Underdog Brand Building - Publications - Faculty & Research

01 Dec 2022
News

Action Plan: To the Letter

the world that doesn’t want to be earning trust.” Don’t get stale. “Brands need to refresh themselves,” Chacko says. “My sense is that the timeframe is about every five years or when a company is thinking about entering a new market.” The key to View Details

Keywords: April White; design; typography; change management; leadership; Special Design Services; Professional Services

02 Jun 2020
Research & Ideas

Coronavirus Careers: Cloud Kitchens Are Now Serving

has raised both excitement and significant funding, building a successful cloud kitchen has proved easier said than done. In dozens of interviews, we learned that even the most sophisticated data users like Uber Eats have struggled to... View Details

Keywords: by Lena Ye and Geoffrey Jones; Food & Beverage

01 Mar 2024
News

Unlocking the Power of Community

When Tara Fung (MBA 2016) explains Co:Create, the company she cofounded in 2022 and now leads as CEO, she doesn’t mention Web3 first. “We help innovative brands and creators unlock the power of community,” she explains. Co:Create does this with a new, gamified approach... View Details

Keywords: April White

16 May 2000
Research & Ideas

Getting the Message: How the Internet is Changing Advertising

help corporations build relationships between their brands and their customers in the online marketspace. The Price Of Privacy The power of these new technologies and their ability to shadow an individual's... View Details

Keywords: by Susan Young

September 2008 (Revised October 2008)
Case

Marc Abrahams: Annals of an Improbable Entrepreneur

By: Boris Groysberg and Michael Slind

Marc Abrahams was a media entrepreneur who specialized in science humor. In 2008, he sought to boost the scale and monetization potential of his business. That business, called Improbable Research, encompassed a magazine (Annals of Improbable Research), a high-profile... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Selection and Staffing; Human Capital; Growth and Development Strategy; Brands and Branding; Personal Development and Career

Citation

Find at Harvard

05 Jun 2019
Blog Post

Exploring the Beauty Industry through an Independent Project

experiences. Successful influencers are authentic, have a consistent voice and specific point of view, converse with followers directly, and promote products that work. They build relationships with brands... View Details

Web

Business Insights Blog | HBS Online

organizational growth. From fostering collaboration and accountability to building critical skills at scale, this approach offers powerful advantages for teams and businesses. [...] Read more 09 Jul 2025 Make Your Personal View Details

Web

Online Entrepreneurship & Innovation Courses | HBS Online

New Credential of Digital Innovation and Strategy Build the skill set and strategic acumen to compete in the digital world through a combination of forward-looking coursework, unique team activities with a diverse global network, and a... View Details

16 Mar 2020
Research & Ideas

How the Coronavirus Is Already Rewriting the Future of Business

consumer brands that rely on traditional retailing for the bulk of their sales—have already been demonstrably affected. So will industries that revolve around large gatherings, such as many forms of popular entertainment—sports, cinema,... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

03 Mar 2003
Research & Ideas

Top Ten Legal Mistakes Made by Entrepreneurs

entrepreneur if the entrepreneur stumbles? Do they have good contacts in the industry? In trying to build alliances, do they know the big players? A no-name firm offering the highest valuation is often not the best source of equity. #5:... View Details

Keywords: by Staff

30 Sep 2014
First Look

First Look: September 30

Publications September 2014 Social Entrepreneurship and Research Methods Building an Infrastructure for Empirical Research on Social Enterprise: Challenges and Opportunities By: Lee, Matthew, Julie Battilana, and Ting Wang... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

01 Dec 2023
News

Case Study: Staking a Claim

Illustration by Nhung Lê Kate Terry (MBA 2005) knows that no one attends their fifth-grade career fair and comes home hoping to pursue a career in insurance—but that’s exactly where she wound up. “I really fell in love with it,” she says. As cofounder and CEO of... View Details

Keywords: Jen McFarland Flint; Insurance Carriers and Related Activities; Finance

17 Aug 2009
Research & Ideas

Quantifying the Economic Impact of the Internet

brand or product Website (61 percent); paid bills (56 percent); watched a video clip (51 percent); used a price comparison site (50 percent); listened to an audio clip (44 percent ). “Social networks and the easy connections they... View Details

Keywords: by John Quelch; Advertising; Publishing

31 Mar 2011
Research & Ideas

From SpinPop to SpinBrush: Entrepreneurial Lessons from John Osher

years to finish college. “We want to play offense, we want to innovate, pilot, template it, build for scale, and go." —Mark Norman, Zipcar The meandering and seemingly random path that Osher took in his career and the lessons it... View Details

Keywords: by Dennis Fisher; Consumer Products

01 Sep 2023
News

Global Outposts Expand HBS’s Intellectual Footprint

Pacific Last fall, the center and the HBS Club of Shanghai hosted the 15th Annual HBS Entrepreneurship Forum. Titled “Convergency in New Dynamics,” it included both an online webinar and an in-person fireside chat that explored branding... View Details

Keywords: Jennifer Gillespie

18 Jan 2022
Research & Ideas

How Eliminating Non-Competes Could Reshape Tech

curtailing the use of such agreements. Andy Wu, an assistant professor in the Strategy Unit at Harvard Business School, is an entrepreneur and startup advisor who now researches how technology firms organize and mobilize resources to grow and View Details

Keywords: by Kristen Senz; Technology

12 Mar 2021
News

My Favorite Case

four to one. When another premium brand lowers its wholesale price in an attempt to stimulate sales, Heublein’s president decides to increase the price of Smirnoff and put the additional revenue into advertising. This case taught me that... View Details

Keywords: Business Schools & Computer & Management Training; Educational Services

28 Jan 2008
Research & Ideas

Billions of Entrepreneurs in China and India

that they can leverage both countries symbiotically. Second, conduct a series of experiments. An entrepreneur has to make many decisions: how much money to sink in, whether to partner, how to work with relevant government or regulatory entities, whether to invest in... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

15 Mar 2011
First Look

First Look: March 15

system of expense allocation, and anti-inversion legislation—reflect the intuition that building "strong fences" around the United States advances American interests. This paper examines the interaction of a strong fences policy... View Details