Publications
Publications
Show Results For
- All HBS Web
(819)
- Faculty Publications (141)
Pivot
→
- November 2018 (Revised April 2019)
- Case
Nike: Changing the Sneakers Game
By: Anita Elberse, Bryce Aiken and Howard Johnson
“Our goal is to be the kind of start-up that would terrify Nike—if Nike didn’t already own us.” Ron Faris, general manager of S23NYC, a Manhattan-based digital studio owned by sports apparel giant Nike, is on the phone with Adam Sussman, Nike’s chief digital officer.... View Details
- November 2018
- Case
Yatooq: Longing for Arabic Coffee
By: Mark Roberge, Gamze Yucaoglu and Samer Al-Rachedy
As one of the few female entrepreneurs in Saudi Arabia, Lateefa Alwaalan had been trying to produce the perfect cup of Arabic coffee for over a decade. In 2007, she began testing various coffee blends, which she later branded Yatooq, the Arabic word for “craving” or... View Details
Keywords: Entrepreneurial Sales; Entrepreneurial Selling; Entrepreneurial Marketing; Barrier To Entry; Business Start-ups; Yatooq; Entrepreneurship; Private Sector; For-Profit Firms; Business Strategy; Patents; Business Startups; Strategic Planning; Competitive Strategy; Adaptation; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Corporate Strategy; Food and Beverage Industry; Saudi Arabia; Asia
- September 2018 (Revised October 2018)
- Supplement
Lexoo: Building a Long-Lasting Platform
By: Chiara Farronato and Elena Corsi
Lexoo, a UK-based online marketplace for legal services, was facing the strategic choice of how to grow from early start-up to mature platform. Daniel van Binsbergen, Lexoo's CEO, and web developer Chris O'Sullivan, CTO, had set up Lexoo to help Small and Medium-Sized... View Details
- August 2018
- Case
MISHA: Modernizing the World of Shisha
By: William R. Kerr and Gamze Yucaoglu
The case opens in 2017 with two of the five co-founders of MISHA telling the company’s CEO Michal Portz that they believe it is time for the global venture to shut down its operations and cease investments. Portz and another co-founder believe MISHA can still... View Details
Keywords: Innovation And Management; Entrepreneurship; Private Sector; For-profit Firms; Business Strategy; Decision; Business Startups; Emerging Markets; Business Model; Marketing Strategy; Distribution Channels; Market Entry and Exit; Growth and Development Strategy; Competitive Advantage; Value Creation; Decision Choices and Conditions; Technology Industry; Qatar; United States
- July 2018 (Revised January 2021)
- Case
RunKeeper
By: Shikhar Ghosh and Shweta Bagai
The case examines the focus of an early stage company and how venture capital can distort a founder’s view. It encompasses issues such as financing, understanding the founders’ definition of success/failure, defining and pivoting a business model, and determining the... View Details
- May 2018 (Revised January 2019)
- Case
AirFox (A): Embracing the Blockchain and an ICO
By: Jeffrey J. Bussgang, Edward B. Berk and Nate Schwalb
In summer 2017, Victor Santos, CEO of AirFox, considered whether to pivot his startup towards a new product built with blockchain—a quickly growing technology at the time. AirFox was an early stage startup that sold Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) to small telecom... View Details
- May 2018 (Revised June 2018)
- Case
Ashar Group: Brokers and Co-opetition in the Life Settlement Industry
By: Alexander Braun, Lauren H. Cohen, Christopher J. Malloy and Jiahua Xu
Connecting life insurance policyholders with potential investors (called Life Settlement Providers), Ashar Group plays a pivotal role in the industry. Its current position is, however, increasingly being challenged by consumer-direct models, led by major providers... View Details
- March 2018 (Revised June 2018)
- Case
City Year at 30: Toward Long-Term Impact
By: Rosabeth Moss Kanter and James Weber
In 2018, City Year was a 30-year-old nonprofit that recruited and organized teams of young-adult “volunteers” (corps teams) to provide a year of citizen service. It had 3,100 corps members serving in 327 schools located in 28 U.S. cities. In its early decades, City... View Details
Keywords: Education; Service Operations; Nonprofit Organizations; Growth and Development Strategy; Performance Efficiency; Resource Allocation; Change Management; Social Entrepreneurship; Middle School Education; Secondary Education; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Human Capital; Growth Management; Service Delivery; Organizational Design; Social Enterprise; Poverty; United States
- March 2018
- Case
Chaudhary Group: Rebuilding Nepal
By: Christopher J. Malloy, Lauren H. Cohen and Inakshi Sobti
After the 2015 Nepal earthquake, the Chaudhary Group, a billion-dollar conglomerate in Nepal, decides to play a pivotal role in rebuilding the country. The Group's philanthropic arm (Chaudhary Foundation) works with stakeholders and develops a blue print for short- and... View Details
Keywords: Leadership; Family Business; Decision Choices and Conditions; Developing Countries and Economies; Social Entrepreneurship; Values and Beliefs; Venture Capital; Microfinance; Geographic Location; Collaborative Innovation and Invention; Management; Crisis Management; Management Teams; Resource Allocation; Business and Community Relations; Business and Government Relations; Natural Disasters; Social and Collaborative Networks; Social Issues; Business Strategy; Consumer Products Industry; Banking Industry; Auto Industry; Real Estate Industry; Travel Industry; Nepal
- January 2018 (Revised January 2019)
- Case
ZappRx
By: Jeffrey J. Bussgang and Olivia Hull
In October 2015, ZappRx founder Zoe Barry is deciding between two business models for her health technology start-up. Her product, a software application that aims to expedite the prescription fulfillment process for patients with rare diseases, has attracted interest... View Details
- Article
Who Will Vote Quadratically? Voter Turnout and Votes Cast Under Quadratic Voting
By: Louis Kaplow and Scott Duke Kominers
Who will vote quadratically in large-N elections under quadratic voting (QV)? First, who will vote? Although the core QV literature assumes that everyone votes, turnout is endogenous. Drawing on other work, we consider the representativeness of endogenously... View Details
- January 2017 (Revised October 2021)
- Case
Delivering the Goods at Shippo
By: Jeffrey J. Bussgang, Jeffrey F. Rayport and Olivia Hull
Laura Behrens Wu, CEO of software start-up Shippo, prepares her pitch for a Series A funding round following a successful seed round. Customer adoption of Shippo’s e-commerce dashboard application, which allows small and medium retailers to compare delivery rates... View Details
Keywords: Application Program Interface; API; API Strategy; Customer Cohorts; Churn; Retention; Entrepreneurship; Venture Capital; Business Startups; Strategy; Transition; Customer Focus and Relationships; Technological Innovation; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Valuation; Shipping Industry; Technology Industry; Retail Industry; San Francisco; California; United States
- January 2017 (Revised October 2023)
- Case
Classtivity: Payal's Pirouette
By: Jeffrey J. Bussgang and Olivia Hull
A few months after launching a new fitness technology product, the small staff of New York startup Classtivity gathers on a Saturday in April 2013 to take stock. With one successful pivot under its belt, Classtivity is finally generating revenue and enthusiasm among... View Details
Keywords: Product Pivot; Boutique Fitness; Fitness Industry; Market Sizing; Consumer Technology; Bundling; Subscription Model; Two-sided Marketplace; ClassPass; Entrepreneurship; Venture Capital; Business Startups; Transition; Customer Focus and Relationships; Technological Innovation; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Customer Value and Value Chain; Marketing Strategy; Failure; Business Strategy; Technology Industry; Health Industry; New York (city, NY)
- 2017
- Book
Democracy: A Case Study
By: David Moss
Democracy: A Case Study invites readers to experience American history anew and come away with a deeper understanding of the greatest strengths and vulnerabilities of the nation’s democracy as well as its resilience over time. The book adapts the case method to... View Details
- November 2016 (Revised December 2016)
- Case
Anthology: Pivoting the Business Model
By: Shikhar Ghosh and Christopher Payton
In July 2014, after 18 months and eight unsuccessful product launches, the CEO of Yabbly has agreed to sell his company to a larger, well-funded startup, providing a return of capital for his investors and a home for his team. Two weeks prior to the scheduled closing,... View Details
Keywords: Mergers ＆ Acquisitions; Business Model; Business Plan; Business Startups; Entrepreneurship; Innovation Strategy; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Internet and the Web; Mergers and Acquisitions; Business Exit or Shutdown; Fairness; Valuation; Technology Industry; Consumer Products Industry; North America; United States; Seattle
- October 2016
- Case
Triangulate: Stay, Pivot or Exit?
By: Thomas Eisenmann, Shikhar Ghosh and Christopher Payton
Sunil Nagaraj, Triangulate's founder had spent a few years trying to launch a dating application that matched users based on their behavior on social media. Based on input from advisors, the company changed its focus from a B2B site to a B2C dating site with a unique... View Details
- August 2016
- Case
Collective Academy
By: Shikhar Ghosh and Christopher Payton
This case is about making the decision to become an entrepreneur and early challenges in setting up a business model and team. In 2015, Pato Bichara co-founded Collective Academy to create an affordable, three-year undergraduate experience to infuse innovation into... View Details
- February 2016 (Revised March 2016)
- Case
America's Cup in 2013: Oracle Team USA vs. Emirates Team New Zealand (A)
By: Rory McDonald, Alan MacCormack and Vanessa Ampelas
Four teams across the world are furiously designing, building, testing, and learning to sail a boat that would be one-of-a-kind in order to win the 2013 America's Cup. Choosing the best development path was a challenge as the teams had less than three years to prepare,... View Details
- November 2015 (Revised August 2016)
- Case
Unilever's New Global Strategy: Competing through Sustainability
In January 2009, when Paul Polman was appointed CEO of Unilever, he inherited a company in long-term decline at the beginning of a major global financial crisis. As the first outsider ever recruited to lead the company, Polman lost little time in challenging the... View Details
- 2015
- Case
Advanced Leadership Pathways: Robert Meaney and Technology for Agriculture in Sub-Saharan Africa
By: Rosabeth Moss Kanter and Renee Vuillaume
Two Valmont Industries (an international leader in infrastructure products and services) colleagues, Robert (Bob) Meaney and Richard Berkland hoped to improve the lives of small and medium-sized farmers in the developing world through modern irrigation technology. In... View Details
Keywords: Developing World; Farm; Farming; Small-scale Farmers; Agriculture; Agricultural Production; Water Management; Water; Leadership Skills; Agribusiness; Information Technology; Technology Adoption; Leadership; Development Economics; Developing Countries and Economies; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Africa; Ghana; Tanzania; Rwanda