Publications

December 2019 (Revised February 2024)
Teaching Note

Ripple: The Business of Crypto and Ripple 2023

By: David B. Yoffie

The case explores Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse’s mission to disrupt the global payments industry by leveraging the cryptocurrency XRP. Students will learn about Bitcoin and the blockchain industry, as well as Ripple’s unique crypto business model. The case provides an... View Details

Keywords: Payment Systems; Cryptocurrency; Bitcoin; Blockchain; Fintech; Business Startups; Business Model; Disruption; Strategy

26 Feb 2019
Blog Post

How Financial Aid Makes All the Difference

the Medical Service, San Francisco VA Health System. He works as a medical educator for students and residents and serves as a coach within the Bridges curriculum at the UCSF School of Medicine. View Video View Details

July 2008 (Revised April 2009)
Supplement

Philip McCrea: Once an Entrepreneur... (B)

By: William W. George

Philip McCrea is dealing with the aftermath of the move of his company and family from San Francisco to New Jersey (from the (A) case). Although the move goes well from a family perspective, his business runs into challenges when he merges it into a Canadian company... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Leadership; Failure; Ownership Stake; Work-Life Balance; Canada; New Jersey

June 2008
Supplement

Kit Hinrichs at Pentagram (B)

By: Linda A. Hill and Emily Stecker

This case focuses on Kit Hindrichs, a 65 year-old partner at Pentagram, a privately-owned multidisciplinary design firm. One of the world's most prestigious design firms, Pentagram was founded by five designers from different disciplines in London in the 1970s. By... View Details

Keywords: Business Offices; Design; Managerial Roles; Private Ownership; Business and Shareholder Relations; Partners and Partnerships; Equality and Inequality; London; San Francisco; New York (state, US)

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2014
Working Paper

The Organizational and Geographic Drivers of Absorptive Capacity: An Empirical Analysis of Pharmaceutical R&D Laboratories

By: Francesca Lazzeri and Gary P. Pisano

Scholars and practitioners alike now recognize that a firm's capacity to assimilate and use know-how from external sources—what Cohen and Levinthal (1990) called "absorptive capacity"—plays a central role in innovation performance. In recent years, a common strategy... View Details

Keywords: Geographic Location; Industry Clusters; Knowledge Acquisition; Pharmaceutical Industry; San Francisco; San Diego; Massachusetts

SSRN

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February 2023 (Revised March 2023)
Case

Twitter Turnaround and Elon Musk

By: Andy Wu and Goran Calic

Late afternoon on Friday, October 27th, 2022, Elon Musk was the center of attention at Twitter’s San Francisco headquarters. The night before, Musk officially took the company private and became Twitter’s majority shareholder, finally ending a months-long acquisition... View Details

Keywords: Elon Musk; Twitter; Acquisition; Revenue; Advertising; Social Media; Business or Company Management; Public Opinion; Job Cuts and Outsourcing

15 Sep 2019
News

Sunday Strategist: Your Company Should Let You Work From Anywhere

June 2008 (Revised July 2008)
Case

Kit Hinrichs at Pentagram (A)

By: Linda A. Hill and Emily Stecker

This case focuses on Kit Hinrichs, a 65-year-old partner at Pentagram, a privately owned multidisciplinary design firm. One of the world's most prestigious design firms, Pentagram was founded by five designers from different disciplines in London in the 1970s. By 2008,... View Details

Keywords: Arts; Business Offices; Customer Relationship Management; Design; Leadership; Personal Development and Career; Groups and Teams; Creativity; Service Industry; San Francisco

Find at Harvard

20 Feb 2019
Video

How Financial Aid Makes All the Difference

October 2020 (Revised April 2022)
Case

When Institutions Fail: HIV/AIDS in the 1980s

By: Tom Nicholas and Christian Godwin

During the early 1980s, young gay men in urban centers such as San Francisco and New York City began contracting a mysterious illness that would come to be known as HIV/AIDS. A diagnosis meant almost certain death, with a less than 1% survival rate. Conflicting... View Details

27 Apr 2018
HBS Seminar

Helen Riley, Moonshot Mission Controller at X (formerly Google [x])

April 2000 (Revised April 2004)
Case

TixToGo: Financing a Silicon Valley Start-up

Describes TixToGo, a Silicon Valley start-up company that offers online solutions to individuals and organizations that want to offer activities and/or collect registration fees for events over the Internet. A serial entrepreneur and his partner started the company in... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Information Technology; Financing and Loans; Business Startups; Information Technology Industry; San Francisco

March 2024
Case

Lyft 2023: Roads to Growth and Differentiation

By: Ranjay Gulati and Jeffrey Huizinga

Set in San Francisco in winter 2023, this case explores the strategic challenges and initiatives at Lyft under the leadership of its new CEO, David Risher. Confronted with declining market share and financial pressures, Risher spent his first six months at the helm... View Details

Keywords: Technology; Turnarounds; Ridesharing; Transition; Strategy; Culture; Change Management; Transportation Industry; Technology Industry

Career Coach

Juan Leung Li

Juan draws on his own career journey and his experience supporting tech entrepreneurs and executives to coach students. Most career paths look like a straight line in hindsight -- those cases are rare. In reality, discovering fulfilling jobs and leading impactful... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Angel Investing; Financial Services (All); Corporate Finance; Financial Services (All); Investment Banking; Financial Services (All); Venture Capital; Financial Services (All); Startup - Founder; Entrepreneurship; Startup - Joiner; Entrepreneurship; Technology

August 2006 (Revised September 2008)
Case

Duane Morris: Balancing Growth and Culture at a Law Firm

By: Boris Groysberg and Robin Abrahams

After nearly 100 years as a mid-size regional law firm, Duane Morris entered a period of spectacular growth led by CEO Sheldon Bonovitz. Originally founded by Quakers, the firm had a distinct organizational culture featuring a number of unique or unusual business... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Growth and Development Strategy; Management Practices and Processes; Organizational Culture; Competitive Advantage; San Francisco

October 2014 (Revised May 2015)
Case

HandsOn Bay Area: Scaling Up Community Service

By: James Heskett

HandsOn Bay Area, an organization devoted to the performance of (and development of leaders for) community service, is undergoing a significant (and internally controversial) shift in its business model from "retail" projects involving individual volunteers to... View Details

July 2003 (Revised December 2004)
Case

Sustainable Conservation--Where Next?

Sustainable Conservation (SusCon) is an environmental nonprofit in San Francisco that works collaboratively with the private and public sectors to achieve positive environmental change. The organization forms partnerships with industry and government agencies to devise... View Details

Keywords: Nonprofit Organizations; Cost vs Benefits; Expansion; Environmental Sustainability; San Francisco