Publications

24 Mar 2021
News

Who will win the delivery app war?

06 Mar 2021
News

What is a Celebrity Worth?

02 Jun 2020
News

How to Fix a Toxic Workplace, According to 2 Leadership Experts — Including One Who Was Brought in to Repair Uber's Culture

Feng Zhu

Feng Zhu is the MBA Class of 1958 Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School, where he leads the Platform Lab within the Digital, Data, and Design Institute, co-chairs the Harvard Business Analytics Program, and serves as the course head for the... View Details

September 2017 (Revised March 2023)
Case

Careem: Raising a Unicorn

By: Shikhar Ghosh and Alpana Thapar

This case follows two ex-McKinsey consultants, Magnus Olsson and Mudassir Sheikha, who in search of their true purpose decide to found Careem, a Dubai-based ride-hailing service. Following its launch in July 2012, Careem experiences rapid growth of 30% per month in the... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Business Startups; Information Technology; Organizational Culture; Decision Making; Growth Management; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Transportation Industry; Technology Industry; Middle East; North Africa; United Arab Emirates

November 2014 (Revised June 2016)
Case

Lobbying at eCab

By: Karthik Ramanna

Erin Jones' ridesharing startup in her mid-sized hometown is finally picking up. She's hoping to reach a sustainable scale so that she can sell to a large player such as Uber in a year. But suddenly, she hits political roadblocks—the local Democratic mayor, facing a... View Details

November 2015
Case

Rubicon Global

By: William A. Sahlman and Hunter Ashmore

The case describes Rubicon Global, a startup that aimed to disrupt the waste management industry. The company started with a bold idea: create a cloud-based, full-service waste management company providing low-cost, highly efficient, and environmentally friendly... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurial Finance; Rubicon; Rubicon Global; Waste Management; Startups; Disruptive Technology; Technological Innovation; Disruptive Innovation; Market Entry and Exit; Entrepreneurship; Wastes and Waste Processing; Business Startups; Corporate Finance; Service Industry

13 May 2018
News

Executives learn how to lead digital disruption

May 2019 (Revised February 2022)
Background Note

The Gig Economy: Leasing Skills to Pay the Bills

By: Joseph Fuller, William R. Kerr and Carl Kreitzberg

This primer provides a comprehensive exploration into the gig economy and how it is reshaping global business. It shows how the Uber driver, the freelancing programmer in India, and the independent corporate consultant are all different variants of the modern-day gig... View Details

Keywords: Gig Economy; COVID-19 Pandemic; Talent and Talent Management; Human Resources; Labor; Strategy; Management; Globalization; North America; Europe; United States; United Kingdom

09 May 2017
News

If You Were Lorde’s Manager What Would You Do?

02 Feb 2016
First Look

February 2, 2016

highly efficient, and environmentally friendly service anywhere in the country through a national network of independent waste haulers and recyclers. A player in the sharing economy, Rubicon was developing an on-demand mobile application that did for waste management... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

June 2021
Case

Akira Fukabori and Kevin Kajitani at avatarin (A)

By: Linda A. Hill and Emily Tedards

In 2016, Akira Fukabori and Kevin Kajitani, aeronautical engineers at All Nippon Airways Co., Ltd., began to wonder why, in a world of accelerating globalization and digital connectivity, those who lived in far-remote villages or impoverished urban areas could not... View Details

Keywords: Agility; Ecosystem; Innovation Ecosystems; Crowdsourcing; Open Innovation; Partnership; Government; Collaboration; Co-creation; Purpose; Impact; Social Impact; Movement; Organizational Behavior; Organizational Ambidexterity; Ambidexterity; Culture; Culture Change; Global Teams; Experimentation; Space; Airline Industry; Start-up; Platform Business; Platform Strategy; Platform; Digital; Robotics; Robots; Mobility; Strategy; COVID-19; Intrapreneurship; Public-private Partnership; XPRIZE; Space Industry; Avatar; Telepresence; Innovation Lab; Innovation and Invention; Technological Innovation; Partners and Partnerships; Collaborative Innovation and Invention; Alignment; Leadership; Leading Change; Diversity; Organizational Culture; Change Management; Entrepreneurship; Digital Platforms; Transportation Industry; Aerospace Industry; Japan

May 2015
Case

Pricing in a Digital World (2015)

By: John Gourville

Dynamic pricing, especially as practiced by Uber and Lift, seems to be all the rage. In this case, we look at five interesting applications of dynamic price and price customization, each made possible by advances in digital technology. These range from the online... View Details

Keywords: Pricing; Marketing; Dynamic Pricing; Price Customization; Information Technology; Price; Entrepreneurship; Customization and Personalization; Product Marketing