Publications

23 Mar 2021
Book

Succeeding in the New Work-from-Anywhere World

for nearly two decades. Indeed, studies from around the world consistently show that companies see productivity gains after allowing employees to choose their work locations. Remote work offers many other benefits, too: “Commute times... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

04 Oct 2022
What Do You Think?

Have Managers Underestimated the Need for Face-to-Face Contact?

to a rubber band that snaps back toward a somewhat constant middle ground even after pandemic-level disruptions. Here’s the argument as it applies to remote work or “work from anywhere”: Remote work, already... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

30 Mar 2020
Research & Ideas

Readers Ask: I Need Tips for Working at Home

Shifting to remote work raises many questions for managers and employees, especially when it happens quickly as a result of a crisis. Prithwiraj “Raj” Choudhury, the Lumry Family Associate Professor of Business Administration in the... View Details

Keywords: by Kristen Senz

January 2019 (Revised October 2019)
Case

Rural Taobao: Alibaba's Expansion into Rural E-Commerce

By: Tarun Khanna, Ryan Allen, Adam Frost and Wesley Koo

Alibaba's Rural Taobao initiative had been launched in 2014 as a public service initiative to increase e-commerce adoption in China’s remote rural areas. In the first two iterations of the initiative, dubbed “1.0” and “2.0,” Alibaba had partnered with local businesses... View Details

Keywords: Strategy; Business Growth; Ecommerce; Corporate Social Responsibility; Business And Government; Emerging Market; Digital Platforms; Internet and the Web; Emerging Markets; Rural Scope; Growth and Development Strategy; Competitive Strategy; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Business and Government Relations; Decision Making; E-commerce; China

22 Sep 2020
News

Going Back to Move Forward

December 2024
Case

Enerjisa Üretim: The Digital Era of Electricity Generation

By: Prithwiraj Choudhury and Sadika El Hariri

Launched in 2017, Enerjisa Üretim was one of Türkiye’s largest private sector electricity companies. In its early days, the company faced some financial and operational troubles. When İhsan Erbil Bayçöl, the current CEO of Enerjisa Üretim, joined the business in 2018,... View Details

Keywords: Private Sector; Performance Improvement; Renewable Energy; Growth and Development Strategy; Business Units; Partners and Partnerships; Leadership; Energy Industry; Utilities Industry; Turkey

01 Mar 2021
Blog Post

Best Practices for Creating a Successful Virtual Internship

part of those plans, making sure students know what to expect and when is critical. Molly DeCastro, Assistant Director, Recruiting Operations with HBS Career and Professional Development, witnessed some of the earliest moves to View Details

Keywords: All Industries

September 2012 (Revised May 2015)
Case

Philips-Visicu

By: Regina E. Herzlinger, Natalie Kindred and Sara M. McKinley

Would the advent of global payment models and ACOs create sufficient demand for a telemedicine offering covering the care continuum, from hospitals to the home? This was the decision facing Royal Philips Electronics (Philips), the Netherlands-based producer of... View Details

02 Aug 2021
Blog Post

Uncovering the Virtual Advantage at Humana

ease given a company culture and infrastructure that supported remote work. Tiffany Layfield, Graduate Recruiting Lead at Humana, shared “A large percentage of our workforce already worked from home. Therefore, it was a no brainer to... View Details

Keywords: Health Care; Health-Related Services

Martin A. Sinozich

Martin Sinozich is a Senior Lecturer in the Entrepreneurial Management Unit at Harvard Business School, where he teaches in both MBA and Executive Education programs. For first-year MBAs, Martin teaches in Field Global Immersion, a required course that... View Details

22 Jun 2021
Research & Ideas

The COVID-19 Mutiny: When Teams Leave and Take Their Clients

"The biggest transition? Establishing a new Zoom account." Leadership integration—ensuring a fit between the acquiring firm’s top management and the team leader—has become part of the courtship phase. And remote work has radically... View Details

Keywords: by Robin Abrahams, Boris Groysberg, and Steven L. Manchel

October 2016 (Revised January 2020)
Case

All Traffic Solutions

By: Rajiv Lal and Scott F. Johnson

All Traffic Solutions traditionally sold traffic signs that collected vehicle data to cities. In recent years, the firm connected their signs to the internet and began selling software that enabled cities to operate their signs remotely and collect data in a more... View Details

Keywords: IoT; Internet Of Things; Smart Connected Products; All Traffic Solutions; Traffic; Internet and the Web; Information Technology; Digital Platforms; Information Infrastructure; Applications and Software; Transportation; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Manufacturing Industry; Technology Industry; Information Technology Industry; United States

Mitchell Tang graduated in 2016 from the University of Pennsylvania, where he completed dual-degrees in computational biology and economics as part of the Vagelos Program in Life Sciences and Management (LSM). While at Penn, Mitchell was involved in research at the... View Details

February 2024 (Revised December 2024)
Case

Best Buy Health: Enabling Care at Home

By: Robert S. Huckman, Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Antonio Moreno, Bradley Staats and Sarah Mehta

This case explores retailer Best Buy’s decision to enter health care. Best Buy Health aims to enable care at home across three prongs: consumer health, active aging, and virtual care. A key pillar of Best Buy Health's strategy is leveraging the Geek Squad—the company's... View Details

Keywords: Business Ventures; Health Care and Treatment; Innovation and Invention; Business Strategy; Market Entry and Exit; Service Delivery; Service Operations; Electronics Industry; Health Industry; Retail Industry; United States; Minnesota

July 2020
Case

Super 30: Educating the Elite Poor

By: Prithwiraj Choudhury, Tarun Khanna and Shreya Ramachandran

In the summer of 2019 in New Delhi, S K Shahi and his daughter, Meenakshi, faced a difficult problem. India had 19 centers of their non-profit, the Center for Social Responsibility and Leadership. Also called the 'Super 30' program, this offered free training for... View Details

Keywords: Non-profit; Inclusive Growth; Education; Higher Education; Diversity; Nonprofit Organizations; Operations; Expansion; Geographic Location; Strategy; Decision Making; India

To cope with the economic pressures of inflation and rising costs of living, it has become increasingly common for individuals to rely on multiple jobs. This trend has been further fueled by the growing availability of remote work, gig opportunities, and... View Details

June 2012
Case

Microsoft IT India

By: Willy C. Shih, Margaret Pierson, Alexander Down, William Gustave Jair-Shemuel Jurist, Diego Medicina and Helen Wang

Raj Biyani faced tough challenges managing Microsoft IT India: leading a remote development organization in which key decisions were made in Redmond, and managing an organization that was perceived as less strategic than its sister Microsoft India Development Center... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Development; Cross-functional Management; Foreign Subsidiaries; Strategy Alignment; Organizational Behavior; Indian Software Development; Global Distributed R＆D; Software Industry; Organizational Structure; Research and Development; Operations; Leadership; Globalized Firms and Management; Business Subsidiaries; Information Technology; Applications and Software; Technology Industry; India

2012
Case

Advanced Leadership Pathways: Richard Fahey and Robert Saudek (A): Lighting Liberia

By: Rosabeth M. Kanter and Anne Arlinghaus

After successful careers as lawyers Richard Fahey and Robert Saudek set out to tackle a large-scale infrastructure challenge in a complex environment by increasing Liberian citizens’ access to lighting solutions. They developed the Liberian Energy Network, which aimed... View Details

April 2019 (Revised June 2019)
Case

Voatz

By: Mitchell Weiss and Maddy Halyard

Nimit Sawhney scrolled through the tweet stream on his phone, unsure of what to make of it on August 6, 2018 or how to respond. Voatz, the Boston-based startup he co-founded and led, provided a mobile-voting platform. In March of 2018, had successfully piloted the new... View Details

Keywords: Mobile App; Business Startups; Voting; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Safety; Cybersecurity