Publications

January 2020 (Revised March 2020)
Case

LOLA: Do You Know What's in Your Tampon?

By: Leonard A. Schlesinger and Aldo Sesia

LOLA is a direct-to-consumer (DTC) business launched in 2015. What started as a company to provide women with organic and transparent material-labeled tampons via a subscription model, had, by 2019 evolved to include additional menstrual and sexual wellness products.... View Details

Keywords: Direct-to-consumer; Channels; Disruption; Business Model; Brands and Branding; Internet and the Web; Strategy; Retail Industry; United States; Canada

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; Technology Industry; Technology Industry; Saudi Arabia; Arabian Peninsula

10 Jan 2011
Research & Ideas

Is Groupon Good for Retailers?

full price? A: We've seen two main effects. First, some discount voucher services send users to merchants en masse. The day after a Groupon is released, hundreds of buyers tend to swamp a small business unprepared for the rush. That barrage of customers can View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Technology; Technology

11 Apr 2000
Research & Ideas

Financial Services 24/7

housed its two data centers twenty miles apart—in different power grids—outside Phoenix. "A software failure could easily put the whole enterprise at risk," explains McFarlan. Disruptive Technologies One... View Details

Keywords: by Susan Young

29 May 2018
First Look

New Research and Ideas, May 29, 2018

link: https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=53918 forthcoming Journal of Management Studies Disruptive Innovation: An Intellectual History and Directions for Future Research By: Christensen, Clayton M., Rory McDonald, Elizabeth... View Details

Keywords: Dina Gerdeman

December 2019 (Revised July 2020)
Case

Ray White

By: Boris Groysberg and Tricia Gregg

Ray White is an Australian real estate business that has been owned and operated by the White family for four generations. The business has expanded and prospered. However, as the industry faces new challenges and opportunities, how should the White family respond?... View Details

Keywords: Crisis; COVID-19; Pandemic; Family Business; Entrepreneurship; Leadership; Disruption; Information Technology; Health Pandemics; Crisis Management; Real Estate Industry; Australia

29 Dec 2019
Research & Ideas

Read Our Most Popular Research Stories of 2019

plans for future workforce makeup and training, and its search for opportunities from digital infrastructure and automation. What’s Really Disrupting Business? It’s Not Technology View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

21 Apr 2020
Research & Ideas

7 Successful Battle Strategies to Beat COVID-19

Decision-Making What Are Lessons for Leaders from This Black Swan Crisis? 6 Ways That Emerging Technology Is Disrupting Business Strategy What do great leaders do differently? Share your insights below. View Details

Keywords: by Euvin Naidoo

05 Aug 2010
What Do You Think?

What Is Customer Opinion Good For?

determining how and when to weight the importance of customer inputs? Jonathan Hinkle believes it does. As he put it, " the question may really be, 'Will this product be marketed as a disruptive product or fit with customers' paradigms?'... View Details

Keywords: by Jim Heskett; Technology

December 2019 (Revised January 2020)
Case

Boll & Branch

By: Leonard A. Schlesinger and Mel Martin

Boll & Branch is a direct-to-consumer (DTC) business launched in 2015. It was the first Fair-Trade Certified manufacturer of linens. The case provides background on the company, its start, business model, and evolution through 2019. View Details

Keywords: Direct-to-consumer; Channels; Disruption; Business Model; Brands and Branding; Internet and the Web; Strategy; Retail Industry; United States; Canada

October 2006 (Revised October 2007)
Case

Google Advertising

By: Youngme E. Moon and David Chen

In mid-2006, Google is the number one search engine in America with 99% of its revenues deriving from its simple, text-only advertising services. It is on track to bring in roughly $9.5 billion in advertising revenue in 2006, which would place it fourth among American... View Details

Keywords: Digital Marketing; Disruptive Innovation; Media; Expansion; Internet and the Web; Advertising Industry; United States

November 2003 (Revised August 2005)
Case

Reinventing the Automobile: General Motors' AUTOnomy Project

By: Alan D. MacCormack and Kerry Herman

Describes the history of General Motor's attempts to develop a hydrogen fuel-cell powered car. As of 2003, GM developed several prototypes of such a vehicle to demonstrate the viability of the overall concept. Many uncertainties remained, however, with respect to the... View Details

Keywords: Problems and Challenges; Management; Information Technology; Transition; Competency and Skills; Disruptive Innovation; Machinery and Machining; Auto Industry

10 Jun 2002
Research & Ideas

Disruption: The Art of Framing

the new technology could lower tester costs dramatically and thus had the potential to disrupt Teradyne's core business. But CMOS technology could not initially operate at the... View Details

Keywords: by Clark Gilbert & Joseph L. Bower

October 2006 (Revised February 2007)
Background Note

How Media Choices are Changing Online Advertising

By: Stephen P. Bradley and Nancy Bartlett

What is the response by advertisers as media consumption moves to the digital medium? Provides an overview of online advertising in mid-2006 and discusses the impact of an increasingly fractured media landscape and its accompanying expanding advertising options. View Details

Keywords: Digital Marketing; News; Media; Emerging Markets; Internet and the Web; Perspective; Disruption; Journalism and News Industry

May 2019 (Revised July 2019)
Case

Walmart's Workforce of the Future

By: William R. Kerr and Jordan Bach-Lombardo

Faced with intense competition from Amazon, Walmart began a transformation of its operations and workforce in 2015. The goal was to create an omnichannel retail experience for customers that seamlessly joined online and offline shopping. This case explores Walmart's... View Details

Keywords: Walmart; Managing The Future Of Work; Workforce; Automation; Ecommerce; Omnichannel Retail; Operations; Transformation; Employees; Training; Information Technology; Infrastructure; Disruption; Competitive Strategy; E-commerce; Information Infrastructure; Retail Industry

12 Jul 2020
Research & Ideas

Solving COVID'S Mental Health Crisis

Prevention programs disrupted "The pandemic threatens to dismantle all the gains made in the US in the recent six-year fight against opioids and heroin,” says Jim Langford (HBS MBA 1984), Executive Director of the Georgia Prevention... View Details

Keywords: by Howard Stevenson and Shirley Spence; Health

January 2010 (Revised October 2010)
Background Note

News in the Digital World: Who Pays?

By: Stephen P. Bradley and Nancy Bartlett

Models to monetizing news in the digital landscape, which is real-time, searchable, sharable, multi-sourced, anytime, and any screen, were emerging in 2010. Could content creators get people to pay for what they watched, read, listened to, and shared online? Were news... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Newspapers; Disruptive Innovation; Technological Innovation; Online Technology; Journalism and News Industry; Publishing Industry