Publications

April 1997 (Revised May 1997)
Case

Mercer Management Consulting's "Grow to Be Great" (A): The Growth Initiative

By: Dorothy A. Leonard and Carin-Isabel Knoop

In late 1994, James Down, member of Mercer's Executive Committee, has to decide whether or not he should push ahead with the writing and publication of a book on growth--at a time when the more successful business publications focus on reengineering and cost cutting.... View Details

Keywords: Technological Innovation; Organizational Culture; Business Growth and Maturation; Knowledge Management; Product Development; Information Publishing; Books; Consulting Industry; Publishing Industry

Spring 2014
Article

What Impact? A Framework for Measuring the Scale & Scope of Social Performance

By: Alnoor Ebrahim and V. Kasturi Rangan

Organizations with social missions, such as nonprofits and social enterprises, are under growing pressure to demonstrate their impacts on pressing societal problems such as global poverty. This article draws on several cases to build a performance assessment framework... View Details

Keywords: Nonprofit Organizations; Performance Evaluation

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10 Nov 2010
News

Harvard Business School Introduces Program To Help Leaders Drive More Profitable Growth

01 Apr 2009
Working Paper Summaries

The Contingent Nature of Public Policy and Growth Strategies in the Early Twentieth-Century U.S. Banking Industry

Keywords: by Christopher Marquis & Zhi Huang; Banking

October 2019 (Revised January 2020)
Supplement

Dulcie Madden (B)—A Difficult Choice

By: Shikhar Ghosh and Shweta Bagai

This is part of a three-case series that follows Dulcie Madden's journey as a founder over five years. Case (A) is about managing growth and cash flow; Case (B) is about the exit decision and conditions on a sale; Case (C) shows Madden dealing with adversity and the... View Details

01 Nov 2012
News

The Idea That Led to 10 Years of Double-Digit Growth

Summer 2011
Article

Mission, Margin, Mandate: The Many Paths to Scale for Impact Investees

By: Brian Trelstad and Robert Katz

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January 2016 (Revised April 2017)
Case

The Galaxy Dividend Income Growth Fund's Option Investment Strategies

By: W. Carl Kester

This case is designed to provide an elementary introduction to options and option pricing for beginning finance students. Analysis of the case requires students to compare the prices of put and call options with various exercise prices and maturity dates on two... View Details

Keywords: Options; Option Contract; Option Pricing; Derivatives; Mutual Funds; Call Options; Put Options; Stock Options; Risk and Uncertainty; Volatility; Financial Services Industry; United States

August 2019 (Revised March 2023)
Case

Rand Fishkin at Moz (A)

By: Thomas R. Eisenmann

In 2016, senior management at Moz, a venture capital–backed startup providing software tools for digital marketing professionals, must decide how to address a looming cash flow crisis precipitated by failed efforts to broaden its product line. Seattle-based Moz had... View Details

Keywords: Startups; Scaling; Entrepreneurship; Failure; Business Startups; Diversification; Growth Management; Technology Industry

2006
Case

Managing at Scale in the Long Beach Unified School District

By: James E. Austin, Allen S. Grossman, Robert B. Schwartz and Jennifer Suesse

Keywords: Education; Management; City; California

June 2023
Case

Block: Creating an Ecosystem of Ecosystems

By: Lauren Cohen, Richard Ryffel, Grace Headinger and Ruoshi Qi

At Investor Day 2022, Block announced a new vision for its businesses: creating an ecosystem of ecosystems. Outside the norm for many public growth companies, Block had recently acquired a variety of new business streams in the creator economy and Bitcoin despite a... View Details

January 2004 (Revised April 2004)
Case

Ford Motor Company: Quality of Earnings Growth Analysis (A)

By: David F. Hawkins and Jacob Cohen

Even though Ford Motor Co. reports improved profitability, an equity analyst issues a sell recommendation and Standard & Poor's downgrades long-term debt. View Details

Keywords: Quality; Business Earnings; Valuation; Investment Return; Profit; Financial Statements; Revenue; Auto Industry; Consulting Industry

August 1976
Article

A Model of Economic Growth With Altruism Between Generations

By: Elon Kohlberg

Keywords: Economics; Growth and Development; Relationships

TeachingInterests

Executive Education: Leading Growth through Customer Centricity — India

By: Rajiv Lal

Establishing a strategic advantage in India's highly competitive marketplace requires a systemic shift in focus—away from selling products and toward meeting the needs of customers. But how many companies are prepared to carry out such fundamental change? By... View Details

September–October 2017
Article

GE's Global Growth Experiment: The Company Pushed Cross-Business Collaboration

By: Ranjay Gulati

Like many other companies, GE under Immelt had to figure out how to balance serving local needs with the economies of worldwide scale. Harvard Business School’s Ranjay Gulati looks at how it tackled the challenge. He identifies several important takeaways for other... View Details

Keywords: Growth and Development Strategy; Multinational Firms and Management

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January 2010 (Revised August 2012)
Supplement

Hospital for Special Surgery (B): Continuing Challenges of Growth

By: Regina E. Herzlinger and Laura Low Ah Kee

After its successful new U.K. venture, the Hospital for Special Surgery wants to do more of the same, without decimating its core New York City facility. The case provides considerable details about the different options it is exploring. View Details

Keywords: Growth Management; Health Industry; United Kingdom