Publications

April 2009 (Revised January 2011)
Case

Gucci Group: Freedom within the Framework

By: Francisco de Asis Martinez-Jerez, Elena Corsi and Vincent Marie Dessain

Gucci Group's CEO had to decide if his decentralized management style was the most effective philosophy in an economic downturn. The sharing of customer information across units and its use in the creative process are key initiatives analyzed in the case. CEO Robert... View Details

Keywords: Customer Relationship Management; Decision Choices and Conditions; Globalized Firms and Management; Knowledge Sharing; Leadership; Management Style; Management Systems; Brands and Branding; Apparel and Accessories Industry

01 Sep 2023
News

Case Study: The Home Team

Illustration by Jon Krause Illustration by Jon Krause Brendan Kennealey (MBA 2006) wasn’t even searching for a business idea. A couple of years ago, the Wilmington, Delaware, native met up with an old friend who’d bought a new house. Over dinner this friend enumerated... View Details

Keywords: Jen McFarland Flint; Real Estate

12 Nov 2001
Research & Ideas

The Three Components of Family Governance

There are three components to family governance: Periodic (typically annual) assemblies of the family; all families in business can benefit from this activity. Family council meetings for those families that benefit from a representative... View Details

08 Nov 2022
Research & Ideas

How Centuries of Restrictions on Women Shed Light on Today's Abortion Debate

Efforts to restrict women’s sexual behavior date back centuries in virtually every region of the world. Now, the end of Roe v. Wade in the United States has returned such... View Details

Keywords: by Kara Baskin

April 6, 2023
Article

A New NFT Launch Strategy: The Wave Mint

By: Scott Duke Kominers and 1337 Skulls Sers

In an NFT project, the mint—the process by which tokens are initially allocated—largely determines who your community is and how they and the broader market view the project going forward. In this piece, we review a new minting strategy recently introduced by 1337... View Details

Keywords: NFTs; Mechanism Design; Sales Management; Sales Model; Crypto Economy; Non-fungible Tokens; Networks; Product Launch; Auctions; Market Design

09 Jun 2008
Lessons from the Classroom

Monetizing IP: The Executive’s Challenge

firms share their technology with each other. The rapid growth of open source software over the course of this decade has been highlighted in numerous press accounts. The... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Video Game; Web Services

26 Mar 2006
Research & Ideas

The Office of Strategy Management

terms. (b) Sixty percent of typical organizations do not link their strategic priorities to their budget, virtually ensuring that key strategic initiatives do not get funded and resources may not be supplied to deliver on View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

02 Apr 2019
News

The Right Way to Get Your First 1,000 Customers

November 2023 (Revised April 2024)
Case

Celsius Network Inc.: Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt in the Brave New World of Crypto Bankruptcy

By: Stuart C. Gilson and Sarah L. Abbott

In July 2022, Celsius Network filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. CEO Alex Mashinsky acknowledged that Celsius had grown its assets “faster than the Company was prepared to deploy [them]” and as a result had made “certain poor asset deployment decisions.” Two months after... View Details

Keywords: Cryptocurrency; Chapter 11; Restructuring; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Asset Management; Acquisition; Borrowing and Debt; Financial Services Industry; United States

25 Aug 2022
News

Up on the Corner

series of breathtakingly capricious bureaucratic hurdles. The city initially fast-tracked the demolition of the two vacant buildings on View Details

Keywords: Alexander Gelfand; photographed by Melissa Golden; Real Estate

Reviving and Restructuring the Corporate Sector Post-Covid

The report commends the broad-based governmental actions initially taken to support the economy, citizens, and the corporate sector during the Covid pandemic. However, structural changes in our economies due to the pandemic, and growing corporate... View Details

2021
Working Paper

Accounting for Product Impact in the Oil and Gas Industry

By: Katie Panella, George Serafeim and Katie Trinh

We apply the product impact measurement framework of the Impact-Weighted Accounts Initiative (IWAI) in two competitor companies within the oil and gas industry. We design a monetization methodology that allows us to calculate monetary product impact estimates of... View Details

SSRN

30 Jan 2006
HBS Case

The Case of the Mystery Writer’s Brand

perspective. "I'd never actually heard a product speak," he recalls. "It was like listening to a can of Coca-Cola explain how it would like to be marketed." That initial encounter inspired Deighton to write... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Entertainment & Recreation; Information; Publishing

2009
Working Paper

Negotiating the Path of Abraham

By: Kimberlyn Leary, James K. Sebenius and Joshua Weiss

In the face of daunting barriers, the Abraham Path Initiative envisions uncovering and revitalizing a route of cultural tourism that follows the path of Abraham and his family some 4,000 years ago across the Middle East. It begins in the ancient ruins of Harran, in... View Details

Keywords: Development Economics; Social Entrepreneurship; Negotiation; Business and Community Relations; Business and Government Relations; Religion; Environmental Sustainability; Tourism Industry; Middle East

January 2023 (Revised June 2024)
Supplement

Zaoui & Co. (B): Executing the Odyssey SPAC Transaction

By: Ashish Nanda, Alex Kitsberg and Zack Kurtovich

In September 2019, founding partners Michael and Yoel Zaoui decided to add principal investing to Zaoui & Co.’s offerings. The case outlines how, over the next two years, Zaoui & Co. pursued the formation of a SPAC, Odyssey Acquisitions, followed by the identification... View Details

Keywords: Finance; Investment Banking; SPACs; M＆A; Strategy; Entrepreneurship; Europe; United Kingdom

20 Oct 2010
Op-Ed

Export Competitiveness: Reversing the Logic

can only be justified, if the rise in exports enhances the effect of other policies that ultimately increase competitiveness. If that happens the View Details

Keywords: by Christian Ketels

May 2016 (Revised April 2019)
Case

Olivia Lum: Wanting to Save the World

By: Geoffrey Jones and Essie Alamsyah

This case considers the entrepreneurial career of Olivia Lum, who founded the Singaporean water company Hyflux in 1989. An orphan born in Malaysia, Lum provides a rare case of an entrepreneurial success in a country whose economic success has primarily rested on... View Details

November 1990 (Revised March 1994)
Case

Digital Equipment Corp.: The Kodak Outsourcing Agreement (A)

By: Lynda M. Applegate and Herminia M. Ibarra

Describes grassroots effort which culminated in Digital's winning a competitive bid for the outsourcing of Kodak's internal telecommunications business. Describes the "Telstar" project, from the initial identification of the business opportunity to the process of... View Details

Keywords: Innovation and Management; Partners and Partnerships; Leading Change; Agreements and Arrangements; Business or Company Management; Bids and Bidding; Decision Making; Management Teams; Telecommunications Industry