Disruption - Publications - Faculty & Research

13 Jun 2012
HBS Case

HBS Cases: A Startup Takes On the Credit Ratings Giants

For most of the 20th century, three bond ratings agencies—Moody's, Fitch, and Standard & Poor's—dominated the credit ratings industry, recently controlling 97 percent of the market. But the status quo was disrupted by the 2008 global... View Details

Keywords: by Maggie Starvish; Banking; Financial Services

July 2011 (Revised January 2013)
Case

Digital Microscopy Is Making Me Crazy!

By: Willy Shih

For Carl Zeiss Microimaging, modular hardware and software enabled customers to tailor Zeiss's broad range of microscopy systems hardware and software to meet a wide range of needs from basic scientific research in the biological and medical sciences to clinical... View Details

Keywords: Information Infrastructure; Applications and Software; Corporate Strategy; Disruptive Innovation; Science-Based Business; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Business Conglomerates; Digital Platforms; Opportunities; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry; Computer Industry

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May 2022
Supplement

Maestro Pizza (B): The Competition Awakens

By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell and Fares Khrais

Maestro pizza opened its first store in 2013 after its founder, Khalid Al Omran, recognized an opportunity in Saudi Arabia to offer high quality pizza at affordable prices. The business grew rapidly and under the radar at first, but soon enough caught the attention of... View Details

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08 Nov 2011
First Look

First Look: Nov. 8

instead of growing by 11% as forecasted. Also, disruptions in financial and insurance markets created a cash shortfall. In the summer of 2009, Penn was facing the likelihood of default and possible foreclosure under its loan agreements.... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

22 Aug 2006
First Look

First Look: August 22, 2006

authors describe how organizational biases arise from the different incentives, agendas, and blind spots of the various functional areas of a business, and how they compromise forecast accuracy and disrupt the supply chain process. They... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

November 2016
Case

Pete & Gerry's

By: Jose Alvarez and Natalie Kindred

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18 Oct 2016
First Look

October 18, 2016

and miss? Harvard Business School professor Clayton Christensen has the answer. A generation ago, Christensen revolutionized business with his groundbreaking theory of disruptive innovation. Now, he goes further, offering powerful new... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

14 Oct 2013
Research & Ideas

Time that Government Reopens for Business

other segments of the economy such as defense contractors. Since the shutdown follows on the heels of the sequester, it's a second whammy for them. If you are a defense contractor, you've probably seen a lot of disruption in your... View Details

Keywords: by Jim Aisner

28 May 2013
Research & Ideas

Can LEGO Snap Together a Future in Asia?

more localized products coupled with licensing agreements linked to specific movie franchises might be an option, but an expensive one. The company also had to consider that "diminishing play time and the threat of a disruptive... View Details

Keywords: by Kim Girard; Entertainment & Recreation

25 Sep 2000
Research & Ideas

More Than the Sum of Its Parts: The Impact of Modularity on the Computer Industry

and a set of well-specified functional "tests" of each module's performance. All systems built out of System/360 modules worked together as one and could run the same software. Furthermore, new modules could be added to the system and old ones upgraded... View Details

Keywords: by Staff; Computer; Consumer Products; Technology

10 Apr 2018
First Look

First Look at New Research, April 10, 2018

theoretical illustrations and Monte Carlo simulations to validate our claims. Download working paper: https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=52743 Executive Education in the Digital Vortex: The Disruption of the Supply Landscape... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

02 Mar 2015
Research & Ideas

‘Retail Revolution’ Excerpt: The Scale of the Ecommerce Threat

both online and in-store, which can reduce stores' ability to upsell, make complementary sales (recall the Best Buy example), and make impulse sales (think candy at the checkout), resulting in smaller shopping baskets. This basket View Details

Keywords: Re: Rajiv Lal; Retail

31 Jan 2017
Research & Ideas

The Dow at 20,000: What's That All About?

a tough stance to renegotiate trade deals but does not really intend to disrupt the status quo of global trade and the free movement of capital, both of which have benefited this country immensely. Free trade has been in the DNA of the... View Details

Keywords: by Jim Aisner

30 May 2019
What Do You Think?

Is There a Distinctive West Coast Style of Management?

disrupting one’s own products and services, and operating with a nonhierarchical organization (à la Hamel). Salim presented many examples of exponential organizations under development; nearly all originated on or near the West Coast. The... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett; Education

04 Jul 2016
Research & Ideas

Is Your Org Chart Stuck in a Rut? Try a Scientific Experiment

organization? by Ethan Bernstein. What Is Disruptive Innovation? By Clayton Christensen, Michael E. Raynor, and Rory McDonald. The Capitalist’s Dilemma by Clayton Christensen and Derek van Bever. (The authors crowdsourced this article... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

22 Sep 2020
Research & Ideas

Recessions Push Some Entrepreneurs to Launch Too Soon

professors (the most likely group to have strong job stability), PhDs/postdoctoral students (the least stable), and founders who had previously been employed at larger firms, small firms, and startups. In an email exchange, we asked Roche about how economic View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

25 Apr 2014
Research & Ideas

To Pay or Not to Pay: Argentina and the International Debt Market

that many believe helped the sovereign lending market evolve on a grand scale. It also led to a wave of litigation that did little more than disrupt or delay sovereign debt restructurings. Over the next two decades, lawyers, lenders and... View Details

Keywords: by Laura Alfaro

07 Nov 2005
What Do You Think?

Is Less Becoming More?

without endangering its competitive position? Or does the answer lie in increasing levels of disruptive competition, the strategy of providing less for much less? What do you think? Original Article The issue of whether less is more, both... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett; Consumer Products

12 Oct 1999
Research & Ideas

Bright Ideas: The Creative Power of Groups

individuals willingly succumbing to "group think," waving through a lukewarm idea rather than disrupting the comfort of the status quo. "Questioning long-held beliefs and traditional ways of doing things is a painful but... View Details

Keywords: by Laurie Joan Aron

March 2021 (Revised August 2024)
Case

Hotwire.com: Navigating Through Turbulence

By: Jeffrey F. Rayport, Manny de Zarraga and Eric Levine

On September 10, 2001, after speaking at an industry conference at New York’s World Trade Center, Hotwire co-founder Spencer Rascoff boarded a flight from Newark to San Francisco. After returning home, Rascoff awoke the next morning to a phone call informing him that... View Details