Publications

August 2011 (Revised August 2013)
Case

Career at a Crossroad: Roopa Rao

By: Noam Wasserman and Lisa Brem

Akhil Patel is passionate about his business idea: an innovative green technology fuel cell. He wants to dive in and commit to his startup, but Roopa Rao, his fiancée, is much more risk averse, his parents don't approve of the startup, and Akhil has an enticing... View Details

Keywords: Personal Development and Career; Business Startups; Business Growth and Maturation; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Work-Life Balance; Family and Family Relationships

August 2003 (Revised August 2006)
Case

New Sector Alliance (A): An Entry into Health Care?

By: Regina E. Herzlinger, Stacy Smollin Schwartz and Jeffrey Cronin

Describes the structure of the U.S. health care system and presents a study of a nonprofit consulting firm that hopes to enter the health care system. Includes descriptions of hospitals, doctors, insurers, medical technology providers, medical devices, pharmaceuticals,... View Details

Keywords: Health; Health Care and Treatment; Health Disorders; Nonprofit Organizations; Health Industry; United States

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08 Mar 2004
Research & Ideas

Creating Value in Your Business Ecosystem

larger than the companies themselves: the success of their respective business ecosystems. These loose networks—of suppliers, distributors, outsourcing firms, makers of related products or services, technology providers, and a host of... View Details

Keywords: by Marco Iansiti & Roy Levien

December 2002 (Revised February 2005)
Case

Cap Gemini Ernst & Young (A): A Global Merger

By: Ashish Nanda

French IT consulting giant Cap Gemini is poised to purchase the consulting arm of Ernst & Young, a U.S.-based Big 5 accounting firm. In doing so, many differences need to be resolved, including negotiating with Ernst & Young entities all over the world as well as... View Details

Keywords: Negotiation; Multinational Firms and Management; Mergers and Acquisitions; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Information Technology Industry; Information Technology Industry; France

17 Jul 2018
First Look

New Research and Ideas, July 17, 2018

analyses suggest that the surge in liability risk had a large and negative impact on downstream innovation in medical implants but no significant effect on upstream polymer patenting. These findings show how tort laws may affect the development of new View Details

Keywords: Dina Gerdeman

April 2008 (Revised April 2009)
Case

Heidrick & Struggles International, Inc.

By: Robert G. Eccles and David Lane

As CEO of leading executive search firm Heidrick & Struggles for the past 18 months, Kevin Kelly was pleased with his accomplishments so far but concerned about threats he perceived to Heidrick's position at the highest levels of the executive search business. In... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Recruitment; Disruptive Innovation; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Culture; Competition; Competitive Strategy; Employment Industry; Service Industry

06 Sep 2022
Cold Call Podcast

Reinventing an Iconic Independent Bookstore

Keywords: Re: Ryan L. Raffaelli; Retail

April 2000 (Revised September 2001)
Case

Peppers and Rogers Group, The

By: John A. Deighton

Can two successful authors build a scalable consulting practice based on their unique view of customer relationship management (CRM)? Should they emphasize strategy or execution? The case describes how Peppers and Rogers grew from two people earning speaker fees to a... View Details

Keywords: Customer Relationship Management; Growth and Development; Information Publishing; Going Public; Strategy; Competition; Internet; Consulting Industry

May 1998 (Revised February 1999)
Case

Diamond in the Rough (A)

By: Thomas J. DeLong and Catherine M. Conneely

Diamond Technology Partners, a consulting firm based in Chicago, was founded in 1994 by Mel Bergstein and Chris Moffitt, with investment from founding partners and Safeguard Scientifics. In April 1996, just after fiscal year-end, the two largest clients withdrew from... View Details

Keywords: Information Technology; Entrepreneurship; Going Public; Crisis Management; Finance; Consulting Industry; Chicago

21 Jul 2015
Working Paper Summaries

Enabling Versus Controlling

Keywords: by Andrei Hagiu & Julian Wright

February 1997 (Revised September 1998)
Case

American Management Systems, Inc.: The Knowledge Centers

By: Dorothy A. Leonard and Sylvia Sensiper

Senior management at AMS, a business and information technology consulting company, is growing at 28% annually and assimilating 1,800 new hires a year. AMS has recently instituted a new knowledge management strategy, a group of six knowledge centers (virtual... View Details

Keywords: Information Technology; Innovation and Management; Technological Innovation; Knowledge Management; Management Teams; Business Strategy; Consulting Industry; United States

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October 2019 (Revised August 2020)
Case

The Predictive Index

By: Lynda M. Applegate and James Weber

Mike Zani and Daniel Muzquiz needed to decide next steps to create a new category in the human resources consulting industry and scale their company.
Zani and Muzquiz, serial entrepreneurs, acquired Predictive Index in 2014. Previously, as clients of the... View Details

Keywords: Human Resources; Selection and Staffing; Talent and Talent Management; Recruitment; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Venture Capital; Change Management; Disruptive Innovation; Digital Platforms; Growth and Development Strategy; Consulting Industry; Service Industry; United States

September 2006 (Revised November 2006)
Case

Cathy Benko: WINning at Deloitte (A)

By: Kathleen L. McGinn, Deborah M. Kolb and Cailin B. Hammer

Jim Quigley, CEO of Deloitte and Touche's consulting practice, asks senior partner Cathy Benko to lead Deloitte & Touche's much publicized Initiative for the Retention and Advancement of Women (WIN). Benko, already the Lead Client Service Partner on one of Deloitte's... View Details

Keywords: Motivation and Incentives; Leadership Development; Talent and Talent Management; Personal Development and Career; Gender; Consulting Industry; United States

21 Mar 2018
Research & Ideas

Why Artificial Intelligence Isn't a Sure Thing to Increase Productivity

their full promise. And that’s a key piece of information to have as companies consider investing what consulting firm Accenture estimates will be $35 trillion into cognitive technologies in the United... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Technology; Technology

December 1999 (Revised March 2002)
Case

Hunter Business Group: TeamTBA

By: Das Narayandas and Elizabeth R. Caputo

The Hunter Business Group (HBG), a direct marketing consulting firm specializing in reorganizing the sales and marketing efforts of industrial firms, uses integrated customer contact technologies (including field sales, telephone, and mail) as a means of... View Details

Keywords: Communication Technology; Marketing Communications; Marketing Reference Programs; Marketing Strategy; Market Participation; Sales; Value Creation; Consulting Industry

September–October 2023
Article

Reskilling in the Age of AI

By: Jorge Tamayo, Leila Doumi, Sagar Goel, Orsolya Kovács-Ondrejkovic and Raffaella Sadun

In the coming decades, as the pace of technological change continues to increase, millions of workers may need to be not just upskilled but reskilled—a profoundly complex societal challenge that will sometimes require workers to both acquire new skills and... View Details

Keywords: Competency and Skills; AI and Machine Learning; Training; Adaptation; Employees; Digital Transformation

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Teaching Interest

Digital Innovation and Transformation – MBA Elective Curriculum

By: Feng Zhu

Digital Innovation and Transformation is designed to equip students to confidently help conceive, lead and execute digital innovation initiatives and develop new business models for existing and insurgent organizations. The basic premise of the course... View Details

November 1999 (Revised May 2001)
Case

AGENCY.COM (A): Launching an Interactive Service Agency

By: Ashish Nanda, Thomas J. DeLong and Scot H. Landry

Having recently launched one of Silicon Valley's first start-ups, cofounders Chan Suh and Kyle Shannon ponder whether their interactive consulting firm is prepared to bid for work from a very large client. View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Internet and the Web; Problems and Challenges; Business Strategy; Decision Making; Entrepreneurship; Consulting Industry; Consulting Industry

October 2000 (Revised March 2004)
Case

Software Associates

By: Robert S. Kaplan

The president of a small consulting firm has just seen his second-quarter profit and loss statement, showing an increase in revenues but a substantial decline in profits. He asks his chief financial officer to explain the results. The CFO works hard to accumulate... View Details

Keywords: Budgets and Budgeting; Cost; Financial Statements; Production; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Information Technology Industry; Information Technology Industry