Life Science Business - Publications - Faculty & Research

March 2015
Case

Unilever: Combatting Global Food Waste

By: David F. Drake, Janice H. Hammond and Matthew G. Preble

The global consumer goods company Unilever was on pace to hit a number of aggressive targets by 2020 as part of the Unilever Sustainable Living Project, including a goal to halve the waste associated with the disposal of its products. Unilever's chief supply chain... View Details

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May 2014 (Revised March 2017)
Case

Unilever's Lifebuoy in India: Implementing the Sustainability Plan

By: Christopher A. Bartlett

Unilever's new Global Brand VP must not only revitalize Lifebuoy soap's sagging market performance, but simultaneously impact the health of one billion people worldwide. The latter challenge comes from Unilever's new CEO who has introduced the Unilever Sustainable... View Details

Keywords: Multinational Management; Corporate Social Responsibility; Strategy Implementation; Marketing Strategy; Mission And Purpose; Change Management; International Business; Global; Fast-moving Consumer Goods; Soap; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Health Care and Treatment; Environmental Sustainability; Global Strategy; Developing Countries and Economies; Beauty and Cosmetics Industry; Health Industry; India

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11 Jan 2022
Research & Ideas

Feeling Seen: What to Say When Your Employees Are Not OK

crucial, especially for managers trying to lead widely dispersed teams during difficult times, says Harvard Business School Assistant Professor Julian Zlatev. Many managers believe in maintaining emotional boundaries with employees, but... View Details

Keywords: by Pamela Reynolds

August 1997 (Revised August 1999)
Background Note

Orientation for Viewing Kevin Williams

Covers approximately six months in the life of a recent second-year Harvard Business School student. The focus is on the career decision-making process. The protagonist is considering three choices. View Details

Keywords: Personal Development and Career

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April 2014 (Revised March 2015)
Case

GE and the Industrial Internet

By: Karim R. Lakhani, Marco Iansiti and Kerry Herman

CEO Jeff Immelt considers whether GE is moving fast enough on its new Industrial Internet initiative. The undertaking includes building out an Industrial Internet, connecting machines and devices, collecting their data and operations, and providing services to clients... View Details

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20 Mar 2000
Research & Ideas

Incubators: The New Venture Capitalists?

Move over, venture cap. There's a new kid on the block. It's the business incubator, and it has the potential to remake the way businesses are launched in the Internet economy. Incubators are not really new,... View Details

Keywords: by Kenneth Liss

2011
Book

Accelerating Energy Innovation: Insights from Multiple Sectors

By: Rebecca Henderson and Richard G. Newell

Accelerating energy innovation could be an important part of an effective response to the threat of climate change. Written by a stellar group of experts in the field, this book complements existing research on the subject with an exploration of the role that public... View Details

Keywords: Energy Sources; Innovation and Invention; Climate Change; Policy; Competition; Demand and Consumers; Finance; Energy Industry

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August 2011 (Revised October 2011)
Case

PureTech Ventures in 2011

By: Andrei Hagiu, Cesar Castro and Sarah Murphy

In early May 2011, Daphne Zohar, founder and managing partner of PureTech Ventures, a life science venture creation company in Boston, MA, was reviewing a term sheet she had just received from a venture capital (VC) firm for one of PureTech's portfolio companies. The... View Details

Keywords: Business Ventures; Business Startups; Venture Capital; Investment; Innovation and Invention; Negotiation; Partners and Partnerships; Science-Based Business; Opportunities; Boston

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16 Apr 2018
Research & Ideas

Can Consumers Be Saved From Their Misguided Decisions?

choice exists, or think about it the wrong way, like Advil buyers. In a friction analysis, researchers theorize people are overwhelmed, and don’t take the time to investigate before making a decision. Too many things going on in a person’s View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne; Consulting; Retail

October 2015 (Revised October 2016)
Case

Building Watson: Not So Elementary, My Dear! (Abridged)

By: Willy C. Shih

This case is set inside IBM Research's efforts to build a computer that can successfully take on human challengers playing the game show Jeopardy! It opens with the machine named Watson offering the incorrect answer "Toronto" to a seemingly simple question during the... View Details

Keywords: Analytics; Big Data; Business Analytics; Product Development Strategy; Machine Learning; Machine Intelligence; Artificial Intelligence; Product Development; AI and Machine Learning; Information Technology; Analytics and Data Science; Information Technology Industry; United States

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19 Jan 2023
Research & Ideas

What Makes Employees Trust (vs. Second-Guess) AI?

When an algorithm recommends ways to improve business outcomes, do employees trust it? Conventional wisdom suggests that understanding the inner workings of artificial intelligence (AI) can raise confidence in such programs. Yet, new... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne

04 Oct 2022
What Do You Think?

Have Managers Underestimated the Need for Face-to-Face Contact?

large crowds. Have the changes in the underlying behaviors affecting many industries become so ingrained in employees, consumers, and everyday life that they will not revert to what they were before? The evidence is mixed. One can argue... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

March 2009
Case

Incept LLC and Confluent Surgical (A)

By: Bhaskar Chakravorti, Toby E. Stuart and James Weber

A venture capitalist must decide whether to invest in a medical technology company that licenses intellectual property from a privately held IP holding company based on a platform technology. Entrepreneurs Amar Sawhney and Fred Khosravi founded Incept LLC to... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Entrepreneurship; Intellectual Property; Rights; Agreements and Arrangements; Partners and Partnerships; Trust; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry

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14 Apr 2022
Op-Ed

Let’s Move Forward from COVID—Without Forgetting What We’ve Learned

innovation. Organizations consistently applied new metrics to measure performance but used activity and time logged into systems to proxy for the actual value. Forging a new, better workplace Businesses are only as good as their people,... View Details

Keywords: by Hise O. Gibson and MaShon Wilson

09 Nov 2006
Research & Ideas

Andy Grove: A Biographer’s Tale

Tedlow, a noted business historian on the HBS faculty and the MBA class of 1949 Professor of Business Administration. His latest book (Andy Grove: The Life and Times of an... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Computer

January 2017 (Revised March 2017)
Case

Royal DSM: From Continuous Transformation to Organic Growth

By: William W. George, Carin-Isabel Knoop and Amram Migdal

Royal DSM CEO Feike Sijbesma was pondering the challenges of shifting DSM’s global organization from the constant transformations of the past 100 years to creating organic growth. When Sijbesma took the helm as CEO in 2007, he further pushed and completed the company’s... View Details

Keywords: Organic Growth; Organizational Change; M＆A; Mergers And Acquisitions; Divestment; Business Ventures; Business Divisions; Business Growth and Maturation; Restructuring; Change; Change Management; Transformation; Transition; Engineering; Chemicals; Mining; Ethics; Values and Beliefs; Finance; Capital Markets; Financial Markets; Food; Globalization; Global Strategy; Globalized Firms and Management; Globalized Markets and Industries; Health; Nutrition; History; Leadership; Leadership Development; Leadership Style; Leading Change; Management; Business or Company Management; Growth and Development Strategy; Growth Management; Management Practices and Processes; Management Style; Organizations; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Mission and Purpose; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Culture; Organizational Design; Ownership; Public Ownership; Performance; Strategy; Adaptation; Consolidation; Corporate Strategy; Value; Value Creation; Biotechnology Industry; Chemical Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; Mining Industry; Pharmaceutical Industry; Europe; Netherlands

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17 Apr 2006
Research & Ideas

Resisting the Seductions of Success

likable, and successful—but something derails them. In other words, the daunting challenge for many leaders and aspiring leaders isn't poverty or oppression or lack of skill or opportunity. It is, paradoxically, the very thing they aspire to achieve: a successful View Details

Keywords: by Joseph L. Badaracco Jr.; Entertainment & Recreation; Information; Publishing

23 May 2023
Research & Ideas

Lessons on Life, Graffiti, and Value: 'It's in That Darkness That You Can Actually Develop and Evolve'

sociologist at Harvard Business School. His parents were an interracial couple who fell in love in the 1960s, when mixed marriages faced scorn and sometimes worse in many parts of the US. Even so, he said, they always believed in the... View Details

Keywords: by Christina Pazzanese, Harvard Gazette

January 2001 (Revised April 2001)
Case

Lawyers & Leases

By: Richard G. Hamermesh and Michele Lutz

Profiles Rajath Chaundry, an aspiring entrepreneur, as he attempts to secure office space for his growing team, select a lawyer, and continue to build his fledgling enterprise, eLearning.com. Designed to be used in an entrepreneurial management or small business course... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Business or Company Management; Business Ventures; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Intellectual Property; Management Succession; Leasing; Negotiation; Education Industry; Legal Services Industry

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August 2015 (Revised January 2022)
Case

George Washington and the Foundations of American Democracy

By: Tom Nicholas and Matthew G. Preble

George Washington is perhaps the most well-known of the U.S.'s founding fathers because of his political and military achievements. However, Washington also operated a number of successful business ventures out of his Mount Vernon estate, and he became a landowner on... View Details