Custom - Publications - Faculty & Research

09 Jul 2018
Research & Ideas

Overcoming the Challenges of Selling Brand New Technology (Hey, Need a 3-D Printer?)

range of home and small-business users. The question the company faced was how to convince potential customers to buy it. The key ingredient: the product launch. “Product launches are always crucial for early-stage ventures,” says... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Technology; Consumer Products; Electronics; Industrial Products; Information Technology; Manufacturing; Medical Devices & Supplies; Retail

Profile

James Reinhart

resulting in a willing and grateful marketplace. The concept took off. Understanding that a trip to the Post Office is one step too many for busy parents that need to get rid of clothes, thredUP provides a prepaid “Clean Out Bag” for View Details

12 Oct 1999
Research & Ideas

Confronting the Challenges that Face Bricks-and-Mortar Stores

that merchandise would no longer carry individual price tags and that shoppers might be overcharged at the register. More recently, customers have expressed concern that electronic shelf labels could be used to raise prices between the... View Details

Keywords: by Raymond Burke; Retail

Charles E. Mitchell

Under Mitchell’s presidency, National City Bank was converted into a modern retail banking organization and a world-wide banking empire with offices from London to Singapore. He popularized checking accounts for individuals and pioneered personal loans to View Details

Keywords: Finance

01 Mar 2014
News

Case Study: Gazelle's New Predators

Illustration by Istvan Banyai Since 2006, Gazelle has offered consumers an answer to the question of what to do with their old electronic devices when they upgrade: Sell them to us. Customers can go to Gazelle's website; get a price for... View Details

Keywords: ecommerce; Kathy Korman Frey; Telecommunications; Information; News, Library, Internet, and Other Services; Information; Retail Trade

20 Mar 2005
Research & Ideas

Lessons of Successful Entrepreneurs

popular in the 1990s—which essentially meant buying or otherwise acquiring many customers as quickly as possible. "You don't want to be in a business model that acquires customers cold," said... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

01 Dec 2017
News

2017 in Retail: Voice-Activated, One-Hour-Delivery Shopping

building. The losers have been the middle-of-the-road retail strategies—JCPenney, Kohl’s, Gap, Abercrombie & Fitch—and the shopping malls they occupy. Their business models are completely outdated. Customers want convenience, they want... View Details

Keywords: Ron Johnson (MBA 1984), founder and CEO, Enjoy

01 Feb 2002
News

If You're #1, Watch Out

Where the Money Will Be," an article published in the November 2001 Harvard Business Review. "In markets where product performance is outstripping customer need, the market leader is vulnerable," write Christensen and coauthors Michael... View Details

Keywords: Manufacturing; Management, Scientific, and Technical Consulting Services; Professional Services

01 Sep 2011
News

Capitalism’s False Mantra

rather than managing the business itself, the world of reality. To “fix the game,” five steps are necessary: put customers at the center of everything that firms do, eliminate stock-based executive compensation, rethink the role of... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne; Publishing Industries (except Internet); Information; Management

01 Apr 2000
News

Rethinking Call Centers: Effective Delivery of Service is Key

call centers, with their attendant voice response units, need not be frustrating. When a company manages its call center well, effectively linking a triad of service, information technology, and internal processes, both the customer and... View Details

01 Sep 2014
News

New Idea: On-Demand Package Delivery

spring, Moskowitz and five classmates launched a startup they call Boxxify to provide a solution. E-commerce customers have their packages delivered to Boxxify, which, for a $7 fee (regardless of number of items), drops them off with... View Details

Keywords: Francis Storrs

01 Jun 2006
News

NFL Players Hit the Books

Thirty-five NFL players traded their shoulder pads for notepads in late February to participate in an Executive Education program designed by the HBS faculty to help them prepare for careers after football. The NFL Business Management and Entrepreneurial Program... View Details

Keywords: Business Schools & Computer & Management Training; Educational Services

18 Jun 2001
Research & Ideas

Tech Investment the Wise Way

will gain and hold advantage over rivals. Defining a business model to commercialize a new technology begins with articulating a value proposition inherent in the new technology. The model must also specify a group of customers or a... View Details

Keywords: by Henry Chesbrough & Richard S. Rosenbloom

Web

From Brainstorm to Breakthrough: HBS IT Hackathon Inspires AI Innovations | Information Technology

What we found in creating a custom GPT is that we couldn’t immediately get it to do exactly what we wanted it to do with regards to in-depth analysis, and that further work was needed to get the right configuration. The Hackathon format... View Details

01 Apr 2000
News

Q & A: A Conversation with IRS Chief Charles Rossotti

that can't tell you exactly how much our customers have on deposit. We have 35-year-old systems for maintaining records on tape files. Our collection process and compliance examinations are months or years behind, largely due to... View Details

Keywords: Garry Emmons

29 Feb 2016
News

How Joe Shoen Got U-Haul Back on Track

Dressed in black pants and a black U-Haul shirt, Joe Shoen, 66, is sitting in a conference room in the middle of a meeting. His cellphone buzzes. Brenda, a customer moving from Michigan to Florida, is furious about a U-Haul phone operator... View Details

Keywords: Management of Companies and Enterprises; Management; Truck Transportation; Transportation

October 2007
Article

Grist: A Strategic Approach to Climate

By: Michael E. Porter and Forest Reinhardt

Climate change will affect everything businesses do, as government efforts to mitigate carbon emissions cause their prices to rise steeply. This special edition of Forethought takes a hard-nosed look at the risks and opportunities of climate change. Michael E. Porter... View Details

Keywords: Customer Value and Value Chain; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Leadership; Logistics; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Performance Improvement; Climate Change; Competitive Advantage; Corporate Strategy

Citation

Find at Harvard

29 May 2001
Research & Ideas

How Technological Disruption Changes Everything

market where customers are being overserved by the prevailing offerings. The concept of "overshooting" suggests that companies try to keep prices and margins high by developing products with many more features than View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Health

February 2008 (Revised April 2009)
Case

Citigroup: Re-Branding in 2007 (A)

By: Rohit Deshpandé and Carin-Isabel Knoop

With its history of growth through acquisition, Citigroup has a conglomeration of sub-brands that need to be integrated and rationalized. Ajay Banga, CEO of Citi's Global Consumer Group International, chairs a task force to work through the process of re-branding the... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Business Conglomerates; Customer Focus and Relationships; Globalization; Growth Management; Brands and Branding; Organizational Culture; Competitive Strategy; Financial Services Industry