Publications

Why do some companies succeed in defeating stronger rivals, while others fail? This is a question that, sooner or later, all ambitious competitors must face. Whether you’re a tiny start-up taking on industry giants or a giant moving into markets dominated by... View Details

David B. Yoffie

Professor David B. Yoffie is a Baker Foundation Professor and the Max and Doris Starr Professor of International Business Administration, Emeritus at Harvard Business School. A member of the HBS faculty since 1981, Professor Yoffie received his... View Details

Keywords: communications; computer; e-commerce industry; electronics; financial services; information; information technology industry; internet; retail financial services; semiconductor; soft drink; telecommunications; video games

Web

Faculty & Research

strengthen its pharma pipeline, manage debt, and cut through bureaucracy. His bold response: Dynamic Shared Ownership (DSO), a radical model replacing traditional hierarchies with self-organizing teams. By 2025, Bayer was on track to cut... View Details

January 2023 (Revised June 2024)
Case

Zaoui & Co. (A): Consigliere for High Stakes M&A Transactions

By: Ashish Nanda, Alex Kitsberg and Zack Kurtovich

In September 2019, Zaoui & Co.’s close-knit team of professionals convened for their annual off-site. In its nine years of operation, the boutique investment bank founded by the brothers Michael (HBS ’83) and Yoel Zaoui (Stanford GSB ’88), had garnered a track record... View Details

Keywords: Professional Service Firm; Entrepreneurship; Finance; Strategy; Investment Banking; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Growth and Development Strategy; Europe; United Kingdom

Research Summary

Professor Hiatt’s research is aimed at discovering how institutional factors can affect sector growth and technology development and adoption by mediating and moderating uncertainty. His work encompasses two related research questions:

1) How can... View Details

June 2020 (Revised July 2023)
Case

Time Out: The Evolution from Media to Markets

By: Kate Barasz and Eva Ascarza

In February 2020, Time Out’s chief executive officer Julio Bruno is evaluating the strategic direction of the company. Over the span of five decades, Time Out — the global media and entertainment brand — had gone from a self-published counterculture publication in... View Details

Keywords: Branding; Media Businesses; Hospitality; Hospitality Industry; Digital; Brands and Branding; Media; Marketing; Marketing Strategy; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Strategy; Media and Broadcasting Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; United Kingdom; United States

Program

The Women's Leadership Forum

Summary While today's companies are making a concerted effort to grow leaders from within, many are missing a crucial opportunity by not fully utilizing the talents of executive women. In this women's leadership program, you will join an exceptional group of seasoned... View Details

March 2025 (Revised May 2025)
Case

ING Türkiye: Flexible Work in a Competitive Banking Environment

By: Ashley Whillans and Nico Schaefer

This case explores ING Türkiye’s journey toward workplace flexibility within the traditionally conservative Turkish banking sector. Beginning with early remote work experiments in 2015 and culminating in the FlexING model, by 2024 ING Türkiye had positioned itself as a... View Details

Keywords: Talent and Talent Management; Employee Relationship Management; Working Conditions; Business or Company Management; Adaptation; Competition; Organizational Culture; Banking Industry; Turkey

August 2011
Supplement

John Fahey, President and CEO of National Geographic Society, In-Class Comments, 2/11/11

By: David Garvin

In January 2010, John Fahey, president, CEO, and chairman of the board of trustees' executive committee of the Washington, D.C.-based National Geographic Society (NGS), must decide how best to organize the 121-year old mission-driven organization for a world of... View Details

Keywords: Transformation; Leadership Style; Business or Company Management; Brands and Branding; Sales; Environmental Sustainability; Business Strategy; Web Sites; Publishing Industry; Washington (state, US)

March 2022 (Revised April 2022)
Teaching Note

Spotify's Audio-First Strategy: Leading the Podcasting Market

By: Hong Luo and Carol Lin

Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 721-439. Within 15 years, CEO Daniel Ek had led Spotify from an ambitious startup to a multi-billion dollar company that had transformed the music industry. As part of Spotify’s next phase of growth, the platform would invest heavily in... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Growth and Development Strategy; Business Divisions; Customer Relationship Management; Revenue; Music Industry

August 2021 (Revised April 2022)
Case

KKR

By: Jo Tango and Alys Ferragamo

In June of 2021, KKR’s executive team convened to prepare for an upcoming board meeting. From a small, three-person partnership that started in 1976 and invested only in U.S. LBOs, the firm 45 years later was a public company that employed over 1,600 people and managed... View Details

Keywords: Governing and Advisory Boards; Public Equity; Globalized Markets and Industries; Growth and Development Strategy; Profit; Strategy; Finance; Private Equity; United States

Research Summary

Firm Performance, Senior Management, and Managerial Representation

While my work on strategic human capital studies how the characteristics of management shape performance, this work in effect focuses on the reverse: how performance shapes a key characteristic of the firm's management

Working with Professor David Thomas,... View Details

January 2013 (Revised January 2015)
Case

FX Risk Hedging at EADS

By: W. Carl Kester, Vincent Dessain and Karol Misztal

In 2008, EADS, the European aerospace group that owns Airbus, was faced with the decision of how best to hedge a large and growing mismatch between its dollar revenues and its euro manufacturing costs. Specifically, the company needed to decide if it would continue... View Details

Keywords: Derivatives; Foreign Exchange; Options; Forward Contract; Aerospace; Europe; Risk Management; Futures and Commodity Futures; Aerospace Industry; Europe

July 2019
Case

Four Products: Predicting Diffusion (2019)

By: John Gourville

One job of product managers, marketers, strategic planners, and other corporate executives is to predict what the demand will be for a new product. This task is easier for certain classes of new products than for others. For new consumer package goods, for instance,... View Details

Keywords: Diffusion Processes; Product Adoption; Marketing; Forecasting and Prediction; Demand and Consumers; Product; Adoption; Product Launch

October 2008 (Revised February 2011)
Case

Apple's Core

By: Noam T. Wasserman

Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak are best friends who enjoy pulling pranks together and talking about electronics. After several small collaborations, Jobs pitches Wozniak on starting a company together to sell computers based on Wozniak's design for a personal computer.... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Entrepreneurship; Equity; Managerial Roles; Partners and Partnerships; Conflict Management

2006
Article

Capital Budgeting: The Role of Cost Allocations

By: Ian D. Gow and Stefan Reichelstein

A common issue for firms is how to allocate capital resources to various investment alternatives. An extensive and long-standing literature in finance has examined various aspects of capital budgeting, including capital constraints, the determination of discount rates,... View Details

Keywords: Capital Budgeting; Resource Allocation; Performance Evaluation; Cost Management; Research; Investment; Cash Flow; Risk Management; Performance Capacity

July 2003 (Revised August 2003)
Case

Global Healthcare Exchange

By: Lynda M. Applegate and Jamie Ladge

Founded in March 2000 at the height of the dot-com bubble, Global Healthcare Exchange (GHX) was one of 90 online marketplaces in the health care industry. The company's founders were among the largest suppliers in the industry, including Johnson & Johnson, GE Medical,... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Entrepreneurship; Price; Leadership; Growth and Development Strategy; Supply and Industry; Organizational Design; Expansion; Internet and the Web; Valuation; Health Industry

February 2009
Case

HP: The Computer is Personal Again

By: Rajiv Lal and Cathy Ross

In September 2008, Todd Bradley, executive vice president of Hewlett-Packard Company's Personal Systems Group (PSG), gathered his thoughts before a meeting with his top executives and managers for product design and marketing. On the agenda was a discussion of... View Details

Keywords: Revenue; Product Positioning; Corporate Strategy; Computer Industry; Retail Industry

August 2011
Supplement

An Interview with John Fahey, President and CEO of National Geographic Society

By: David Garvin

In January 2010, John Fahey, president, CEO, and chairman of the board of trustees' executive committee of the Washington, D.C.-based National Geographic Society (NGS), must decide how best to organize the 121-year old mission-driven organization for a world of... View Details

Keywords: Transformation; Leadership Style; Business or Company Management; Brands and Branding; Problems and Challenges; Sales; Natural Environment; Business Strategy; Web Sites