Publications

Career Coach

Whit Collier

Whit Collier (HBS ’04, Harvard College ’99) advises students on their paths towards alignment and fulfillment in career and life. He guides clients through transitions, challenges and inflection points, bringing a balance of thoughtful... View Details

July 2008 (Revised June 2011)
Case

mixi (A)

By: Mikolaj Jan Piskorski, Masaru Nomura and Kanako Miyoshi

Kasahara, the founder and CEO of mixi, the most successful Japanese on-line social network, is deciding between two strategic options: (i) B2C or (ii) C2C to leverage the power of the social network. In the B2C option, mixi would become a portal for on-line shopping... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Digital Platforms; Social and Collaborative Networks; Business Strategy; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Internet and the Web; Japan

March 2000 (Revised April 2001)
Case

eFrenzy, Inc. (A)

By: Marco Iansiti and Nicole Tempest

Details how to design, launch, and scale a rapidly growing Internet venture. Focuses on the challenges and opportunities involved in leveraging a network of partners. View Details

Keywords: Corporate Entrepreneurship; Business Growth and Maturation; Internet and the Web; Product Development; Business or Company Management; Problems and Challenges; Information Technology Industry; United States

01 Mar 2003
News

All in a Day's Work

Sternhell and Oakes on the job. Photos by Jared Leeds One lives in a Manhattan studio five blocks from Wall Street, the other on the second floor of a triple-decker in Jamaica Plain, a culturally diverse neighborhood in Boston. Both are... View Details

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

01 Dec 2014
News

Innovation: The Fish-Farming Fix

i-lab—has given Cryoocyte the funding and fresh ideas needed to hone its technology in the field. To gather viable eggs for testing, the company’s Allston-based team has had to follow spawning season, from Panama to the Patagonia... View Details

Keywords: Francis Storrs; aquaculture; Fishing, Hunting and Trapping; Agriculture

December 1998
Background Note

Retail Financial Services in 1998

By: Stephen P. Bradley and Takia Mahmood

Provides an overview of the current restructuring that is taking place in the retail financial services industry. Provides a brief overview of the structural changes in banking, brokerage, insurance, and mutual funds. Used as background for examining the strategies of... View Details

Keywords: Economic Sectors; Economy; Financial Institutions; Financial Markets; Industry Growth; Strategy; Competitive Strategy; Banking Industry; Financial Services Industry

February 2016
Case

BancoSol and Microfinance in Bolivia

By: Rajiv Lal and Annelena Lobb

BancoSol, a microfinance bank headquartered in La Paz, Bolivia, was forced to adjust its lending strategy and business model because of a regulatory change—60% of the bank's lending portfolio would have to move to the productive sector of the Bolivian economy by 2018,... View Details

Keywords: Microfinance; Banks and Banking; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Business Model; Strategy; South America; Bolivia

26 Nov 2019
News

Apple Has Survived Backlash to the Tech World While Amazon, Google, Facebook and Other Tech Giants Struggle — An Expert on Trust Explains Why

February 2024 (Revised July 2024)
Case

Taffi: Entrepreneurship in Saudi Arabia

By: Paul A. Gompers and Fares Khrais

Taffi was a tech-enabled fashion styling startup founded by Shahad Geoffrey in Saudi Arabia in 2020. Within three years of operating, Geoffrey had pivoted the business multiple times. In 2023, Geoffrey was attempting the business’s most ambitious pivot yet, shifting... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Disruption; Entrepreneurship; Venture Capital; Investment; Growth and Development Strategy; Business Strategy; AI and Machine Learning; Technology Industry; Technology Industry; Saudi Arabia; Arabian Peninsula

September 2024
Case

Eat App: Building and Monetizing an End-to-End Dining Experience Solution

By: Elie Ofek and Ahmed Dahawy

Founded in 2015 in Bahrain, Eat App was an up-and-coming player in the global restaurant management software business. In early 2024, having shifted to a product-led growth strategy, the company’s co-founders faced a host of decisions that could greatly impact their... View Details

Keywords: Price; Growth and Development Strategy; Product Marketing; Negotiation Deal; Internet and the Web; Value Creation; Profit; Revenue; Applications and Software; Product; Technology Industry; Technology Industry; Bahrain; United Arab Emirates; Abu Dhabi; Dubai

Keywords: Garry Emmons;Julia Hanna;Roger Thompson; Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools; Educational Services; Management of Companies and Enterprises; Management; Management, Scientific, and Technical Consulting Services; Professional Services

20 Mar 2012
First Look

First Look: March 20

consumers and producers, and such changes typically required the mobilization of political power to overcome resistance to such changes. In order to support such developmental changes, the political authorities View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

01 Mar 2012
News

Get Creative

Issue Focus: Innovation In a hypercompetitive global economy, creativity has never been more important for success . But how do you create a company that unleashes and capitalizes on innovation? For answers, we turned to five HBS faculty experts in culture, customers,... View Details

May 2001 (Revised April 2005)
Exercise

Betonn Corporation: Confidential Negotiation Information

By: James K. Sebenius

A two-party, multiple-issue dollar-scoring negotiation exercise dealing with the formation and terms of an IT-industry joint venture. Subordinates have made some progress on several issues but have reached an impasse. Division heads will now attempt to reach a... View Details

Keywords: Negotiation Types; Joint Ventures; Conflict Management; Information Technology; Information Technology Industry

24 Mar 2015
First Look

First Look: March 24

features. First, financiers engage in the costly but potentially profitable process of innovation: they can invent better methods for screening entrepreneurs. Second, every screening process becomes less effective as View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

15 Dec 2024
News

Assets: Memory Full

When Dante Roscini (MBA 1988) arrived on campus in 1986, he and members of his class each became the de-facto owner of an IBM PC Convertible (purchase was mandatory for all incoming students). As conceived by German industrial designer Richard Sapper, the laptop-style... View Details

Keywords: Julia Hanna; computer hardware; history; HBS memories

10 Jun 2008
First Look

First Look: June 10, 2008

note examines the relationship between video gaming devices (console, handhelds, mobile and PC) and gaming software development. The impact of broadband, wireless technologies and other innovations are also... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

02 Jan 2016
News

The first venture capitalists: Fin-tech

January 2021 (Revised March 2021)
Exercise

E-Commerce Analytics for CPG Firms (A): Estimating Sales

By: Ayelet Israeli and Fedor (Ted) Lisitsyn

The E-Commerce Analytics group at the traditional CPG firm was in charge of compiling various online sales reports, as well as making data-driven recommendations for sales and marketing tactics. In a series of exercises, students address different data challenges for... View Details

Forthcoming
Article

The Stock Market and Bank Risk-Taking

By: David S. Scharfstein and Antonio Falato

We argue that stock market pressure to generate earnings encourages banks to increase risk. We measure risk using confidential supervisory ratings as well as financial information released in regulatory filings. We document that there is an increase in the risk-taking... View Details

Keywords: Stock Market; Financial Markets; Business Earnings; Banks and Banking; Risk and Uncertainty