Publications

02 Mar 2020
What Do You Think?

Are Candor, Humility, and Trust Making a Comeback?

SUMMING UP Why Is It so Difficult to Lead with Candor, Humility, and Trust? Responses to this month’s column, for the most part, represented a celebration of the values of candor, humility, and trust in leadership. As Dan Wallace put it,... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

16 Oct 2006
Research & Ideas

Report from China: The New Entrepreneurs

course-development activities at HBS. Report: Sean Silverthorne: What were some of the group's conclusions about entrepreneurship in China, at least in the areas you saw? Dan Isenberg: Yes, it is important to take into account the fact... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

05 Feb 2009
What Do You Think?

Why Can’t We Figure Out How to Select Leaders?

research and practice that can guide and improve the selection process and its outcomes. Their message was: "We know how to do it. And here's how." As Al Shealy commented, "The research isn't being used." Dan Erwin... View Details

Keywords: by Jim Heskett

17 Mar 2015
Research & Ideas

Where Did My Shopping Mall Go?

Surprising Winners and Losers in the Retail Revolution Retail Reaches a Tipping Point—Which Stores Will Survive? book excerpt The Trends Shaping Retail's Future From Retail Revolution: Will Your Brick-and-Mortar Store Survive? By Rajiv... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Retail

18 Feb 2013
Research & Ideas

Breaking Through a Growth Stall

where a company seems weighted down by the bounds of its original start-up business model, a lack of experience by its founder(s), and an accelerating, expense-fueled burn rate through working capital and... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

10 Mar 2015
Research & Ideas

The Surprising Winners and Losers in the Retail Revolution

Point: Which Stores Will Survive? book excerpt Will The Internet Push Grocery Retailers Over The Edge? From Retail Revolution: Will Your Brick-and-Mortar Store Survive? By Rajiv Lal, Jose Alvarez and Dan... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Retail

July 2019 (Revised August 2020)
Case

Peabody Essex Museum: What Next?

By: V. Kasturi Rangan and Jeffrey F. Rayport

The case describes the 25-year transformation of Peabody Essex Museum, which was created in 1993 by the merger of two sub-scale predecessor cultural institutions, operating since 1799, in Salem, Massachusetts. Dan Monroe, its founding CEO, began a process of building... View Details

Keywords: Museums; Strategy; Leadership; Transformation; Innovation Leadership; Strategic Planning

March 2017 (Revised June 2019)
Case

CEO Activism (A)

By: Michael W. Toffel, Aaron K. Chatterji and Julia Kelley

This case introduces CEO activism, a phenomenon in which business leaders engage in political or social issues that do not relate directly to their companies. The case uses several examples to describe why business leaders are engaging in CEO activism and the potential... View Details

06 Jan 2011
What Do You Think?

How Should Management Deal With “Anonymous”?

Summing Up The title of this wrap-up and the one that accompanied this month's original column basically just deletes "Wikileaks." The original title was my mistake. The intent was not to direct attention to Wikileaks in a manner that View Details

Keywords: by James L. Heskett

August 2019
Case

ClearScore, 2018

By: John R. Wells and Benjamin Weinstock

In October 2017, Experian, one of the “Big Three” consumer credit reporting agencies in the United Kingdom made an offer to acquire ClearScore for a total consideration of £293 million. Founded by Justin Basini, Dan Cobley, and Nigel Morris in 2014, ClearScore was the... View Details

01 Jun 2016
What Do You Think?

When Business Performance Falters, is Culture Change the Fix?

Original Article A recent article in Harvard Business Review, “Culture Is Not the Culprit,” by Jay Lorsch and Emily McTague noted that “When organizations get into big trouble, fixing the culture is usually the prescription.” The article... View Details

Keywords: by James L. Heskett

21 Apr 2021
Research & Ideas

The Pandemic Conversations That Leaders Need to Have Now

Their Organizations, by Boris Groysberg and Michael Slind, explores how companies’ outreach strategies evolved from top-down, command-centric communiques to something more informal, immediate, and personal—from a C-suite monologue to a... View Details

Keywords: by Boris Groysberg, Robin Abrahams, and Katherine Connolly Baden

April 2021 (Revised July 2021)
Case

StockX: The Stock Market of Things (Abridged)

By: Chiara Farronato, John J. Horton, Annelena Lobb and Julia Kelley

Founded in 2015 by Dan Gilbert, Josh Luber, and Greg Schwartz, StockX was an online platform where users could buy and sell unworn luxury and limited-edition sneakers. Sneaker resale prices often fluctuated over time based on supply and demand, creating a robust... View Details

January 2019 (Revised July 2021)
Case

Analytical Space: The Next Frontier?

By: Thomas R. Eisenmann, Jeffrey J. Bussgang and David Lane

With one satellite aloft and in the midst of beta testing in late 2018, Analytical Space founders Justin Oliveira and Dan Nevius turned to critical questions about the pioneering startup’s go-to-market, pricing, and business development strategy. Analytical Space aimed... View Details

Keywords: Pricing Decisions; Demand Validation; Revenue Model; Business Development; Space Tech; Satellites; Earth Observation; Remote Sensing; Business Startups; Emerging Markets; Growth and Development Strategy; Finance; Selection and Staffing; Business Strategy; Aerospace Industry

May 2011 (Revised January 2012)
Supplement

OPOWER: Increasing Energy Efficiency through Normative Influence (B)

By: Maarten W. Bos, Amy J.C. Cuddy and Kyle Todd Doherty

The case profiles OPOWER, an energy efficiency software company that applies Cialdini's principles of social influence to successfully encourage consumers to reduce their energy usage. OPOWER was co-founded in 2008 by two young Harvard graduates, Dan Yates and Alex... View Details

Keywords: Energy Conservation