Cold Start Problem - Publications - Faculty & Research

08 May 2017
Blog Post

Learning through the Case Method

leadership in the private sector. HBS was my top choice both because of the unrivaled opportunities it could lead me to, but also because of the renowned case method. View Video The case method, for those who aren’t familiar, is a guided discussion on a real-world... View Details

23 Jan 2013
Research & Ideas

Three-Dimensional Strategy: Winning the Multisided Platform

become an online reseller of used children's clothes, buying inventory from parents and reselling it to other parents. "The problem with the MSP model is that it is sometimes too slow and not sufficiently convenient for either side," says... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna

December 2017 (Revised March 2018)
Case

Kellogg Company/eighteen94 capital

By: David Bell, Damien McLoughlin and Natalie Kindred

With 33,000 employees and revenues of $13 billion in 2016, Kellogg Company was the world’s largest producer of branded packaged cereal and a leader in branded convenience foods. Founded in 1906 and based in Michigan, the company had a proud history of product and... View Details

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September 2007 (Revised October 2017)
Case

Still Leading (B6): Sherry Lansing—Producing Social Change

By: Rosabeth Moss Kanter and Lance Pierce

Sherry Lansing, head of a Hollywood studio, left to start a foundation. Describes the issues in her transition. View Details

Keywords: Transition; Problems and Challenges; Personal Development and Career; Nonprofit Organizations; Motion Pictures and Video Industry

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December 2009 (Revised June 2011)
Case

Curt Schilling's Next Pitch

By: Noam T. Wasserman, Jeffrey J. Bussgang and Rachel Gordon

As his major-league pitching career was starting to wind down in 2006, baseball all-star Curt Schilling decided to become an entrepreneur. Looking to focus his tenacity and his passion for online role-playing games on a new challenge, he founded an online gaming... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Business Startups; Decision Choices and Conditions; Entrepreneurship; Financing and Loans; Leadership; Personal Development and Career; Groups and Teams; Video Game Industry

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19 Dec 2005
Research & Ideas

Public Education Goes to School

an action plan to implement back home what they've learned on campus. We then visit each district a few months later to check on the progress of their action plans, and to identify topics to study in the next cycle. Then the knowledge development process View Details

Keywords: by Mallory Stark; Education

09 Dec 2002
Research & Ideas

Most Accountants Aren’t Crooks—Why Good Audits Go Bad

who never intend to do something wrong end up finding themselves in situations where they are almost forced to continue to commit fraud once they have started doing this. Otherwise, it will be revealed that they had used improper... View Details

Keywords: by Max H. Bazerman, George Loewenstein & Don A. Moore; Accounting; Financial Services

05 Mar 2021
Blog Post

Intensive Bootcamp Kicked my Entrepreneurship Goals Into Gear

When I started at HBS in the fall of 2020, I had one goal in mind: to challenge myself. I previously worked in communications at Cloudflare, a security, performance and reliability company founded in 2009 by two HBS alumni. Cloudflare had... View Details

December 2018
Case

Corporate Transformation at Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany

By: Joseph B. Fuller, Amy C. Edmondson, Daniela Beyersdorfer and Tonia Labruyere

When Stefan Oschmann became CEO and chairman of the executive board of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, in 2016, the company had started its transformation from a mid-tier traditional German industry player to a global modern science and technology player. The... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Governance With Family Ownership; Transformation; Change Management; Restructuring; Corporate Governance; Family Ownership

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July 2009 (Revised August 2010)
Case

Radiant Cosmetics: What's in a Pout?

By: Robert C. Pozen and Mary Ellen Webster Hammond

In 2006, Radiant Cosmetics president and CEO, Margaret Clark, was contemplating the launch of a new, lip-plumping product called "Four Carat Pout." Clark faced many decisions concerning the launch: marketing the product as a luxury brand or a retail item; how to... View Details

Keywords: Global Strategy; Globalized Markets and Industries; Intellectual Property; Marketing Strategy; Product Marketing; Product Launch; Product Positioning; Beauty and Cosmetics Industry

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Now a Wall Street Journal Best-seller! Over a decade ago, the best-selling business fable Who Moved My Cheese? offered its answer to the question: accept that change is inevitable and beyond your control, don't waste your time wondering why things are the... View Details

November–December 2022
Article

Can AI Really Help You Sell?: It Can, Depending on When and How You Implement It

By: Jim Dickie, Boris Groysberg, Benson P. Shapiro and Barry Trailer

Many salespeople today are struggling; only 57% of them make their annual quotas, surveys show. One problem is that buying processes have evolved faster than selling processes, and buyers today can access a wide range of online resources that let them evaluate products... View Details

Keywords: Sales; AI and Machine Learning; Customers

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20 Nov 2006
Research & Ideas

Open Source Science: A New Model for Innovation

heterogeneity inside the firm. Could they first start by broadcasting problems inside? There are always issues around managerial incentives, silos, and so forth, but certainly by the way we see open source... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

March 2006 (Revised May 2009)
Case

Entrepreneurial Insights

By: Joseph L. Bower and Sonya Hout

Presents a matrix of 42 video clips of interviews with seven entrepreneurial managers answering the same six questions about their experiences building their companies. The individual entrepreneurs (Vittorio Merloni, Merloni Elettrodomestici; Alex d'Arbeloff, Teradyne,... View Details

Keywords: Business Growth and Maturation; Business Startups; Entrepreneurship; Leadership; Business or Company Management; Managerial Roles; Personal Characteristics

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06 Oct 2020
Blog Post

2+2 Where Are They Now Spotlight: Curtis Wu (MBA 2018)

Charles Cooney, taught me that the hardest problems often occur at interfaces between multiple sectors. The 2+2 program offered me a way to learn the language and tools I would need to tackle tough problems... View Details

10 Apr 2018
First Look

First Look at New Research, April 10, 2018

and based in Michigan, the company had a proud history of product and marketing innovation starting with its first product, Kellogg’s Toasted Corn Flakes, which created the cold cereal category. In recent... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

February 2021
Background Note

Jobs to Be Done: A Toolbox

By: Derek C. M. van Bever, Bob Moesta, Iuliana Mogosanu, Shaye Roseman and Katie Zandbergen

The Jobs to Be Done methodology is both a theory and a practical approach for understanding customer behavior and why people make the choices they make. Many practitioners, whether they work for startups or incumbent businesses, find Jobs to Be Done useful because it... View Details

Keywords: Customer Value and Value Chain; Decision Choices and Conditions; Knowledge Acquisition; Attitudes; Perception; Theory; Behavior; Customer Relationship Management

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05 May 2021
News

Forget To-Do Lists. You Really Need a 'Got Done' List

16 Jul 2012
Research & Ideas

Book Excerpt: ‘The Strategist’

there—the great execution challenge—or how it will capitalize on the learning it accumulates along the way. But this is not so. What's been forgotten is that strategy is not a destination or a solution. It's not a problem to be solved and... View Details

Keywords: by Cynthia A. Montgomery

February 2022
Case

Toto Wolff and the Mercedes Formula One Team

By: Anita Elberse and David Moreno Vicente

In December 2021, Toto Wolff, team principal and chief executive officer of the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One team (the ‘Mercedes team’) is preparing for the start of the 2021 Formula One (‘F1’) season’s last Grand Prix, in the United Arab Emirates. Everything the... View Details