Publications

Rohit Deshpandé is a Baker Foundation Professor and Sebastian S. Kresge Professor of Marketing, Emeritus at Harvard Business School, where he has been teaching in the Advanced Management Program,... View Details

Keywords: advertising; agribusiness; airline; banking; beauty products; beverage; financial services; home video games; marketing industry; pharmaceuticals; telecommunications; tourism; video games

January 2023
Module Note

Network Effects in Technology

By: Andy Wu and Matt Higgins

In business and strategy contexts, network effects are often accompanied by bandwagon (or herding) effects, positive feedback loops (or accumulated advantage effects), and market tipping (or winner-take-all dynamics). Though these phenomena are often grouped together... View Details

Keywords: Strategy; Network Effects

22 Sep 2015
News

Why 2 Startups Are Betting Big on Legalized Gambling

09 Apr 2008
News

Melinda Gates Comments on the Future of Social Enterprise

20 Jul 2022
News

How Will DC's Revised Ban on Non-compete Clauses Impact Hiring and Innovation?

25 Apr 2022
Video

Professor Cynthia Montgomery: Pivots

07 Apr 2015
First Look

First Look: April 7

liquidation, and class-level as well as overall recovery rates. Publisher's link: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1573311 April 2015 Harvard Business Review Second Thoughts About a View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

July 2002 (Revised March 2003)
Case

Avon.com (A)

Avon has always sold its products through a large independent direct-selling organization. However, it is now considering whether it should sell directly to the consumer. The company's independent representatives number 500,000 in the United States alone. Yet, there... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Marketing Strategy; Internet and the Web; Salesforce Management; Marketing Channels; Beauty and Cosmetics Industry

February 2006 (Revised November 2006)
Case

GE's Growth Strategy: The Immelt Initiative

By: Christopher A. Bartlett

Follows the actions of GE CEO, Jeff Immelt, as he implements a growth strategy for the $150 billion company in a tough business environment. In four years, he reinvigorates GE's technology, expands its services, develops a commercial focus, pushes developing countries,... View Details

Keywords: Transformation; Judgments; Global Strategy; Leadership Style; Growth and Development Strategy; Organizational Structure

March 2020
Case

ZEISS Group: Organize by Customer Culture?

By: Willy C. Shih

How should ZEISS, the German manufacturer of precision optical and optoelectronic systems manage two historic businesses that operated fairly autonomously? The Industrial Quality Solutions (IQS) business sold measurement equipment to manufacturing companies in sectors... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Structure; Organizational Culture; Manufacturing Industry; Europe; Germany

02 Sep 2019
What Do You Think?

Are Overlooked Forces Shielding the US from Severe Economic Downturns?

witnessed, but NO VIRGINIA, the business cycle is not dead.” Others cited forces that, by implication, appeared to weight more heavily as influences on expansion. They included continued reasonable increases in View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett; Service

8:30 AM – 6:45 PM EDT, 15 Sep 2020
Virtual Programming

Competing in the Age of AI and Digital Transformation

How are companies today using artificial intelligence (AI) to respond to business challenges? During this session, professors Karim Lakhani and Macro Iansiti, coauthors of the book Competing in the Age of AI: Strategy and Leadership When Algorithms and Networks Run the... View Details

11 Apr 2023
Research & Ideas

Is Amazon a Retailer, a Tech Firm, or a Media Company? How AI Can Help Investors Decide

S&P 500? There are trillions and trillions of pension assets in S&P funds. Some things are just sticky because they are the benchmark. You Might Also Like: 8 Strategies to Sustain Business Innovation... View Details

Keywords: by Danielle Kost; Consumer Products; Real Estate; Financial Services; Retail

14 Jul 2008
Research & Ideas

HBS Cases: Reforming New Orleans Schools After Katrina

When Hurricane Katrina slammed into the Gulf Coast region of the United States in August 2005, it destroyed homes and lives. A paradoxical effect, however, is that the storm's aftermath created an opening in New Orleans for school leaders... View Details

Keywords: by Sarah Jane Gilbert; Education

March 2011
Exercise

Customer Intelligence Advantage: Module 2 Assignment

By: F. Asis Martinez Jerez

This exercise directs students to analyze a customer-centric firm by first understanding the elements that characterize a customer-centric organization, then by capturing and comparing this firm's approach to customer-centricity. Students interview three levels in the... View Details

Keywords: Business Units; Customer Focus and Relationships; Customer Satisfaction; Employees; Knowledge Sharing; Knowledge Use and Leverage; Leadership; Competitive Advantage

Find at Harvard

13 May 2008
First Look

First Look: May 13, 2008

actions to take in BP's business strategy and in the political arena to manage ongoing climate risk. Purchase this case: http://www.hbsp.harvard.edu/b01/en/common/item_detail.jhtml?id=708026 Go Mobile... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

01 Jun 2018
News

It's Not Technology That Will Take the Swiss Watch Down

07 May 2018
News

Columbus Bookstores Have Independent Spirit

September 2004 (Revised December 2004)
Case

Metso Paper: Globalization of Finnish Metal Workshops

By: Lynda M. Applegate, Marikka Heikkila and Kalle Lyytinen

Metso Paper, the world's largest producer of paper machines, aims to transform itself into a knowledge- and information-based service and solution provider for the paper industry by aggressively exploiting information technologies. In the fall of 2002, Jorma Hujala, a... View Details

Keywords: Production; Customer Value and Value Chain; Information Technology; Corporate Strategy; Knowledge Management; Machinery and Machining; Expansion; Service Delivery; Manufacturing Industry; Pulp and Paper Industry; Finland