Operating Systems - Publications - Faculty & Research

December 2023 (Revised January 2025)
Case

Research In Motion: Launching and Scaling the World's First Smartphone Empire (A)

In 2005, Research In Motion’s (RIM) BlackBerry smartphone was a sensation. After its launch in 1999, the groundbreaking BlackBerry had captured the hearts and minds of corporate America through its secure wireless email service. The device was so addictive and... View Details

Keywords: Business Growth and Maturation; Decision Choices and Conditions; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Innovation and Management; Technological Innovation; Business or Company Management; Management Style; Product Development; Managerial Roles; Growth and Development Strategy; Technology Industry; United States; Canada

Citation

Educators

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10 Sep 2020
Research & Ideas

The COVID Two-Step for Leaders: Protect and Pivot

objective measures—such as innovation cycle times, flow efficiency (work time versus wait time), and market share changes—are useful for determining the existing state of the operating system components. The... View Details

Keywords: by Boris Groysberg and Katherine Connolly Baden

12 Mar 2021
News

My Favorite Case

acquisition-led growth? What will be the impact of increased competition from private equity players? For how long can its strategy of “continuous improvement” continue? “I’m the chief human resources officer of a Fortune 500 company, and the Danaher case helps me... View Details

Keywords: Business Schools & Computer & Management Training; Educational Services

Web

Finance Awards & Honors - Faculty & Research

Finance Section of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS) for "Patent Trolls: Evidence from Targeted Firms” (December 2019) with Umit Gurun and Scott Duke Kominers. Benjamin C. Esty : Recognized as one... View Details

Web

Electricity - Business & Environment

clean, resilient, and consumer-centric through the application of data science and behavioral economics, optimizing the system assets and operations across the electric meter.” Tanuj Deora HBS MBA 2006 Vice... View Details

12 Oct 2011
First Look

First Look: October 12

2011) Abstract Organizational culture-the shared assumptions, values, and behaviors that determine "how we do things around here"-can be measured and shaped. In organizations with large numbers of customer-facing employees, it can account for up to half of... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

23 Feb 2011
First Look

First Look: Feb. 23

the Wran Report). Although the Wran Committee had considered several potential funding schemes, it ultimately proposed a radical system in which students would pay tuition financed through income-contingent loans provided by the... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

04 Sep 2019
Blog Post

A Guided Experience into the World of Entrepreneurship

people start companies, I knew that this was the best program for me.” Stan had already gained an impressive amount of experience at Microsoft where he worked on operating systems and with online payments... View Details

Blog

Leading Successful Digital Transformation

efficiency of supply chains, and chat bots are used to cut the cost of call centers. While it is always good to reduce costs and improve efficiency, focusing solely on efficiency implicitly assumes that the current operations and business... View Details

Web

Poor’s Manual: The Rise of Business Analysts - Railroads and the Transformation of Capitalism | Harvard Business School

Railroads Finance Management Business Analysts Mass Distribution Mergers & Syndicates Research Links Poor’s Manual: The Rise of Business Analysts New systems of accounting facilitated the oversight of complex financial transactions and... View Details

Web

Case Studies - Social Impact Collaboratory

next? Key Themes: As a public pension plan, CalSTRS operates in the context of a complex array of stakeholders, who from time to time push for divestment or other values-driven investment decisions. And yet, as a fiduciary, CalSTRS must... View Details

10 Jan 2022
Research & Ideas

How to Get Companies to Make Investments That Benefit Everyone

since little of the upside tends to flow back onto corporate balance sheets. To that end, Nagle says, “Can we design systems and regulations to allow a company to get some of those benefits?” One model for the future: Free and open source... View Details

Keywords: by Lane Lambert

02 Apr 2001
Research & Ideas

Not All M&As Are Alike—and That Matters

geographically by rolling up other companies in adjacent territories. Usually, the operating unit remains local if the relationship with local customers is important. What the acquiring company brings is some combination of lower View Details

Keywords: by Joseph L. Bower

14 Jul 2020
Research & Ideas

Restarting Under Uncertainty: Managerial Experiences from Around the World

rapidly leveraging new ways of doing things, both from an operational and commercial standpoint, quickly became a number one priority. Keeping up to date with the latest governmental information was a useful starting point for many, but... View Details

Keywords: by Raffaella Sadun, Andrea Bertoni, Alexia Delfino, Giovanni Fassio, and Mariapaola Testa

18 Dec 2013
HBS Case

Lessons from the Lance Armstrong Cheating Scandal

over others. With Armstrong's great wealth, he was able to put together a much more sophisticated doping operation than less successful cyclists. By contrast, Armstrong's teammate Tyler Hamilton made no such excuses when he testified two... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Sports

24 Jan 2011
HBS Case

Terror at the Taj

outstanding service are selected for inclusion in the Managing Directors Club and recognized across the organization. Such incentives aren't so unusual, of course. But interviews with senior management demonstrate how seriously the task of building a customer-centric... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Accommodations

15 Jun 2021
News

Zone Defense

telling him. Ryan Tseng had already started two successful companies, and where Brandon saw a business opportunity in building AI software to operate unmanned systems for the military, Ryan saw a behemoth... View Details

Keywords: April White; drone technology; military; security; entrepreneurship; leadership; Air Transportation; Transportation

27 May 2009
First Look

First Look: May 27, 2009

different management systems. Through stories and cases drawn from years in the field, he reveals how health-care providers can successfully manage both modes. To do so, they must reevaluate traditional roles and embrace continuous learning across the organization. The... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

08 Aug 2005
Research & Ideas

A Balanced Scorecard Approach To Measure Customer Profitability

The approach has been successfully applied in more than 100 organizations and readily scales up even to companies with hundreds of thousands of products and services, dozens of operating departments, and thousands of customers. The end... View Details

Keywords: by Robert S. Kaplan

11 May 2009
Research & Ideas

The IT Leader’s Hero Quest

careers at the Harvard Business School, we discovered that the turnover of CIOs ran at around 30 to 40 percent per year. As a result of our research, we described the driving cause as the rapid change of IT through the operation of... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

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