Publications

Find at Harvard

01 Jun 2011
News

The Best-Laid Plans

morning known as “Super Saturday,” 63 student teams present these and other ideas in the Aldrich classrooms where other people’s ventures are the usual topic of discussion. Judges — a mix of angel investors, VCs, serial entrepreneurs, and industry executives — score... View Details

Keywords: Julia Hanna; contests; Health, Social Assistance; Architectural, Engineering, and Related Services; Professional Services; Management, Scientific, and Technical Consulting Services; Professional Services

26 Mar 2021
News

Planning for a Hybrid Workforce

06 Sep 2004
Research & Ideas

The Innovator’s Battle Plan

makes the difference is what a company does with that information. Incumbents usually see the same technologies that entrants do. Because of their processes and values, however, incumbents predictably "cram" the View Details

Keywords: by Clayton M. Christensen, Scott D. Anthony & Erik A. Roth

December 1998
Case

Inxight: Incubating a Xerox Technology Spinout

Xerox has established a new spinoff that utilizes software technology developed at its PARC research facility. This spinoff, Inxight Software, is formulating its plans to commercialize PARC's technology via an OEM component business model. View Details

Keywords: Commercialization; Business Subsidiaries; Organizational Structure; Software

October 2013 (Revised August 2015)
Supplement

Outotec (B): Action Plan

By: Robert J. Dolan and Doug J. Chung

Outotec was a market leader in providing mining solutions to large mining companies. The company’s specialization and proprietary technology created value for its customers and helped the firm differentiate from its competitors. Yet, Outotec was not pricing or... View Details

Keywords: Value-based Pricing; Bargaining Power Of Buyers; Marketing; Segmentation; Price; Policy; Sales; Management; Value Creation; Mining Industry

18 Feb 2014
News

Stick with Plan A

persistence are must-haves. Find good local partners who share your vision and your business philosophy. "In terms of impact, there is an absence of legacy technology in many cases. An entrepreneur has far greater latitude in leveraging... View Details

Keywords: Robert S. Benchley; Waleed Iskandar (MBA 1993); Telecommunications

February 1989 (Revised November 1991)
Case

Science Technology Co.--1985

By: Thomas R. Piper

The CEO of a U.S. electronics firm is assessing the financial forecasts and the financing plan prepared by the chief financial officer. Given the cyclicality of the industry and the volatility of the firm's performance, the CEO is unsure as to the usefulness of... View Details

Keywords: Risk and Uncertainty; Change Management; Industry Growth; Forecasting and Prediction; Financial Strategy; Volatility; Electronics Industry

01 Sep 2008
News

Business Plan Contest Winners

The 12th annual HBS Business Plan Contest winner in the social enterprise track was Diagnostics-For-All (DFA), a nonprofit launched to develop a disposable, low-cost, paper-based “lab-on-a-chip” for use in diagnosing liver, kidney, and... View Details

Keywords: awards; Educational Support Services; Educational Services

November 1974 (Revised May 1994)
Case

Science Technology Co.

By: Thomas R. Piper

The president of a medium-sized electronics company is evaluating the financial forecasts and proposed financing program submitted by the chief financial officer. The forecasts are prepared in constant dollars, on which basis the proposed financing plan seems... View Details

Keywords: Currency; Financial Strategy; Forecasting and Prediction; Inflation and Deflation; Risk and Uncertainty; Outcome or Result; Technology Industry; Technology Industry

06 Oct 2008
Research & Ideas

Updating a Classic: Writing a Great Business Plan

headquarters in Europe. Skype had raised seed capital in Europe and in the United States. That's the new model. Q: On the technology front, software applications such as Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint have added many charting,... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

01 Nov 2019
News

Jeff Bezos’s Master Plan

March 2020
Case

Voi Technology

By: Jeffrey F. Rayport and Olivia Hull

Voi Technology, a fast-growing start-up out of Sweden, is competing in the highly contested European e-scooter sharing market. With a presence in nearly 40 cities in Europe by February 2020, the firm is working hard to improve its unit economics to reach profitability.... View Details

November 2011 (Revised February 2012)
Supplement

Foxconn Technology Group (B)

By: Robert G. Eccles, George Serafeim and Beiting Cheng

The (B) case presents Foxconn’s plan to replace manual labor with robots and move some of its employees to more interesting and sophisticated jobs. View Details

Keywords: Multinational; Labor Market; Electronic Manufacturing Services; Health ＆ Wellness; Robots; Automation; Social Responsibility; Employee Relationship Management; Safety; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Technology Industry; China

28 Oct 2010
Working Paper Summaries

The Distinct Effects of Information Technology and Communication Technology on Firm Organization

Keywords: by Nicholas Bloom, Luis Garicano, Raffaella Sadun & John Van Reenen; Technology

March 2005 (Revised April 2007)
Case

Comergent Technologies Inc.: Enterprise E-Commerce

By: V. Kasturi Rangan and Marie Bell

Coming out of the 2001 high-tech industry recession, this venture capital start-up has to come up with a marketing plan to break even and grow. Its innovative e-commerce software provides unique customer relationship management solutions, but it has to convince... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Customer Relationship Management; Financial Crisis; Collaborative Innovation and Invention; Business or Company Management; Marketing Strategy; Problems and Challenges; Software; Information Technology Industry

June 2016
Case

Aggressive Growth Plans For Zimmer Spine

By: Kevin Schulman and Miranda Shaw

Steve Healy, the President of Zimmer Spine, has to transform his organization into a market leader. Zimmer is a major medical device firm, but the Spine division has underperformed, and its core technology did not get the expanded FDA label that had been expected. The... View Details

Keywords: Medical Device; Organizational Innovation; Organizational Growth; Organizations; Growth and Development Strategy; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry

05 Apr 2016
News

A Business Plan with Spice

Emily Miller (MBA 2015) and Kimberly Jung (MBA 2015) both served in the US Army in Afghanistan. “We wanted to continue that service through a different avenue, which was through business,” Jung says in an interview on Chicago Tonight. That’s what brought the friends to... View Details

November 2016 (Revised November 2016)
Teaching Plan

Movile: Building a Global Technology Company

By: Lynda M. Applegate and Eric Werker

Teaching Plan for HBS No. 716-010. View Details