Publications

Find at Harvard

February 2024 (Revised January 2025)
Case

AGENTS.inc: Pathways to Growth at an AI Startup

By: Frank Nagle, Manuel Hoffmann, Karoline Ströhlein and Susan Pinckney

The case describes the history of AGENTS.inc. Despite being a small startup, with only four employees, that had never had a funding round, the company boasted an impressive client portfolio including multiple Fortune 500 companies. While AGENTS.inc had been an early... View Details

October 2015
Article

How Smart, Connected Products Are Transforming Companies

By: Michael E. Porter and James E. Heppelmann

The evolution of products into intelligent, connected devices is revolutionizing business. In a November 2014 article, "How Smart, Connected Products Are Transforming Competition," Harvard Business School professor Michael Porter and PTC president and CEO James... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Technological Innovation; Information Technology; Organizational Structure; Operations; Business Strategy

Find at Harvard

27 Aug 2007
Op-Ed

Mattel: Getting a Toy Recall Right

Harvard Business School professor John Quelch is debuting a blog on marketing issues at Harvard Business Online. HBS Working Knowledge is reprinting his first entry, which looks at the Mattel toy... View Details

Keywords: by John Quelch; Consumer Products

28 Sep 2021
News

Los Nuevos Mandamientos del Trabajo

15 Jul 2013
Research & Ideas

Five Imperatives for Improving Health Care

Innovation in health care treatment seems to far outpace innovation in health care business management. Just ask President Obama—two weeks ago he delayed enactment of a key provision of the new health care law for fear its requirements... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Health

May 2023 (Revised June 2023)
Supplement

Novartis (C): Reimagining Medicine

By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell, Claudio Feser, Karolin Frankenberger and David Redaschi

This case unfolds around the first-ever approved personalized cancer treatment, how Novartis wrapped it into a new business model design, and how Novartis scaled it. Novartis — one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world — is, among other ventures,... View Details

Keywords: Health Testing and Trials; Health Care and Treatment; Business Model; Problems and Challenges; Pharmaceutical Industry; Switzerland

February 2010
Case

Shurgard Self-Storage: Expansion to Europe (Abridged)

By: Richard G. Hamermesh

Shurgard, a U.S.-based firm that rents storage facilities to consumers and small businesses, is considering financing options for rapid expansion of its European operations. Five years after entering Europe, Shurgard Europe has opened 17 facilities in Belgium, France,... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Business Growth and Maturation; Multinational Firms and Management; Logistics; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Trade; Equity; Corporate Finance; United States; Europe

March 2003
Case

Zara

Fashion retailer ZARA has achieved spectacular growth via a distinctive design-on-demand operating model. This case describes this model and outlines a number of challenges facing the company, with a particular emphasis on its international expansion. Includes color... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Globalized Firms and Management; Production; Order Taking and Fulfillment; Fashion Industry; Retail Industry

31 Dec 2014
News

People We Lost in 2014

June 2021
Case

HelloSelf: Search

By: John R. Wells and Benjamin Weinstock

In August 2018, after nearly six months of searching, Charles Wells was convinced that he should found HelloSelf to help people improve their sense of mental wellbeing. Those feeling mentally unwell would receive support from fully qualified clinical psychotherapists,... View Details

Keywords: Mental Health; Health Care and Treatment; Internet and the Web; Business Model; Product Launch

Publications - Faculty & Research

Citation Find at Harvard Read Now Related Kerr, William. "Case Study: Do We Reskill or Replace Our Workforce?" Harvard Business Review 103, no. 4 (July–August 2025): 141–145. July–August 2025 Article How the Busiest People Find Joy By:... View Details

April 2020
Teaching Note

Tailor Brands: Artificial Intelligence-Driven Branding

By: Jill Avery

Using proprietary artificial intelligence technology, startup Tailor Brands set out to democratize branding by allowing small businesses to create their brand identities by automatically generating logos in just minutes at minimal cost with no branding or design skills... View Details

Keywords: Marketing; Brands and Branding; Marketing Strategy; Advertising Industry; Technology Industry; United States; North America

Profile

Henry McCance

Greylock recommended Timothy Armour (MBA 1975) to McCance as a potential consultant. Armour, who had some 20 years’ experience in development and operations at nonprofits, including Harvard Business School, met with McCance over dinner.... View Details

Keywords: Venture Capital / Private Equity; Financial Services; Health Care

December 2007 (Revised April 2008)
Case

Alltech...naturally

By: David E. Bell and Mary L. Shelman

Entrepreneur Pearse Lyons had built Alltech into the fastest growing company in the global animal health industry through innovative technology, creative marketing, and strong branding. Sel-Plex, a proprietary Alltech product, had shown important health benefits for... View Details

Keywords: Brands and Branding; Leadership Development; Customer Focus and Relationships; Expansion; Technological Innovation; Intellectual Property; Sales; Value Creation; Business Model; Growth and Development Strategy; Health Industry

April 2002
Case

Contingent Workforce Planning at Motorola, Inc.

Details the rationale for and design of a unique organizational response by Motorola to the challenges of contingent staffing at its semiconductor facility in Austin, Texas. The new outsourcing strategy is built on principles of supply chain management and business... View Details

Keywords: Selection and Staffing; Semiconductor Industry; Texas

August 2020 (Revised March 2021)
Supplement

Migros Turkey: Scaling Online Operations (B)

By: Antonio Moreno and Gamze Yucaoglu

The case opens in February 2020 as Ozgur Tort and Mustafa Bartin, CEO and chief large-format and online retail officer of Migros Ticaret A.S. (Migros), Turkey’s oldest and one of its largest supermarket chains, are looking over the results of the fulfillment pilot the... View Details

Keywords: Grocery; Business Model; Strategy; Digital Platforms; Information Technology; Technology Adoption; Value Creation; Globalization; Competition; Expansion; Logistics; Profit; Resource Allocation; Corporate Strategy; Retail Industry; Turkey