Publications

February 2015 (Revised November 2015)
Case

Building an Integrated Biopharma Company: Crucell (A)

By: Richard G. Hamermesh, Marianne Van Der Steen and Susan S. Harmeling

By 2009, Crucell had become the largest biopharma company in the Netherlands and a symbol of national pride. The case traces the evolution of the company from a University spin-off into a fully-integrated company. Crucell's success, particularly in the vaccine space,... View Details

Keywords: Biotechnology; Biopharmacy Company; Licensing; Licensing Agreements In Biopharmacy; Human Cell-line Technology; Vaccine; Healthcare Innovation; Global Health; Partners and Partnerships; Entrepreneurship; Growth and Development Strategy; Biotechnology Industry; Pharmaceutical Industry; Netherlands

March 1998 (Revised December 2005)
Case

Beta Golf

By: William A. Sahlman, Michael J. Roberts and Laurence E. Katz

The Beta Group is a technology incubator in Menlo Park, CA that has successfully built a portfolio of businesses in the medical, consumer products, and industrial technology sectors by systematically matching proprietary technologies to unmet market needs. Beta has... View Details

Keywords: Business Strategy; Investment; Financial Strategy; Information Technology; Commercialization

August 2013 (Revised November 2020)
Case

Tesla Motors

By: Eric Van den Steen

In mid-2013, Tesla Motors was riding a wave of success: It had launched its first really mass-produced car—the model S—to rave reviews; had recently raised first-year production targets; and had started taking orders for its next car, the Model X. Tesla seemed to be on... View Details

Keywords: Barriers To Entry; Economic Analysis; Learning Curve; Economies Of Scale; Innovation; Market Entry; Sustainable Competitive Advantage; Vision; Strategy And Leadership; Strategy; Competitive Strategy; Market Entry and Exit; Competitive Advantage; Technological Innovation; Leadership; Learning; Economics; Analysis; Auto Industry

January 2019 (Revised October 2019)
Case

Commercial Sales Transformation at Microsoft

By: Doug J. Chung

Industry leaders should adapt to changes in the business context and consider different ways to grow. Advances in technology had shifted software demand to the cloud. As a result, Microsoft announced a strategic shift in direction from its existing ‘Windows first’... View Details

Keywords: Sales; Strategy; Transformation

March 2000
Supplement

Charles Schwab Corporation, The: A Presentation by David Pottruck Co-CEO

By: F. Warren McFarlan and Melissa Dailey

David Pottruck, Co-CEO of Charles Schwab Corp., discusses the company's information technology and competitive strategy with an Executive Education (Program for Management Development) class at Harvard Business School, October 22, 1999. View Details

Keywords: Competitive Strategy; Information Technology; Financial Services Industry

December 1998 (Revised October 2007)
Case

Tele-Communications, Inc.: Accelerating Digital Deployment

By: Thomas R. Eisenmann

The top management team at Tele-Communications, Inc. (TCI), the largest U.S. cable company, conceived and implemented a dramatic operational turnaround and a radical new technology strategy over an 18-month period beginning in late 1996. View Details

Keywords: Technological Innovation; Value Creation; Operations; Information Management; Business Strategy; Information Technology Industry; Information Technology Industry; United States

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January 2020
Case

Celata Bioinnovations

By: John R. Wells and Benjamin Weinstock

In December 2019, Jon Hu (HBS ‘19) and Dr. Samantha Dale Strasser, co-founders of Celata Bioinnovations, were raising $1 million to launch their company. They had founded Celata less than six months earlier with the aim of redefining the drug discovery process.... View Details

2011
Teaching Note

Kingdee

By: F. Warren McFarlan, Jin Zhang and Ziqian Zhao

Keywords: Business Ethics; Competitive Strategy; Computer Software; Emerging Markets; Venture Capital; China; Applications and Software; China

November 2016 (Revised April 2018)
Case

reMarkable: e-Writing the Future

By: Elie Ofek and Curtis Hsu

Magnus Wanberg is the creator of reMarkable, a breakthrough e-writer device set apart from similar products on the market by having solved the frustrating “slow ink” problem typically experienced on pen-based electronic devices, thus providing a “pen and paper” like... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurial Marketing; Innovation Management; Go To Market Strategy; Marketing Plan; Target Market; Digital Devices; Consumer Electronics; Forecasting; Information Technology; Marketing Strategy; Innovation and Management; Marketing Channels; Entrepreneurship; Forecasting and Prediction; Product Marketing; Product Development; Electronics Industry

August 2014 (Revised August 2015)
Supplement

Opening the Valve: From Software to Hardware (B)

By: Ethan Bernstein, Francesca Gino and Bradley Staats

Valve, one of the world's top video game software companies, has also become an iconic example of an organization with virtually no hierarchy. A 400-person organization, Valve's unique organizational form (described in detail in the case and accompanying employee... View Details

September 2007 (Revised May 2011)
Case

Commercializing an MRI Breakthrough

The challenges and best strategies for the commercialization of university technologies are illustrated in this case which documents an MRI breakthrough that arose from the Charles Marcus laboratory at Harvard. Students discuss the interdependencies of intellectual... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Decision Choices and Conditions; Higher Education; Patents; Research and Development; Science-Based Business; Commercialization

September 2017 (Revised November 2018)
Case

Marriott International: The Next 90 Years

By: Chiara Farronato and Gary Pisano

The case examines how Marriott should respond to the potential threats from new home-sharing platforms and the rise of online travel agencies. In 2017 Marriott was the largest hotel chain, with more than one million rooms and 7% of worldwide room supply. In the... View Details

June 2021
Case

Akira Fukabori and Kevin Kajitani at avatarin (A)

By: Linda A. Hill and Emily Tedards

In 2016, Akira Fukabori and Kevin Kajitani, aeronautical engineers at All Nippon Airways Co., Ltd., began to wonder why, in a world of accelerating globalization and digital connectivity, those who lived in far-remote villages or impoverished urban areas could not... View Details

Keywords: Agility; Ecosystem; Innovation Ecosystems; Crowdsourcing; Open Innovation; Partnership; Government; Collaboration; Co-creation; Purpose; Impact; Social Impact; Movement; Organizational Behavior; Organizational Ambidexterity; Ambidexterity; Culture; Culture Change; Global Teams; Experimentation; Space; Airline Industry; Start-up; Platform Business; Platform Strategy; Platform; Digital; Robotics; Robots; Mobility; Strategy; COVID-19; Intrapreneurship; Public-private Partnership; XPRIZE; Space Industry; Avatar; Telepresence; Innovation Lab; Innovation and Invention; Technological Innovation; Partners and Partnerships; Collaborative Innovation and Invention; Alignment; Leadership; Leading Change; Diversity; Organizational Culture; Change Management; Entrepreneurship; Digital Platforms; Transportation Industry; Aerospace Industry; Japan

06 Sep 2019
Working Paper Summaries

Experimentation and Startup Performance: Evidence from A/B Testing

Keywords: by Rembrand Koning, Sharique Hasan, and Aaron Chatterji

July 2000 (Revised May 2001)
Case

WebMD (A)

Discusses the emerging role of the Internet in the health care industry and describes the strategy of WebMD in this new "ehealth" space. Issues include technology strategy, industry transformation, competition in turbulent environments, and strategic alliances. View Details

Keywords: Internet and the Web; Alliances; Competitive Advantage; Industry Structures; Health Care and Treatment; Health Industry

Article

Trends and Predictors of Biomedical Research Quality, 1990–2015: A Meta-Research Study

By: Maryaline Catillon

Keywords: Biomedical Research; R＆D; Innovation; Technology; Drug Trials; RCT; Health; Healthcare; Health Care And Treatment; Health Care Policy; Innovation and Invention; Innovation Strategy; Research and Development; Technological Innovation; Health Industry; Pharmaceutical Industry

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August 2017 (Revised February 2023)
Case

Managing Diversity and Inclusion at Yelp

By: Michael Luca, Joshua Schwartzstein and Gauri Subramani

This case explores the industry-wide lack of employee diversity in the technology sector and Yelp’s decision to take a leadership position in identifying strategies to increase diversity. The goal of the case is to provide an opportunity for students to develop a... View Details

Keywords: Diversity; Employees; Leading Change; Strategy; Organizational Culture; Technology Industry

March 2017 (Revised September 2017)
Case

Facebook Fake News in the Post-Truth World

By: John R. Wells and Carole A. Winkler

In January 2017, Mark Zuckerberg, founder and CEO of Facebook, was surrounded by controversy. The election of Donald Trump as the next president of the United States in November 2016 had triggered a national storm of protests, and many attributed Trump’s victory to... View Details

September 2017 (Revised May 2019)
Case

Goldman Sachs' Digital Journey

By: Sunil Gupta and Sara Simonds

Lloyd Blankfein, Chairman and CEO of Goldman Sachs, proclaimed, “We are a technology firm. We are a platform.” By 2017, he led a series of initiatives to translate this vision into reality. These included giving clients access to its proprietary database without... View Details

Keywords: Finance; Information Technology; Digital Platforms; Strategy; Transformation; Digital Strategy; Digital Transformation