Publications

2023
Book

Right Kind of Wrong: The Science of Failing Well

By: Amy Edmondson

A revolutionary guide that will transform your relationship with failure, from the pioneering researcher of psychological safety and award-winning Harvard Business School professor Amy Edmondson.

We used to think of failure as the opposite of success. Now,... View Details

Keywords: Failure; Success

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Teaching Interest

Overview

Chu's teaching focuses on businesses providing goods and services to the emerging middle class and low-income sectors that constitute the market below the well-served top of the socio-economic pyramid. In developed countries such as the USA, this may be 40-50% of the... View Details

Keywords: Business At The Base Of The Pyramid; Emerging Markets; Low-income; Social Impact; Microfinance; Inclusive Finance; Impact Investing

05 Sep 2023
Book

Thriving After Failing: How to Turn Your Setbacks Into Triumphs

Harvard Business School Professor Amy Edmondson experienced her first big-stakes professional failure when she was just starting out in her academic career, some 30 years ago, after a decade working in... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

05 Sep 2023
Book

Failing Well: How Your ‘Intelligent Failure’ Unlocks Your Full Potential

individual can minimize the chances of those failures occurring by paying close attention and catching mistakes before they spiral out of control. Intelligent failure, on the other hand, is unavoidable if a person or View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

September 2016 (Revised February 2017)
Case

Angie's List: Ratings Pioneer Turns 20

By: Robert J. Dolan and Ayelet Israeli

In 1995, before people “googled” or “yelped,” Angela Hicks (HBS, 2000) was establishing her Angie’s List as a pioneer in the accumulation and dissemination of consumer rating information. Hicks focused on the home repair and maintenance market and, as she put it,... View Details

01 Nov 2017
What Do You Think?

What Are the Real Lessons of the Wells Fargo Case?

Duke do when she becomes chairman of Wells Fargo on January 1?” What do you think? ORIGINAL COLUMN Case studies used in business schools portray dilemmas faced by managers. Students diagnose the problem and recommend actions. They are... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett; Banking

27 Feb 2019
Research & Ideas

The Hidden Cost of a Product Recall

more important than previously thought, says Ariel D. Stern, an assistant professor of business administration at Harvard Business School, where she is the Hellman Faculty Fellow in the Technology and... View Details

Keywords: by Danielle Kost; Manufacturing; Consumer Products; Auto; Medical Devices & Supplies

2021
Book

Why Startups Fail: A New Roadmap for Entrepreneurial Success

By: Thomas R. Eisenmann

Why Startups Fail explores entrepreneurial failure, examining its predictable patterns, how to avoid them, and how to cope when failure does occur. Part I looks at three common failure patterns for early-stage startups, illustrating each with an anchor case... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Business Startups; Failure; Success; Framework

16 May 2023
In Practice

After Silicon Valley Bank's Flameout, What's Next for Entrepreneurs?

investments and triggered a run on deposits, gave pause to startup investors and also holds lessons for founders going forward. Harvard Business School faculty suggest some key takeaways for the startup ecosystem as the dust settles and... View Details

Keywords: by Avery Forman; Technology; Financial Services

August 2016 (Revised March 2018)
Case

Videojet (A)

By: Raffaella Sadun, Bharat Anand and Eric Van den Steen

In 2005 Craig Purse, the CEO of Videojet, a company recently acquired by the conglomerate Danaher, is dealing with the unexpected failure of a new high-tech printer just launched in the market. The new product exemplified the first real instance in which the Videojet... View Details

Keywords: Managerial Processes; Conglomerates; Relational Contracts; Corporate Strategy; Business Conglomerates; Diversification; Management Practices and Processes; Strategy; Manufacturing Industry; United States

May 2018
Case

Harvest City: The Intelligent Procurement System Project

By: Lynda M. Applegate and Ramiro Montealegre

The Harvest City case describes the implementation of a cloud- and IoT-based intelligent procurement system at a new convention complex in the U.S. Midwest. The decision to build a convention complex is a strategic initiative for this city and involves extensive use of... View Details

Keywords: Information Technology; Projects; Management; Decision Making; Business and Government Relations; Information Technology Industry

1997
Book

The Innovator's Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail

By: Clayton M. Christensen

His work is cited by the world's best known thought leaders, from Steve Jobs to Malcolm Gladwell. In this classic bestseller, innovation expert Clayton M. Christensen shows how even the most outstanding companies can do everything right—yet still lose market... View Details

Keywords: Disruptive Innovation; Leadership

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August 2016
Supplement

Videojet (B)

By: Raffaella Sadun, Bharat Anand and Eric Van den Steen

In 2005 Craig Purse, the CEO of Videojet, a company recently acquired by the conglomerate Danaher, is dealing with the unexpected failure of a new high tech printer just launched in the market. The new product exemplified the first real instance in which the Videojet... View Details

Keywords: Managerial Processes; Conglomerates; Diversification; Relational Contracts; Corporate Strategy; Manufacturing Industry

07 Apr 2003
Research & Ideas

XTV: Xerox’s Attempted Recovery From “Fumbling the Future”

wagon, so what?" Fumbling the Future was published in 1988, and the impact of this book reverberated throughout Xerox, stimulating many responses. As the story was recounted in the business and financial press, PARC's technological... View Details

Keywords: by Henry Chesbrough

07 Jul 2008
Research & Ideas

Innovation Corrupted: How Managers Can Avoid Another Enron

Legacy of Enron's Collapse (Harvard University Press), the devastation of Enron was total—yet there is much that business today can gain from a postmortem of the once-triumphant company. Salter had access to an extensive library of public... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Energy; Utilities

February 2015 (Revised April 2016)
Supplement

Quincy Apparel (B)

By: Thomas R. Eisenmann and Lisa C. Mazzanti

The (B) case provides post-mortem analysis from Quincy's cofounders on why their startup failed and what they could have done differently. Explanations for failure focus on Quincy's ambitious value proposition and resulting operational challenges; cofounder conflict;... View Details

Keywords: Retail; Online Retail; Women's Apparel; Internet and the Web; Entrepreneurship; Failure; Business Startups; E-commerce; Apparel and Accessories Industry; Retail 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

April 2020 (Revised July 2020)
Case

Amazon in China and India

By: Krishna G. Palepu and Kairavi Dey

Amazon has been unsuccessful in its efforts to develop a business in China. Even though Amazon was an early entrant into China’s e-commerce space, its domestic rivals, especially Alibaba, created innovative business models uniquely suited for the conditions in China. ... View Details

Keywords: Global Strategy; Multinational Firms and Management; Emerging Markets; Business Strategy; Expansion; Business Model; Retail Industry; China; India; United States

April 29, 2020
Article

The Case for AI Insurance

By: Ram Shankar Siva Kumar and Frank Nagle

When organizations place machine learning systems at the center of their businesses, they introduce the risk of failures that could lead to a data breach, brand damage, property damage, business interruption, and in some cases, bodily harm. Even when companies are... View Details

Keywords: Artificial Intelligence; Machine Learning; Internet and the Web; Safety; Insurance; AI and Machine Learning; Cybersecurity