Publications

January 2020 (Revised July 2020)
Case

BlackRock: Linking Purpose to Profit

By: Aiyesha Dey

The case revolves around the actions that Barbara Novick, co-founder and Vice-Chair of Blackrock, and Michelle Edkins, Global Head of Investment Stewardship, would need to take in response to the controversial CEO letters from Laurence (Larry) Fink, Chairman and CEO of... View Details

19 Mar 2008
Research & Ideas

Finding Success in the Middle of the Market

Editor's Note: Harvard Business School professor John Quelch writes a blog on marketing issues, called Marketing Know: How, for Harvard Business Online. It is reprinted on HBS Working Knowledge.In soccer,... View Details

Keywords: by John Quelch; Auto; Retail

Research Summary

Systematic Risk in the Housing Markets

A one-factor pricing model is employed to investigate the internal consistency of single family home and professionally-managed property prices during 1986-2006. The risk fac-tor used here is the US real estate index, which has much stronger explanatory power than the... View Details

25 Feb 2013
Research & Ideas

Lean Strategy Not Just for Start-Ups

upgrades, forming hypotheses and conducting experiments with each new version along the way. Intuit adopted such a strategy when developing Fasal, a mobile platform that delivers agricultural market price... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Financial Services

October 1997 (Revised September 2003)
Case

Eli Lilly and Company: Drug Development Strategy (A)

By: Stefan H. Thomke, Ashok Nimgade and Paul Pospisil

Describes how Eli Lilly and Co. tries to accelerate its new drug development process with the aid of "combinatorial chemistry"--a rapidly emerging and revolutionary approach to preclinical drug discovery. The product manager of a potential blockbuster migraine drug... View Details

Keywords: Chemicals; Finance; Innovation and Invention; Time Management; Markets; Product Development; Organizations; Business Processes; Problems and Challenges; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Competition; Pharmaceutical Industry

Web

CSV Explained - Institute For Strategy And Competitiveness

HBS ISC Creating Shared Value CSV Creating Shared Value CSV Explained Emerging Topics CSV in Practice Published CSV Cases CSV Explained CSV Explained The Three Levels of CSV Adding a Social Dimension to View Details

Article

Birds of a Feather...Enforce Social Norms? Interactions Among Culture, Norms, and Strategy

By: Hongyi Li and Eric J. Van den Steen

Does culture eat strategy for breakfast? This paper investigates the interactions among corporate culture, norms, and strategy, in order to better understand this issue and related questions. It first shows, through microfoundations, how the forces that drive toward... View Details

Keywords: Culture; Norms; Organizational Culture; Strategy; Values and Beliefs

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Article

How to Launch Your Digital Platform: A Playbook for Strategists

By: Benjamin Edelman

The ubiquity of Internet access has caused a sharp rise in the number of businesses offering platforms that connect users for communication or commerce. Entrepreneurs are particularly drawn to these platforms because they create significant value and have modest... View Details

Keywords: Platforms; Launch; Mobilization Strategy; Two-Sided Platforms; Network Effects; Adoption; Entrepreneurship; Information Technology Industry; Advertising Industry; Media and Broadcasting Industry; Transportation Industry; Financial Services Industry

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Web

Sustainable Business Strategy Course | HBS Online

This course is part of the Business in Society and Strategy track. Introduction to Sustainable Business Strategy ENROLL NOW No application needed for our certificate programs.... View Details

September 2008
Case

Harrington Collection: Sizing Up the Active-Wear Market

By: Richard S. Tedlow and Heather Beckham

In the wake of slumping sales and sagging profit margins, a leading manufacturer and retailer of high-end women's apparel, Harrington Collection, must evaluate an opportunity to expand into the high-growth active-wear market. Sara Huey, Vice President of Strategic... View Details

Keywords: Breakeven Analysis; Product Introduction; Expansion; Consumer Behavior; Supply and Industry; Product Launch; Apparel and Accessories Industry

06 May 2021
News

Expert Panel: Understanding Liquid Private Equity Investment Strategies

May 2020
Teaching Note

Shiseido: Reinvesting in Brand

By: Jill Avery

Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 519-026. Shiseido was in the midst of a six year corporate turnaround, trying to reverse the effects of decades of under-investment in R&D and marketing that had led to a vicious cycle of declining customer support and brand value. Would... View Details

Keywords: Brand Management; Marketing ROI; Brand Portfolio Strategy; Growth Strategy; Marketing; Marketing Strategy; Brands and Branding; Growth and Development Strategy; Beauty and Cosmetics Industry; Consumer Products Industry; Japan; Asia

January 2019 (Revised January 2021)
Case

KITEA (A): Democratizing Furniture in Morocco

By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell and Gamze Yucaoglu

The case opens in 2013 as Amine Benkirane, founder and CEO of the leading Moroccan furniture company KITEA, contemplates the loss his company has incurred for the first time in its 20-year history. The case then describes KITEA’s origins and provides a detailed... View Details

Web

Data - Institute For Strategy And Competitiveness

linkages or externalities across industries that give rise to clusters. Data on the composition, by cluster, of state, regional, and metropolitan economies in the U.S. has been collected and analyzed for each year from 1998 through View Details

May 2014 (Revised June 2014)
Case

Intellectual Property Strategy at North Technology Group—Sailing Downwind

By: Felix Oberholzer-Gee and William W. Fisher III

North Sails is the world's leading sailmaker. The company commands a global market share of more than 50% and is largely responsible for the rapid technological progress in the sailmaking industry over the past 30 years. CEO Tom Whidden needs to consider how to best... View Details

Keywords: Technology; Information Technology; Competitive Advantage; Intellectual Property

01 Feb 2013
News

Growth Strategy Has Double Bottom Line

as generating a competitive market return that will meet the objectives of conventional investors who are exclusively looking to profit financially. Our conservation strategy... View Details

Keywords: Louisa Rigali; Forestry and Logging; Agriculture; Funds, Trusts, and Other Financial Vehicles; Finance

August 2018 (Revised October 2019)
Case

C3.ai—Driven to Succeed

By: Robert Simons and George Gonzalez

CEO Tom Siebel navigates his artificial intelligence (ai) startup through a series of pivots, market expansions, and even an elephant attack to become a leading platform ad service provider. The case describes his unusual management approach emphasizing employee... View Details