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HBS Working Knowledge – Harvard Business School Faculty Research

Forman 24 OCT 2023 | HBS Case What do Steve Jobs and Sarah Breedlove have in common? Through a series of case studies, Robert Simons explores the unique qualities of visionary leaders and what today's managers can learn from their... View Details

January 2023 (Revised December 2023)
Case

OhmConnect: Energizing the Future

By: Jeffrey F. Rayport, Jennifer Fonstad and Nicole Tempest Keller

Founded in 2013, OhmConnect was a free consumer web app that alerted customers about peak hours of electricity demand, and paid them to lower their energy use at home during these periods. The company sold the aggregated reductions generated by thousands of households... View Details

Keywords: App Development; Renewable Energy; Electricity Usage; Regulations; VC; Technology; Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC); Scalability; Applications and Software; Growth and Development Strategy; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Business Model; Venture Capital; Energy Industry; United States; California; Texas; Europe

February 2009 (Revised June 2010)
Case

Mibanco: Meeting the Mainstreaming of Microfinance

By: Michael Chu and Gustavo A. Herrero

Mibanco, Peru's leading microfinance bank, faces intense competition as the banking industry rushes into low income segments. Companion video clips bring into the classroom the contemporary reality of a world-class microfinance institution, where the unpaved streets... View Details

Keywords: Microfinance; Profit; Business History; Growth and Development Strategy; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Marketing Strategy; Service Operations; Performance; Competition; Banking Industry; Peru

23 Sep 2013
Working Paper Summaries

Applying Random Coefficient Models to Strategy Research: Testing for Firm Heterogeneity, Predicting Firm-Specific Coefficients, and Estimating Strategy Trade-Offs

Keywords: by Juan Alcácer, Wilbur Chung, Ashton Hawk & Gonçalo Pacheco-de-Almeida

February 2014
Case

BGI: Data-driven Research

By: Willy Shih and Sen Chai

BGI has the largest installed gene-sequencing capacity in the world, and to Zhang Gengyun, general manager of the Life Sciences Division, this represented an opportunity to apply his training as a plant breeder and his early career work as a biochemist to improving... View Details

30 Jul 2009
Working Paper Summaries

Fluid Teams and Fluid Tasks: The Impact of Team Familiarity and Variation in Experience

Keywords: by Robert S. Huckman & Bradley R. Staats; Video Game; Web Services

Program

Families in Business

foundations. All three types of businesses will benefit from this program. Details Address the complex dynamics of a family business Manage expectations for the family's involvement with the business Develop plans for onboarding the... View Details

July 2009 (Revised September 2009)
Case

The Blackstone Group: Merlin Entertainment

The Blackstone Group had conducted a roll-up of theme parks and attractions business in Europe. It was considering how to generate liquidity for its investors. Blackstone entered the theme parks and attractions business in Europe by acquiring a majority stake in... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Cost vs Benefits; Private Equity; Financial Liquidity; Investment Return; Risk Management; Leasing; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; Europe

06 Sep 2011
Research & Ideas

The Power of Leadership Groups for Staying on Track

Author's Note: Why Leaders Lose Their Way, my article in the June 6, 2011, edition of Harvard Business School Working Knowledge, generated a large number of very thoughtful and profound comments. The following article proposes an antidote... View Details

Keywords: by Bill George

December 2013 (Revised March 2014)
Supplement

The LEGO Group: Envisioning Risks in Asia (B)

By: Anette Mikes and Amram Migdal

This brief follow-up complements the case on The LEGO Group: Stepping Up in Asia (9-113-054), and discusses the aftermath of the scenario planning session, in which LEGO managers contemplated the risks of their new Asian strategy. The scenario planning exercise played... View Details

Keywords: Risk Management; Global Strategy; Planning; Retail Industry; Asia

October 2016
Case

Addicaid: Scaling a Digital Platform for Addiction Wellness and Recovery

By: Robert S. Huckman and Sarah Mehta

In 2013, Sam Frons founded Addicaid—a mobile application (app) that allowed people in addiction recovery to track their progress, check in with counselors, and connect with others in recovery programs. The app was grounded in cognitive behavioral therapy and used the... View Details

Keywords: Digital Health Interventions; Substance Use Disorder; Addiction Treatment; Addiction Recovery; Scale; Innovation; Health; Health Disorders; Health Industry; New York (city, NY)

11 Apr 2007
Research & Ideas

Adding Time to Activity-Based Costing

generate increased profits. They provide the link between customer satisfaction and improved financial performance. Scorecard measures of the incidence of unprofitable customers and the magnitude of losses from unprofitable relationships... View Details

Keywords: by Sarah Jane Gilbert

Article

Capture New Value from Your Existing Tech Infrastructure

By: Stefan Thomke and Anthony Rodrigo

When senior managers think about how to respond to the threats and opportunities of technological change, they often dream of the same thing: If they just could start a new company or division that isn’t held back by conventional thinking or outdated business models.... View Details

Keywords: Innovation; Technology; Ecosystem; Incubators; Technological Innovation; Telecommunications Industry; South Asia; Malaysia

Read Now

13 Dec 2014
News

The openness revolution

May 2011
Article

Race at the Top: How Companies Shape the Inclusion of African Americans on Their Boards in Response to Institutional Pressures

By: Clayton S. Rose and William T. Bielby

Drawing on institutionalist theory, we conceptualize the racial composition of the boards of directors of large American companies as shaped in response to social and political norms. We use new longitudinal and cross-sectional data to test hypotheses about factors... View Details

Keywords: Leadership; Governing and Advisory Boards; Race; Mathematical Methods; Government and Politics; Public Ownership; United States

Find at Harvard

23 Oct 2020
Video

Entrepreneurship Opportunities in a Post-COVID World: The Future of Travel, Mobility and Hospitality

May 2019
Background Note

Developing Yourself as a Leader: A Framework for Millennial High Potentials & Emerging Leaders: How to PACE Your Self-Development

By: Ethan Bernstein and Kirstin Lynde

Millennials are redefining what it means to develop future leaders. In business organizations, leadership development—defined as “the expansion of a person's capacity to be effective in leadership roles and processes“—has traditionally been the work of corporate... View Details

Keywords: Talent and Talent Management; Human Resources; Leadership Development; Leadership Style; Leadership; Goals and Objectives; Management Skills; Management Style

2012
Working Paper

Level II Negotiations: Helping the Other Side Meet Its 'Behind the Table' Challenges

By: James K. Sebenius

A long analytic tradition explores the challenge of productively synchronizing "internal" with "external" negotiations, especially focusing on how each side can best manage internal opposition to agreements negotiated "at the table." Implicit in much of this work is... View Details

Keywords: Negotiation; Conflict Management; Agreements and Arrangements; Government and Politics; Mathematical Methods; United States; Germany

Read Now

April 2002 (Revised September 2002)
Case

Transformation of Seattle Public Schools, 1995-2002

Investigates the reform of the Seattle Public Schools from 1995 to 2002. To initiate reform in 1995, the district hired John Stanford, an Army general, and Joseph Olchefske, an investment banker, as the district's superintendent and chief financial officer,... View Details

Keywords: Management; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Leading Change; Organizational Structure; Education; Business Strategy; Public Administration Industry; Education Industry; Seattle