Publications

October 2019 (Revised February 2023)
Case

Gupta Media: Performance Marketing in the Digital Age

By: V. Kasturi Rangan and Courtney Han

Gupta Media is a Digital Marketing firm started in 2005 that places advertisements and marketing promotions for its clients in digital media, mainly social media such as Facebook and Google. Over the years it had built its expertise in promoting music labels, artists... View Details

Keywords: Marketing; Digital Marketing; Performance; Measurement and Metrics; Social Media; Advertising Industry

2005
Chapter

Learning for Leadership: The 'Engineering' and 'Clinical' Approaches

Meaningful leadership development requires a deeper and more fundamental approach than is usually deployed in university classrooms and corporate training centers. It needs to incorporate difficult emotions and unconscious forces, and provide a safe place for their... View Details

Keywords: Leadership Development; Behavior; Cognition and Thinking; Emotions

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December 1997 (Revised September 1998)
Case

Yale University Investments Office: November 1997

By: Josh Lerner

David Swensen, chief investment officer at Yale University, reviews the $6 billion endowment strategy, which places an unusually heavy emphasis on private equity and other illiquid securities. Changing market conditions in November 1997 cause him to rethink... View Details

Keywords: Change; Private Equity; Financial Liquidity; Investment; Marketing Strategy; Strategy; Education Industry

07 Mar 2005
Research & Ideas

The Rise of Innovation in Asia

Although Asian countries have been able to use cost advantages and software coding prowess to attract outsource business from around the world, the region is quickly moving up the value chain to challenge America's leadership in innovation. Or, as HBS professor Warren... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

January 2023 (Revised November 2024)
Technical Note

Legal Analysis: Labor Unions in the United States

By: Reshmaan Hussam, Trevor Fetter and Grace Liu

This note provides an overview of the regulation, mechanics, and history of labor unions in the United States, along with an overview of their place in the early 21st century. View Details

Keywords: Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Labor Unions; History; United States

November 2000 (Revised March 2001)
Case

Yale University Investments Office: July 2000

By: Josh Lerner

David Swensen, chief investment officer at Yale University, reviews the $10 billion endowment strategy, that places an unusually heavy emphasis on private equity and other illiquid securities. Changing market conditions in July 2000 cause him to rethink historically... View Details

Keywords: Private Equity; Financial Liquidity; Investment; Strategy; Education Industry

July 2013
Teaching Note

Google's Project Oxygen: Do Managers Matter?

By: David A. Garvin

Google's Project Oxygen started with a fundamental question raised by executives in the early 2000s: do managers matter? The topic generated a multi-year research project that ultimately led to a comprehensive program, built around eight key management attributes,... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Behavior; Business Policy; General Management; Human Resource Management; Management; Leadership; Human Resources

2014
Article

Executive Compensation and Human Capital Investments Through Industry Selection

By: Boris Groysberg and Eric Lin

We use proprietary data capturing compensation levels of executives placed by a global search firm to investigate how executives evaluate rewards and risks of human capital investment choices. Our findings suggest that more isolated industries with lower opportunity to... View Details

Keywords: Executive Compensation; Human Capital; Personal Development and Career

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March 1999 (Revised May 1999)
Background Note

Putting Your Finger on Capability

By: Clayton M. Christensen and Tara Donovan

Presents a model or theory about the competence or capability of organizations. Written to help managers be more precise about what the capabilities and disabilities of an organization are, and to be able to put their finger precisely on the place in the organization... View Details

Keywords: Experience and Expertise; Management; Organizations; Theory

30 Jul 2007
Research & Ideas

Repugnant Markets and How They Get That Way

similarly the story about kidneys: why I can't buy yours, although I could accept it as a gift. Repugnance is different in different places and at different times. I feel a little bit like a sociologist when I look at these things. Q:... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

March 2019 (Revised January 2021)
Module Note

Strategic Interactions

By: Ashish Nanda

This note provides a perspective and some tools to predict and shape interactions with other players when making strategic decisions. As a strategist, you must consider that your firm’s actions evoke reactions from other players in the market and that, reciprocally,... View Details

Keywords: Strategic Interaction; Value Capture; Strategy; Value Creation; Competition; Competitive Strategy; Education Industry

October 2016
Case

Elon Musk: Balancing Purpose and Risk

By: Shikhar Ghosh and Sarah Mehta

The case is used to illustrate the place of ‘Purpose’ versus financial risk and returns in a founder’s objectives. It also addresses personal risk profile of different founders, and when paired with the Risk Tolerance Exercise, it enables evaluating one’s own appetite... View Details

Keywords: Electric Vehicle; Solar Power; Vision; Trade-offs; Leadership; Mission and Purpose; Risk and Uncertainty; Entrepreneurship; Failure; United States; North America

January 8, 2022
Editorial

The Post-Pandemic Office Should Be a Clubhouse

By: Nitin Nohria

If the primary purpose of an office today is no longer to get actual work done, then perhaps it’s better conceived as a place for connection and community. Do we still need desks and cubicles? View Details

Keywords: Employees; Geographic Location; Buildings and Facilities; Relationships

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January 2015
Case

The Blonde Salad

By: Anat Keinan, Kristina Maslauskaite, Sandrine Crener and Vincent Dessain

In 2014, Chiara Ferragni, a globe-trotting founder of the world's most popular fashion blog The Blonde Salad, and Riccardo Pozzoli, her co-founder and business partner, had to decide how to best monetize her blog as well as her shoe line called the "Chiara Ferragni... View Details

December 1973 (Revised June 1982)
Case

MRC, Inc. (A)

MRC must place a value on an acquisition prospect and also decide whether a deal makes sense from strategic and organizational perspectives. An updated version of and earlier case by W.E. Fruhan, Jr. and J.H. McArthur. View Details

Keywords: Strategic Planning; Valuation; Acquisition

20 Nov 2000
Research & Ideas

Moving from Supply Chains to Supply Networks

place in today's supply chain, as well as the far-reaching impact of information technology advancements. Outlining the program's curriculum, they explain how the participants leave the program armed with the principles and perspectives... View Details

Keywords: by Staff

August 2019 (Revised August 2024)
Case

The Walt Disney Company: Theme Parks

By: Rory McDonald, Allison Mnookin and Iuliana Mogosanu

As he seeks to place the division he leads on a firm footing for the future, Tom Staggs, chairman of Walt Disney Parks and Resorts, is considering a range of investments designed either to upgrade the guest experience in the company’s existing parks or to expand access... View Details

Keywords: Entertainment; Investment; Expansion; Decision Making; Customer Satisfaction; Entertainment and Recreation Industry

23 Feb 2017
Cold Call Podcast

Black Business Leaders Series: Franklin Leonard, 'Black List' Mastermind

Keywords: Re: Henry W. McGee; Entertainment & Recreation

July 2005
Exercise

Insider Trading Quiz

By: Lynn S. Paine and Christopher Bruner

Designed to test understanding of basic theories of insider trading under U.S. law. Presents six scenarios based on actual situations in which insider trading was alleged to have violated U.S. law, as well as a seventh scenario that took place in Italy, permitting... View Details

Keywords: Crime and Corruption; Stock Shares; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Law; Theory; Europe; Italy; United States