Information Technology; Internet and the Web; Financial Services Industry

October 2006 (Revised August 2007)
Case

Calloway Laboratory: Pee for Profit

By: Richard G. Hamermesh and David Kiron

Describes the formation and rapid growth of a drug-testing company. The company needs to decide whether to enter the painkiller testing market, in addition to growing its drug treatment center business. View Details

Keywords: For-Profit Firms; Health Care and Treatment; Health Testing and Trials; Growth and Development Strategy; Market Entry and Exit; Health Industry

10 Mar 2020
News

'They're getting pummeled': Travel industry reeling from coronavirus concerns, anxiety

01 Nov 2012
Research & Ideas

Book Excerpt: Judgment Calls

this kind of enterprise "is the worst business in the world. Period. The end." He was smart and ambitious enough as a young man to get himself into the Harvard Business School—though he also View Details

Keywords: by Thomas H. Davenport & Brook Manville; Consumer Products

08 Feb 2011
First Look

First Look: Feb. 8

PublicationsProspects for the Professions in China Authors:William P. Alford, William Kirby, and Kenneth Winston, eds Publication:Routledge Studies on Civil Society in Asia. London: Routledge, 2010 Abstract Professionals are a growing... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

12 Nov 2013
News

Innovation Can't be Measured in Dollars: Harvard Prof Stefan Thomke

August 1998 (Revised July 2002)
Case

Innovation at 3M Corporation (A)

By: Stefan H. Thomke and Ashok Nimgade

Describes how 3M Corp. introduces and learns a new and innovative methodology called Lead User research to understand future customer and market needs. A team from 3M's Medical-Surgical Markets Division applies the Lead User methodology to the field of surgical... View Details

Keywords: Innovation and Management; Innovation Strategy; Managerial Roles; Marketing Strategy; Demand and Consumers; Market Timing; Product Development; Problems and Challenges; Business Strategy; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry

26 Feb 2019
First Look

New Research and Ideas, February 26, 2019

Besharov, Marya L., Wendy K. Smith, and Michael Tushman Abstract— It’s notoriously difficult for a business to manage two separate-but-equal goals—making money and creating social value at the same time, for... View Details

Keywords: Dina Gerdeman

02 Sep 2013
Research & Ideas

The Curse of Double-Digit Growth

Double-digit long-term growth might justify bragging rights for any country. But a turbocharged GDP comes at a price, says Eric D. Werker, an associate professor in the Business, Government and International Economy unit at Harvard View Details

Keywords: by Kim Girard

11 Apr 2019
HBS Seminar

Gabriel Szulanski, INSEAD

September 1994
Case

BayFunds

By: Alvin J. Silk, Lisa Klein Pearo and Jamie Harper

In June, 1994, the Senior Vice President of BayBank's Investment Management Group is preparing a strategic plan for her organization's line of mutual funds. Sixteen months earlier, BayBank, Massachusetts's leading retail bank, had entered the mutual fund business by... View Details

Keywords: Banks and Banking; Marketing Strategy; Brands and Branding; Investment Funds; Product Marketing; Integration; Financial Services Industry