Publications

September 2006 (Revised January 2008)
Case

Providian Financial Corporation

By: John R. Wells

On October 3, 2005, Washington Mutual acquired Providian Financial Corporation, the ninth-largest credit card issuer in the U.S., for $6.5 billion. At the time, Providian had approximately 10 million customer relationships and a balance of $18.6 billion. For some... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Restructuring; Customer Relationship Management; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Credit Cards; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Financial Services Industry; United States

22 Jul 2014
First Look

First Look: July 22

investors with longer-term horizons and incentives that are more consistent with the long-term strategy of the company. The managers of most companies take their investor base as a "given" that cannot be View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

01 Sep 2013
News

Pens Down

Illustration by Dan Page In May, on the eve of the HBS application season, MBA Admissions director Dee Leopold (MBA 1980) announced a change for Class of 2016 hopefuls. There would be only one essay question: In addition to your résumé,... View Details

Keywords: Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools; Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools

14 Dec 2010
First Look

First Look: Dec. 14

has recently opened an office in Hong Kong. Global Director of Research Robert van Brugge must consider how best to organize the firm's research department to enhance cross-sector and cross-geography... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

February 2021 (Revised March 2022)
Case

TikTok in 2020: Super App or Supernova?

By: Jeffrey F. Rayport, Dan Maher and Dan O'Brien

TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, was launched in 2012 around a simple idea – helping users entertain themselves on their smartphones while on the Beijing Subway. In less than a decade, it had become one of the world’s most valuable private companies, with investors... View Details

November 1998 (Revised June 2000)
Case

Jeanne Lewis at Staples, Inc. (B)

By: Linda A. Hill and Kristin Doughty

Supplements the (A) case. View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Management Style; Change Management; Marketing Strategy; Management Succession; Competitive Advantage; Problems and Challenges; Management Teams; Retail Industry; United States

30 Jan 2007
First Look

First Look: January 30, 2007

they can adapt and adopt institutional practices already legitimized by counterpart industries in other parts of the world. The paper builds on existing community ecology and... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

03 Feb 2016
Research & Ideas

The State of Customer Service Leadership

Good and bad service experiences die hard. Who can forget the hotel receptionist who went above and beyond the call of duty to accommodate a last-minute change in travel plans... View Details

Keywords: by Jim Aisner; Retail

26 Jan 2004
Research & Ideas

What Developing-World Companies Teach Us About Innovation

help community organizers establish similar financing pools in which, instead of cash, the winners received building materials, including cement. In addition, CEMEX provided construction advice and... View Details

Keywords: by Donald N. Sull, Alejandro Ruelas-Gossi & Martin Escobari

29 Jul 2008
First Look

First Look: July 29, 2008

2007, Google responded by organizing the OpenSocial Initiative. OpenSocial provided an application programming interface (API) that was adapted by many of Facebook's social networking rivals, including... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

07 Jul 2015
First Look

First Look: July 7, 2015

Successful Products for Emerging Markets By: Winter, Amos, and Vijay Govindarajan Abstract—Multinationals are starting to catch on to the logic of reverse innovation, in which products are designed first for consumers in low-income... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

Profile

Fola Folowosele

inflexion points that tend to define a career. In the next couple of decades business models will have to evolve even more quickly than in the past and I believe that my ability to embrace and View Details

Keywords: Consulting; Consumer Products

January 1998
Case

Sideco Americana S.A. (C)

By: Lynn S. Paine and Harold F. Hogan Jr

Supplements the (A) case. View Details

Keywords: Change; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Moral Sensibility; Values and Beliefs; Ethics; Culture; Argentina

Find at Harvard

February 2003
Case

Whitbread Hotel Company (B)

By: Michael Beer and James Weber

Supplements the (A) case. View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Structure; Integration; Business or Company Management; Strategy

Find at Harvard

Web

Transforming Education through Social Entrepreneurship - Course Catalog

a wide range of topics across K-12 and higher education. Topics include education reform efforts, adaptive and personalized learning approaches, disruptive innovations such as... View Details

12 Dec 2022
Research & Ideas

Buy-In from Black Patients Suffers When Drug Trials Don’t Include Them

While cancer drugs are typically tested out of major academic medical centers, HIV/AIDS clinical trials are often based at “safety-net” hospitals that serve low-income and minority populations. In addition, there is significantly more... View Details

Keywords: by Scott Van Voorhis; Pharmaceutical; Health

15 Jun 2010
First Look

First Look: June 15

wants to adjust the company's business, headcount, and cost levels to adapt to changing economic conditions after one of the worst economic downturns in decades. His all-male... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

June 2014
Supplement

eBay Partner Network — slide supplement (widescreen)

By: Benjamin Edelman

eBay considers adjustments to the structure and rules of its affiliate marketing program, eBay Partner Network (ePN). In particular, eBay reevaluates affiliate compensation structure, the role of bonuses for especially productive affiliates, and the overall rationale... View Details

Keywords: History; Online Technology; Markets; Negotiation Participants; Marketing; Job Cuts and Outsourcing; Internet and the Web; Marketing Channels; Business Processes; Change; Compensation and Benefits; Web Services Industry