Publications

01 Mar 2003
News

All in a Day's Work

applicable are skills learned at HBS for recent graduates facing real-world challenges? What are the differences and similarities for alumni who work in the private and nonprofit sectors, in large corporations vs. smaller organizations?... View Details

Keywords: Julia Hanna; Boston Community Capital; Samsung; Management of Companies and Enterprises; Management; Real Estate

Profile

Aaron Chadbourne

For Aaron Chadbourne, entrepreneurship began early. "As soon as I could talk, I was put to work in my grandmother's business – selling vegetables at a roadside picnic table piled high with corn." As Aaron grew up, he helped with... View Details

01 Dec 2002
News

Faculty Updates

also devote time to the Center for Organizational Fitness, an organization he cofounded that helps senior managers enable a strategic change process. William J. Poorvu, the MBA Class of 1961 Adjunct Professor in Entrepreneurship, Emeritus, has retired. An authority on... View Details

01 Sep 2004
News

Nancy Hall (MBA 1974)

last year for a Social Enterprise Initiative event. Sitting at a table with several women who were current MBA students, I was surprised when they introduced themselves to each other. When I was at HBS, there were only fifty women on campus, and we all knew each other.... View Details

Keywords: Susan Young; Religious, Grantmaking, Civic, Professional, and Similar Organizations; Personal Services; Management, Scientific, and Technical Consulting Services; Professional Services

June 2014
Teaching Note

Steve Carpenter at Cake Financial

By: Thomas R. Eisenmann

After investing $9 million of venture capital, Cake Financial had failed to reach critical mass. In early 2010 Cake's assets were sold and the company was dissolved. Founded in 2006, the San Francisco-based Internet company allowed users to monitor their investments... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Entrepreneurship; Business or Company Management; Business Model; Growth and Development Strategy; Business Strategy; Internet; Financial Services Industry; Web Services Industry

January 2014
Case

Steven Carpenter at Cake Financial (Abridged)

By: Thomas R. Eisenmann, Joseph B. Fuller and Shikhar Ghosh

Steven Carpenter reflects on the successes and failures of his recent venture, Cake Financial. Carpenter had just sold the four-year-old startup and was at work on a new business plan. But first, he wanted to understand why Cake Financial, a service that allowed users... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Entrepreneurship; Business or Company Management; Business Model; Growth and Development Strategy; Business Strategy; Internet; Financial Services Industry; Web Services Industry

April 2007 (Revised March 2018)
Case

M-TRONICS (A)

By: Joseph L. Bower and Lynda M. Applegate

The new CEO of a small manufacturing firm pursues growth through the launch of Entrepreneurial Subsidiaries. While the firm grows revenues from $600 million to over $2 billion in 10 years, problems surface as the subsidiaries are integrated into the established... View Details

Keywords: Business Subsidiaries; Business Model; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Growth and Development Strategy; Integration

April 1999
Case

Trexel

Describes an interesting plastics technology and an entrepreneur's attempts to build a business around it. Highlights issues around managing technical and market risk. Teaching purpose: Highlights difficult decisions around building a business off of an unproven... View Details

Keywords: Business or Company Management; Business Startups; Risk Management; Risk and Uncertainty; Information Technology; Corporate Entrepreneurship

August 2011 (Revised July 2014)
Case

Social Innovation at Salesforce.com

By: Christopher Marquis, Marley C. Kornreich and Bobbi Thomason

Salesforce.com recently implemented an innovative social enterprise business model whereby the Salesforce.com Foundation funds its operations and grant budget by selling discounted salesforce.com software licenses to nonprofits and education clients. The case recounts... View Details

Keywords: Innovation and Invention; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Business Model; Information Technology; Leading Change; Problems and Challenges

27 Mar 2018
First Look

First Look at New Research, March 27, 2018

and output of analysts in emerging-market contexts. Download working paper: https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=54281 Self-Employment Dynamics and the Returns to Entrepreneurship By: Dillon, Eleanor W., and Christopher T.... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

01 Aug 2001
News

Amy Schiffman Langer (MBA '77)

respected spokesperson for patient needs and rights. She advises corporate and government cancer programs and medical professional organizations, gives presentations on cancer survivor- ship at national conferences, and testifies before... View Details

Keywords: Alumni Achievement Award; Health, Social Assistance

Career Coach

Philippe Taieb

since 2013. Besides providing career counseling, Philippe assists his clients with what keeps them up at night and what their pain points are. He enjoys meaningful connections. Philippe has 25 years of professional experience, in the View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Entrepreneurship; Entrepreneurship; Entrepreneurship; Entrepreneurship; Entrepreneurship; Entrepreneurship; Entrepreneurship; Entrepreneurship; Entrepreneurship; Entrepreneurship; Entrepreneurship

28 Apr 2022
News

Finding Her Place

Photo: Courtesy Chapman Partnership Symeria Hudson (MBA 1997) never expected to find herself leading a nonprofit. She began her career with 25 years in the corporate world, the first 10 years in consumer goods and then 15 in the medical... View Details

01 Oct 2000
News

Books

information technology capped an eighty-year trend in which decision rights moved mostly downward within business hierarchies," McCraw concludes, highlighting factors such as increased consumer power, intensified competition, and the human toll from View Details

May 2019 (Revised May 2020)
Case

fidentiaX: The Tradable Insurance Marketplace on Blockchain

By: Alexander Braun, Lauren H. Cohen and Jiahua Xu

Three years ago, Alvin Ang and his partner founded fidentiaX in Singapore, with the ambition to create the world’s first marketplace for tradable insurance policies on blockchain. With a 26-page white paper, the start-up closed a successful fundraising round through an... View Details

Keywords: Blockchain; Insurance; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Technology Adoption; Business Strategy; Insurance Industry; Technology Industry; Singapore

March 13, 2013
Blog Post

Let's Be Realistic About Measuring Impact

By: Alnoor Ebrahim

"Measure impact" has become a mantra for creating social change. Claims about making a difference are no longer sufficient; evidence of how much difference you're making is now required. We should applaud this trend, because results are sometimes ambiguous and claims... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Social Entrepreneurship; Performance Evaluation