Publications

April 1983 (Revised October 2000)
Case

People Express (A)

By: Leonard A. Schlesinger and Debra Whitestone

Describes the start up, strategy, organizational design, and operations over the first eighteen months of the airline. Focuses on the creative use of human resources as an integral part of the business strategy. View Details

Keywords: Human Capital; Air Transportation; Organizational Design; Operations; Business Startups; Business Strategy; Air Transportation Industry; United States

09 Mar 2015
Research & Ideas

Why Entrepreneurs Should Go Work for Government

biggest customer in the world; on the other hand, 90 out of 100 VCs would say they don't back business models that sell to government," says Weiss. "Though that's starting to change as startups and government are starting to... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

15 Mar 2017
Lessons from the Classroom

More Than 900 Examples of How Climate Change Affects Business

This word cloud is composed of blog posts by more than 900 students describing how individual organizations are likely to be affected by climate change. Image by Patrick Clapp Last fall, first-year MBA students at Harvard Business School received a new assignment in... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Green Technology

01 Jun 2013
News

Mind Your Manners

Sara Jane Ho (MBA 2012) As a newcomer to the Global A-list, some observers say China has a few things to learn about proper comportment in Western social settings. Etiquette is one of them, declares Sara Jane Ho (MBA 2012), a quintilingual Hong Kong native who has... View Details

Keywords: etiquette; Arts, Sports, Language, Driving, and Other Schools; Educational Services

06 Feb 2019
Blog Post

7 Tips for a Successful Technology Venture Immersion

at high-growth companies. The Technology Venture Immersion (TVI) course is co-taught by SEAS and HBS faculty and modeled after HBS’s Startup Bootcamp program, where students are asked to “learn by doing.” During the two-week intensive... View Details

12 Nov 2019
Research & Ideas

Corporate Innovation Increasingly Benefits from Government Research

government money, not lone inventors or academic institutions. Startups were particularly dependent on government-funded research, relying on federally supported research for some 35 percent of all patents they filed. “Startups were... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

June 2008
Case

Threadless: The Business of Community

By: Karim R. Lakhani and Zahra Kanji

Threadless.com, the online, Chicago-based t-shirt company, was not your typical fashion apparel company. The company, run by Jake Nickell, Jacob DeHart, and Jeffrey Kalmikoff, turned the fashion business on its head by enabling anyone to submit designs for t-shirts and... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Business Startups; Innovation and Invention; Product Design; Partners and Partnerships; Social and Collaborative Networks; Apparel and Accessories Industry

May 2024
Case

A New Aiera for Equity Research

By: Joseph Pacelli, Charles CY Wang and James Barnett

Aiera (pronounced “era”) co-founder and CEO Ken Sena considers strategic pathways to growth for the artificial intelligence (AI)-powered platform used to source, verify, and transcribe earnings calls, company presentations, and other corporate events. View Details

Keywords: Financial Reporting; Financial Statements; Business Startups; Entrepreneurship; AI and Machine Learning; Growth and Development Strategy; Accounting Industry; Financial Services Industry; Technology Industry; United States

August 2023
Case

Kariyer.net: Recruiting AI

By: Shunyuan Zhang, Fares Khrais and Namrata Arora

In 2017, Fatih Uysal (AMP 2021) became CEO of Kariyer.net. By then, the business was already the industry leading online job board in Turkey. However, faced with stalling growth, a turbulent macroenvironment, and growing competition from international players, Uysal... View Details

February 2011 (Revised November 2012)
Case

PatientsLikeMe: An Online Community of Patients

By: Sunil Gupta and Jason Riis

PatientsLikeMe (PLM) is an online community where patients share their personal experiences with a disease, find other patients like them, and learn from each other. The company was founded by Jamie and Ben Heywood when their 29-year-old brother was diagnosed with ALS... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Health Disorders; Knowledge Sharing; Growth and Development Strategy; Product Launch; Digital Platforms; Social and Collaborative Networks; Health Industry

25 Jan 2024
Blog Post

Climate Stories Episode #15: Hilton Augustine III on Financing Climate Ventures

dating” between Harvard and MIT biotech PhDs and HBS MBAs, taught how to develop a pitch and business plan, and nurtured relationships with venture capitalists for funding opportunities. Hilton explained: “this was a unique way to get hands-on experience with climate... View Details

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

09 Jun 2024
Blog Post

The EC Formula: MBA Class of 2024 Looks Back

impact spaces. I was very active with the Health Care Club, Rising Leaders in Social Impact Forum, and various health care startup activities. You’ll find that many people are willing to connect you with someone they know in your space;... View Details

01 Mar 2024
News

Come Sail Away

When Michael Sard (MBA 2018) arrived at HBS, he owned about 50 Hawaiian shirts. “It was one of the few items in a man’s closet that could have a ritual to it around going out, like a tuxedo does,” he says. Purchase options, however, seemed limited to two extremes:... View Details

Keywords: Julia Hanna; entrepreneurship; manufacturing; career path; Apparel Manufacturing; Manufacturing

02 Oct 2017
What Do You Think?

Do Bitcoin and Digital Currency Have a Future?

tradable digital currencies that can be used to purchase future goods or services offered by the startup, possibly on more favorable terms than in the real market. According to one report, 140 startups have raised over $2 billion in this... View Details

Keywords: by James L. Heskett; Financial Services

October 2008 (Revised February 2011)
Case

Apple's Core

By: Noam T. Wasserman

Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak are best friends who enjoy pulling pranks together and talking about electronics. After several small collaborations, Jobs pitches Wozniak on starting a company together to sell computers based on Wozniak's design for a personal computer.... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Entrepreneurship; Equity; Managerial Roles; Partners and Partnerships; Conflict Management