Publications

19 Aug 2024
News

Quantum Leap

the startup. “The groups that can diligence what we’re doing tend to be corporate venture funds that have quantum scientists on staff,” Levy says—like Merck’s M Ventures fund, which has access to an in-house quantum computing task force.... View Details

Web

Preview the Harvard Business School Online Learning Experience

Learn about the difference between leadership and management, and how you can be a more effective leader. Download for Free Strategy E-Book Strengthen your abilities in strategic planning, strategy formulation, and improve your strategic skill set. Download for Free... View Details

06 Sep 2004
What Do You Think?

How Do We Prepare for a World Without Cheap Oil?

Summing Up Is the end of cheap oil a challenge to the world? Yes. Will it affect our standard of living adversely? Not likely. At least that is the verdict of most of the large number of respondents to this month's column who rely on assumed human ingenuity combined... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

01 Jan 2004
News

Donald P. Nielsen, MBA 1963

Former Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer, Hazleton Laboratories Corporation Former President, Seattle School Board Return to Alumni Achievement Awards main page EARLIER EDUCATION University of Washington, 1960 B.A., Business... View Details

01 Jan 2006
News

Philip L. Yeo, MBA 1976

Yeo's ninth-floor office in one of the seven gleaming new buildings of Singapore's Biopolis-a $500 million, eighteen-acre complex dedicated to cutting-edge research and development in the biomedical sciences by the world's leading companies-he has a clear view of... View Details

July 2024
Case

Freelancer, Ltd.

By: Christopher Stanton, Karim R. Lakhani, Jin Hyun Paik and Nina Cohodes

Over the course of the 2010s, the rapid advancement of mobile technologies and the rise of online freelancing platforms seemed to portend a radical transformation of labor markets into on-demand, flexible talent pools. Even though several Fortune 500... View Details

Keywords: Freelancers; Labor Markets; Internet and the Web; Digital Platforms; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Human Capital; Change Management; Globalized Firms and Management; Employment; Global Range; Employment Industry

February 2006
Case

Bumble and bumble: Building a Successful Business in Beauty and Fashion

By: Nancy F. Koehn and Erica Helms

Explores the creation and subsequent rise of Bumble and bumble, a trend-setting hair-care company. Analyzes the vision and achievements of the founding entrepreneur, Michael Gordon, and charts the evolution of the company within the $230 billion global beauty industry.... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Entrepreneurship; Brands and Branding; Mergers and Acquisitions; Business Strategy; Financial Condition; Business Growth and Maturation; Success; Distribution; Beauty and Cosmetics Industry; Fashion Industry

September 2003
Case

Upromise 2002

By: William A. Sahlman

Describes a set of decisions confronting the senior management of a company that has established a loyalty rewards program allocating cash to tax-advantaged college savings accounts for participants. The company has recruited a new CEO and needs to raise additional... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Entrepreneurship; Venture Capital; Management Teams; Capital; Internet and the Web; Decisions

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January 1985 (Revised February 1997)
Case

Lotus Development Corp.

By: William A. Sahlman

Contains a description of the history and venture capital financing of Lotus Development. Focuses on issues related to the possible terms of investment in Lotus by a major venture capital firm. The pedagogic objectives in the case are: to explore the elements of the... View Details

Keywords: Technological Innovation; Business or Company Management; Venture Capital; Organizational Structure; Entrepreneurship; Financing and Loans; Outcome or Result; Corporate Finance; Planning; Computer Industry

June 2019 (Revised September 2024)
Case

Parrot: Navigating the Nascent Drone Industry

By: Rory M. McDonald, Emilie Billaud and Vincent Dessain

In 2018, Henri Seydoux, CEO and Founder of Parrot, believed that his company was at an inflection point in its history. Parrot had been a European leader in consumer electronics since the 1990s, first developing Bluetooth kits for cars before moving on to electronic... View Details

Keywords: Forecasting and Prediction; Disruption; Entrepreneurship; Corporate Strategy; Technological Innovation; Leading Change; Competitive Advantage; Information Technology; Competitive Strategy; Consumer Products Industry; Electronics Industry; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; Motion Pictures and Video Industry; Technology Industry; Video Game Industry; Europe; France; Paris

February 2000 (Revised October 2000)
Case

Open Market, Inc.: The E-Commerce Wars

By: James I. Cash Jr., Janis Lee Gogan, Michael Haselkorn and Mani Subramani

Continues the story of Open Market, Inc., a company founded in 1994 to support electronic commerce on the Internet. Despite a very successful initial public offering, the firm had reached a growth plateau, and the management team was considering several strategic... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Technological Innovation; Management; Growth and Development Strategy; Marketing Channels; Product Marketing; Product Development; Competitive Strategy; Corporate Strategy; Information Technology Industry; Web Services Industry

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January 2001 (Revised January 2004)
Case

Ninth House: e-Learning Software

By: Amy C. Edmondson, Frances X. Frei and Corey B. Hajim

Jeff Snipes, CEO of the Ninth House Network, a San Francisco-based E-Learning company, considers a strategy shift to address a recent slump in sales and to attract more customers. The revised strategy would require creating shorter, more directed content that could be... View Details

Keywords: Internet and the Web; Service Operations; Organizational Structure; Groups and Teams; Corporate Strategy; Organizational Culture; Learning; Sales; Service Delivery; Entrepreneurship; Information Technology Industry; Service Industry; Education Industry; San Francisco

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09 Nov 2009
Research & Ideas

Come Fly with Me: A History of Airline Leadership

which started in the late 1940s as a short-haul, intrastate airline based in San Diego, provided a model for Southwest. The former director of corporate communications for PSA maintains that Southwest personnel were trained by PSA in... View Details

Keywords: by Sarah Jane Gilbert; Air Transportation

01 Apr 2002
News

Student Conferences Spark Discussion, Promote Interaction

guru Esther Dyson, chairman of EDventure Holdings; Matthew Szulik, president and CEO of the open-source software company Red Hat, Inc.; and Dean Kamen (7th OPM), chairman and CEO of Segway LLC and creator of the Segway Human Transporter. A Saturday morning panel... View Details

Keywords: H Naylor Fitzhugh; Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools; Educational Services

26 Nov 2001
Research & Ideas

Women Entrepreneurs Use Springboard for Funding

a small sampling of the twenty-three companies pitched: Michele Honomichl GPSLink. The average corporation uses up to ten systems to manage the human resources process in moving its executives and their families both abroad and... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

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

December 1996 (Revised June 1998)
Case

Midnight Networks, Inc.

By: H. Kent Bowen and Marilyn Matis

Midnight Networks, Inc., is a small computer network validation company. This case describes how the five founders built their business from operations earnings and how they established "best practices" operational processes to run their firm successfully. Operational... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Entrepreneurship; Business or Company Management; Operations; Organizational Culture; Applications and Software; Business Startups; Business Growth and Maturation; Information Technology Industry; Massachusetts