Publications

Find at Harvard

November 2008 (Revised November 2024)
Case

The Fall of Enron

By: Paul Healy and Krishna Palepu

The case traces the rise of Enron, covering the company's business innovations, personnel management, and risk management processes. It then examines the company's dramatic fall including the extension of its trading model into questionable new businesses, the... View Details

Keywords: Risk Management; Management Practices and Processes; Crime and Corruption; Financial Reporting; Corporate Governance; Governing and Advisory Boards

July 2015 (Revised March 2016)
Teaching Note

Uber and Stakeholders: Managing a New Way of Riding

By: Rosabeth Moss Kanter and Daniel Fox

This case provides a vehicle to analyze stakeholder relations as a company grows, particularly in the context of new business models that challenge established industries. It introduces the dilemmas posed by rapid growth, new technologies, regulatory uncertainty, and... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Business or Company Management; Entrepreneurship; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Innovation and Invention; Transportation Industry

27 Mar 2015
News

Small Company Aims to Provide Primary Care for the Masses

November 2002 (Revised February 2003)
Case

Amazon.com-2002

By: Stig Leschly, Michael J. Roberts, William A. Sahlman and Todd H Thedinga

Describes the evolution of Amazon.com and its business model since its founding. Specifically, discusses Amazon's transformation from an e-Tailer to a commerce platform and its marketplace initiative, which has driven this. Also describes the economics of various... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Digital Platforms; Internet and the Web; Transformation; Retail Industry

Alberto Cavallo is the Thomas S. Murphy Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School, where he teaches in the Business, Government, and the International Economy (BGIE) unit, a Faculty Research Fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research, a... View Details

May 2020
Case

Numenta in 2020: The Future of AI

By: David B. Yoffie, Cameron Armstrong, Mei Tao and Marta Zwierz

In 2020, Numenta’s co-founder, Jeff Hawkins, completed his pathbreaking research on artificial intelligence. His co-founder and CEO, Donna Dubinsky, had to find a business model to monetize the technology. This case explores the challenges of building a business... View Details

Keywords: Artificial Intelligence; Monetization; Information Technology; Strategy; Intellectual Property; Business Model; AI and Machine Learning; Technology Industry

2020
Book

Competing in the Age of AI: Strategy and Leadership When Algorithms and Networks Run the World

By: Marco Iansiti and Karim R. Lakhani

In industry after industry, data, analytics, and AI-driven processes are transforming the nature of work. While we often still treat AI as the domain of a specific skill, business function, or sector, we have entered a new era in which AI is challenging the very... View Details

Keywords: Artificial Intelligence; Technological Innovation; Change; Competition; Strategy; Leadership; Business Processes; Organizational Change and Adaptation; AI and Machine Learning

Find at Harvard

Feng Zhu is the MBA Class of 1958 Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School, where he leads the Platform Lab within the Digital, Data, and Design Institute, co-chairs the Harvard Business Analytics Program, and serves as the course head for the... View Details

August 2020
Case

Ready for Take-Off at Jet It

By: Gary P. Pisano, Hise Gibson and Nicole Gilmore

This case examines the business model and growth of a start-up company in the private aviation industry. In June 2020, amidst the COVID crisis, the company's co-founder and CEO must make a decision regarding an order of new jets that will significantly expand the... View Details

Keywords: Capacity Planning; Business Startups; Business Model; Growth and Development Strategy; Air Transportation Industry

14 Feb 2023
HBS Case

Is Sweden Still 'Sweden'? A Liberal Utopia Grapples with an Identity Crisis

Swedish capitalism is like.” Could this lead to the end of the high-tax “Swedish model” that like-minded nations have come to admire? Harvard Business School Professor Debora Spar, who has analyzed Sweden extensively, says no, the Swedish... View Details

Keywords: by Lane Lambert

April 2009 (Revised May 2009)
Case

Oprah Winfrey

By: Nancy F. Koehn, Erica Helms, Katherine Miller and Rachel Wilcox

The case explores the entrepreneurial journey of Oprah Winfrey, examining how she built an audience for one of the most successful television shows in history; how she created the company, Harpo Productions, that produces that show as well as other media offerings; how... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Entrepreneurship; Leadership; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Mission and Purpose; Personal Development and Career; Strategy; Media and Broadcasting Industry; United States

25 Apr 2014
Video

Bob Gebhardt - Making A Difference

October 2015
Case

Integrating Avocent Corporation into Emerson Network Power

By: Prithwiraj Choudhury and Vincent M. Servello

This case reviews Emerson Electric’s proposed acquisition of Avocent Corporation in 2009. The focus of this case is how a technology company such as Avocent, with a dramatically different business model compared to its acquirer, should be integrated into a large,... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Integration; Human Capital; Acquisition; Technology Industry

27 Apr 2023
Cold Call Podcast

Equity Bank CEO James Mwangi: Transforming Lives with Access to Credit

Keywords: Re: Caroline M. Elkins; Banking; Financial Services

July 2002 (Revised August 2014)
Case

WellSpace Treatment Centers for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (A)

By: Regina E. Herzlinger, Jun HuangPu and Bing Lin

How should WellSpace, a venture capital-backed purveyor of alternative health services, expand? Although it was nearing breakeven in its first location, the right business model remained unclear. View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Entrepreneurship; Venture Capital; Health Care and Treatment; Innovation and Invention; Service Delivery; Health Industry

July 2009 (Revised August 2011)
Case

What Happened at Citigroup? (A)

By: Clayton S. Rose and Aldo Sesia

What went wrong at Citigroup? In 1998, the Travelers Group and Citicorp merged to create Citigroup Inc., considered the first true global "financial supermarket" and a business model to be envied, feared, and emulated. By year-end 2006 the firm had a market... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Business Model; Decision Choices and Conditions; Globalized Firms and Management; Leadership; Risk Management; Failure; Financial Services Industry

August 1995 (Revised January 2024)
Supplement

Health Stop (B): Starting Up

By: Regina E. Herzlinger

Describes the long waiting time experienced by customers in Health Stops and asks students to specify the changes in its business model which could help solve the problem. View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Customer Focus and Relationships; Customer Satisfaction; Health Industry; Retail Industry

December 2018
Supplement

Formula E Championship Racing (B)

By: Robert F. Higgins, Susie Ma and James Weber

Formula E's season three is nearly complete. CEO Alejandro Agag needs to examine his business model to ensure the racing series is positioned to grow sustainably in the years to come. View Details

Keywords: Electric Car Racing; Entrepreneurship; Business Model; Growth and Development Strategy