Publications
Publications
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- All HBS Web
(1,250)
- Faculty Publications (95)
- November 2021 (Revised May 2022)
- Case
QuantumScape's Mission to Revolutionize Energy Storage for a Sustainable Future
By: William A. Sahlman, Allison M. Ciechanover and Jeff Huizinga
QuantumScape CEO Jagdeep Singh juggles the many activities required to lead the next-generation battery pioneer. Founded in 2010, QuantumScape’s mission was to develop new “solid-state” car batteries that would improve upon traditional lithium-ion batteries in key... View Details
- October 2021 (Revised September 2022)
- Case
GoPro: Becoming a Subscription Hero
By: Elie Ofek, Marco Bertini and Nicole Tempest Keller
In 2021, Nick Woodman, founder and CEO of GoPro, was reviewing the company’s subscription offering, considering whether to extend it beyond benefits that were directly related to the company’s iconic camera. Founded in 2002, GoPro had gained renown for its innovative... View Details
- October 2021 (Revised May 2023)
- Case
Project Maji: Pricing Water in Sub-Saharan Africa
By: Elie Ofek, Marco Bertini, Dilyana Karadzhova Botha and Esel Çekin
In July 2021, Sunil Lalvani, founder and CEO of Project Maji, a non-profit social enterprise headquartered in Dubai that had already provided sustainable, clean water solutions to 80,000 people living in rural communities across Ghana and Kenya, was facing an important... View Details
- October 2021 (Revised October 2022)
- Case
The Opioid Settlement and Controversy Over CEO Pay at AmerisourceBergen
By: Suraj Srinivasan and Li-Kuan Ni
In 2020, AmerisourceBergen Corporation, a Fortune 50 company in the drug distribution industry, agreed to settle thousands of lawsuits filed nationwide against the company for its opioid distribution practices that critics alleged had contributed to the nationwide... View Details
Keywords: Opioids; Drug; Investors; Shareholder Activism; Investment Activism; Executive Compensation; Corporate Accountability; Corporate Governance; Governance Compliance; Governance Controls; Risk Management; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Business and Shareholder Relations; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Legal Liability; Distribution Industry; Health Industry; Pharmaceutical Industry; United States; West Virginia; Tennessee; Ohio; Pennsylvania
- May 2021
- Case
Inclusive Innovation at Mass General Brigham
By: Katherine Baldiga Coffman and Olivia Hull
Massachusetts General Brigham (MGB) Chief Innovation Officer Christopher Coburn had overseen a period of exciting transformation and growth in healthcare innovation at MGB. In November 2019, the health system was the largest recipient of National Institutes of Health... View Details
Keywords: Inclusion; Innovation; Invention; Gender; Business Startups; Investment Funds; Private Equity; Health Care and Treatment; Innovation Strategy; Technological Innovation; Intellectual Property; Copyright; Patents; Research; Research and Development; Diversification; Technology; Health Industry; Massachusetts; Boston
- April 2021
- Case
Codecademy: Where to Next?
By: Jeffrey F. Rayport, Max Mailman and Sarah Ascherman
In March 2020, Zach Sims, co-founder and CEO of online education platform Codecademy, prepared for a meeting with his Chief of Staff Kunal Ahuja to discuss the company’s goals. Codecademy billed itself as the largest online resource for computer science literacy and... View Details
Keywords: Monetization Strategy; Business Model; Change Management; Venture Capital; Leading Change; Growth and Development Strategy; Growth Management; Management Teams; Marketing Channels; Product Marketing; Network Effects; Product Development; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Strategic Planning; Internet and the Web; Digital Platforms; United States
- January 2021 (Revised June 2021)
- Supplement
Eaton Corporation: Portfolio Transformation and The Cost of Capital (Abridged)
By: Benjamin C. Esty, E. Scott Mayfield and Daniel Fisher
In 2000, Eaton Corporation was a 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 to... View Details
- January 2021 (Revised June 2021)
- Case
Eaton Corporation: Portfolio Transformation and the Cost of Capital (Abridged)
By: Benjamin C. Esty, E. Scott Mayfield and Daniel Fisher
In 2000, Eaton Corporation was a 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 to... View Details
- September 2020 (Revised June 2021)
- Supplement
Eaton Corporation: Portfolio Transformation and The Cost of Capital
By: Benjamin C. Esty, Scott Mayfield and Daniel Fisher
In 2000, Eaton Corporation was a 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 to... View Details
- September 2020 (Revised June 2021)
- Case
Eaton Corporation: Portfolio Transformation and The Cost of Capital
By: Benjamin C. Esty, E. Scott Mayfield and Daniel Fisher
In 2000, Eaton Corporation was a 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 to... View Details
- June 18, 2020
- Article
What CEOs Still Haven't Said about Race and Policing
By: Aaron K. Chatterji and Michael W. Toffel
While many CEOs have spoken out to share their thoughts on race and police misconduct in America, they have yet to advocate for policy solutions for police reform, focusing instead on their own corporate and personal values. But lasting change must also involve ... View Details
- March 2020 (Revised May 2021)
- Case
Employee Activism
By: Ethan Rouen and Akari Furukawa
Liz O’Sullivan, an employee at a fast-growing technology company called Clarifi, had a moral dilemma: She disagreed with Clarifi’s decision to sell its image-recognition technology to the U.S. Department of Defense for possible use in weaponized drones. This case... View Details
- November 2019
- Supplement
United Technologies Corp.: Are the Parts Worth More Than the Whole?
By: Benjamin C. Esty and Daniel Fisher
After spending more than 50 years creating a diversified industrial conglomerate that Fortune Magazine described as “arguably the most profitable conglomerate in America” in 2014, UTC’s CEO Greg Hayes was under pressure from activist investors (Dan Loeb and Bill... View Details
Keywords: Corporate Strategy; Business Conglomerates; Financial Management; Corporate Governance; Organizational Structure; Diversification; Valuation; Investment Activism; Financial Strategy; Investment Funds; Value Creation; Aerospace Industry; Electronics Industry; Industrial Products Industry; United States
- March 2019
- Case
HOPI: Turkey's Shopping Companion
By: Sunil Gupta, Donald Ngwe and Gamze Yucaoglu
The case opens in 2017 as Onur Erbay, CEO of HOPI, a multi-vendor loyalty platform, is contemplating a critical decision. The case chronicles the origins of Boyner Group, the parent company of HOPI and a major retailer in Turkey, and development of retail and customer... View Details
Keywords: Loyalty Programs; Multi-vendor Platform; Retail; Big Data; Customer Relationship Management; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Business Model; Analytics and Data Science; Competitive Strategy; Decision Making; Applications and Software; Digital Platforms; Technology Industry; Retail Industry; Turkey
- Article
The Right and Wrong Way to Do ‘CEO Activism’
By: Aaron K Chatterji and Michael W. Toffel
CEO activism—where leaders take public stands on controversial social and political issues that aren’t related to their company’s bottom line—has become increasingly common. CEO activism has attracted favorable media attention, but has also resulted in backlash and... View Details
- Article
Assessing the Impact of CEO Activism
By: Aaron K Chatterji and Michael W. Toffel
CEO activism refers to corporate leaders speaking out on social and environmental policy issues not directly related to their company’s core business. Distinct from nonmarket strategy and traditional corporate social responsibility, the recent wave of CEO activism... View Details
- December 2018
- Case
CIR Group: Passing Wealth through the Generations
By: Lauren Cohen, Christopher J. Malloy and Elena Corsi
Rodolfo, Marco, and Edoardo De Benedetti had received from their father his controlling shares in COFIDE, a publicly listed holding company that held 45.8% of CIR Group, another publicly listed holding. The latter held majority shares in GEDI, Italy’s largest print... View Details
- May 2018
- Article
Managing the Family Firm: Evidence from CEOs at Work
By: Oriana Bandiera, Renata Lemos, Andrea Prat and Raffaella Sadun
We present evidence on the labor supply of CEOs and on whether family and professional CEOs differ on this dimension. We do so through a new survey instrument that allows us to codify CEOs’ diaries in a detailed and comparable fashion and to build a bottom-up measure... View Details