Cold Start Problem - Publications - Faculty & Research

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Electricity - Business & Environment

the working world with both the skills and drive required to start solving those problems.” Alex Edison HBS MBA 2020 Sarah Wright HBS MBA 1997, Partner, Hull Street Energy, Hull Street Group “The fastest way to decarbonize the U.S. power... View Details

25 Jul 2016
Research & Ideas

Who is to Blame for 'The Great Training Robbery'?

Mass.-based management consulting firm TruePoint Partners, which Beer co-founded and on which he now serves as a director. Most training programs focus on developing and changing behavior of individuals and teams. Beer and his colleagues say the View Details

Keywords: by Roberta Holland; Education

13 Apr 2009
Research & Ideas

Kind of Blue: Pushing Boundaries with Miles Davis

bottom of the S). Then more people jump on board, and the take-up of the innovation accelerates (the steep middle of the S). Finally, the innovation starts to saturate the market, as everybody who wants one gets one, or every product in... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Music

14 Sep 2023
Blog Post

MBAs Accelerate Their Social Enterprise Ventures

pivot into venture capital and impact investing to ensure that communities like mine – Black, queer, and disabled – have access to capital to build products and services that include us by design. However, starting a company with an idea... View Details

13 Mar 2023
Blog Post

Career Journey: Karan Khimji, Co-Founder of 44.01

Tell us a little about your background. I grew up in Oman, an incredibly beautiful country blessed with mountains, oceans, and deserts. I spent weekends going on treks in the mountains, scuba diving, or just spending time at the beach. But as I got older, I View Details

06 Sep 2004
Research & Ideas

The Innovator’s Battle Plan

beneath the radar," they really mean "taking advantage of asymmetries of motivation." Disruptive markets start among customers that appear to the incumbent to be either undesirable or nonexistent. The initial absolute size... View Details

Keywords: by Clayton M. Christensen, Scott D. Anthony & Erik A. Roth

08 Sep 2008
HBS Case

The Value of Environmental Activists

There are many methods, most financial, to measure the success of companies in meeting goals. But the question becomes a lot harder at Harvard Business School when MBAs are challenged to measure the efforts of environmental organizations like Greenpeace and the World... View Details

Keywords: by Sarah Jane Gilbert; Energy; Utilities

10 Oct 2011
Research & Ideas

Retailing Revolution: Category Killers on the Brink

generally is at a tipping point, with category killers being the first significant casualties of the (r)evolution that is occurring. Retail store asset productivity has been in decline since the start of the recession in 2007, and we... View Details

Keywords: by Rajiv Lal & Jose B. Alvarez; Retail

16 May 2000
Research & Ideas

The Simple Economics of Open Source

really tell who did what. Open source is different. As Lerner and Tirole write, "Outsiders are able to see not only what the contribution of each individual was and whether that component 'worked,' but also whether the task was hard, if the View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Technology

25 Jan 2024
Blog Post

Climate Stories Episode #15: Hilton Augustine III on Financing Climate Ventures

fast enough to matter. “I think what we should be asking ourselves is how we all work together to tackle climate change, as the problem is too vast to be shouldered by any one generation.” He added: “Our institutions must adopt a sense of... View Details

04 Apr 2012
Research & Ideas

When Founders Recruit Friends and Family as Investors

chance to thrive. Drawing on more than a decade of researching smashing successes and painful failures alike, Wasserman walks readers through the dilemmas that plague and challenge most new entrepreneurs, starting with pre-founding career... View Details

Keywords: by Noam Wasserman

28 Apr 2003
Research & Ideas

Supply Chain Risk: Deal With It

capacity, shelf life, and customer demand. Such risks aren't new. In fact, "the underpinnings of problems today started two decades ago," says Craig Holmes, director of business continuity planning... View Details

Keywords: by David Stauffer

05 Sep 2018
Research & Ideas

The Hidden Benefit of Giving Back to Open Source Software

Linux without contributing. Learning by contributing When a programmer or engineer runs into a problem or an opportunity to improve the Linux Kernel code, they generally suggest a change to a Linux “maintainer”–an experienced user who... View Details

Keywords: by Kristen Senz; Computer

Profile

Kiran Gandhi

more critically about unmet needs in the music industry. For example, I loved learning about “blue ocean” strategy, the idea that you can make competition irrelevant by innovating in new market spaces that are ripe for growth. This year, I View Details

Keywords: Entertainment/Media

26 Jun 2017
Research & Ideas

How Cellophane Changed the Way We Shop for Food

School and author of the paper Cellophane, the New Visuality, and the Creation of Self-Service Food Retailing. “Cellophane played a big part in how the color of food started to be controlled and standardized” Hisano is at work on a... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Food & Beverage; Retail; Advertising

22 Feb 2022
News

New Urban Order

finding the will to start implementing at-scale technologies that are already working,” Carty observes. Here, we take a look at alumni who are pursuing those opportunities, working to make tomorrow’s cities more sustainable across five... View Details

Keywords: Kathleen Fu, Deborah Blagg, Julia Hanna, and Maureen Harmon; illustrations by; energy; environment; sustainability; entrepreneurship; Transit and Ground Passenger Transportation; Transportation; Water, Sewage and Supply Systems; Utilities; Construction of Buildings; Construction; Waste Management and Remediation Services; Corporate Services

22 Jul 2019
Book

How to Be a Digital Platform Leader

All of the most valuable firms in the world today are platforms, starting with Apple, Microsoft, Google and Amazon. But platforms do not evolve in predictable ways, and there is a lot that managers and entrepreneurs can learn about past,... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

29 May 2018
First Look

New Research and Ideas, May 29, 2018

and as the head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The case highlights the challenges and opportunities she faced during each phase of her career and how she managed them. Lagarde started her career in 1981 as a lawyer at the... View Details

Keywords: Dina Gerdeman

05 May 2011
What Do You Think?

How Ethical Can We Be?

further one's career, or desire to protect one's livelihood (or, one might add, one's loved ones)." In an organization, doing what's right starts at the top. Ashraf Khan commented that "Individual managers (tone at the top) play... View Details

Keywords: by Jim Heskett

16 Dec 2021
Blog Post

African American Student Union Spotlight on STEM

problems and the HBS classroom challenges me to critically think about everything I say and do. But my background has been the most significant in my Technology and Operations Management (TOM) class, where I often provide first-hand... View Details

Publications