Publications

July 2005 (Revised September 2016)
Case

24 Hour Fitness (A): The Rise, 1983–2004

By: John R. Wells, Elizabeth A. Raabe and Gabriel Ellsworth

In October 2004, Mark S. Mastrov, CEO of 24 Hour Fitness, reflected on how far his company had come in just over 20 years. From humble beginnings in 1983 in San Leandro, California, 24 Hour Fitness had grown to become the largest privately-owned health-club chain in... View Details

Keywords: 24 Hour Fitness; Mark Mastrov; Health Clubs; Fitness; Gyms; Chain; Weight Loss; Exercise; Personal Training; Retention; Sales Force Compensation; Incentive Systems; Buildings and Facilities; Business Growth and Maturation; Business Model; For-Profit Firms; Customers; Customer Focus and Relationships; Customer Satisfaction; Private Equity; Revenue; Geographic Scope; Multinational Firms and Management; Nutrition; Business History; Employees; Recruitment; Selection and Staffing; Human Capital; Business or Company Management; Goals and Objectives; Growth and Development Strategy; Marketing; Operations; Service Operations; Private Ownership; Problems and Challenges; Sales; Salesforce Management; Sports; Strategy; Business Strategy; Competition; Competitive Advantage; Competitive Strategy; Corporate Strategy; Expansion; Segmentation; Information Technology; Internet; Technology Platform; Web; Web Sites; Capital Structure; Performance; Organizational Structure; Organizational Culture; Health Industry; United States; California; San Francisco

Educators

March–April 2023
Article

You Need Two Leadership Gears: Know When to Take Charge and When to Get Out of the Way

By: Lindy Greer, Francesca Gino and Robert Sutton

The debate about the best way to lead has been raging for years: Should you empower your people and get out of their way, or take charge and push them to do great work? The answer, say the authors, is to do both. Their research shows that effective leaders routinely... View Details

Keywords: Leadership Style; Groups and Teams; Organizational Structure

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Web

Black New Venture Competition and Black Tech Master Series Recap - MBA

Blog Blog MBA Voices Filter Results Arrow Down Arrow Up Read posts from Author Alumni Author Career and Professional Development Staff Author HBS Community Author HBS Faculty Author MBA Admissions Author MBA Students Topics Topics 1st Year (RC) 2+2 Program 2nd Year... View Details

Research Summary

Evolution of firm structure in vertical specialized technology supply chains

By: Willy C. Shih

The global market in many everyday products has been transformed by the internationalization of production. In many industries, semiconductors and electronic products in particular, a sequential mode of production has evolved in which goods are produced... View Details

Keywords: Globalization Of Supply Chain; Globalization; Technological Innovation; Manufacturing Industry; Biotechnology Industry; Auto Industry; United States; Asia; China

2013
Tool

Harvard Business Review's Go to Market Tools: Market Sizing

By: Jill Avery and Thomas Steenburgh

Market size matters. On the hook to launch your division's next great product or service? Need to convince higher ups that your product will fit that gaping revenue hole—and is worth the team's scarce marketing and product development resources? You need hard data to... View Details

Keywords: Quantitative Analysis; Tools; Go To Market Strategy; Marketing Strategy; Marketing

Michael Porter is an economist, researcher, author, advisor, speaker and teacher. Throughout his career at Harvard Business School, he has brought economic theory and strategy concepts to bear on many of the most challenging problems facing corporations, economies... View Details

Keywords: biotechnology; e-commerce industry; health care; information; information technology industry; internet; nonprofit industry; service industry; state government

27 Oct 2011
News

Persistence Is Best Predictor of CEO Success

21 Jul 2011
Working Paper Summaries

Collaborating Across Cultures: Cultural Metacognition and Affect-Based Trust in Creative Collaboration

Keywords: by Roy Y.J. Chua, Michael W. Morris & Shira Mor

Article

Behavioral Hazard in Health Insurance

By: Katherine Baicker, Sendhil Mullainathan and Joshua Schwartzstein

A fundamental implication of standard moral hazard models is overuse of low-value medical care because copays are lower than costs. In these models, the demand curve alone can be used to make welfare statements, a fact relied on by much empirical work. There is ample... View Details

Keywords: Insurance; Consumer Behavior; Health Care and Treatment; Insurance Industry

February 2018
Case

EmQuest: Travel Distribution in the Digital Era

By: Karim R. Lakhani and Gamze Yucaoglu

EmQuest, Emirates Group’s travel distribution company, must decide what to do with its contract with the global distribution system it uses, Sabre. Since its founding in 1988, EmQuest was servicing travel agents in the MENA region by providing a connection to over 400... View Details

Keywords: UAE; Decision; Business Model; Competitive Strategy; Growth and Development Strategy; Decision Choices and Conditions; Business Strategy; Value Creation; Change Management; Emerging Markets; For-Profit Firms; Competitive Advantage; Travel Industry; United Arab Emirates

Educators

2011
Book

The Innovator's DNA: Mastering the Five Skills of Disruptive Innovators

By: Jeffrey H. Dyer, Hal B. Gregersen and Clayton M. Christensen

Some people are just natural innovators, right? With no apparent effort, they discover ideas for new products, services, and entire businesses. It may look like innovators are born, not made. But according to Jeffrey Dyer, Hal Gregersen, and Clay Christensen anyone can... View Details

Keywords: Competency and Skills; Disruptive Innovation; Competitive Advantage

06 Feb 2018
News

What Pepsi Can Learn From Its 'Lady Doritos' Debacle

John Beshears

John Beshears is the Albert J. Weatherhead Jr. Professor of Business Administration in the Negotiation, Organizations & Markets Unit, teaching the second-year MBA course "Negotiation." He is also a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research.... View Details

December 2017 (Revised July 2020)
Case

Opportunity Growth at Grupo Torre Médica

By: Juan Alcácer, J. Ramon Lecuona-Torras and Katherine Grozier

Senior management must make a decision for how to grow their search fund to reach the final margins for investors. View Details

Keywords: Investment Funds; Growth Management; Decision Making; Strategy; Mexico; Latin America

Educators

2023
Working Paper

Cognitive Uncertainty in Intertemporal Choice

By: Benjamin Enke and Thomas Graeber

This paper studies the relevance of cognitive uncertainty – subjective uncertainty over one's utility-maximizing action – for understanding and predicting intertemporal choice. The main idea is that when people are cognitively noisy, such as when a decision is complex,... View Details

Keywords: Cognitive Uncertainty; Intertemporal Choice; Cognition and Thinking; Complexity; Decision Choices and Conditions