Publications

15 Dec 2023
News

Like-Minded

Yumiko Murakami (MBA 1994), Miwa Seki (MBA 1993), and Kathy Matsui share the same month and year of birth, so the friends started an annual birthday get-together to reflect on the year ahead. Work was always a hot topic of discussion. Each woman had built a strong... View Details

04 Apr 2012
Research & Ideas

When Founders Recruit Friends and Family as Investors

Editor's note: Seasoned entrepreneurs know that a great idea for a new company is no guarantee of a successful exit. Startups fail more often than not, largely due to hubris-fueled mistakes by an inexperienced founding team. Alas, the... View Details

Keywords: by Noam Wasserman

December 2016
Case

thredUP: Think Secondhand First

By: Thomas Eisenmann, Allison Ciechanover and Jeff Huizinga

In the fall of 2016, the management team at thredUP, the largest U.S. online retailer of second hand clothing, is deciding whether to expand into international markets. Over the past 12 months the 7-year-old startup, which had raised over $130 million in venture... View Details

Keywords: Scaling Start-ups; International Expansion; Online Consignment; Apparel; Internet and the Web; Expansion; Entrepreneurship; Global Strategy; Business Startups; E-commerce; Apparel and Accessories Industry; Retail Industry; San Francisco

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Baker Library / Bloomberg Center | About

was understood to be an endorsement of the need for professional management education. When Harvard Overseer Bishop William Lawrence approached him for a $1 million donation to help build the new campus, Baker refused. After consulting... View Details

10 Apr 2012
First Look

First Look: April 10

different functions, divisions, and cultures. Several project management principles-scoping out the challenge, structuring the boundaries, and sorting tasks for execution-help leaders facilitate effective teaming. Leaders can also foster... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

23 Sep 2022
Research & Ideas

8 Strategies to Sustain Business Innovation

help leaders more successfully innovate and change in their industries as they parse mixed messages about the global economy, with rampant inflation wearing on consumers and investors preparing for recession. Productive Tensions covers all stages of business, from... View Details

Keywords: by Lane Lambert

31 Jan 2012
First Look

First Look: Jan. 31

avoidable ways. This article is based on the analysis of hundreds of work diaries from professionals describing everyday events that involved high-level managers in their companies. The analysis uncovered four major types of actions that... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne & Carmen Nobel

Web

2022 Reunion Presentations - Alumni

particularly important to managers and executives who make hiring and promotion decisions. Rather than following a structure of a case discussion, this presentation will focus on insights from experiments with ample time for questions.... View Details

Web

Research - Race, Gender & Equity

transformation, coinciding with the rise of gender conservatism and far-right support. We study whether the economic consequences of labor market feminization and gender backlash... October 2024 Academy of Management Review Racial... View Details

September 2003 (Revised March 2007)
Case

Direvo Biotech AG

Describes the financing and growth decisions facing Direvo, a young German biotech firm with a customer/partner that wants to become an investor. Also discusses the business model for Direvo's directed evolution technology, with applications in both industrial enzymes... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Decisions; Business Exit or Shutdown; Value; Business Startups; Biotechnology Industry; Germany

November 2007 (Revised February 2011)
Case

The Ice King

By: Tom Nicholas and Sandra Nicholas

Provides an opportunity to examine the risk-reward tradeoff and the travails of entrepreneurial venturing in the nascent U.S. economy. Traces the origins and development of Frederic Tudor's Ice Company, a business which developed during the 19th century to hack chunks... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Cost vs Benefits; Entrepreneurship; Globalization; Business History; Operations; Risk and Uncertainty; United States

02 Aug 2022
Blog Post

From HBS to Cutting-Edge Tech

tech industry. In the immersive Startup Bootcamp program, I joined a small team to take an idea from scratch and build a minimum viable product (MVP). Courses like The Entrepreneurial Manager, Launching Tech Ventures, Founder’s Journey,... View Details

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Online Entrepreneurship & Innovation Courses | HBS Online

discount, you'll receive 30% off your second and third courses for a total savings of $1,110 . Here are three learning pathways we recommend based on your career goals and stage. Leading Corporate Innovation: For corporate innovators seeking the strategic insight,... View Details

18 Sep 2019
Op-Ed

WeWork—The IPO That Shouldn’t?

No IPO in recent memory has received as much negative pre-public publicity as WeWork, which provides shared workspaces and services for startups and other enterprises. The outpouring of criticism has focused on a number of items including... View Details

Keywords: by Nori Gerardo Lietz; Financial Services; Real Estate

01 Dec 2019
News

Remix

running throughout—you have to page back to an earlier chapter of Dixon’s life, in 2017. That’s when the bottom dropped out. That fall, she was raising money for a tech/beauty startup called EverythingDid, designed to help women and girls... View Details

Keywords: Jen McFarland Flint; photographed by Chris Sorensen; #MeToo; DefJam; Arts, Entertainment

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Nonprofit Strategy & Governance | Social Enterprise | Harvard Business School

innovation and have an outsized impact in a rapidly changing world. Strategic Perspectives in Nonprofit Management Designed to strengthen the capacity of nonprofit CEOs and executive directors to lead their organizations effectively, this... View Details

April 2020
Case

Ment.io: Knowledge Analytics for Team Decision Making

By: Yael Grushka-Cockayne, Jeffrey T. Polzer, Susie L. Ma and Shlomi Pasternak

Ment.io was a software platform that used proprietary data analytics technology to help organizations make informed and transparent decisions based on team input. Ment was born out of founder Joab Rosenberg’s frustration that, while organizations collected ever... View Details

Keywords: Decision Making; Information Technology; Knowledge; Knowledge Acquisition; Knowledge Management; Operations; Information Management; Product; Product Development; Entrepreneurship; Business Startups; Communications Industry; Information Industry; Information Technology Industry; Web Services Industry; Middle East; Israel

March 1995 (Revised July 1996)
Case

Mattson Foods, Inc. (Revised): The Bardolini Division

By: Steven C. Wheelwright

The Bardolini Division of Mattson Foods, with plants in the northeast and midwest, wants to open up the western market for its pizza. Management must decide whether to build a new plant on the West Coast, and what type of technology to put in the plant if they decide... View Details

Keywords: Logistics; Emerging Markets; Business Startups; Decision Choices and Conditions; Business Plan; Capital Budgeting; Expansion; Buildings and Facilities; Strategic Planning; Marketing Strategy; Technology; Economic Systems; Food and Beverage Industry