Publications

April 2001 (Revised March 2003)
Background Note

Web and IT Hosting Facilities: Technology Note

Introduces students to the data centers where IT infrastructure is increasingly physically housed. These centralized hosting facilities represent in the information age the equivalent of power utilities in the industrial age. Students are introduced to issues of... View Details

Keywords: Internet and the Web; Information Technology; Infrastructure; Web Services Industry

22 Mar 2022
Cold Call Podcast

How Etsy Found Its Purpose and Crafted a Turnaround

Keywords: Re: Ranjay Gulati; Technology; Retail

14 Feb 2023
Cold Call Podcast

Does It Pay to Be a Whistleblower?

Keywords: Re: Jonas Heese; Banking

08 Apr 2019
Sharpening Your Skills

The Life of Luxury and How to Sell It

lucrative but often confusing dynamics of the luxury market. Harvard Business School researchers have studied the trends to answer a number of questions. Does a prestige brand like Longchamp dilute its aura by selling an affordable... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Auto; Retail; Fashion

19 Jun 2018
Research Event

Has Environmental Sustainability Lost its Relevance?

practitioners viable solutions. Three decades of writers asserting that win-win solutions were possible had made it all seem too easy to achieve results, when it’s not. Sustainability has become reconciled with success in generating... View Details

Keywords: by Geoffrey G. Jones; Energy

18 Sep 2000
Research & Ideas

Getting It Done: Improving Nonprofit Performance

easier to achieve in a for-profit organization than in a comparable nonprofit," he writes in a recent working paper, "Philanthropic Social Capital Markets and Performance-Driven Philanthropy," and the most important reason is capital. "It is the absolute amount of... View Details

Keywords: by James E. Aisner

25 May 2020
Research & Ideas

Has Occupational Licensing Outlived Its Usefulness?

Informing consumers and restricting bad apples: that’s the dual role that occupational licensing is supposed to play. If a plumber, painting contractor, or HVAC repairer has a license it should matter to consumers wanting their services,... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Service

March 1990 (Revised June 1991)
Case

IBM Corp.: ""Make It Your Business"" (A)

By: Robert L. Simons

In 1987, IBM changed its strategy in an attempt to become a market-driven company rather than a product-driven company. The case begins with a description of the new strategy and the reasons for the change and then describes the top-down sales planning and quota system... View Details

Keywords: Commercialization; Competitive Advantage; Business Strategy; Goals and Objectives; Strategic Planning; Motivation and Incentives; Sales; Volatility; System; Information Technology Industry

July 2011 (Revised September 2018)
Case

Nashton Partners and Its Search Fund Process

By: Richard S. Ruback and Royce Yudkoff

Nashton Partners was a search fund founded by two HBS MBA's that raised $500,000 to finance a search for a company that they could purchase and then run for the next five to ten years. The case examines the search fund structure, the two-year search, and two potential... View Details

Keywords: Acquisition; Capital Structure; Financing and Loans; Investment Funds; Partners and Partnerships

Research & Ideas

Bill Gorge: Don't Fake It--Make It

Keywords: by Bill George

2000
Book

American Business 1920-2000: How It Worked

Keywords: Business History; United States

Find at Harvard

December 2024 (Revised March 2025)
Case

KLog.co—Charting the Course of Its Future

By: Juan Alcácer, Jorge Tirado and Thomas Occhipinti

Keywords: Freighting; Logistics; Trade; Latin America; Chile

June 1993 (Revised October 1997)
Teaching Note

WPP Group and Its Acquisitions TN

By: William J. Bruns Jr.

Teaching Note for (9-192-038). View Details

Keywords: Acquisition

November 2003
Article

Planning to Play It By Ear

By: Kathleen L. McGinn

Keywords: Planning

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Read Now

August 2021
Teaching Note

Ready for Take-Off at Jet It

By: Gary P. Pisano, Hise O. Gibson and Nicole Gilmore

Third Quarter 2011
Article

You Can't Take It With You

By: Boris Groysberg

Find at Harvard

June 2003 (Revised December 2003)
Case

Nehemiah Strategy, The: Bringing it to Boston

By: Diana Barrett, Arthur I Segel and Sheila McCarthy

In 2003, Lee Stuart, who had successfully used the Nehemiah Strategy to create thousands of units of affordable housing in the South Bronx, was working with the Greater Boston Interfaith Organization to implement the strategy in Boston. She and her colleagues faced a... View Details

Keywords: Strategy; Boston

August 2014
Technical Note

Conjoint Analysis: A Do it Yourself Guide

By: Elie Ofek and Olivier Toubia

Conjoint Analysis has become one of the most commonly used quantitative market research methods. It has been successfully employed across a wide variety of industries to quantify consumer preferences for products and services. This technical note is intended to provide... View Details

Keywords: Market Research; Conjoint Analysis; Consumer Preferences; Segmentation; Product Development; Demand Measurement; Demand and Consumers; Analysis; Markets