Publications
Publications
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- All HBS Web
(1,427)
- Faculty Publications (107)
- January 2014
- Case
MIT Mystery Hunt: The Answer is Secondary
By: Willy Shih and Karen Robinson
The MIT Mystery Hunt is an annual puzzle-based scavenger hunt at MIT. It is run every year by a different team, and every year is slightly different as teams try new ideas and decide whether to keep or ignore new ideas from previous years. As the Mystery Hunt has... View Details
- January 2014 (Revised May 2014)
- Case
Rethinking Cities: Chicago on the Move
By: Rosabeth Moss Kanter and Ai-Ling Jamila Malone
It is impossible to discuss national competitiveness without considering cities and the regions they anchor. Cities are transportation hubs, centers of commercial exchange, and the locus of lives. They thrive by the ways they connect to the world. Demographic changes... View Details
- January 2014
- Case
The Weather Company
New CEO David Kenny transformed The Weather Company in less than two years from a primary identity as a cable television channel to a multi-platform digital company innovating in the uses of weather data. He assesses progress and considers strategic choices and... View Details
- September 2013 (Revised November 2015)
- Case
Living Proof: Are We a Technology Company or a Beauty Company?
By: Willy Shih
Jon Flint came up with the idea of a science-based beauty company while talking with his hairdresser about the problems with typical hair and skin care products. Together with a small team that included Professor Robert Langer of MIT, he committed to assemble a team... View Details
Keywords: Hair Care; Personal Care; Science-based; R＆D; Innovation and Invention; Innovation and Management; Innovation Leadership; Innovation Strategy; Technological Innovation; Marketing; Marketing Strategy; Product Marketing; Product Positioning; Science-Based Business; Business Strategy; Commercialization; Corporate Strategy; Technology Platform; Expansion; Beauty and Cosmetics Industry; United States; Boston; Cambridge
- March 27, 2013
- Article
Downton Abbey: Real Life Lessons for Trust & Estate Advisors
By: Josh Baron and Devin Bird
The article discusses how the TV series "Downton Abbey" reflects challenges and opportunities faced by business families. The show's storyline, centered around the aristocratic Crawley family and their estate, parallels real-world situations where business families... View Details
- March 2013 (Revised April 2014)
- Case
Barnes & Noble: Managing the E-Book Revolution
By: Alan MacCormack, Brian Kimball Dunn and Chris F. Kemerer
The case describes competition in the market for E-Books, and Barnes & Noble's Strategy in this industry. As a traditional retailer, B&N was challenged by the introduction of digital technologies that allow books to be published, distributed and sold to consumers... View Details
- February 2013 (Revised March 2013)
- Case
Agero: Enhancing Capabilities for Customers
By: Robert Simons and Natalie Kindred
This case illustrates the importance of choosing a primary customer as the basis for organization design. Cross Country Group managers adjusted resource allocation, organization design and performance measures over time to transform Cross Country Group from an... View Details
Keywords: Entrepreneurial Management; Entrepreneurial Gap; Entrepreneurship; Auto Industry; Insurance; Performance Management; Performance Measurement; Performance Measures; Performance Pressure; Decisions; Family Business; Resource Allocation; Organizational Design; Customer Focus and Relationships; Performance Evaluation; Growth and Development Strategy; Service Industry
- August 2012 (Revised August 2014)
- Case
Cancer Treatment Centers of America® (A)
By: Regina E. Herzlinger and Natalie Kindred
Cancer Treatment Centers of America (CTCA), a U.S. network of four privately owned oncology focused factory hospitals, was weighing options for growth. CTCA was entirely cancer focused and specialized in treating patients with complex and advanced-stage cancers, who... View Details
Keywords: Cancer; Cancer Treatment; Health Care; Healthcare; Accountability; Outcomes; Outcomes Measurement; Outcomes Reporting; Hub And Spoke Cancer Care; Hub And Spoke; Hub-and-spoke; Focused Factory; Mission and Purpose; Private Ownership; For-Profit Firms; Health Disorders; Medical Specialties; Policy; Business Model; Expansion; Decision Choices and Conditions; Advertising; Health Care and Treatment; Innovation and Invention; Health Industry; United States
- July 2012 (Revised January 2014)
- Case
HGRM: Bringing Back High Touch Hospitality
By: Lynda M. Applegate and Gabriele Piccoli
The case centers on the dilemma faced by Carlo Fontana, the owner-operator of a small chain of two four-star urban hotels located in Lugano, Switzerland, and the other in Milan, Italy. Having developed an extensive customer service and operations information system,... View Details
- April 2012
- Case
Bayonne Packaging, Inc.
By: Roy D. Shapiro and Paul E. Morrison
A printer and paper converter produces customized packaging used by industrial customers to deliver promotional materials, software, luxury beverages, and gift food and candy. The company specializes in creating innovative packaging solutions for its customers and... View Details
- December 2011 (Revised December 2011)
- Case
Cancer Treatment Centers of America: Scaling the Mother Standard of Care
By: Rosabeth Moss Kanter and Matthew Bird
The CEO of a private and growing national network of specialty care hospitals focusing on advanced-stage and complex cancer treatments reflected on the firm's past phase of growth before meeting with the company's Chairman and founder to discuss how to further scale... View Details
- July 2011
- Case
Teach Plus: Mobilizing a New Generation of Teacher Leaders
By: David A. Thomas and Stephanie J. Creary
This case profiles the evolution of Teach Plus, a non-profit organization founded on the premise that in order for public schools to continuously improve urban student achievement, teaching must become a career that motivates and retains effective early career... View Details
- April 2011 (Revised July 2014)
- Case
Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd.: Driving Change Through Internal Communication
By: Boris Groysberg and Michael Slind
Hindustan Petroleum (HPCL), confronted in 2003 with an urgent need to change how it operated externally, adopted a highly innovative approach to communicating internally. This case, set in 2010, presents an overview of the new, more interactive model of employee... View Details
- March 2010
- Article
The Role of Independent Invention in U.S. Technological Development, 1880-1930
By: Tom Nicholas
Why did independent inventors account for over half of US patents by 1930 and more than three times the number granted to R&D firms? Using new data on patents and historical patent citations, I show that independents supplied high quality innovations to a... View Details
- February 2010 (Revised June 2010)
- Case
Arup: Building the Water Cube
By: Robert G. Eccles, Amy C. Edmondson and Dilyana Karadzhova
Arup, an engineering firm, collaborated with PTW Architects and China Construction Design Institute to develop a design for the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics Aquatics Center design competition. Their winning concept for the Water Cube combined elements of Chinese... View Details
- September 2009 (Revised September 2010)
- Case
Genzyme Center (A)
By: Michael W. Toffel and Aldo Sesia
Genzyme Corporation is in the midst of planning its new corporate headquarters, which incorporates many innovative green building features. After learning that the building as planned would likely earn a LEED Silver rating, an intermediate score in the LEED green... View Details
Keywords: Green Building; LEED Rating System; Economic And Environmental Performance; Program Evaluation And Assessment; Tradeoffs Between Process- And Performance Standards; Buildings and Facilities; Business Headquarters; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Standards; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Performance Improvement; Environmental Sustainability; Pollutants; Green Technology Industry
- September 2009 (Revised December 2009)
- Supplement
Genzyme Center (B)
By: Michael W. Toffel and Aldo Sesia
Genzyme Corporation is in the midst of planning its new corporate headquarters, which incorporates many innovative green building features. After learning that the building as planned would likely earn a LEED Silver rating, an intermediate score in the LEED green... View Details
- September 2009 (Revised December 2009)
- Supplement
Genzyme Center (C)
By: Michael W. Toffel and Aldo Sesia
Genzyme Corporation is in the midst of planning its new corporate headquarters, which incorporates many innovative green building features. After learning that the building as planned would likely earn a LEED Silver rating, an intermediate score in the LEED green... View Details
- September 2008
- Case
Pfizer Inc: Building an Innovation Center
By: Stefan H. Thomke and Ashok Nimgade
The case describes Pfizer's efforts to build and run an innovation center in Cambridge, Massachusetts. As the center goes through different periods of leadership and strategic models, its relationship with the corporation and other research sites is explored. The case... View Details
- July 2008 (Revised September 2008)
- Case
Work is Good: Branding the Employ+Ability Mission
By: Lynda M. Applegate, Monica Higgins and Susan Saltrick
Employ+Ability, a small company employing developmentally disabled adults, finds itself competing with low-cost producers of its core products-therapeutic hot and cold packs. How might an innovative branding campaign, centered on the company's core value of "Work Is... View Details