Publications

June 2017
Case

Veolia: Resourcing the World

By: Gautam Ahuja, Tarun Khanna, Kristina Maslauskaite and Vincent Dessain

In March 2016, Antoine Frérot, CEO of Veolia, a global environmental services provider, was undergoing an important transformation of the company. In 2013, Frérot presented a growth strategy that focused on increasing the share of industrial clients, enhancing growth... View Details

Keywords: Strategy; Circular; Emerging Markets; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Growth and Development Strategy; Economy

28 Apr 2009
First Look

First Look: April 28, 2009

property. Despite its increasingly important role in the global marketplace, IP remained a notoriously illiquid asset-difficult to value, harder to trade, and often underutilized by owners. CEO Jim Malackowski and his colleagues hoped to... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

January – February 2011
Article

Creating Shared Value

By: Michael E. Porter and Mark R. Kramer

The capitalist system is under siege. In recent years business has been criticized as a major cause of social, environmental, and economic problems. Companies are widely thought to be prospering at the expense of their communities. Trust in business has fallen to new... View Details

Keywords: Customer Value and Value Chain; Economic Growth; Economic Systems; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Environmental Sustainability; Trust; Human Needs; Welfare; Competitive Advantage; Value Creation

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10 Apr 2019
HBS Case

How Entrepreneurs Can Turn Lead Into Gold

a young boy he met begging for money during a trip to Peru. “That experience authentically changed how he and his wife viewed the world,” Wu says. He launched the business with a dual goal of creating excellent outdoor equipment and helping to relieve View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Financial Services

03 May 2010
Research & Ideas

What Is the Future of MBA Education?

emphasized analytics, models, and statistics. Yet MBA graduates increasingly need to be more effective: they need to have a global mindset, for example, develop leadership skills of self-awareness and self-reflection; and develop an... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Education

06 Nov 2017
Research Event

Who is Responsible for the Future of Cities?

Worldwide Week global engagement initiative, the panel featured experts from the design, planning, technology, transportation, and business communities. "The question is not so much whether cities can survive, but whether their... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

February 2008 (Revised May 2011)
Case

The Travails of Rubber: Goodyear or Badyear?

By: Tom Nicholas and Andrew Ferguson

Explores the reason why Charles Goodyear, inventor of rubber vulcanization, was unable to profit from his discovery despite securing international property rights over his invention through a patent in 1844. Considers the utility of patents as an incentive for... View Details

Keywords: Crime and Corruption; Entrepreneurship; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Innovation and Invention; Patents; Motivation and Incentives; Commercialization

21 Feb 2012
First Look

First Look: Feb. 21

principles that encourage innovating for sustainability throughout the company? A further challenge facing the company is that it was rapidly globalizing with a large portion of its workforce outside its... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

30 May 2005
Research & Ideas

Germany’s Pioneering Corporate Managers

When you think about which countries have produced the greatest management innovations, the United States and Japan are likely to top your list. But it was Germany in the late 1800s and early 1900s that was a cauldron of innovative and... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

22 May 2012
First Look

First Look: May 22

firms-triggered a global initiative that eventually spanned more than 900 BCG teams in 30 countries across five continents. These teams confronted their nonstop workweeks and changed the way they worked, becoming more efficient and... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

2008
Book

On Competition

By: M. E. Porter

Competition is one of society's most powerful forces for making things better in many ﬁelds of human endeavor. The study of competition and the creation of value, in their full richness, have preoccupied me for several decades. Competition is pervasive, whether it... View Details

Keywords: Leadership; Practice; Competitive Strategy; Theory; Value Creation

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June 1999 (Revised June 2000)
Case

Robert Mondavi: Competitive Strategy

By: Michael E. Porter and Gregory C Bond

Describes the competitive situation facing Robert Mondavi, the leading premium California winery. Mondavi has been an industry innovator and has recently taken steps to become more international. Mondavi has to cope with growing domestic competition as well as market... View Details

Keywords: Global Strategy; Technological Innovation; Business or Company Management; Growth and Development Strategy; Growth Management; Industry Structures; Strategy; Competitive Strategy; Competitive Advantage; Food and Beverage Industry; California; Australia; Chile

14 Apr 2021
Research & Ideas

The High Cost of the Slow COVID Vaccine Rollout

to produce the vaccine that works.” Even as vaccine efforts gain momentum around the world, hundreds continue to die each day. The pandemic, which shrank the global economy by 4 percent in 2020, has also pushed more than 119 million... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Health

September 2024 (Revised March 2025)
Case

Burn the Gondolas? Venice, the Ghetto, and the Seasons of Capitalism

By: Sophus A. Reinert, Charlotte Robertson and Robert Fredona

This case uses the history of Venice—from the driving of the first pylons in the lagoon to the abdication of the city’s last doge, across the ages of Marco Polo and Vivaldi—to explore the invention and global diffusion of capitalism, as well as the cyclical rise and... View Details

Keywords: Transformation; History; Power and Influence; Prejudice and Bias; Economic Systems; Italy

May–June 2025
Article

Sustainability as a Business-Model Transformation

By: Ivanka Visnjic, Felipe Monteiro and Michael L. Tushman

Many global companies have made public commitments to sustainability targets. Fulfilling these commitments will require firms to transform their business models and organizational architectures. A few pioneers are leading the way, demonstrating that companies can make... View Details

Keywords: Environmental Sustainability; Business Model

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July–August 2015
Article

Engineering Reverse Innovations: Principles for Creating Successful Products for Emerging Markets

By: Amos Winter and Vijay Govindarajan

Multinationals are starting to catch on to the logic of reverse innovation, in which products are designed first for consumers in low-income countries and then adapted into disruptive offerings for developed economies. But only a handful of companies have managed to do... View Details

Keywords: Innovation Strategy; Emerging Markets