Publications

March 2022
Case

Abu Issa Holding: Navigating the Qatar Blockade

By: Mark Egan and Youssef Abdel Aal

The case follows Ashraf Abu Issa, CEO and chairman of Abu Issa Holding (AIH), as he contemplated the fate of his company’s regional expansion. AIH was a Qatari diversified holding company, whose primary business was luxury retailing and distribution. Abu Issa had set... View Details

Keywords: Luxury Retail; Expansion; Equity; Business Divisions; Growth and Development; Market Entry and Exit; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Consumer Products Industry; Saudi Arabia; United Arab Emirates

01 Oct 2001
News

HBS Press Books in Brief

The War for Talent, by Ed Michaels, Helen Handfield-Jones, and Beth Axelrod, presents a strategic view of what managers must do to hire and keep the best employees. Drawing on five years of research,... View Details

Keywords: Publishing Industries (except Internet); Information; Management; Finance

February 2024 (Revised July 2024)
Case

Taffi: Entrepreneurship in Saudi Arabia

By: Paul A. Gompers and Fares Khrais

Taffi was a tech-enabled fashion styling startup founded by Shahad Geoffrey in Saudi Arabia in 2020. Within three years of operating, Geoffrey had pivoted the business multiple times. In 2023, Geoffrey was attempting the business’s most ambitious pivot yet, shifting... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Disruption; Entrepreneurship; Venture Capital; Investment; Growth and Development Strategy; Business Strategy; AI and Machine Learning; Fashion Industry; Technology Industry; Saudi Arabia; Arabian Peninsula

May 1992 (Revised August 1996)
Supplement

NIKE in Transition (C): A Second COO

By: Christopher A. Bartlett

After two years of stunning financial results, Knight again appoints a new COO, Dick Donahue. Are Knight and Nike ready for a new COO? How does Donahue differ from Woodell? Will his personality, style, and agenda fit with the new Nike Knight has created? Also describes... View Details

Keywords: Policy; Growth and Development; Leadership Style; Management Succession; Managerial Roles; Organizational Structure; Strategy; Apparel and Accessories Industry

23 Nov 1999
Research & Ideas

The Future of the Venture Capital Cycle

implies that the side effects associated with periods of rapid growth generate sufficient difficulties that periods of retrenchment are sure to follow. Neoclassical economics teaches us to examine not just the short-run supply View Details

Keywords: by Paul A. Gompers & Josh Lerner; Financial Services

December 2016
Case

Public Mission, Private Funding: The University of California, Berkeley

By: William C. Kirby and Joycelyn W. Eby

UC Berkley, long known as one of the leading public universities in both the U.S. and the world, has seen turbulent times recently. While student enrollment and costs have increased steadily in recent years, the school, which has been fiercely proud of its public... View Details

June 2013 (Revised March 2014)
Case

Inditex: 2000

By: John R. Wells and Galen Danskin

In 2000, Inditex was one of the largest specialty apparel retailers in the world, with $2.4 billion in sales from 1,080 stores across 33 countries. Zara, Inditex's main brand, produced popular designer items at a fraction of design-house prices and could push an item... View Details

Keywords: Fashion; Fashion Industry; Succession; IPO; Competition; Initial Public Offering; Multinational Firms and Management; Management Succession; Growth and Development Strategy; Apparel and Accessories Industry; Apparel and Accessories Industry

August 2021 (Revised February 2022)
Case

Lexoo: Building a Long-Lasting Platform (Abridged)

By: Chiara Farronato and Elena Corsi

Lexoo, a UK-based online marketplace for legal services, was facing the strategic choice of how to grow from early start-up to mature platform. Daniel van Binsbergen, Lexoo's CEO, and web developer Chris O'Sullivan, CTO, had set up Lexoo to help Small and Medium-Sized... View Details

Keywords: Legal Services; Marketplaces; Pivot; Growth and Development Strategy; Digital Platforms; Small Business; Service Operations; Decision Making; Legal Services Industry

08 Apr 2015
What Do You Think?

Are Technology Companies Ripe for Disruption?

competitors locked into a product development strategy calling for growth through product obsolescence and more and more largely unused but... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett; Computer; Technology

14 Apr 2015
First Look

First Look: April 14

theoretical understanding of brand relationship phenomena and ideas for practical application from experiments and execution in commercial practice. Strong Brands, Strong... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

June 2011 (Revised September 2011)
Case

Two Key Decisions for China's Sovereign Fund

By: Robert C. Pozen and Xiaoyu Gu

The China Investment Corporation (CIC) was China's sovereign wealth fund (SWF), established with $200 billion of registered capital in September 2007 to diversify China's foreign exchange holdings and increase risk-adjusted returns on those assets. CIC was unusual in... View Details

Keywords: Business Subsidiaries; Business Growth and Maturation; Decisions; Capital; Investment Banking; Investment Funds; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Ownership; Business and Shareholder Relations; Risk and Uncertainty; Wealth; Expansion; Financial Services Industry; China; United States

17 Nov 2015
First Look

November 17, 2015

Societal and Political Dimensions of Innovation Innovation and Business Growth By: Kerr, William R. Abstract—Innovation and the pursuit of new... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

April 2017
Supplement

Imprimis (D)

By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell, Karen Elterman and Marc Appel

This case is a supplement to Imprimis (A, B, & C). It describes Imprimis’s 2015 decision to develop a $1 per pill compounded alternative to Daraprim, the branded drug that had recently undergone an extreme price hike, raising its price to $750 per pill. Imprimis also... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Growth and Development Strategy; Pharmaceutical Industry; United States

May 1989 (Revised April 1998)
Case

Dynatronics, Inc.

By: William E. Fruhan Jr.

The student must determine the financing requirements posed by growth, change of inventory policy, and introduction of new product and then select the best method of financing them. Has been used as a four-hour exam. A revised and updated version of an earlier case by... View Details

Keywords: Financial Strategy; Financing and Loans; Growth and Development; Product Launch

April 2001 (Revised November 2001)
Case

AvantGo

By: Alan D. MacCormack and Kerry Herman

Richard Owen, CEO of AvantGo, is preparing for a meeting in which he will set the human resource policy for the firm going forward. It has been three months since the company's IPO, and given the tremendous cramp in hiring over the six months prior to the IPO, he knows... View Details

Keywords: Initial Public Offering; Management Teams; Selection and Staffing; Retention; Growth and Development Strategy; Performance Evaluation; Information Technology; Decisions; Information Technology Industry; Service Industry; United States

Find at Harvard

01 Mar 2012
News

Alumni Book Briefs

structures and systems as well as reconciling the varying speeds at which divisions within a company may develop. Merson explores these different aspects of growth and outlines... View Details

Keywords: Publishing Industries (except Internet); Information

Career Coach

Kristin Brennan

currently serves as the Executive Director for Career Exploration and Development at Bowdoin College in Maine, after 20 years of working in social impact in the Boston area. Kristin has a particularly... View Details

Keywords: Social Enterprise

2005
Article

Increasing Exploration: Evidence from International Expansion

By: Juan Alcacer, Heather Berry and Wilbur Chung

While firms balance exploitation and exploration to maximize profits, specifics of how firms pursue this balance are scarce. We focus on how firms increase their exploration after obtaining greater capabilities and experience via sequential international expansion.... View Details

Keywords: Price Bubble; Growth and Development Strategy; Growth Management; Industry Growth; Research and Development; Profit; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Knowledge Use and Leverage; Disruptive Innovation; Five Forces Framework; SWOT Analysis; Duopoly and Oligopoly; Manufacturing Industry; Japan; United States

Find at Harvard

January 2022 (Revised August 2022)
Case

Hello Heart: The Next Generation of Chronic Disease Management Apps

By: Ariel D. Stern and Danielle Golan

Hello Heart, a hypertension management app debated whether to go deep and cover other heart conditions, or to expand its solution to other chronic conditions. View Details