Publications

Find at Harvard

April 2025
Case

Joe Mazzulla and the Boston Celtics (A)

By: Linda A. Hill, James I. Cash and Lydia Begag

Joe Mazzulla's leadership journey with the Boston Celtics began in 2016 when he served as an assistant coach for their NBA G-League affiliate. In 2019, he was promoted to a "behind-the-bench" assistant coaching role with the Celtics, before being asked to become the... View Details

December 2011 (Revised June 2012)
Case

Samasource: Give Work, Not Aid

By: Francesca Gino and Bradley R. Staats

Samasource sought to use work, not aid, for economic development. The company secured contracts for digital services from large companies in the United States and Europe, divided the work up into small pieces (called microwork) and then sent it to delivery centers in... View Details

Keywords: Development Economics; Growth and Development Strategy; Social Enterprise

Profile

Rocio Parra

Participating in external events, such as the National Society of Hispanic MBAs career conference as both an RC and an EC, was critical to helping me streamline my list of target companies as well as helping me firm up my professional... View Details

Keywords: Retail

March 2025 (Revised March 2025)
Case

Good for the Seller, Good for the Buyer and Good for Society: Sampo-yoshi, Sustainability and Trust at ITOCHU

By: Sandra J. Sucher and Bethelehem Y Araya

In 2024, ITOCHU CEO Masahiro Okafuji was at a crossroads. As the thirteenth CEO since ITOCHU’s founding in 1858, he had fueled the company’s growth since 2011 by bringing ITOCHU’s founding philosophy of Sampo-yoshi (good for the seller, good for the buyer and... View Details

Keywords: Sustainability; Trust; Profit; Growth and Development Strategy; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Mission and Purpose; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Environmental Sustainability; Japan

07 Jun 2019
Book

Are You a Digital Manager?

Complex trends in globalization, demographic shifts, and new technologies are raising urgent challenges for managers on an everyday level. Because of the number of companies undergoing digital transformation, View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

22 Oct 2013
First Look

First Look: October 22

Publisher's link: https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/download.aspx?name=anik%20aknin%20norton%20dunn%20quoidbach.pdf August 2013 Managing Talent for Success: Talent Development in Law Firms Effective Teamwork and Collaboration By: Gardner,... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

April 1986 (Revised May 1988)
Case

Sun Microsystems, Inc. (B)

By: Kim B. Clark

Dissects the manufacturing process and procedures of a high-end computer manufacturer. The main issue is how to introduce new products and ramp them up quickly in a competitive environment where time-to-market is crucial. Focuses on engineering change orders--how they... View Details

Keywords: Factories, Labs, and Plants; Time Management; Product Launch; Production; Business Processes; Competitive Strategy; Computer Industry

Find at Harvard

March 2014 (Revised September 2017)
Case

salaUno: Eliminating Needless Blindness in Mexico

By: Richard Hamermesh, Regina Garcia Cueller and Valeria Moy

In May 2013 the co-founders and co-CEOs of salaUno, Javier Okhuysen and Carlos Orellana, were encouraged by the results of their fledgling start-up. salaUno was founded as a for-profit enterprise in order to have the capital needed for rapid growth and to fulfill its... View Details

Keywords: Medical Services; Developing Countries; Developing Markets; Health Care Industry; Health Services; Healthcare Ventures; Healthcare Startups; Health Care and Treatment; Health; Business Startups; Developing Countries and Economies; Growth and Development Strategy; Health Industry; Mexico; Mexico City

17 Oct 2018
News

A scholar examines the rewards and shortcomings of skilled immigration in the United States

01 Nov 2021
What Do You Think?

How Long Does It Take to Improve an Organization’s Culture?

Sure the Right People End Up with Power in Organizations? The right culture, hiring and promotion processes, peer evaluations, and firing policies will ensure that power ends up in the right hands in... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

25 Aug 2020
Blog Post

Hikma Health + HBS MBAs Crowdsource Largest County-Level COVID-19 Dataset

brainstorming, and research, it became clear that despite its enormous value, COVID-19 policy data at the more granular county level was virtually nonexistent. In response, HBS MBA students teamed up with Hikma Health to crowdsource the... View Details

10 Dec 2009
Working Paper Summaries

State Owned Entity Reform in Absence of Privatization: Reforming Indian National Laboratories and Role of Leadership

Keywords: by Prithwiraj Choudhury & Tarun Khanna

June 2006 (Revised January 2012)
Case

Teena Lerner: Dividing the Pie at Rx Capital (A)

By: Boris Groysberg, Victoria Winston and Robin Abrahams

Teena Lerner started her own hedge fund firm in 2001 after nearly 20 years as a star biotechnology analyst and hedge fund manager. After the start-up phase, her firm became highly profitable. In 2004, however, one of her four analysts lost a lot of money for the firm.... View Details

Keywords: Managerial Roles; Investment Funds; Performance; Business Startups; Compensation and Benefits; Corporate Finance; Financial Services Industry

November 1996
Case

Del Webb Corporation (C), The

By: Jay W. Lorsch and Samanta Graff

Dion and the other Del Webb directors were open to having Industrial Equity Pacific (IEP) and Webcott Holdings representation on the board. The IEP representative was perceived as reserved and lacking in sophistication. Cotter of Webcott, however, struck the directors... View Details

Keywords: Crisis Management; Management Succession; Strategic Planning; Governing and Advisory Boards; Horizontal Integration; Conflict Management

July 2021 (Revised January 2024)
Case

Fynd

By: Ranjay Gulati, Kairavi Dey and Rachna Tahilyani

Fynd is a fast-growing venture that in 7 years since its founding has become India's largest omnichannel retail company with real-time access to over 9,000 stores' offline inventory. It started as a B2B business supporting retailers who didn’t have an online business,... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Business Startups; Business Model; Acquisition; Decision Making; Cost vs Benefits; Growth and Development Strategy; Web Services Industry; Technology Industry; Communications Industry; India; Mumbai

June 2020 (Revised May 2022)
Case

Vanguard Retail Operations (A)

By: Willy C. Shih and Antonio Moreno

The first two cases in this series are set in the financial services industry, and explore whether it is better for back-office workers to be generalists who provide the flexibility of being able to handle the complete range of transactions that the company faces or... View Details

Keywords: Pooling; Generalist Model; Specialist Model; Operations; Service Operations; Management; Job Design and Levels; Financial Services Industry; United States

March–April 2025
Article

Getting Value from Digital Technologies

By: Frank Cespedes and Georg Krentzel

Companies need digital technologies in an omni-channel buying world where online and in-person interactions are complements, not either/or substitutes. Multi-channel hybrid sales solutions are required, but what are the key requirements for using the available... View Details

Keywords: Sales; Technology Adoption; Competitive Advantage

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2014
Case

Meizhou Dongpo Restaurant: Entrepreneurship, Leadership and Culture

By: F. Warren McFarlan, Weiku Wu and Jia Guo

Meizhou Dongpo is a large catering group in China. On June 6, 1996, the first Meizhou Dongpo Restaurant was opened in Beijing. The enterprise entered the stage of rapid development in 2000, and set up Beijing Meizhou Restaurant Management Co., Ltd. In June 2003 the... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Leadership; National Culture; China; Restaurants; China