Publications

September 2002
Case

KaBOOM!

By: James E. Austin and Jose Miguel Porraz

KaBOOM! is a nonprofit organization developing playgrounds in partnership with corporations and communities. It has grown since 1995 to a national organization that has built 338 playgrounds in partnerships with over 40 companies. This case deals with the nature of... View Details

Keywords: Business Ventures; Strategy; Nonprofit Organizations; Business and Community Relations; Growth and Development

February 2021
Background Note

Jobs to Be Done: A Toolbox

By: Derek C. M. van Bever, Bob Moesta, Iuliana Mogosanu, Shaye Roseman and Katie Zandbergen

The Jobs to Be Done methodology is both a theory and a practical approach for understanding customer behavior and why people make the choices they make. Many practitioners, whether they work for startups or incumbent businesses, find Jobs to Be Done useful because it... View Details

Keywords: Customer Value and Value Chain; Decision Choices and Conditions; Knowledge Acquisition; Attitudes; Perception; Theory; Behavior; Customer Relationship Management

November 2022
Background Note

The Future of E-Commerce: Lessons from the Livestream Wars in China

By: Ayelet Israeli, Jeremy Yang and Billy Chan

This note explores the emerging multi-billion dollar commerce trend of livestream commerce. Livestream commerce is the sale of goods or services directly to consumers via live shows on digital platforms (such as social media or e-commerce platforms). It is a form of... View Details

23 Jul 2001
Research & Ideas

Sam Walton: Great From the Start

compound annual growth rate in sales of over 28 percent. He was the leading variety store operator in Arkansas, and probably in the adjacent states as well. And then, in a... View Details

Keywords: by Richard S. Tedlow; Retail

September 1992 (Revised November 1996)
Case

Royal Automobile Club Rescue Services Division: Transformation Through Technology

By: W. Earl Sasser and Roger H. Hallowell

The Royal Automobile Club uses a new computer and telephone system to improve its service standards and profitability. After the initial impact of changes from technology, the organization faces a need to choose between future technological development or... View Details

Keywords: Technological Innovation; Decision Choices and Conditions; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Information Technology; Corporate Strategy; Service Industry; Auto Industry; United Kingdom

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January 2010 (Revised October 2010)
Case

Colombia: Strong Fundamentals, Global Risk

By: Aldo Musacchio, Richard H. K. Vietor, Jonathan Schlefer and Carolina Camacho

By mid-2009 Colombian President Alvaro Uribe had ended decades of virtual civil war and strengthened the business climate, but he faced tough economic challenges. Though he had instituted prominent market reforms and brought inflation down sharply, Colombia seemed... View Details

Keywords: Developing Countries and Economies; Economic Growth; Macroeconomics; Trade; Global Strategy; Infrastructure; Business and Government Relations; Colombia

February 2006 (Revised November 2012)
Case

Corporate Responsibility & Community Engagement at the Tintaya Copper Mine (A)

By: V. Kasturi Rangan, Brooke Barton and Ezequiel Reficco

Located in the highlands of Peru, the Tintaya copper mine has long been a source of intense conflict between local community members and mine operators. The mine, which was owned and managed first by the Peruvian state and later by BHP Billiton, stands on 2,300... View Details

Keywords: Developing Countries and Economies; Multinational Firms and Management; Agreements and Arrangements; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Business and Community Relations; Non-Governmental Organizations; Conflict Management; Mining Industry; Australia; Peru

September 2017 (Revised July 2018)
Case

CyberArk: Protecting the Keys to the IT Kingdom

By: Raffaella Sadun, David Yoffie and Margot Eiran

CyberArk was the recognized leader in the Privileged Account Management (PAM) space, a cybersecurity subsegment it had essentially created to secure organizations’ IT systems and sensitive data. Over 17 years, the Israeli company had grown to a market capitalization of... View Details

Keywords: Strategy; Growth and Development Strategy; Organizational Culture; Competitive Advantage; Information Technology; Cybersecurity; Information Technology Industry; Israel; United States

Article

Drive Innovation with Better Decision-Making

By: Linda A. Hill, Emily Tedards and Taran Swan

Despite their embrace of agile methods, many firms striving to innovate are struggling to produce breakthrough ideas. A key culprit, according to the authors, is an outdated, inefficient approach to decision-making. Today’s discovery-driven innovation processes involve... View Details

Keywords: Innovation and Invention; Decision Making; Decision Choices and Conditions; Organizational Change and Adaptation

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December 1999 (Revised September 2004)
Case

Hermes Systems

By: Michael L. Tushman and Daniel Radov

Covers the history of Hermes, a large telecommunications and network equipment company, as it grows from a single business firm to a diversified firm from 1980-95. Examines the use of entrepreneurial subsidiaries for product development and fast growth. Other issues... View Details

Keywords: History; Leadership; Business Subsidiaries; Diversification; Growth Management; Business Growth and Maturation; Business Divisions; Problems and Challenges; Product Development; Technology Industry

July 2022
Teaching Plan

Wellthy: The Economics of Caring

By: Brian Trelstad

Teaching Plan for HBS Case No. 320-028. In 2014, Lindsay Jurist-Rosner (MBA ’09) founded Wellthy, a B2C business that coordinates care for working professionals seeking help to support loved ones with chronic diseases or aging parents. With personal experience as a... View Details

Keywords: B2B Vs. B2C; Future Of Work; Health; Social Entrepreneurship; Growth and Development Strategy; Health Care and Treatment; Recruitment; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Health Industry; United States

April 2015 (Revised May 2018)
Case

NXTP Labs: An Innovative Accelerator Model

By: Josh Lerner, Maria Fernanda Miguel and Laura Urdapilleta

This case follows a unique accelerator fund in Latin America, facing challenges on how to keep growing, including development of venture capital fund and leveraging of entrepreneur ecosystem. View Details

Keywords: Latin America; Accelerator; Ecosystem; Entrepreneurship; Venture Capital; Business Startups; Financial Services Industry; Latin America

Teaching Interest

Overview

Luciana has taught in front of MBA, Master of International Business and Economics, and Executive Education students. At HBS, she was a teaching fellow in "Managing Innovation" (taught in the MBA program by Professor Karim Lakhani) and co-developed most teaching... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Evolution; Organizational Behavior; Strategy; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Design

2022
Working Paper

THEMIS: A Framework for Cost-Benefit Analysis of COVID-19 Non-Pharmaceutical Interventions

By: Dimitris Bertsimas, Michael Lingzhi Li and Saksham Soni

Since December 2019, the world has been ravaged by the COVID-19 pandemic, with over 150 million confirmed cases and 3 million confirmed deaths worldwide. To combat the spread of COVID-19, governments have issued unprecedented non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs),... View Details

Keywords: COVID-19; Health Pandemics; Policy; Framework; Cost vs Benefits; Outcome or Result; United States; Germany; Brazil; Singapore; Spain

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July 1997
Case

We've Got Rhythm! Medtronic Corporation's Cardiac Pacemaker Business

By: Clayton M. Christensen

Illustrates how a new management team at Medtronic's Cardiac Pacemaker business reversed a steep decline in market share by adopting certain management principles for new product development: clarifying strategy, aggregating project planning, accommodating the number... View Details

Keywords: Management Teams; Innovation Strategy; Innovation and Management; Product Development; Health; Technology; Change Management; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry; United States

May 2010 (Revised November 2012)
Case

The Smart Grid

By: Rebecca Henderson, Noel Maurer and Catherine Ross

The development of the smart grid—the integration of traditional elements of energy transmission and delivery with information technology—heralds a new era in the power industry. Many new business opportunities will be created as the smart grid gets developed. What... View Details

Keywords: Energy; Innovation Strategy; Technological Innovation; Problems and Challenges; Growth and Development; Information Technology; Strategy; Energy Industry

07 Jul 2022
HBS Case

How a Multimillion-Dollar Ice Cream Startup Melted Down (and Bounced Back)

a second location in Gowanus. That location was a huge success, too, with total sales of $1.4 million. The Disney partnership The couple dared to dream that they could one day develop into a household name like Ben & Jerry’s, which... View Details

Keywords: by Pamela Reynolds

Article

What Do Private Equity Firms Say They Do?

By: Paul A. Gompers, Steven N. Kaplan and Vladimir Mukharlyamov

We survey 79 private equity investors with combined assets under management (AUM) of over $750 billion about their practices in firm valuation, capital structure, governance, and value creation. Investors rely primarily on internal rate of return (IRR) and multiples to... View Details

Keywords: Private Equity; Valuation; Capital Structure; Value Creation