Publications

July 2020
Technical Note

Digital Natives Growing Without a Sales Force

By: Das Narayandas, Michael Norris and Amram Migdal

This brief case describes the rise of so-called digital natives (also called born-in-digital) in the 2000s and 2010s that successfully grew without a sales force. The case highlights the emergence of business-to-business Internet and cloud-based companies and their... View Details

25 Mar 2015
HBS Case

Tate’s Digital Makeover Transforms the Traditional Museum

in how to integrate Web 2.0 into a brand in a way that both honors and expands the brand into the world. "I hope the big message coming out of this case is strategy before tactics," says Avery. "Being View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Education

June 2020
Case

In-housing Digital Marketing at Sprint Corp.

By: David E. Bell, Rajiv Lal and Olivia Hull

In the fall of 2019, Sprint’s Chief Digital Officer Rob Roy reflected on the telecom’s efforts to improve the effectiveness of its digital marketing campaigns. Digital media buying had long been handled by an outside agency, but in 2017, Sprint brought those functions... View Details

Keywords: Advertising; Digital Marketing; Transformation; Talent and Talent Management; Marketing Strategy; Social Marketing; Telecommunications Industry; Electronics Industry; Web Services Industry; United States

29 Feb 2016
News

Bigbelly's Big Bet On the Digital Trash Can

October 2004 (Revised April 2005)
Case

Lexar Media: The Digital Photography Company?

Examines growth options for a start-up that has parlayed its core technology in flash memory controllers into a rapidly growing position in the emerging digital photography industry. The new CEO must decide whether LexarMedia should maintain its identity as a digital... View Details

Keywords: Technology; Mission and Purpose; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Growth Management; Market Entry and Exit; Business Startups; Business Strategy; Technology Industry

Aug 03 2017
Testimonial

At the Forefront of a Digital World

January 1988 (Revised January 1997)
Case

Digital Equipment Corp.: The Endpoint Model (A)

By: David A. Garvin

Describes a comprehensive manufacturing strategy designed to reduce substantially the cycle time of orders (i.e. the time between the placement of an order by a customer and its delivery to the customer). To launch the strategy Digital has adopted manufacturing... View Details

Keywords: Business Plan; Information; Time Management; Production; Strategic Planning; Strategy; Manufacturing Industry

July 2005 (Revised March 2007)
Case

Kansai Digital Phone: Zutto, Gaining Japanese Loyalty

By: Francisco de Asis Martinez-Jerez and James Robert Dillon

Ted Katagi, marketing strategy manager of Kansai Digital Phone (KDP), utilizes customer lifetime value as a key metric to prioritize initiatives in an emergency plan to turn around the company. KDP is a regional phone company in Japan with less than stellar... View Details

Keywords: Customer Relationship Management; Customer Value and Value Chain; Customer Satisfaction; Telecommunications Industry; Electronics Industry; Japan; United States

13 May 2018
News

Executives learn how to lead digital disruption

March 2019 (Revised October 2020)
Case

GENTERA: Facing the Digital Age

By: Michael Chu and Carla Larangeira

After long dominating Mexican microfinance, Compartamos Banco faces the emergence of fintech, just as for the first time its loan portfolio and clients have declined. Enrique Majós, CEO of GENTERA, the bank´s parent company, is keenly aware of the profound changes... View Details

Keywords: Micro Finance; Base Of The Pyramid; Fintech; Microfinance; Disruption; Innovation and Management; Competitive Strategy; North America; Mexico

23 Oct 2018
News

Harvard Business School’s Sunil Gupta on Peloton, Goldman Sachs, and Designing a Digital Strategy That Works

2022
Blog Post

Leading Successful Digital Transformation

By: Sunil Gupta

Keywords: Digital Strategy; Digital Transformation

Read Now

June 2023
Case

Launching Egypt’s First Digital Banking Platform: QNB Bebasata

By: Mark Egan, Billy Chan and Ahmed Dahawy

The leadership team at QNB Alahli, Egypt's second biggest private bank, looked back on their efforts to create a brand-new, fully digital banking platform since 2019. A digital-only banking service was unprecedented in Egypt, a country where over 90% of financial... View Details

Keywords: Digital Transformation; Banks and Banking; Innovation and Invention; Competitive Strategy; Business Model; Product Launch; Finance; Banking Industry; Egypt

21 Nov 2014
Working Paper Summaries

The Decoupling Effect of Digital Disruptors

Keywords: by Thales S. Teixeira & Peter Jamieson

09 Aug 2013
Research & Ideas

Read All About It: Digital CEO Buys Traditional Media!

the world are trying to reinvent themselves for digital success. Indeed, few strategic problems are as hard as those confronting newspapers—declining print revenues, even greater declines in advertising revenue (mostly due to the loss of... View Details

Keywords: by Jim Aisner; Journalism & News; Publishing

December 2019
Article

What Is Different About Digital Strategy?: From Quantitative to Qualitative Change

By: Ron Adner, Phanish Puranam and Feng Zhu

The recent attention paid to the challenge of digital transformation signals an inflection point in the impact of digital technology on the competitive landscape. We suggest that this transition can be understood as a shift from the quantitative advances that have... View Details

Keywords: Information Technology; Transformation; Strategy; Digital Transformation