Publications

November 2006 (Revised January 2007)
Case

Habitat for Humanity International in South Africa

By: Nicolas P. Retsinas, Arthur I Segel and Nelson Hioe

In March 2006, Larry English, Director of Program Design and Innovation for Habitat for Humanity International Africa and the Middle East, was reflecting on a large development project in Durbin that had stalled. Notwithstanding global attention led by former President... View Details

Keywords: Partners and Partnerships; Investment; Innovation Strategy; Emerging Markets; Social Entrepreneurship; Poverty; Property; Projects; South Africa; Middle East

March 2022
Case

In Data We Trust: Be Mobile Africa and Furthering Financial Inclusion Across the African Continent

By: Lauren Cohen, Grace Headinger and Pierre Marchesseault

To Cédric Jeannot, leveraging technology to promote financial inclusion was personal. After no established financial institution would accept his technology platform to lower transaction costs for free, Jeannot launched FinTech company Be Mobile Africa in May 2020.... View Details

Keywords: Finance; Fintech; Emerging Market; Fundraising; Financial Inclusion; Strategy; Expansion; Management; Entrepreneurship; Personal Finance; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Growth and Development Strategy; Financial Services Industry; Banking Industry; Africa; Togo; Nigeria; Ghana

August 2020 (Revised February 2021)
Case

Luckin Coffee (A): Caffeine-fueled Growth?

By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell and Karen Elterman

This case describes the founding of Chinese coffee chain Luckin Coffee in 2017 and its path to surpassing Starbucks as the largest coffee chain in China (by number of stores) in 2019. Unlike Starbucks stores, which were designed to be welcoming “third places” for... View Details

August 2023
Case

WayCool: Reimagining the Food Supply Chain

By: Paul Gompers and Kairavi Dey

Founded in 2015, WayCool, is an Indian agri-tech start-up that built a B2B operation acquiring fruits and vegetables from product-specific agriculture companies and small-holding farmers. It sold them to business customers, such as local retail stores, restaurants, and... View Details

Keywords: Agribusiness; Digital Transformation; Operations; Business Strategy; Supply Chain; Performance; Business Startups; Growth and Development Strategy; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; Technology Industry; Web Services Industry; Asia; South Asia

August 1996 (Revised August 1997)
Case

TNT Limited's Logistics Services in Asia (A): The Strategy

By: Michael Y. Yoshino and Carin-Isabel Knoop

Meredith Hellicar's mission as general manager of corporate development is to make TNT Ltd. one of the biggest and most diverse transport and logistic companies in the world, with approximately $5 billion in turnover in 1993, a leading provider of logistics services in... View Details

Keywords: Business or Company Management; Managerial Roles; Distribution; Logistics; Mission and Purpose; Partners and Partnerships; Strategy; Diversification; Transportation Industry; Asia; China; Indonesia; Thailand

January 2017 (Revised March 2018)
Case

United Housing—Otis Gates

By: Steven Rogers and Mercer Cook

Otis Gates, the only African-American in his HBS graduating class, is an entrepreneur from greater Boston area and has built a successful affordable housing firm. Along the way, he and his partners have contributed countless hours of community service to the... View Details

Keywords: Affordable Housing; Real Estate; Community Engagement; Social-good; Request For Proposal; Diversity; Entrepreneurship; Social Entrepreneurship; Moral Sensibility; Fairness; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Housing; Business and Community Relations; Real Estate Industry

Video

HBS Online Partners with United Planet for the Third Annual Community Challenge

October 2001
Case

SchoolSuccess.net

By: James E. Austin and Arthur McCaffrey

The mission of the nonprofit Jumpstart for Young Children was to address the problem of school readiness of low-income family preschoolers. It had been growing significantly, and to achieve its projected expansion would require major increases in funding. After... View Details

Keywords: Nonprofit Organizations; Early Childhood Education; Venture Capital; Growth and Development Strategy; Business Startups; Management Teams

Find at Harvard

February 2018 (Revised May 2019)
Case

CEWD: Closing the Skills Gap

By: William Kerr, Michael Norris and Manjari Raman

In 2018, Ann Randazzo, executive director of the Center for Energy Workforce Development (CEWD) is assessing the organization’s performance since its 2006 founding. Founded to address an imminent retirement bubble of middle skills workers in the utilities industry,... View Details

Keywords: Workforce Development; Industry Cooperation; Skills Gap; Middle Skills; Training; Strategic Planning; Competency and Skills; Utilities Industry; United States

March 2022 (Revised February 2023)
Case

Pakistan Rising: Bazaar's Growth Story (A)

By: Paul A. Gompers and Gamze Yucaoglu

The case opens in September 2021 as Hamza Jawaid and Saad Jangda, co-founders of Bazaar technologies (Bazaar), the Pakistani high growth B2B e-commerce marketplace, are contemplating whether the year-and-a half old startup should also venture into offering financing to... View Details

Keywords: B2B; Business Model; Emerging Markets; For-Profit Firms; Strategy; Digital Platforms; Information Technology; Value Creation; Globalization; Competition; Expansion; Profit; Resource Allocation; Diversification; Corporate Strategy; Pakistan

Research Summary

Advancing Leadership: Research and Teaching

By: Nitin Nohria

Despite the fact that most business schools' mission statement proclaim their commitment to developing leaders who can contribute in a meaningful way to the betterment of their organizations and society, research and teaching on leadership remains a fragmented and... View Details

15 Apr 2022
News

Cash House Honors a Prolific Teacher, Author, and Scholar

12 Apr 2022
Video

Cash House Honors a Prolific Teacher, Author, and Scholar

January 2023 (Revised September 2024)
Supplement

The END Fund (B)

By: V. Kasturi Rangan and Courtney Han

Founded in 2012, the END fund focused on eliminating five Neglected Tropical Diseases that accounted for 80% of the tropical diseases affecting nearly 1.5 billion people worldwide. Its roughly $25 million/year annual budget was fully committed when it got news that the... View Details

Keywords: Health Disorders; Investment Funds; Global Range; Nonprofit Organizations; Resource Allocation; Decisions; Health Care and Treatment; Mission and Purpose

January 2015 (Revised May 2018)
Case

$19B 4 txt app WhatsApp...omg!

By: David Collis, Ashley Hartman and Aakash Mehta

In February 2014, Facebook announced the acquisition of WhatsApp for $19 billion. WhatsApp, founded in 2009, was a relatively young company that employed only 50 people and earned merely $10 million in revenue in 2013. It was one of many mobile messaging services that... View Details