General High Technology - Publications - Faculty & Research

February 2023
Case

Roblox: Virtual Commerce in the Metaverse

By: Ayelet Israeli and Nicole Tempest Keller

In 2022, Roblox had 58.8 million daily active users, including over half of all children and teens under the age of 16 in the United States. Roblox, a free-to-use “co-experience platform”, allowed users to come together in immersive 3D experiences to socialize, work,... View Details

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September 2019 (Revised August 2020)
Case

Engineering an Inclusive Bioeconomy

By: Tarun Khanna, Raffaella Sadun and Susie L. Ma

In 2019, entrepreneur Juan Carlos Castilla-Rubio was developing a project he hoped could generate and share wealth from the natural resources of the Amazon without destroying those resources. His idea, called Earth Bank of Codes (EBC), would create a library of the... View Details

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Many companies approach product development as if it were manufacturing, trying to control costs and improve quality by applying zero-defect, efficiency-focused techniques. While this tactic can boost the performance of factories, it generally backfires with... View Details

02 Apr 2015
Research & Ideas

Digital Initiative Summit: Who Has the Power in the Music Industry?

Andresen Professor of Business Administration at HBS, who led the discussion. In the old model, he said, economies of scale regulated success and performers had to be big to spread out high fixed costs. Now, as a result of the way we... View Details

Keywords: Re: Felix Oberholzer-Gee; Music

26 Feb 2001
Research & Ideas

David, Goliath, and Disruption

As elegantly described by HBS professor Clayton M. Christensen in his 1997 bestseller, The Innovator's Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail, so-called disruptive technologies are upstart... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

19 Jul 2019
Blog Post

Making a Broader Impact with Multiple Disciplines

humanly-impossible procedures with precision, accuracy, and consistency. I work on commercializing science and building businesses around these technology paradigms to democratize high-quality surgical care to billions around the world.... View Details

Program

Creating Brand Value

Summary Consumer brands are one of the most valuable sources of sustainable competitive advantage, but managing brands and achieving their full potential has never been more difficult. Today's consumers are increasingly diverse, are skeptical of marketing, and are... View Details

Program

Families in Business

strengths of your family business and implement practices that enable high performance, shareholder loyalty, healthy family relationships, and broad social impact. Key Benefits In this family enterprise management program, you’ll learn... View Details

Web

Academic Units - Faculty & Research

Academic Units Accounting and Management Business, Government and the International Economy Entrepreneurial Management Finance General Management Marketing Negotiation, Organizations & Markets Organizational Behavior Strategy View Details

April 1998 (Revised July 1999)
Case

Randy Komisar: Virtual CEO

Randy Komisar serves as "virtual CEO" to numerous hi-tech start-ups in Silicon Valley. Explores Randy's role, his perspective on general management, and a choice between two opportunities in which he is considering investing his time. View Details

Keywords: Technology; Business or Company Management; Leadership; Business Startups; Management Teams; Technology Industry; California

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March 2012 (Revised September 2012)
Case

INRIX

By: Lynda M. Applegate and Ryan Johnson

Since its founding in 2004, INRIX, a leading global provider of traffic information and driver services, had received four rounds of financing from leading venture capital (VC) firms and by 2012 had been cash flow positive for the past six quarters. Its founder, Bryan... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Leadership; Business Growth and Maturation; Business Exit or Shutdown; Business Startups; Organizational Structure; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Competitive Strategy; Information Technology Industry; Information Technology Industry; Washington (state, US)

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June 1990 (Revised August 1990)
Case

Sun Microsystems, Inc.--1987 (A)

By: Carliss Y. Baldwin

An integrated sequence of three cases on the financing of a technical workstation manufacturer. This case focuses on Sun's competitive strategy which requires an inordinately high rate of growth (over 20% per quarter) and commensurate amounts of working capital.... View Details

Keywords: Cash Flow; Competitive Strategy; Financing and Loans; Capital; Financial Strategy; Public Equity; Corporate Finance; Information Technology Industry

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15 Apr 2022
Blog Post

How I Spent My HBS 2+2 Deferral: Kelly Ogiesoba

and staff in the Michigan College of Engineering program. Also, I attended an HBS 2+2 presentation on campus and thought it was a good fit after listening to the HBS representatives speak. It sounded like a low-risk argument with a very View Details

29 Oct 2000
Research & Ideas

The Entrepreneurial Venture: A Conversation

today. Both underwent significant upheaval, and this helped me to become a better investor, manager, and entrepreneur. What makes the United States such fertile ground for entrepreneurs? Can the rest of the world catch up? Sahlman: The U.S. system is characterized by a... View Details

Keywords: by Susan Young

17 Jul 2018
First Look

New Research and Ideas, July 17, 2018

introduction of a very general class of unobserved heterogeneity on agents' preferences. Under minimal assumptions, we show existence and uniqueness of equilibrium. We provide two algorithms to compute the equilibria in our model. The... View Details

Keywords: Dina Gerdeman

24 Jan 2024
Op-Ed

Why Boeing’s Problems with the 737 MAX Began More Than 25 Years Ago

of retirement to replace Condit. Stonecipher, a General Electric (GE) alum, immediately set out to change Boeing’s culture, proclaiming, “When people say I changed the culture of Boeing, that was the intent, so that it is run like a... View Details

Keywords: by Bill George; Air Transportation; Transportation; Aerospace

11 Jan 2000
Research & Ideas

Calling All Managers: How to Build a Better Call Center

call centers, with their attendant voice response units (VRUs—also known as automated voice response systems), need not be so inefficient. When a company manages its call center well, effectively linking a triad of service, information View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Service; Financial Services

21 Aug 2023
Book

You’re More Than Your Job: 3 Tips for a Healthier Work-Life Balance

of staying the course, this generation is increasingly looking to seize happiness wherever they can, because nothing is guaranteed. “Millennials are saying: Hold up. The rug keeps getting pulled out from under us. We think we’re finally... View Details

Keywords: by Kara Baskin

May 2024 (Revised February 2025)
Case

Lowe's: Improving the Total Home Strategy

By: Elie Ofek, K. Shelette Stewart and Alicia Dadlani

In 2023, Marvin Ellison, CEO of Lowe’s, contemplated enhancements to the company’s Total Home Strategy to accelerate performance and grow market share. In the last five years since becoming CEO, Ellison had championed a turnaround of the company, completing a... View Details

Keywords: Growth and Development Strategy; E-commerce; Competition; Brands and Branding; Business Strategy; Retail Industry; United States; North Carolina

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April 1996 (Revised May 1997)
Case

Netscape's Initial Public Offering

By: W. Carl Kester and Kendall Backstrand

In August 1995, Netscape's board of directors was confronted with a decision about what price to offer the company's shares in its initial public offering (IPO). Preliminary demand for shares was high, but the company had not generated any positive earnings at the time... View Details

Keywords: Initial Public Offering; Information Technology; Problems and Challenges; Valuation; Governing and Advisory Boards; Information Technology Industry

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