Publications

April 2018
Supplement

$19B 4 txt app WhatsApp...omg! (B)

By: David B. Yoffie and Aakash Mehta

This case provides a brief update on Facebook's acquisition of WhatsApp. View Details

Keywords: Technology; Strategy; Network Effects; Technology Industry

02 Oct 2013
What Do You Think?

Is Leadership an Increasingly Difficult Balancing Act?

will require leaders who can build and lead what he terms "dual operating systems," staffing innovative networks with volunteers from the existing hierarchy, comprising a "guiding coalition" that can coordinate the... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

April 2009
Supplement

Symbian, Google & Apple in the Mobile Space (B)

By: Fernando Suarez, Benjamin Edelman and Arati Srinivasan

Supplements the (A) case. View Details

Keywords: Network Effects; Networks; Strategy; Telecommunications Industry

March 2022
Supplement

Winning Business at Russell Reynolds (B)

By: Ethan Bernstein and Cara Mazzucco

In an effort to make compensation drive collaboration, Russell Reynolds Associates’ (RRA) CEO Clarke Murphy sought to re-engineer the bonus system for his executive search consultants in 2016. As his HR analytics guru, Kelly Smith, points out, that risks upsetting–and... View Details

06 Jan 2011
What Do You Think?

How Should Management Deal With “Anonymous”?

Summing Up The title of this wrap-up and the one that accompanied this month's original column basically just deletes "Wikileaks." The original title was my mistake. The intent was not to direct attention to Wikileaks in a... View Details

Keywords: by James L. Heskett

18 Feb 2013
Research & Ideas

Breaking Through a Growth Stall

evaluate business development opportunities. Driven by cash needs, they may call this "experimentation," but in effect they tell salespeople to "go forth and multiply!" By selling to anyone, though, ventures fragment... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

28 Nov 2011
Research & Ideas

Rethinking the Fairness of Organ Transplants

Transplantation Network (OPTN). This national registry and waiting list is managed by the private nonprofit United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS), which has the unenviable task of making priority and... View Details

Keywords: by Dennis Fisher; Health

20 Sep 2013
News

Connections Add Up

class and outside my class—that whole network is working for me to make a difference," says Morrison. Morrison has been making an impact since 2010, when she assumed the CEO role at the Council for Economic Education, based in New York... View Details

Keywords: Jill Radsken; Educational Support Services; Educational Services; Religious, Grantmaking, Civic, Professional, and Similar Organizations; Personal Services

01 Mar 2003
News

Books

tasks: strengthening links between portfolio objectives and overall company goals; ensuring that the relationship among projects creates greater value and efficiency; and making sure that projects build organizational capacity to respond View Details

Keywords: Deborah Blagg; Publishing Industries (except Internet); Information

01 Jun 2002
News

New Fellowship Program Encourages Young MBAs to Work for Nonprofits

cochair of ISE and an expert on nonprofit organizations, “The carryover effects of a program like this are fantastic. The fellows will bring a culture of change to nonprofit organizations that can be tremendously helpful. In addition,... View Details

Keywords: Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools; Educational Services

November 2003 (Revised March 2004)
Case

Teledesic (Abridged)

By: Thomas R. Eisenmann

Describes plans for a failed project that proposed the use of 288 satellites to deliver high-speed data communications services anywhere in the world. View Details

Keywords: Communication Technology; Network Effects; Failure; Information Technology Industry; Telecommunications Industry

Career Coach

Betsy Edwards

working with individuals on all aspects of the job search process and at every stage. She combines her years of coaching experience and industry expertise with her practical approach and extensive knowledge of HBS networks to help others... View Details

Keywords: Education; Fintech; Financial Services (All); Impact Investing; Financial Services (All); Government; Health Care; Social Enterprise

27 Sep 2010
Research & Ideas

Customer Experts Lose Influence When Teams are Pressured

Effects of Performance Pressure on Teams' Knowledge Use and Performance". Her research on more than seventy audit and consulting teams—combining survey data, hundreds of interviews, and direct observation at... View Details

Keywords: by Sarah Jane Gilbert

November 2003 (Revised March 2004)
Case

Federal Express: Early History

Describes key events in the start-up of Federal Express. Outlines the company's value proposition and provides an overview of key competitors in the air freight industry. This case is used with Teledesic (Abridged), HBS No. 9-804-096, which describes a failed project... View Details

Keywords: Competition; Network Effects; Business Startups; Transportation Industry; United States

August 2004 (Revised August 2005)
Background Note

Online Auction Markets

eBay, Yahoo!, and Amazon.com entered the online auction market within four years of one another, along with a host of smaller Web sites. Five years later, eBay clearly outstripped its competitors, despite the fact that Yahoo! and Amazon both had a huge installed base... View Details

Keywords: Internet and the Web; Auctions; Network Effects

October 2009 (Revised March 2012)
Case

Nettwerk: Digital Marketing in the Music Industry

By: John A. Deighton and Leora Kornfeld

How is music marketed in the digital era? Nettwerk Music Group built on its foundation as a social, grassroots marketer of music and artists and emerged as a leader in the Internet-enabled social media environment. For most of the past decade Nettwerk CEO Terry McBride... View Details

Keywords: Music Entertainment; Product Marketing; Network Effects; Sales; Social and Collaborative Networks; Online Technology; Media and Broadcasting Industry; Music Industry