Publications

January 2002 (Revised April 2002)
Case

Space Data Corporation

By: Alan D. MacCormack and Jay Wynn

Space Data Corp. plans to partner with the U.S. National Weather Service to place transceivers on weather balloons and thereby create a national mobile communications network. The company is in the late development stages and is planning to launch a regional test that... View Details

Keywords: Wireless Technology; Business Startups; Business Processes; Adaptation; Partners and Partnerships; Opportunities; Telecommunications Industry; Public Administration Industry; United States

June 2018
Case

Meridian Systems

By: Frank V. Cespedes and Michael J. Roberts

The Meridian Systems case focuses on a start-up in the restaurant point of sale (POS) systems market. In early 2018, Meridian is getting ready to roll out a POS system based on a new technology—a tablet-based, Wi-Fi-enabled POS system (the "tablet" system, or... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Sales; Strategy; Salesforce Management; Organizational Structure; Technological Innovation; Marketing Strategy

August 2009 (Revised August 2009)
Case

Intel NBI: Radio-Frequency Identification

By: Willy C. Shih and Thomas Thurston

The Radio-Frequency Identification (RFID) group was a start-up that was part of Intel's New Business Initiatives. It sought initially to develop and sell a high performance Rf fast read rate module targeted at fixed position readers that might be found in loading docks... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Organizational Structure; Failure; Diversification; Integration; Semiconductor Industry

Find at Harvard

February 2024
Supplement

Seeds of Innovation: GALY’s Quest to Cultivate the Future of Agriculture in the Lab

By: George Serafeim

In 2023, Luciano Bueno, CEO and founder of plant cell culture agriculture company GALY, was considering the best path forward for his company as he planned to pitch Series B investors. GALY, founded in 2019, aimed to produce cotton and other crops from cells grown in... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Green Technology; Goods and Commodities; Growth and Development Strategy; Science-Based Business; Entrepreneurship; Plant-Based Agribusiness; Business Startups; Decisions; Technological Innovation; Production; Entrepreneurial Finance; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Technology Industry; Boston; Sao Paulo

Richard Hamermesh was the MBA Class of 1961 Professor of Management Practice at the Harvard Business School. While at HBS Richard served as co-chair of the HBS Healthcare... View Details

Keywords: health care

01 Sep 2023
News

Global Outposts Expand HBS’s Intellectual Footprint

Since taking over as CEO of Tata Steel in 2013, T. V. Narendran had sought to transform India’s oldest steel manufacturing firm to ready it for a rapidly evolving business world. He instilled financial discipline, acquired new businesses, and launched digital... View Details

Keywords: Jennifer Gillespie

Web

Baker Library / Bloomberg Center | About

information systems for Salomon Brothers. In 1981, with the idea for a technology company that would bring greater transparency and fairness to the financial system, he launched a small startup in a one-room... View Details

March 2012 (Revised September 2012)
Case

INRIX

By: Lynda M. Applegate and Ryan Johnson

Since its founding in 2004, INRIX, a leading global provider of traffic information and driver services, had received four rounds of financing from leading venture capital (VC) firms and by 2012 had been cash flow positive for the past six quarters. Its founder, Bryan... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Leadership; Business Growth and Maturation; Business Exit or Shutdown; Business Startups; Organizational Structure; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Competitive Strategy; Information Technology Industry; Information Technology Industry; Washington (state, US)

02 Apr 2019
First Look

New Research and Ideas, April 2, 2019

are being caused by rapid technological changes on the one hand and tectonic shifts in customer preferences and societal behaviour on the other. Marketing knowledge and practices have to advance at a significantly higher pace to address... View Details

Keywords: Dina Gerdeman

01 Jun 2022
News

A Sustainable Solution for Fashion

that provided the impetus for the startup to take off. “Having the space and enabling conditions to work on a business in a community of other founders was the catalyst,” Theuerkauf says. The cofounders also credit their... View Details

Keywords: April White

04 Dec 2019
Book

Creating the Experimentation Organization

simulation and rapid prototyping to optimize product development and R&D. “After that, I thought I was done,” he says. Since then, however, there has been a rise in new technology platforms that allows experimentation to innovate on... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

10 Apr 2012
First Look

First Look: April 10

their team as they go. Read the article: http://hbr.org/2012/04/how-many-direct-reports/ar/1 Celebrate Innovation, No Matter Where It Occurs Author:Nitin Nohria Publication:Harvard Business Review 90, no. 4 (April 2012) Abstract The author offers opinions on View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

14 Dec 2016
HBS Seminar

Siobhan O'Mahony and Rebecca Karp, Boston University

May 1996 (Revised March 1998)
Case

SaleSoft, Inc. (A)

By: Das Narayandas

SaleSoft, a start-up firm, markets Comprehensive Sales Automation Solutions (CSAS) that automate a firm's sales, marketing, and service functions. Even though the product has received very favorable responses from prospects, product complexity and a long buying cycle... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Decisions; Revenue; Marketing Strategy; Product Launch; Sales; Opportunities; Information Technology; Technology Industry

08 Feb 2024
Blog Post

African American Student Union Spotlight on Joint Degrees

Microsoft, I spent a few years exploring entrepreneurship, both on the operator side – joining and founding startups in the crypto space – and on the investor side as a Venture Partner and mentor at firms including Bessemer and A16z.... View Details

01 Mar 2024
News

The War Within

When the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022, Nataliia Zhyliak’s world was upended in a matter of days. At the time, Zhyliak, a psychologist in the western Ukrainian city of Kamianets-Podilskyi, was working at an education and rehabilitation... View Details

Keywords: Janelle Nanos; illustration by Daniel Bejar

October 2001 (Revised March 2002)
Case

Perlegen Sciences

By: Linda A. Hill and Nicole Tempest

As a biotech start-up company involved in studying human genomes, Perlegen needed to develop an organization that fostered innovation and teamwork among a group of highly trained professionals from both the science and technology fields. Perlegen's CEO, Brad Margus,... View Details

Keywords: Innovation Leadership; Groups and Teams; Management Teams; Problems and Challenges; Business Startups; Genetics; Talent and Talent Management; Innovation Strategy; Biotechnology Industry

March 2020
Case

Maven Clinic: Women's Health in the Digital Age

By: Ariel D. Stern and Sarah Mehta

In late 2017, Kate Ryder, the founder and CEO of digital women’s health telemedicine company Maven Clinic, faced an important decision. Maven offered both a direct to consumer (D2C) product that anyone could use to book virtual appointments with health practitioners... View Details

Keywords: Business Growth and Maturation; Business Model; Business Startups; Entrepreneurship; Health; Health Care and Treatment; Strategy; Information Technology; Applications and Software; Technology Industry; Technology Industry; United States

September 2023
Case

Diamond Standard

By: Lauren H. Cohen, Zhaoheng Gong and Grace Headinger

Cormac Kinney, Founder and CEO of Diamond Standard, was on a mission to transform the U.S. diamond market through unlocking the precious gems as market-traded assets. As a serial FinTech entrepreneur, he hoped to add an additional service to his vault: Carats. The... View Details