Publications

January 2021 (Revised March 2021)
Case

THE YES: Reimagining the Future of E-Commerce with Artificial Intelligence (AI)

By: Jill Avery, Ayelet Israeli and Emma von Maur

THE YES, a multi-brand shopping app launched in May 2020 offered a new type of buying experience for women’s fashion, driven by a sophisticated algorithm that used data science and machine learning to create and deliver a personalized store for every shopper, based on... View Details

Keywords: Data; Data Analytics; Artificial Intelligence; AI; AI Algorithms; AI Creativity; Fashion; Retail; Retail Analytics; E-Commerce Strategy; Platform; Platforms; Big Data; Preference Elicitation; Preference Prediction; Predictive Analytics; App Development; ＂Marketing Analytics＂; Advertising; Mobile App; Mobile Marketing; Apparel; Online Advertising; Referral Rewards; Referrals; Female Ceo; Female Entrepreneur; Female Protagonist; Analytics and Data Science; Analysis; Creativity; Marketing Strategy; Brands and Branding; Consumer Behavior; Demand and Consumers; Forecasting and Prediction; Marketing Channels; Digital Marketing; Internet and the Web; Mobile and Wireless Technology; AI and Machine Learning; E-commerce; Digital Platforms; Fashion Industry; Retail Industry; Apparel and Accessories Industry; Consumer Products Industry; United States

March 2018
Case

GiveDirectly

By: John Beshears, Joshua Schwartzstein, Tiffany Y. Chang and Brian J. Hall

How should nonprofits design compensation systems to attract and retain talent? GiveDirectly is a respected charitable organization with an unconventional approach. Instead of spending on traditional aid programs in areas such as health care and food access in... View Details

Keywords: Nonprofits; Charity; Effective Altruism; International Aid; Compensation; Goals; Bonuses; Incentives; GiveDirectly; Compensation and Benefits; Motivation and Incentives; Goals and Objectives; Recruitment; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving

22 Aug 2018
Video

HBX Live | Strategy Execution

November 2016 (Revised December 2016)
Module Note

Strategy Execution Module 11: Using Diagnostic and Interactive Control Systems

By: Robert Simons

This module reading introduces diagnostic and interactive control systems. Diagnostic control systems are the management-by-exception systems that managers use to monitor the achievement of their business strategy. Interactive control systems are the systems that top... View Details

Keywords: Management Control Systems; Implementing Strategy; Execution; Performance Measurement; Diagnostic Control Systems; Interactive Control Systems; Emergent Strategy; Goal Setting; Incentives; Strategy; Motivation and Incentives; Goals and Objectives; Management Systems; Performance Evaluation

June 2015
Case

The Coca-Cola Company's Case for Creative Transformation

By: Thales S. Teixeira and Elizabeth Anne Watkins

In 2013, the Coca-Cola Company was awarded Creative Marketer of the Year by the Cannes Lions Festival (known as the "Oscar of Advertising") for the first time ever in history and nearly 50 years after the Festival's inception. Just one year before that, Jonathan... View Details

Keywords: Attention Economics; Creating Connections; Digital Marketing; Marketing Innovations; Social Networks; Advertising Content; Networked Brand; Beverage Industry; Coca-Cola; Digital Innovation; Digital Transition; Marketing; Marketing Communications; Innovation Strategy; Social and Collaborative Networks; Advertising; Creativity; Consumer Products Industry

12 PM – 1 PM EDT, 16 Mar 2017
Webinars: Trending@HBS

Blended: Using Disruptive Innovation to Improve Schools

In this webinar, Michael B. Horn and Heather Staker will discuss the themes from their Amazon-bestselling book, Blended. Using the theories of disruptive innovation, Horn and Staker reveal a practical guide for designing an education system that can help all students... View Details

April 1993 (Revised May 1994)
Case

General Dynamics and Computer Sciences Corporation: Outsourcing the IS Function (A)

By: F. Warren McFarlan and Katherine Seger

Designed to generate discussion on the issues of outsourcing from the perspective of a firm thinking about turning over its IS activities to a third-party vendor. View Details

Keywords: Management Systems; Management Style; Information Technology; Job Cuts and Outsourcing; Business Strategy; Economic Systems; Business or Company Management; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Business Processes; Employment; Emerging Markets; Activity Based Costing and Management; Information Technology Industry; Consulting Industry

January 2009 (Revised December 2017)
Case

Who Broke the Bank of England?

By: Niall Ferguson and Jonathan Schlefer

In the summer of 1992, hedge fund manager George Soros was contemplating the possibility that the European Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM) would break down. Designed to pave the way for a full-scale European Monetary Union, the ERM was a system of fixed exchange rates... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Currency Exchange Rate; Investment; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Financial Services Industry; European Union

2019
Working Paper

The Future of Executive Development: The CLO's Compass and The Executive Programs Designer's Guide

By: Mihnea Moldoveanu and Das Narayandas

Executive education worldwide has entered a period of disruption catalyzed by the digitalization of content, connectivity, and communication—while the demand for managerial skills is growing. The forces of disintermediation, disaggregation, and decoupling are creating... View Details

Keywords: Digitalization; Executive Education; Disruption; Leadership Development; Management Skills; Curriculum and Courses; Internet and the Web; Design

Read Now

Video

Financial Analysis & Valuation for Lawyers

Video

Financial Analysis & Valuation for Lawyers

Shawn A. Cole

Shawn Cole is the John G. McLean Professor in the Finance Unit at Harvard Business School, where he teaches and conducts research on financial services, impact investing, and Social Enterprise. He serves as faculty chair of the Social Enterprise... View Details

Keywords: banking; financial services; microfinance

TeachingInterests

Making Corporate Boards More Effective

By: Suraj Srinivasan

While a corporate board may have broadly defined legal duties, its role in evaluating management, providing strategic oversight, and dealing with the complexity of today's regulatory environment has never been more tested—or more critically dependent on effective... View Details

May 1997
Teaching Note

Product Development Process, Organization and Improvement, Instructor's Note

By: Marco Iansiti

Explores how development projects fit (or do not fit) within a firm's development strategy and its wider competitive goals. Module materials, and this note, focus on two broad approaches to process design (sequential and flexible) that were originally introduced in the... View Details

Keywords: Goals and Objectives; Management Practices and Processes; Product Development; Performance Improvement; Competition

July 1993 (Revised September 1995)
Supplement

Block 16: Indigenous Peoples' Perspective

By: Malcolm S. Salter and Susan E.A. Hall

Supplements Block 16: Conoco's Green Oil Strategy (A). Provides the indigenous people's perspective on Conoco's Ecuadorian strategy. Designed to be distributed to students who will be playing the role of Ecuadorian indigenous people. View Details

Keywords: Perspective; Ethnicity

Michael Porter is an economist, researcher, author, advisor, speaker and teacher. Throughout his career at Harvard Business School, he has brought economic theory and strategy concepts to bear on many of the most challenging problems facing corporations, economies... View Details

Keywords: biotechnology; e-commerce industry; health care; information; information technology industry; internet; nonprofit industry; service industry; state government

2007
Working Paper

What Have We Learned From Market Design?

By: Alvin E. Roth

This essay discusses some things we have learned about markets, in the process of designing marketplaces to fix market failures. To work well, marketplaces have to provide thickness, i.e. they need to attract a large enough proportion of the potential participants in... View Details

Keywords: Market Design; Market Participation; Market Transactions; Risk and Uncertainty; Safety

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Article

Why Compliance Programs Fail: And How to Fix Them

By: Hui Chen and Eugene Soltes

Firms spend millions of dollars annually on whistle-blower hotlines, training, and other efforts to ensure adherence to laws, regulations, and company policies. Yet malfeasance remains entrenched in the corporate world. Why? Too many firms treat compliance as a... View Details

Keywords: Governance Compliance; Programs; Employees; Training; Performance Effectiveness; Measurement and Metrics