Publications

01 Oct 2021
Blog Post

Video Blog: My Experience in the Joint MS/MBA Engineering Sciences Program

View Video TRANSCRIPT Kaelyn Griffin: Hi, my name is Kaelyn Griffin and I'm a second-year MS/MBA student here at Harvard Business School. In this video, I wanted to talk a bit more about how I view the MS/MBA Program and why I decided to... View Details

02 May 2005
Research & Ideas

Four VCs on Evaluating Opportunities

positioning story or sizzle. The details can be filled in later. We have a process here called SEMS, or Systematic Emerging Market Selection. We do a SEMS project for every investment we make. Twice a year at our planning meeting, we talk... View Details

Keywords: by Lauren Barley

Article

Why Leadership Training Fails—and What to Do about It

By: Michael Beer, Magnus Finnström and Derek Schrader

U.S. corporations spend enormous amounts of money—some $456 billion globally in 2015 alone—on employee training and education, but they aren't getting a good return on their investment. People soon revert to old ways of doing things, and company performance doesn't... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Leadership Development; Organizational Design; Employees; Business Processes; United States

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08 Sep 2015
Blog Post

On the Road: HBS Midwest Tour

Students come to HBS from all corners of the globe – it’s part of what makes HBS such a dynamic place to study and learn. As an Admissions team, our goal is to connect with prospective students and help them learn more about business... View Details

June 2000
Background Note

Note on CEO Evaluation

By: Jay W. Lorsch and Katharina Pick

Discusses the trend toward formal evaluations, by boards of directors, of CEO performance. The benefits and challenges of CEO evaluation are discussed and a particular process of CEO evaluation at Dayton Hudson Corp. is described. Teaching Purpose: To introduce issues... View Details

Keywords: Governing and Advisory Boards; Business Processes; Performance; Problems and Challenges; Valuation

Program

Creating Brand Value

cultural and relationship prowess today's business-to-consumer (B2C) brand managers need. You will explore branding as a collective and collaborative meaning-making process among firms, consumers, and other cultural producers, acquiring... View Details

August 1995 (Revised August 1995)
Case

CIGNA Property and Casualty Reengineering (A)

By: Richard L. Nolan, Donna B. Stoddard, Chiara Francalanci and Elise C Martin

Reengineering was introduced at CIGNA Corp. in 1988. CIGNA entered a second wave reengineering effort through a major project at CIGNA P&C, one of CIGNA's larger businesses. P&C was in financial crisis and as a result brought in a new executive team in 1991 to head the... View Details

Keywords: Transformation; Cost vs Benefits; Design; Growth and Development; Analytics and Data Science; Growth and Development Strategy; Balanced Scorecard; Financial Crisis; Crisis Management; Projects; Information Technology; Insurance Industry

August 2009
Case

SK Telecom: Pursuing Happiness through Corporate Social Responsibility

By: Christopher Marquis, Kwang Y. Ryu, Philip H. Mirvis and Bobbi Thomason

Since 2006, SK Telecom has worked to develop strategic corporate social responsibility (CSR) programs that are aligned with its business operations and corporate mission. The case tracks the original assessment process the company went through and successive... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Design; Organizational Structure; Corporate Strategy; Telecommunications Industry; South Korea

January 2002 (Revised October 2007)
Case

Grantham, Mayo, Van Otterloo & Co., 2001

By: Joshua Musher and Andre F. Perold

Asset manager GMO underperforms the market during the 1996-2000 stock market bubble because of the focus on absolute risk. After suffering significant client withdrawals, performance again shines when the bubble collapses. Did they win the battle only to lose the war?... View Details

Keywords: Customers; Asset Management; Stocks; Investment; Price Bubble; Mathematical Methods; Risk and Uncertainty

26 May 2003
Research & Ideas

When Silence Spells Trouble at Work

employees in organizations ranging from small businesses to Fortune 500 corporations to government bureaucracies reveal that silence can exact a high psychological price on individuals, generating feelings of humiliation, pernicious... View Details

Keywords: by Leslie A. Perlow

April 2018
Teaching Note

InsideSales.com (A) and (B)

By: Frank Cespedes

Teaching Note for HBS Nos. 817-018 and 817-042. InsideSales.com (ISC) has been successful selling its software to small- and medium-sized businesses (SMB). But for various reasons, the founders see “the next stage of growth” as building a scalable sales and service... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Entrepreneurship; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Design; Customer Relationship Management; Growth Management; Marketing Strategy; Salesforce Management; Talent and Talent Management; Technology Industry

April 2023
Technical Note

An Art & A Science: How to Apply Design Thinking to Data Science Challenges

By: Michael Parzen, Eddie Lin, Douglas Ng and Jessie Li

We hear it all the time as managers: “what is the data that backs up your decisions?” Even local mom-and-pop shops now have access to complex point-of-sale systems that can closely track sales and customer data. Social media influencers have turned into seven-figure... View Details

Keywords: Decision Making; Framework; Analytics and Data Science

December 2023
Article

Looking Forward – To Better Strategy-Sales Coordination

By: Frank V. Cespedes

Business decisions are about tomorrow, not yesterday. A key to looking forward in most firms is the annual strategy meeting, where linking sales efforts with strategy is vital for implementation and profitable growth. But according to surveys, less than half of... View Details

Keywords: Sales; Growth and Development Strategy; Corporate Strategy

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June 2023
Case

Dan McCrum - Unmasking Wirecard

By: Jonas Heese, Charles C.Y. Wang, Tonia Labruyere and Carlota Moniz

Dan McCrum, an investigative journalist for the Financial Times, had spent the past six years fighting to expose German payment processing firm Wirecard. The company had enjoyed years of exponential growth and was viewed by several investors as the poster child of... View Details

Keywords: Crime and Corruption; Accounting; Financial Services Industry; Journalism and News Industry; Europe; United Kingdom; Germany

Career Coach

Lisa Li

Lisa is excited to help students who are navigating the consulting recruiting process as well as current consultants who may be looking for career transitions into investing or operating roles. She is most experienced in the biotech and... View Details

September 19, 2017
Article

After Equifax Breach, Companies Advised to Review Open-Source Software Code

By: Ben DiPietro and Lou Shipley

It doesn’t make much sense: At a time when high-powered automated trading systems can execute stock sales in real time, some companies that rely on open-source software to help to run their businesses track their open-source use on spread sheets on paper.
Lou... View Details

Keywords: Software; Open-source; Security Vulnerabilities; Data Privacy; Hack; Applications and Software; Safety; Cybersecurity

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October 2012
Article

Target the Right Market

By: Jill Avery and Thomas Steenburgh

SparkPlace is a two-year-old business with a hot new product: software that manages and measures the effectiveness of permission-based marketing campaigns for social media. The company is in the process of deciding on which of two customer segments to focus its... View Details

Keywords: Marketing; Market Segmentation; Customer Defection; Customer Lifetime Value; Customer Relationship Management; CRM; Market Segmentation And Target Market Selection; Marketing Strategy; Product Marketing; Customer Focus and Relationships; Customer Value and Value Chain; Technology Industry; United States

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August 2004 (Revised February 2006)
Case

Marketing James Patterson

By: John A. Deighton

Can a successful novelist use direct-to-consumer marketing to grow his brand? The author, who in a previous career ran a major advertising agency, uses advertising with great success to build his stature as a crime fiction writer. Further, he applies his experience at... View Details

Keywords: Advertising; Debates; Surveys; SWOT Analysis; Brands and Branding; Marketing Channels; Product Marketing; Consumer Behavior; Outcome or Result; Sales

June 2001 (Revised March 2003)
Case

Alibris (A)

By: Andrew P. McAfee and Kerry Herman

Alibris is an Internet-era company providing search and fulfillment services for hard-to-find (rare, used, and out-of-print) books. At the time of the case, the company had made decisions to change its revenue model, to become involved in the fulfillment process for... View Details

Keywords: Internet and the Web; Service Delivery; Applications and Software; Problems and Challenges; Books; Service Industry