Publications

Find at Harvard

November 2006 (Revised March 2012)
Case

Clocky: The Runaway Alarm Clock

By: Elie Ofek and Eliot Sherman

Gauri Nanda is the creator of an innovative new product: an alarm clock named Clocky that, in addition to ringing, rolls around the room in order to force its owner to get out of bed. Beset by media attention and consumer interest but still at least a year away from... View Details

Keywords: Management; Product Positioning; Partners and Partnerships; Production; Marketing Strategy; Media; Entrepreneurship; Independent Innovation and Invention; Product Launch

June 2025
Case

Konko AI: Automating Work with AI Agents

By: Shikhar Ghosh, Shweta Bagai and Liang Wu

In January 2025, Jean Marc Goguikian and Michael Haddad, co-founders of Konko AI, faced a critical strategic decision. After the company’s developer platform for private large language models (LLMs) struggled to gain traction, they had pivoted to building AI sales... View Details

Keywords: AI and Machine Learning; Customer Relationship Management; Growth and Development Strategy; Product Positioning; Product Development; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Business Strategy; Customization and Personalization; Technology Industry; Latin America

July 1996
Case

Bayside Controls, Inc.

By: H. Kent Bowen, Jennifer Kochman and Sylvie Ryckebusch

Two recent MBA graduates acquire a small and ailing metal-machining company that had manufactured small aerospace components. Through clever application of state-of-the-art manufacturing, engineering, and marketing/sales concepts, they turned the company into a growing... View Details

Keywords: Business Earnings; Leveraged Buyouts; Machinery and Machining; Leading Change; Growth and Development Strategy; Marketing Strategy; Production; Personal Development and Career; Sales; Aerospace Industry

April 1981 (Revised January 1997)
Case

Corning Glass Works: The Z-Glass Project

By: Kim B. Clark

Considers decisions facing the leader of a manufacturing staff project team assigned to a plant where yields have deteriorated sharply. The process is complex: the plant organization is not cooperative and there are deep disagreements about what is wrong and how to fix... View Details

Keywords: Decisions; Production; Problems and Challenges; Conflict Management; Performance Productivity; Factories, Labs, and Plants; Groups and Teams; Consumer Products Industry; Manufacturing Industry; United States

April 2025
Supplement

ZEISS: Commercializing Science

By: Maria P. Roche and Richie Zitomer

Spreadsheet Supplement for HBS Case No. 725-359. View Details

04 Aug 2009
First Look

First Look: August 4

there is no significant relationship between service quality and profitability. My findings highlight the importance of attending to process discipline in certain service settings. They also show that too much corporate emphasis on payroll View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

May 2008 (Revised September 2014)
Teaching Note

TD Canada Trust (A), (B), and (C)

By: Dennis Campbell

Keywords: Performance Evaluation; Banks and Banking; Mergers and Acquisitions; Customer Focus and Relationships; Profit; Balanced Scorecard; Service Delivery; Announcements; Compensation and Benefits; Canada

18 Apr 2012
Research & Ideas

HBS Cases: Who Controls Water?

must grow crops even as the available water supply to his operation is curtailed by drought conditions, court decisions, and quotas imposed by government agencies. The case examines how water, a basic building block of agriculture, is... View Details

Keywords: by Maggie Starvish; Agriculture & Agribusiness

14 Jun 2011
First Look

First Look: June 14

managers publicly acknowledge the need to explore new businesses and markets, the claims of established businesses on company resources almost always come first, especially when times are hard. When top teams allow the tension between... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

12 Aug 2002
Op-Ed

Using Big Business to Fight Poverty

based in Asia, Europe, and North America. Assisted by rich governments and by loans from development banks, the WDC would bring to impoverished areas technology, credit, access to world markets, and management know-how. Its projects would... View Details

Keywords: by George C. Lodge

12 Sep 2005
Research & Ideas

The Broadband Explosion: Thinking About a Truly Interactive World

deployment. People in other countries definitely get more bandwidth for less money. Some countries, such as South Korea, appear to be far ahead. Whether or not this will have major business consequences remains to be seen. Q: What sort of insights do you hope View Details

Keywords: by Sara Grant; Technology; Communications; Telecommunications

01 Nov 2012
Research & Ideas

Book Excerpt: Judgment Calls

his earlier ventures, he had de facto operated as a solo entrepreneur, so any kind of collaborative decision making was not even an option. In the early days of Tweezerman, things started out the same. But with the evolving success of the... View Details

Keywords: by Thomas H. Davenport & Brook Manville; Consumer Products

June 2023
Supplement

Graphic Packaging: Project Cowboy (D)

By: Benjamin C. Esty, Scott Mayfield and Philipp Chvanov

Analyzes the company's decision on Project Cowboy following the events described in the C Case View Details

Keywords: Capital Budgeting; Growth Management; Demand and Consumers; Duopoly and Oligopoly; Competitive Strategy; Competitive Advantage; Expansion; Value Creation; Supply and Industry; Pulp and Paper Industry; Manufacturing Industry; United States; North America

June 2010
Teaching Note

Sheikh Mohammed and the Making of "Dubai, Inc." (TN)

By: Anthony Mayo and Johnathan Cromwell

Teaching Note for 410063. View Details

Keywords: Balance and Stability; Growth and Development; Identity; Government and Politics; Infrastructure; Financial Crisis; Labor; Economic Systems; Culture; Managerial Roles; Local Range; Dubai

January 2004
Background Note

Why Developers Don't Understand Why Consumers Don't Buy

By: John T. Gourville

Looks at the psychological biases developers bring to the new product development process. Identifies three reasons why developers may do a poor job of identifying the demand for an innovative, new concept or product: (1) the self-selection bias, (2) differing initial... View Details

Keywords: Customer Focus and Relationships; Innovation and Invention; Knowledge Management; Product Marketing; Consumer Behavior; Product Development; Perspective; Prejudice and Bias

06 May 2013
Research & Ideas

How Local Events Shake Up Corporate Philanthropy

thought was that globalization was making the world so similar that [location] didn't matter," says Christopher Marquis, an associate professor at Harvard Business School, who coauthored the paper with András Tilcsik (HBS PhDOB '12), an assistant professor of... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

06 Sep 2016
First Look

September 6, 2016

September 2016 Harvard Business Review How to Tackle Your Toughest Decisions By: Badaracco, Joseph L. Abstract—The toughest calls managers have to make come in situations when they have worked hard to gather the facts and have done the... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

July 2018
Case

Financing Anghami's Growth

By: Ramana Nanda and Eren Kuzucu

In December 2012, less than two years into the founding of their music-streaming platform Anghami, cofounders Elie Habib and Eddy Maroun found themselves evaluating an unorthodox term sheet. Habib and Maroun needed to make a decision vis-à-vis the proposal put forth by... View Details