Publications

March 2017 (Revised October 2018)
Case

Catalant: The Future of Work?

By: Thomas Eisenmann, Jeffrey F. Rayport and Christine Snively

Catalant, founded in 2013 as an online marketplace where MBAs could bid on consulting projects posted by small- to medium-sized businesses, had expanded by 2016 to provide Fortune 1000 companies with access to over 35,000 independent experts. The founders envisioned... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Human Resources; Recruitment; Labor; Market Platforms; Growth and Development Strategy; Employment Industry; Consulting Industry; United States

01 Jan 2011
News

Karen Gordon Mills, MBA 1977

Administrator, US Small Business Administration Download Mills profile (pdf) Return to Alumni Achievement Awards main page TIMELINE 1953 Born, Boston, Massachusetts 1977 Joins General Foods 1981 Joins McKinsey & Company 1983 Joins E.S. Jacobs & Co. 1993 Becomes... View Details

22 Feb 2021
Book

Reaching Today's Omnichannel Customer Takes a New Sales Strategy

sales productivity is not only about profit maximization and shareholder value—which, by the way, I don't think a CEO or Harvard Business School needs to apologize for—it also affects growth, civic discourse, and the lives of millions of people. Bureau of View Details

Keywords: by Kristen Senz

06 Jun 2005
What Do You Think?

Is a “Level Playing Field” a Good Thing?

college admissions to world trade. Its most current form has arisen in connection with moves by the United States to take actions to stem the influx of Chinese-produced goods. Some would claim the influx is the result of an absence of a level playing field created by... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

2024
Working Paper

Contributing to Growth? The Role of Open Source Software for Global Startups

By: Nataliya Langburd Wright, Frank Nagle and Shane Greenstein

How does participating in open source software (OSS) communities spur entrepreneurial growth? To address this question, we analyze novel data matching accounts from GitHub—the largest OSS hosting platform—to the universe of global software venture-backed firms... View Details

Keywords: Applications and Software; Open Source Distribution; Entrepreneurship; Business Growth and Maturation; Human Capital; Valuation; Corporate Strategy

SSRN

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August 2020 (Revised February 2021)
Case

Luckin Coffee (A): Caffeine-fueled Growth?

By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell and Karen Elterman

This case describes the founding of Chinese coffee chain Luckin Coffee in 2017 and its path to surpassing Starbucks as the largest coffee chain in China (by number of stores) in 2019. Unlike Starbucks stores, which were designed to be welcoming “third places” for... View Details

18 Mar 2019
Research & Ideas

Stuck in Commuter Hell? You Can Still Be Productive

Workers commute an average 38 minutes each way between home and work—a trip that can feel like a dreadful chore before the workday even begins. In fact, long commutes lower job satisfaction and increase employee turnover. Now, recent research provides some advice to... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

10 Mar 2020
Research & Ideas

The Little Understood Problem Confronting Diverse Workplaces

Knitting together a workforce with diverse backgrounds, cultures, and other demographic differences is challenging even for experienced managers, who must socialize those employees into the organization and also help them form new work identities. Sometimes, concludes... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna

October 2023
Case

Making Progress at Progress Software (A)

By: Katherine Coffman, Hannah Riley Bowles and Alexis Lefort

In this case, the Human Capital team at Progress Software has identified that some employees have a hard time understanding how to advance within Progress. This realization leads the team to develop several major people-process innovations: the introduction of... View Details

Keywords: Leading Change; Organizational Culture; Performance Evaluation; Prejudice and Bias; Personal Development and Career; Human Capital; Employee Relationship Management; Technology Industry; Bulgaria

23 Apr 2018
Research & Ideas

Sponsorship Programs Could Actually Widen the Gender Gap

FabioFilzi Key aspects of corporate sponsorship programs, while designed to advance women’s careers, may end up widening the gender gap rather than narrowing it, according to new experimental research. “We’re not trying to say that sponsorship programs don’t work or... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

22 Feb 2022
News

New Urban Order

trucking-tech company, has a simple goal: Get goods where they need to go as efficiently as possible with a limited labor force. For TuSimple, that means a focus not on the cities themselves, but rather on the long stretches of highway... View Details

Keywords: Kathleen Fu, Deborah Blagg, Julia Hanna, and Maureen Harmon; illustrations by; energy; environment; sustainability; entrepreneurship; Transit and Ground Passenger Transportation; Transportation; Water, Sewage and Supply Systems; Utilities; Construction of Buildings; Construction; Waste Management and Remediation Services; Corporate Services

01 Jun 2023
News

In My Humble Opinion: Very Continental

Ngoyi at the Fund for Export Development in Africa: creating sustainable development at scale. (Courtesy of Marlene Ngoyi) Born in Brussels to Congolese parents and raised in Gabon, Marlene Ngoyi (MBA 2009) has lived and worked in countries including Guatemala, the... View Details

Keywords: Julia Hanna; investment; exports; infrastructure; life experience; finance; Finance

Article

Mission-Driven Governance

By: Raymond Fisman, Rakesh Khurana and Edward Martenson

The purpose of this paper is to provide a useful, easily applied theory of governance performance. The existing model is fundamentally adversarial, rooted in the paradigm of principal-agent conflict. At its base is an image of governance as a never-ending struggle... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Governance; Governing and Advisory Boards; Knowledge Management; Standards; Mission and Purpose; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Performance Effectiveness; Performance Evaluation

Find at Harvard

26 Sep 2024
HBS Seminar

Garrett Van Ryzin, Columbia & Amazon

August 2011 (Revised November 2012)
Case

Mary Griffin at Derby Foods

By: Anthony J. Mayo and Joshua D. Margolis

Mary Griffin, Vice President of Consumer Products, must provide feedback to one of her direct reports, Simon York. York is a strong performer, but he has displayed some poor interpersonal skills in the manner in which he interacts with his team and the production... View Details

Keywords: Outcome or Result; Training; Interpersonal Communication; Labor and Management Relations; Management Skills; Management Style; Management Teams; Managerial Roles

December 2017 (Revised January 2018)
Case

NatureSweet

By: Jose Alvarez, Forest Reinhardt and Natalie Kindred

This case describes the business model and workplace philosophy of NatureSweet, a privately owned, vertically integrated greenhouse grower and marketer of fresh tomatoes with sales across the United States and $329 million in 2016 revenues. CEO Bryant Ambelang treated... View Details

22 May 2017
Lessons from the Classroom

A Luxury Industry Veteran Teaches the Importance of Aesthetics to Budding Business Leaders

prices. Promote periodic price mark-up events. And, eventually, start a conversation about truly rationalized pricing, tied to the actual cost of input for the producers, including the labor of impoverished women in developing countries.... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Beauty & Cosmetics; Apparel & Accessories; Auto; Tourism

November 2017
Teaching Note

Amazon.com, 2016

By: John R. Wells and Gabriel Ellsworth

Teaching Note for HBS No. 716-402. On January 28, 2016, Amazon announced record 2015 operating profits of $2.2 billion on $107 billion of sales, and the markets responded with cautious optimism. For years, founder and CEO Jeffrey Bezos had prioritized growth and... View Details

Keywords: Strategic Analysis; Retail; E-commerce; Amazon; Amazon.com; AmazonFresh; Jeff Bezos; Cloud Computing; Marketplaces; Streaming; E-reader Market; Digital Media; Mobile App; Online Retail; Shipping; Database; Tablet; Kindle; Kindle Fire; Smartphone; Delivery; Market Platforms; Two-Sided Platforms; Competition; Internet; Corporate Strategy; Online Advertising; Business Growth and Maturation; Business Model; Business Organization; For-Profit Firms; Film Entertainment; Games, Gaming, and Gambling; Music Entertainment; Television Entertainment; Profit; Revenue; Global Strategy; Multinational Firms and Management; Taxation; Business History; Human Resources; Resignation and Termination; Books; Human Capital; Working Conditions; Business or Company Management; Goals and Objectives; Growth and Development Strategy; Growth Management; Management Practices and Processes; Industry Growth; Industry Structures; Media; Distribution; Distribution Channels; Order Taking and Fulfillment; Infrastructure; Logistics; Product Development; Supply Chain; Supply Chain Management; Organizational Culture; Public Ownership; Work-Life Balance; Problems and Challenges; Labor and Management Relations; Strategy; Adaptation; Business Strategy; Competitive Strategy; Diversification; Expansion; Integration; Horizontal Integration; Vertical Integration; Hardware; Information Technology; Mobile Technology; Online Technology; Technology Networks; Technology Platform; Web; Web Sites; Price; Software; Marketing; Marketing Strategy; Working Capital; Customer Focus and Relationships; Customer Value and Value Chain; Retail Industry; Advertising Industry; Distribution Industry; Electronics Industry; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; Information Technology Industry; Manufacturing Industry; Motion Pictures and Video Industry; Music Industry; Publishing Industry; Shipping Industry; Technology Industry; Video Game Industry; Web Services Industry; United States; Washington (state, US); Seattle

January 2006 (Revised July 2016)
Case

Gordon Bethune at Continental Airlines

By: Nitin Nohria, Anthony Mayo and Mark Benson

A $385 million loss for the final months of fiscal year 1994 signaled Continental might go bankrupt. Could new CEO Gordon Bethune turn Continental around? Continental was in dire straits because the deregulation of the commercial airline industry in 1978 ushered in a... View Details

Keywords: Transformation; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Profit; Leading Change; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Performance Improvement; Labor and Management Relations; Air Transportation Industry