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January 2008
Article

The Five Competitive Forces That Shape Strategy

By: Michael E. Porter

This article includes a one-page preview that quickly summarizes the key ideas and provides an overview of how the concepts work in practice along with suggestions for further reading. In 1979, a young associate professor at Harvard Business School published his first... View Details

Keywords: Profit; Five Forces Framework; Industry Growth; Industry Structures; Business and Government Relations; Competitive Strategy

Find at Harvard

June 2018 (Revised January 2020)
Case

Sony

By: Stefan Thomke, Atsushi Osanai and Akiko Kanno

Sony used to be synonymous with "innovation" and "cool products." The case reveals how the company lost its edge and describes the leadership initiatives to restore its former glory. In 2012, Kazuo (Kaz) Hirai becomes CEO and successfully transforms Sony, including a... View Details

Keywords: Customer Experience; Product Differentiation; Transformation; Leadership Style; Technology Adoption; Leading Change; Electronics Industry; Media and Broadcasting Industry; Video Game Industry; Japan

July 2021
Case

Y Combinator

By: John R. Wells

Y Combinator (YC) was a business startup accelerator based in Mountain View, California. Originally founded in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 2005, by 2021, YC listed 2,830 companies amongst its alumni. More than 80% of these companies were still active, had been... View Details

Keywords: Venture Capital; Growth and Development; Business Startups; Decisions; Strategy

29 Sep 2011
Sharpening Your Skills

Sharpening Your Skills: Leveraging Intellectual Property

Hollywood's efforts, but local Bollywood companies as well. Hollywood's efforts in India are far from a lost cause: all these problems can be addressed if a studio understands India and develops a coherent strategy. Is My Ip Threatened By... View Details

Keywords: Re: Multiple Faculty

January 2021 (Revised May 2021)
Case

Amazon Shopper Panel: Paying Customers for Their Data

By: Eva Ascarza and Ayelet Israeli

This case introduces a new Amazon program that has consumers upload their receipts from transactions outside of Amazon, in exchange for money. Through the discussion, the case aims to explore issues in customers’ privacy in the digital age, the value of customers’ own... View Details

05 Dec 2023
Research & Ideas

Are Virtual Tours Still Worth It in Real Estate? Evidence from 75,000 Home Sales

tours. When your house is in a Black and Hispanic neighborhood or one with lower average household income, consider including a virtual tour as part of your listing. That’s because virtual tours could mitigate greater uncertainty about property View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne; Real Estate

29 Jun 2021
Cold Call Podcast

Procter & Gamble’s Lean Innovation Transformation

Keywords: Re: Emily Truelove; Consumer Products

November 2019
Supplement

United Technologies Corp.: Are the Parts Worth More Than the Whole?

By: Benjamin C. Esty and Daniel Fisher

After spending more than 50 years creating a diversified industrial conglomerate that Fortune Magazine described as “arguably the most profitable conglomerate in America” in 2014, UTC’s CEO Greg Hayes was under pressure from activist investors (Dan Loeb and Bill... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Strategy; Business Conglomerates; Financial Management; Corporate Governance; Organizational Structure; Diversification; Valuation; Investment Activism; Financial Strategy; Investment Funds; Value Creation; Aerospace Industry; Electronics Industry; Industrial Products Industry; United States

12 Sep 2023
Cold Call Podcast

Can Remote Surgeries Digitally Transform Operating Rooms?

Keywords: Health

November 2019 (Revised April 2021)
Case

United Technologies: Are the Parts Worth More Than the Whole?

By: Benjamin C. Esty and Daniel Fisher

After spending more than 50 years creating a diversified industrial conglomerate that Fortune magazine described as “arguably the most profitable conglomerate in America” in 2014, UTC’s CEO Greg Hayes was under pressure from activist investors (Dan Loeb and Bill... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Strategy; Business Conglomerates; Financial Management; Corporate Governance; Organizational Structure; Investment Funds; Value Creation; Aerospace Industry; Electronics Industry; Industrial Products Industry; United States

November 2012
Technical Note

OpCo / PropCo Valuation

By: Nicolas P. Retsinas, Lisa Strope and John C. Hettinger

This technical note describes the "OpCo/PropCo" process of valuing a real estate intensive business. The term "OpCo/PropCo" refers to a business arrangement in which a consolidated, real estate-intensive enterprise is split into two separate businesses: (1) A property... View Details

Keywords: Real Estate; Property; Valuation; Investment

October 2023 (Revised June 2024)
Case

ReUp Education: Can AI Help Learners Return to College?

By: Kris Ferreira, Christopher Thomas Ryan and Sarah Mehta

Founded in 2015, ReUp Education helps “stopped out students”—learners who have stopped making progress towards graduation—achieve their college completion goals. The company relies on a team of success coaches to engage with learners and help them reenroll. In 2019,... View Details

Keywords: AI; Algorithms; Machine Learning; Edtech; Education Technology; Analysis; Higher Education; AI and Machine Learning; Customization and Personalization; Failure; Education Industry; Technology Industry; United States

September 2002 (Revised January 2003)
Case

Dimensional Fund Advisors, 2002

By: Randolph B. Cohen

Dimensional Fund Advisors (DFA) is an investment management firm that prides itself on basing its investment strategies on sound academic research. Many of the best-known finance research papers of the past two decades (especially those by Eugene Fama and Kenneth... View Details

Keywords: Knowledge Use and Leverage; Research; Success; Investment; Financial Services Industry

01 Nov 2019
Video

Jaithirth Rao

Jerry Rao, serial entrepreneur and founder of the India-based real estate company Value and Budget Housing Corporation, says that his company avoids corrupt payments, especially because it plans an IPO in the... View Details

José Alejandro Cortés

Keywords: Diversified

Julian De Freitas

Julian De Freitas is an Assistant Professor of Business Administration in the Marketing Unit, and Director of the Ethical Intelligence Lab, at Harvard Business School. He earned his PhD in psychology from Harvard, masters from Oxford, and BA from Yale. He teaches... View Details

Keywords: advertising; automotive; consumer products; e-commerce industry; insurance industry; marketing industry; nonprofit industry; software; transportation; video games

July 1990 (Revised October 1992)
Case

Consolidated Equipment Co.

By: Samuel L. Hayes III

A mature company seeks to rejuvenate itself with internal R&D and external acquisitions. It has developed a DCK model for analyzing the value of a proposed acquisition. A rewritten version of an earlier case by J.K. Butters. View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Valuation; Business Growth and Maturation; Research and Development; Acquisition; Capital Budgeting