Publications

August 2009 (Revised September 2011)
Case

Whole Foods: Balancing Social Mission and Growth

By: Christopher Marquis, Marya Besharov and Bobbi Thomason

In 2009, Whole Foods stands at a crossroads. Their incredible growth over the past 25 years has vaulted them into the ranks of the largest US supermarkets and they have arguably led to the widespread acceptance of natural and organic foods in the United States. Yet... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Leadership; Growth and Development Strategy; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Environmental Sustainability; Food and Beverage Industry; Retail Industry; United States

12 Sep 2023
Book

Successful, But Still Feel Empty? A Happiness Scholar and Oprah Have Advice for You

The path to becoming the very best leader—or the very best anything, really—is to become “the greatest CEO in the world of yourself, incorporated,” says Harvard Business School professor Arthur Brooks. Understanding your emotions, and how... View Details

Keywords: by Avery Forman

03 Oct 2023
HBS Case

Layoffs Can Be Bad Business: 5 Strategies to Consider Before Cutting Staff

legal obligations Globalization has opened new opportunities and markets for businesses, but it has also brought new complexities. Countries have different legal requirements for layoffs in areas such as... View Details

Keywords: by Ben Rand; Telecommunications; Technology; Financial Services; Manufacturing

20 Jun 2023
Research & Ideas

Looking to Leave a Mark? Memorable Leaders Don't Just Spout Statistics, They Tell Stories

It doesn’t matter if you’re crafting a pitch for tech investors, consumers, or election-season voters. If you want your target audience to remember your message the next day, tell a story. That’s one of the findings of a new study by... View Details

Keywords: by Scott Van Voorhis

February 2024
Case

Innovation Strategy at Stanley Black & Decker: Setting the Direction for Growth

By: David L. Ager and Antonio Manuel Oftelie

On July 1, 2022, Don Allan was appointed Chief Executive Officer of Stanley Black & Decker (SBD). Although Allan had been with the firm for 23 years, most recently serving as President and Chief Financial Officer, he recognized that he was stepping into his new role as... View Details

Keywords: Health Pandemics; Collaborative Innovation and Invention; Innovation Leadership; Growth Management; Business and Stakeholder Relations

20 Jun 2011
Lessons from the Classroom

Fame, Faith, and Social Activism: Business Lessons from Bono

escalating, high-profile campaign against Third World debt, poverty, war and disease. “Any CEO who thinks his or her job is about maximizing shareholder value is living in the past.” Koehn, a Harvard Business School historian who has... View Details

Keywords: by Kim Girard; Entertainment & Recreation

17 Jul 2012
First Look

First Look: July 17

Bernardo Bertoldi, and Roberto QuagliaHarvard Business School Case 812-128 After the death of Umberto Agnelli in 2004, the Agnelli family, led by John Elkann, needs to decide whether to keep Fiat CEO Giuseppe Morchio. The Fiat Group is in... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

11 Oct 2004
Research & Ideas

Four Ways to Create Lasting Change

improvements. According to Roberto and Levesque, "We began to understand the barriers and catalysts for successful institutionalization of these programmatic change efforts." They described their results in a new HBS working... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

March 2023
Teaching Note

VideaHealth: Building the AI Factory

By: Karim R. Lakhani

Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 621-021. The case “VideaHealth: Building the AI Factory” examines the creation of dental startup VideaHealth (Videa) and the development of its artificial intelligence (AI)-led business strategy through the eyes of founder and CEO Florian... View Details

Keywords: AI and Machine Learning; Applications and Software; Business Model; Marketing Strategy; Product Development; Health Industry; Technology Industry

December 2022 (Revised February 2023)
Case

Daniel Defense: Responding to the Shooting at the Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, TX

By: Benjamin C. Esty and Daniel Fisher

At 11:33am on May 24, 2022, an 18-year-old man from Uvalde, Texas walked into the Robb Elementary School carrying a semi-automatic "AR-15-style” rifle manufactured by Daniel Defense and killed 19 children and two adults. Three days later, Representative Carolyn Maloney... View Details

Keywords: Gun Violence; Gun Policy; Second Amendment; Legal Liability; Government Legislation; Marketing Strategy; Business or Company Management; Product Marketing; Ethics; Corporate Accountability; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Moral Sensibility; Crime and Corruption; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Manufacturing Industry; Advertising Industry; United States

March 2016 (Revised November 2021)
Teaching Note

T-Mobile in 2013: The Un-Carrier

By: John Beshears and Francesca Gino

By 2013, the U.S. wireless industry was in the midst of a costly transition. As consumers began to embrace more sophisticated mobile devices, the industry's four main players spent heavily to improve their infrastructures for providing reliable high-speed data... View Details

Keywords: Wireless Industry; Telecommunications; Mobile; Service Contracts; Behavioral Economics; Add-on Fees; Shrouded Attributes; Contracts; Competitive Strategy; Consumer Behavior; Infrastructure; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Telecommunications Industry; United States

March 1998 (Revised June 1998)
Case

Coming to Grips with Deregulation: Bay State Gas

In 1995, CEO Roger Young made a surprising decision to bring in Joel Singer, an outsider with an MBA, to lead Bay State through the upcoming turmoil of deregulation. Singer was convinced that in this situation where the boundaries of the industry were being defined,... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Corporate Strategy; Emerging Markets; Energy Industry; Massachusetts

Find at Harvard

14 Jan 2014
First Look

First Look: January 14

Square' Strategy As he gets ready to release 2nd quarter 2012 results, Ron Johnson, the new CEO of department store J.C. Penney, is reconsidering the dramatic changes he initiated for the business model and... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

07 Jul 2015
First Look

First Look: July 7, 2015

adhering to five design principles. The success of several new products illustrates how. One is the Leveraged Freedom Chair, a low-cost wheelchair that can navigate rugged terrain in places with poor infrastructure; a modified version is... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

24 Apr 2007
First Look

First Look: April 24, 2007

807-126 PRG-Schultz will run out of cash within a couple of months unless the new CEO can reduce costs and restructure the company's debt. PRG was the dominant market leader in the audit recovery industry.... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

29 Oct 2014
Research & Ideas

Inventing Products is Less Valuable Than Inventing Ideas

reading about their inventions on paper. He cites the words of former Hewlett-Packard CEO Lew Platt: "If only HP knew what HP knows, we would be three times more productive." Just the interchange between old and View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Technology

02 Jan 2001
Research & Ideas

Gurus in the Garage

Why do so many wanna-be entrepreneurs like Scott Rozic, founder and CEO of XMarkstheSpot, head for Silicon Valley? The reason may seem as obvious as why Willie Sutton robbed banks—because that's where the money is. But it's really more... View Details

Keywords: by Dorothy Leonard & Walter Swap

November 2019 (Revised April 2021)
Technical Note

Rechargeable Batteries, 2017: Gigafactory Wars in the Offing?

By: John R. Wells and Benjamin Weinstock

In 2017, the global market for rechargeable lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries was 126 gigawatt-hours (GWh) valued at $37 billion, growing by $10 billion in two years. Once confined largely to consumer electronics and appliances, the rapid increase in demand was spurred by... View Details