Publications

05 Dec 2018
Research & Ideas

Why Managers Should Reveal Their Failures

If you’re a business leader who oozes achievement, sprints up the corporate ladder, and earns big bucks, your co-workers probably resent you to some extent. New research says high-achievers can win over their colleagues with a simple approach: View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

May 1992 (Revised February 1994)
Case

North American Free Trade Agreement: Free For Whom?

Mexico, the United States, and Canada have negotiated a North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) that would create the largest free trade zone in the world. The union would build on the three-year-old Free Trade Agreement between the United States and Canada.... View Details

Keywords: Agreements and Arrangements; Trade; Canada; United States; Mexico

Find at Harvard

April 2015 (Revised June 2020)
Case

Comcast Corporation (A)

By: Sunil Gupta, Henry McGee, Felix Oberholzer-Gee and Margaret L. Rodriguez

In March 2015, the U.S. television industry received a major wake-up call. HBO, a premium cable channel with over 30 million subscribers, had announced it would begin offering a standalone streaming service. This new service would allow customers to bypass the cable... View Details

Keywords: Cable Television; HBO; Industry Evolution; Television Entertainment; Disruption; Business Model; Competitive Strategy; Media and Broadcasting Industry

06 Aug 2020
Blog Post

WHY WE STARTED THE HBS BLACK INVESTMENT CLUB

INSPIRED BY RECENT EVENTS The protests against the unjust murders of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and countless others since have mobilized the nation to take a stand in support of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement and... View Details

Keywords: All Industries

21 Oct 2015
Research & Ideas

How to Predict if a New Business Idea is Any Good

In 2008, entrepreneur Brian Chesky and his two San Francisco roommates made the rounds of Silicon Valley VC firms with what they thought was a great idea: a website and mobile app that would allow homeowners to open their homes to... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Accommodations; Financial Services

17 Dec 2014
Research & Ideas

How Our Brain Determines if the Product is Worth the Price

Think of the last time you went shopping. By the time you decided to buy a product, you knew both what you were buying and how much it cost. But was your decision affected by whether you saw the price or the... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Retail

01 Mar 2024
News

Game On

Here at the Pickleball Club, founder and CEO Brian McCarthy (MBA 1972) is making a big bet that his model—a private club, with high-end amenities and a community organized around the sport—will have what it takes to stay in the game for... View Details

Keywords: Jen McFarland Flint; photographed by Edward Linsmier; Amusement, Gambling, and Recreation Industries; Arts, Entertainment

18 Aug 2017
Op-Ed

Op-Ed: Courageous Leader Triggers a Moral Revolt of CEOs Against Trump

one hour later attacking him and Merck. Kenneth C. Frazier (Photo courtesy Wikipedia Commons) By late Monday there were further resignations from the manufacturing group by Under Armour’s Kevin Plank,... View Details

Keywords: by Bill George

May 2022
Case

The NFL’s $110-Billion Media Rights Deals

By: Anita Elberse and Elizabeth Warner

On March 18, 2021, Brian Rolapp, chief media and business officer at the National Football League (NFL) presented the results of a months-long effort to renegotiate rights deals with the NFL’s current partners in television—the media conglomerates behind the networks... View Details

Keywords: Sports; Entertainment; Media; Marketing; Strategy; General Management; Negotiation; Partners and Partnerships; Competition; Media and Broadcasting Industry; Sports Industry

01 Sep 2021
What Do You Think?

Can We Train for Trust?

academics call transactional “friction.” As a result, decisions are made and implemented faster and at lower cost, something critical in an age where speed takes on greater and greater value. At a 2019 business conference, Brian Chesky,... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

October 1994
Case

Bankers Trust: Global Investment Bank

By: Andre F. Perold and Kuljot Singh

In October 1992, Eugene Shanks, president of Bankers Trust New York Corp., and Brian Walsh, head of the Global Investment Bank (GIB) business unit, are considering a proposal for a large and complex financing involving the North Sea Oil Co. (NSOC). The financing... View Details

Keywords: Risk and Uncertainty; Credit Derivatives and Swaps; Risk Management; Value Creation; Business History; Capital Markets; Financing and Loans; Financial Markets; Corporate Finance; Banking Industry; Energy Industry

01 Dec 2023
News

Thinking Ahead

from angel investors,” she says. “Creating a business, and understanding the pain points, is still the greatest challenge for any new venture, regardless of the economic climate, but the barriers to entry have gone way down, thanks to some of the tools out there. You’d... View Details

Keywords: Julia Hanna; Illustrations by Chris Gash; News, Library, Internet, and Other Services; Information

16 Nov 2016
Research & Ideas

Turning One Thousand Customers into One Million

soliciting feedback from its most loyal and vocal customers” As impressive as that accomplishment was, 1,000 customers is hardly enough to ensure long-run success. For that, these companies had to scale up dramatically, from 1,000 to over 1 million, which is the... View Details

Keywords: by Thales S. Teixeira and Michael Blanding; Retail; Transportation; Accommodations

December 2024 (Revised March 2025)
Case

Strategy and CEO Succession at Starbucks

By: Krishna G. Palepu and David Lane

On August 13, 2024, Starbucks announced that Laxman Narasimhan who was appointed as the CEO only in September 2023, was stepping down as CEO and board director “with immediate effect.” Laxman would be replaced on September 9 by Brian Niccol, CEO since 2018 of Chipotle... View Details

Keywords: Strategy; Corporate Governance; Leadership; Management Succession; Cost Management; Labor Unions; Working Conditions; Order Taking and Fulfillment; Service Operations; Investment Activism; Governing and Advisory Boards; Resignation and Termination; Food and Beverage Industry; United States