Publications

27 Oct 2002
Research & Ideas

Want a Happy Customer? Coordinate Sales and Marketing

To other functional departments such as finance and operations, the sales and marketing functions look alike. After all, they are both "outward looking," focused on the customer and the market.... View Details

Keywords: by Benson Shapiro

Research Summary

Manager Specific Human Capital Investment: A Model of Block Trading and Firm Stability

I develop a model in which workers can undertake specific human capital investments in the firm and in the manager employed by the firm. If the manager leaves the firm, a worker has to decide whether to join her in the new firm or stay in the old firm. In case of... View Details

July 1999 (Revised January 2000)
Case

Yahoo!: Business on Internet Time

By: Jan W. Rivkin and Jay R. Girotto

In the wake of major competitive moves, CEO Tim Koogle and his senior team at Yahoo!, an Internet portal, must decide whether and how to adjust their strategy. Following deals between AOL and Netscape, Excite and @Home, Infoseek and Disney, and Snap and NBS, Yahoo!... View Details

Keywords: Competitive Strategy; Growth and Development Strategy; Business Strategy; Organizational Structure; Industry Structures; Internet and the Web; Risk Management; Technological Innovation; Business or Company Management; Information Technology Industry; Web Services Industry

January 2008 (Revised May 2008)
Case

Comcast New England: A Journey of Organizational Transformation

By: Michael Beer and Anita Arun

This case describes how Kevin Casey, Comcast's New England Region general manager, transformed a low commitment and performance organization. When he took charge of this Comcast region he inherited an organization that was bureaucratic, had low customer satisfaction,... View Details

Keywords: Transformation; Interpersonal Communication; Customer Satisfaction; Employee Relationship Management; Management Teams; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Culture; Organizational Structure; Performance Improvement; Telecommunications Industry; New England

06 Jul 2020
News

Minor League Baseball as we know it may be gone

28 Sep 2010
First Look

First Look: September 28, 2010

revolutionary functionality. We explore a second entry path that does not rely upon Schumpeterian innovation: platform envelopment. Through envelopment, a provider in one platform market can enter another platform market, combining its own View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

February 2024
Case

FIGS: Scrubbing the Status Quo

By: Jeffrey F. Rayport and Nicole Tempest Keller

In October 2023, FIGS had revolutionized the medical scrubs industry with its fashionable and functional designs, but the venture was at a critical juncture. The digitally native vertical brand (DNVB) had gone public in a successful IPO in 2021 and reached $500 million... View Details

Keywords: Marketing Channels; Corporate Strategy; Business Growth and Maturation; Business Model; Decision Choices and Conditions; Competitive Strategy; Expansion; Apparel and Accessories Industry; Fashion Industry; United States; California; Los Angeles; Europe; Canada

In Fit In, Stand Out, McGarvie presents her breakthrough program that will help you become a more effective leader. She reveals how integration and transformation function as the yin and yang of business, working together and balancing each other to form... View Details

Career Coach

Crystal Yao

Crystal is particularly interested in helping students understand careers in Sports, Media, and Entertainment and Big Tech, as well as functional careers in General Management, Strategy Consulting, Business Development, and Sales &... View Details

07 May 2015
Blog Post

Career Change: From the Military to Consulting

Exposed to new functions and industries through case studies, classmates, and the resources of our Career and Professional Development (CPD) Office, nearly 70% of HBS students will pursue ventures very different from the ones that led... View Details

September 2007 (Revised December 2008)
Case

Michael Fernandes at Nicholas Piramal

By: Michel Anteby and Nitin Nohria

Michael Fernandes, the Director of Custom Manufacturing Operations at the pharmaceutical company Nicholas Piramal India Limited (NPIL), schedules a meeting with three of his reports, whose interpersonal conflicts with one another are causing his business development... View Details

Keywords: Interpersonal Communication; Management Skills; Groups and Teams; Conflict Management; Cooperation; Pharmaceutical Industry; India; United Kingdom; Canada

October 1996 (Revised April 1998)
Case

Mobil USM&R (D): Gasoline Marketing

By: Robert S. Kaplan

Mobil US Marketing & Refining has shifted from a centralized staff-driven organization to decentralized business-units. Staff functions now must negotiate service agreements with a buyer's committee consisting of representatives from the profit-center business units.... View Details

Keywords: Balanced Scorecard; Management Teams; Human Resources; Agreements and Arrangements; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Customers; Situation or Environment; Business Units; Energy Industry; Mining Industry; United States

22 Mar 2016
First Look

March 22, 2016

Abstract—Many believe that the recent emphasis on enterprise risk management function is misguided, especially after the failure of sophisticated quantitative risk models during the global financial crisis. The concern is that top-down... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

March 2023 (Revised May 2023)
Supplement

OneTen At Delta Air Lines: Catalyzing Family-Sustaining Careers for Black Talent (B)

By: Linda A. Hill and Lydia Begag

In January 2023, Delta Air Lines (Delta) Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Ed Bastian and his team had just launched the third iteration of an internal skills-first apprenticeship program, designed to move frontline employees into "merit" positions in four job categories.... View Details

Keywords: Change Management; Growth and Development Strategy; Diversity; Race; Talent and Talent Management; Training; Human Resources; Air Transportation Industry; United States

04 Feb 2019
Blog Post

Presenting…an Alternative to Company Presentations: Evercore Grabs Attention with Interactive Events

When it’s on-campus recruiting time, employers feel compelled to create presentations to talk about their mission and purpose. To talk about challenges and opportunities. To talk about functions and roles. For Joanna Walker, Evercore’s... View Details

May–June 2021
Article

Why Start-ups Fail

By: Thomas R. Eisenmann

If you’re launching a business, the odds are against you: Two-thirds of start-ups never show a positive return. Unnerved by that statistic, a professor of entrepreneurship at Harvard Business School set out to discover why. Based on interviews and surveys with hundreds... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Business Startups; Problems and Challenges; Failure