Publications
Publications
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- All HBS Web
(349)
- Faculty Publications (126)
- Article
The Magic That Makes Customer Experiences Stick
By: Stefan Thomke
Why do some customer experiences have that magical "wow" factor, making them all destined for success, while others get few, if any, enthusiastic customer responses? How would we "design" a great customer experience? These are some of the questions that the article... View Details
- December 2018
- Case
Corporate Transformation at Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany
By: Joseph B. Fuller, Amy C. Edmondson, Daniela Beyersdorfer and Tonia Labruyere
When Stefan Oschmann became CEO and chairman of the executive board of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, in 2016, the company had started its transformation from a mid-tier traditional German industry player to a global modern science and technology player. The... View Details
- October 2018
- Case
Booking.com
By: Stefan Thomke and Daniela Beyersdorfer
The case reveals how Booking.com has become the world's leading travel accommodation platform. The company has put online experimentation at the heart of how it designs digital experiences for its customers and partners. To unlock the potential of large-scale testing,... View Details
- September 2018
- Article
An Exploratory Study of Product Development in Emerging Economies: Evidence from Medical Device Testing in India
By: Budhaditya Gupta and Stefan Thomke
Recent research has studied innovation in emerging economies. However, microlevel product development processes in these economies are relatively unexplored, and the mechanisms by which the emerging economy context might affect such processes are still unclear. In this... View Details
- September–October 2017
- Article
Blurring the Boundaries: The Interplay of Gender and Local Communities in the Commercialization of Social Ventures
By: Stefan Dimitriadis, Matthew Lee, Lakshmi Ramarajan and Julie Battilana
This paper examines the critical role of gender in the commercialization of social ventures. We argue that cultural beliefs about what is perceived to be appropriate work for each gender influence how founders of social ventures incorporate commercial activity into... View Details
Keywords: Community; Cultural Beliefs; Social Enterprise; Gender; Local Range; Commercialization; Culture
- September–October 2017
- Article
The Surprising Power of Online Experiments: Getting the Most Out of A/B and Other Controlled Tests
By: Ron Kohavi and Stefan Thomke
In the fast-moving digital world, even experts have a hard time assessing new ideas. Case in point: At Bing, a small headline change an employee proposed was deemed a low priority and shelved for months until one engineer decided to do a quick online controlled... View Details
- July 2017
- Teaching Note
Designing Transformational Customer Experiences
By: Stefan Thomke
Keywords: Customer Experience; Design; Exercise; Learning By Doing; LEGO; Storytelling; Transformation
- March 2017
- Case
A. Lange & Söhne
By: Stefan Thomke and Daniela Beyersdorfer
The case describes how A. Lange & Söhne became one of world's leading watch companies. Its obsession with quality and innovation were behind its initial rise in the 19th century and, after a 40-year involuntary hiatus under the East German regime, again at the end of... View Details
- March 2017
- Exercise
Designing Transformational Customer Experiences
By: Stefan Thomke
Anyone who has recently travelled, gone shopping, or tried to have a problem solved may have little recollection of the experience. Worse yet, some are frustrated by the lack of responsiveness or empathy that they encountered. The reality is that most customer... View Details
- December 2014
- Article
The Discipline of Business Experimentation
By: Stefan Thomke and Jim Manzi
The data you already have can't tell you how customers will react to innovations. To discover if a truly novel concept will succeed, you must subject it to a rigorous experiment. In most companies, tests do not adhere to scientific and statistical principles. As a... View Details
- May–June 2014
- Article
The Magic of Innovation
By: Stefan Thomke and Jason Randal
Why do certain product and service experiences seem to have that undeniable "wow" factor, while others disappoint customers? Perhaps there's no better place to turn to than the world of magic. Consider that leading magicians are constantly under pressure to come up... View Details
- March–April 2013
- Article
Unlocking Innovation Through Business Experimentation
By: Stefan Thomke
There is a downside to businesses that focus heavily on standardization, optimization, and driving out variability: Such organizations leave themselves vulnerable to underinvesting in experimentation and variation, which are the lifeblood of innovation. Good... View Details
- February 2013
- Case
LEGO (A): The Crisis
By: Jan W. Rivkin, Stefan H. Thomke and Daniela Beyersdorfer
As this case opens, iconic toymaker LEGO stands on the brink of bankruptcy. Jørgen Vig Knudstorp, LEGO's young and newly appointed CEO, must size up changes in the toy industry, learn from the company's recent moves, and craft a strategy that will put LEGO back on... View Details
- October 2012 (Revised September 2013)
- Teaching Note
The Dabbawala System: On-Time Delivery, Every Time
By: Stefan H. Thomke
The Mumbai-based dabbawalas are a 5,000 or so person organization that achieves exceptional service performance with a semi-literate workforce. Every working day, they deliver and return about 130,000 lunchboxes to offices throughout Mumbai. This entails more than... View Details
- July 2012
- Case
LEGO
By: Jan W. Rivkin, Stefan Thomke and Daniela Beyersdorfer
LEGO has emerged as one of the most successful companies in the toy industry. The case describes LEGO's gradual rise, rapid decline, and recent revitalization as it is keeping up with a changing market place. Central to LEGO's management model is the ability to find... View Details