Publications

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June 2015 (Revised August 2016)
Case

Apple's Future: Apple Watch, Apple TV, and/or Apple Car?

By: David B. Yoffie and Eric Baldwin

In 2015, Apple CEO Tim Cook knew that Apple, despite its phenomenal success, needed to continue to innovate in new product areas in order to continue its momentum into the future. This case explores three new (actual or potential) product offerings from Apple: the... View Details

Keywords: Strategy; Electronics; Innovation; Technology; Technological Innovation; Competitive Strategy; Corporate Strategy; Emerging Markets; Growth and Development Strategy; Computer Industry; Retail Industry; Electronics Industry

April 2012
Article

Retail Doesn't Cross Borders: Here's Why and What to Do about It

By: Marcel Corstjens and Rajiv Lal

Most companies assume that the easiest way to grow is by investing overseas and that the developing world offers the best opportunities for boosting revenues and profits today. However, success abroad varies widely, and research shows that it's often tough to... View Details

Keywords: Operations; Growth and Development Strategy; Globalization; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Local Range; Retail Industry

21 Jun 2007
Working Paper Summaries

Multi-Sided Platforms: From Microfoundations to Design and Expansion Strategies

Keywords: by Andrei Hagiu; Technology

16 Nov 2020
Blog Post

Flatiron School: Reflections from Summer 2020

In the summer of 2020, HBS Career & Professional Development (CPD) partnered with Flatiron School to provide students with an opportunity to gain practical skills, statistics fundamentals, and real-life data science project... View Details

Keywords: All Industries

2015
Other Unpublished Work

Do Managers Have a Role to Play in Sustaining the Institutions of Capitalism?

By: Rebecca Henderson and Karthik Ramanna

In a capitalist system based on free markets, do managers have responsibilities to the system itself? If they do, should these responsibilities shape their behavior when they engage in the political processes that structure the institutions of capitalism? The... View Details

Keywords: Capitalism; Lobbying; Leadership; Economic Systems; Managerial Roles; Business and Government Relations

28 Apr 2014
Research & Ideas

Football Stars Debate ‘The Social Capital of the Savvy Athlete’

Association and an MBA candidate in the class of 2015 at Harvard Business School. The event was moderated by Anita Elberse, the Lincoln Filene Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School, whose research focuses on View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Sports

January 2000
Case

Talbots - A Classic

By: V. Kasturi Rangan and Marie Bell

This case traces why the $1 billion women's clothing retailer decided to attract younger customers, what went wrong, and the actions taken to recover. By the end of 1999, the company has reestablished itself and faces several growth opportunities and must decide on the... View Details

Keywords: Customer Focus and Relationships; Decisions; Crisis Management; Product Positioning; Problems and Challenges; Segmentation; Fashion Industry

September 1981 (Revised September 1986)
Case

Steinway & Sons

By: David A. Garvin

Considers whether Steinway should reintroduce a long-discontinued product line to meet competition from the Japanese. Raises the issue of just how quality is defined in this market. Looks closely at a production process relying on craft skills. Students have the... View Details

Keywords: Experience and Expertise; Brands and Branding; Production; Quality; Competition

November 2005 (Revised December 2016)
Case

Bally Total Fitness (A): The Rise, 1962–2004

By: John R. Wells, Elizabeth A. Raabe and Gabriel Ellsworth

From a single, modest club in 1962, Bally Total Fitness had grown to become—in management’s words—the “largest and only nationwide commercial operator of fitness centers” in the United States in 2004. Bally had faced its share of challenges, but the last couple of... View Details

Keywords: Bally Total Fitness; Fitness; Gyms; Health Clubs; Chain; Securities And Exchange Commission; Paul Toback; Weight Loss; Exercise; Contracts; Personal Training; Retention; Accounting; Accounting Audits; Accrual Accounting; Finance; Advertising; Business Growth and Maturation; Business Model; For-Profit Firms; Customers; Customer Satisfaction; Public Equity; Financing and Loans; Revenue; Revenue Recognition; Geographic Scope; Multinational Firms and Management; Health; Nutrition; Business History; Lawsuits and Litigation; Management; Business or Company Management; Goals and Objectives; Growth and Development Strategy; Marketing; Operations; Service Delivery; Service Operations; Public Ownership; Problems and Challenges; Business and Shareholder Relations; Business Strategy; Competition; Corporate Strategy; Expansion; Segmentation; Trends; Cost Management; Profit; Growth and Development; Leadership Style; Five Forces Framework; Private Ownership; Opportunities; Motivation and Incentives; Competitive Strategy; Health Industry; United States; Illinois; Chicago

Web

Faculty & Advisors | MBA

Technology Chris leads MPM Capital’s public market investing as portfolio manager for BioImpact Equities (formerly known as Burrage Capital) and the Oncology Impact Funds. Previously, Chris was a health care analyst at Fidelity... View Details

2017
Working Paper

Business History, the Great Divergence and the Great Convergence

By: Geoffrey Jones

This working paper provides a business history perspective on debates about the Great Divergence, the rise of the income gap between the West and the Rest, and the more recent Great Convergence, which has seen a narrowing of that gap. The literature on the timing and... View Details

Keywords: Business History; Economics; History; Wealth and Poverty; Developing Countries and Economies; Economic Growth

SSRN

2009
Working Paper

Don't Just Survive - Thrive: Leading Innovation in Good Times and Bad

By: Lynda M. Applegate and J. Bruce Harreld

Battered by contracting markets and frozen credit, many businesses today are fighting for survival. Indeed, the current global financial crisis provides a mandate for restructuring. But survival is not the end goal. In fact, cost cutting and restructuring are simply... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Risk Management; Leading Change; Innovation and Management; Crisis Management; Growth and Development Strategy

The MBA course on "Risks, Opportunities, and Investments in an Era of Climate Change" is ideal for students who aspire to become entrepreneurs by starting their own company or joining a start-up that is driving innovation and solving challenges posed by climate change.... View Details

October 2001 (Revised April 2002)
Case

America Online, Inc.: Disclosure Strategy

By: Amy P. Hutton and David Lane

Since going public, AOL had disclosed on a quarterly basis supplemental metrics meant to give analysts and investors a way of tracking growth in its subscriber base and the value created through its marketing efforts. These metrics gave management's conversations with... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Internet and the Web; Change Management; Internet and the Web; Corporate Disclosure; Media; Digital Marketing; Information Technology Industry; Media and Broadcasting Industry

Find at Harvard

Vikram S. Gandhi is the Gerald P. Kaminsky Senior Lecturer of Business Administration in the General Management Unit. He has developed and teaches two new courses in the Elective Curriculum of the MBA Program. The first is a finance and investing course, Sustainable... View Details

Keywords: financial services

Program

Succeeding as a Strategic CFO

Summary As capital markets and organizational strategies have evolved, so has the role of the chief financial officer (CFO). Today's CFOs are not just gatekeepers of a company's financial information; they serve as key strategic partners... View Details

Program

Driving Digital Strategy

Summary Technology, like a relentless force of nature, is reshaping industries at an unprecedented pace. It poses a threat to those who resist and fail to adapt. But it also presents unparalleled opportunities to those audacious enough to... View Details

January 2013
Case

Omidyar Network: Pioneering Impact Investment

By: Michael Chu and Lauren Barley

Omidyar Network, having deployed to date over $500 million in ways ranging from donations to commercial equity capital, must decide whether to back Anudip, an Indian organization dedicated to providing the rural unemployed and marginalized with livelihoods linked to... View Details

Keywords: Social Enterprise; Social Entrepreneurship; Investment; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; India