Publications

March 2025
Case

Skylight: Hit Product or Scalable Company?

By: Rembrand Koning, Christina Wallace and Jeff Huizinga

Skylight, originally a digital frame startup aimed at connecting dispersed families, expanded with a second product—Calendar—to help families manage schedules. Despite significant potential, Calendar struggled with persistent technical issues and poor customer... View Details

Keywords: Culture; Software; Hardware; Entrepreneurship; Business Startups; Customer Satisfaction; Resource Allocation; Product Launch; Business Strategy; Expansion

December 1986 (Revised January 1988)
Case

Hewlett-Packard: Manufacturing Productivity Division (C)

By: Benson P. Shapiro and Lawrence B. Levine

Focuses on the development of a "market driven" culture at Hewlett-Packard (HP); the conflict between autonomous, well integrated divisions making products responsive to their own markets and a greater degree of systems integration at the corporate level; and the... View Details

Keywords: Business Divisions; Marketing; Marketing Strategy; Production; Organizational Culture; Research and Development; Sales; Integration; Manufacturing Industry

01 Aug 2002
News

For Alumni Only: Breakthrough Insights Program Debuts

community are no exception. To give alumni the chance to sample the latest faculty thinking on some of the most pressing business issues of the day, last May the School launched Breakthrough Insights, a new Executive Education program... View Details

Keywords: Laura Singleton

September 1992
Case

Star Cablevision Group (A): Harvesting in a Bull Market

By: William A. Sahlman

First case in a series of six cases that follow the experience of a cable television company as it adjusts to the rapid rise and precipitous decline of the stock market in the late 1980s. In this case Don Jones, the company's founder and owner, sees the rise in public... View Details

Keywords: Behavioral Finance; Financial Markets; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Business Startups; Restructuring; Corporate Strategy; SWOT Analysis; Wealth; Business Cycles; Entertainment and Recreation Industry

1994
Article

Big Business, Management and Competitiveness in Twentieth Century Britain

By: G. Jones

Keywords: Management; Business Ventures; Competition; Business History; Great Britain

Find at Harvard

January 1989 (Revised March 1995)
Case

Du Pont Freon Products Division (A)

By: Richard H.K. Vietor and Forest L. Reinhardt

In 1988, the Du Pont Co. is abruptly confronted with solid scientific evidence that chlorofluorocarbons are destroying the earth's ozone shield. Du Pont, with its Freon brand product line serving markets for foam insulation, electronics solvents, and especially... View Details

Keywords: Business Divisions; Policy; Management; Brands and Branding; Production; Service Operations; Natural Environment; Competition; Corporate Strategy; Environmental Sustainability

December 1995
Supplement

EnClean: Malcolm Waddell, CEO, Video

By: David J. Collis

Presents Malcolm Waddell in a question-and-answer session (the actual questions do not appear on the tape) with HBS MBA students following a class in which the case is discussed. View Details

Keywords: Diversification; Restructuring; Corporate Strategy; Going Public; Decision Making; Acquisition; Interactive Communication

22 Sep 2020
Research & Ideas

Recessions Push Some Entrepreneurs to Launch Too Soon

significant financial resources, prerequisites that are hardly conducive to spur-of-the-moment actions. In the forthcoming paper Lowering the Bar? External Conditions, Opportunity Costs, and High-Tech Startup Outcomes, Maria P. Roche, an assistant professor at Harvard... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

01 Oct 2000
News

Bringing Up Baby

top of that, her second child arrived in June. "Motherhood is all about being flexible in a fast-paced environment, being tolerant, and welcoming change," McCartney told Business Week (June 26, 2000). "Working in the Internet is the... View Details

01 Mar 2009
News

Alumni Books

questions, presenting unique strategies and concrete steps useful for handling the growing number of giants in our personal and professional lives. The Flavor Bible: The Essential Guide to Culinary Creativity, Based on the Wisdom of... View Details

Keywords: Publishing Industries (except Internet); Information

February 2008
Article

The Founder's Dilemma

By: Noam Wasserman

Most entrepreneurs want to make a lot of money and to run the show. New research shows that it's tough to do both. If you don't figure out which matters more to you, you could end up being neither rich nor king. View Details

Keywords: Business Growth and Maturation; Business Startups; Entrepreneurship; Profit; Growth and Development Strategy; Managerial Roles

Find at Harvard

01 Dec 2003
News

The Next Big Thing

It's a case of competition and strategy on a global scale, and the stakes could hardly be higher. The prize? Leadership in the realm of life sciences, a field that experts say will shape and dominate 21st-century enterprise. What city or... View Details

Keywords: life sciences; Scientific Research and Development Services

August 2009
Case

Intuit

By: Frank V. Cespedes

This case study provides an overview of Intuit's growth and, in particular, the sales and service initiatives that historically fueled the company's growth from start-up to a corporation. It also outlines certain processes and cultural values, as well as specific... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Product; Service Delivery; Business Processes; Organizational Culture; Sales; Business Strategy

16 Dec 2013
News

D’O: Making a Michelin-Starred Restaurant Affordable

Keywords: Food Services and Drinking Places; Hospitality

16 Jul 2024
Op-Ed

Corporate Boards Are Failing in Their No. 1 Duty

over time, perhaps by inviting them to lunches, as the Goldman Sachs board does. Companies often choose a successor who pledges to lead the business in the same direction as the current CEO. All too often, the board is satisfied with the... View Details

Keywords: by Bill George

14 Jun 2023
News

Investing in Growth Through Uncertainty

March 2008 (Revised July 2011)
Supplement

Cadbury Schweppes: Capturing Confectionery (C)

By: David Collis, Toby Stuart and Troy Smith

In late 2002, global confectionery and beverage maker Cadbury Schweppes needed to decide whether or not to make an acquisition bid for Adams, an underperforming gum company which had been put up for sale by pharmaceutical giant Pfizer. Examining the decision from a... View Details

Keywords: Food; Mergers and Acquisitions; Corporate Strategy; Food and Beverage Industry

September 1999 (Revised July 2001)
Case

Charles Schwab Corporation (B)

By: F. Warren McFarlan and Nicole Tempest

Catches the situation facing Charles Schwab Corp. in late August 1999 in the dramatically changing brokerage industry. Their bold moves in January 1998 have created a new industry competitive pattern and provoked aggressive response by companies like Merrill Lynch. View Details

Keywords: Information Technology; Business Strategy; Situation or Environment; Competition; Financial Services Industry