Publications

Find at Harvard

November 2006 (Revised March 2008)
Case

The Harvard Stem Cell Institute

By: William A. Sahlman

Describes a set of issues confronting the leaders of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute, an innovative cross-university effort to accelerate scientific discovery and translation in the domain of stem cells. Covers a wide range of topics, including understanding how... View Details

Keywords: Talent and Talent Management; Higher Education; Entrepreneurship; Collaborative Innovation and Invention; Intellectual Property; Research and Development; Genetics; Biotechnology Industry; Health Industry; Massachusetts

03 Sep 2024
Research & Ideas

Is It Even Possible to Dam the Flow of Misleading Content Online?

think the social media company is biased, but its action still reduces the potential for a bad outcome. General: For example, “don’t eat GMOs.” With a more general expression, such as a post that genetically modified foods are... View Details

Keywords: by Jay Fitzgerald; Information Technology; Technology

June 2011 (Revised October 2013)
Case

Gene Patents (A)

By: Richard Hamermesh, David Kiron and Phillip Andrews

In March 2010, U.S. District Court Judge Robert Sweet overturned 30 years of legal precedent and ruled that unaltered human genes could not be patented. This case reviews patent law and how it relates to our increasing knowledge of the Human Genome. The case issues... View Details

Keywords: Courts and Trials; Patents; Genetics; Judgments; Science-Based Business; Biotechnology Industry; United States

06 Aug 2014
What Do You Think?

What Is Warren Bennis’s Legacy?

as the father of leadership." In an extended remembrance that Bill sent to me, he went on to say that "It was Warren who first said leadership is not a set of genetic characteristics, but rather the result of the lifelong... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett; Education

13 Apr 2015
Research & Ideas

3 Ways Firms Can Profit From Environmental Investments

In the course of her work, Rebecca Henderson meets business executives who don't address the threat of climate change because they don't believe that it exists. Her recommendation: They should consider investments in environmental sustainability anyway, assuming that... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Energy; Utilities

October 1998 (Revised December 1999)
Case

Gene Research, the Mapping of Life and the Global Economy

By: Ray A. Goldberg and Juan Enriquez-Cabot

A new firm is being created to speed up the process of mapping humans, animals, and plants by combining gene technology with rapid gene identification to improve the health and well being of the human population and the productivity of crops and animals. How does one... View Details

Keywords: Information Technology; Organizational Structure; Technological Innovation; Business Processes; Health Care and Treatment; Performance Productivity; Welfare; Agribusiness; Genetics; Science-Based Business; Biotechnology Industry; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry

April 2008
Teaching Note

Viagen: Revolutioning the Livestock Industry (TN)

By: David E. Bell, Mary L. Shelman and Eliot Sherman

Teaching Note for [507021]. View Details

Keywords: Investment; Genetics; Production; Training; Customers; Supply Chain; Business Plan; Commercialization; Information Technology; Performance Efficiency; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Industry Structures; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Biotechnology Industry

08 Jun 2021
Research & Ideas

Tell Me What to Do: When Bad News Is a Big Relief

surgery for a genetic condition. “I was lying in the MRI thinking, ‘I hope they find just the shadow of something suspicious and bad because then the decision won’t be up to me,’” she says. “Afterward, I was like, ‘That’s the craziest,... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

11 Jan 2017
Research & Ideas

The Paradoxical Quest to Make Food Look 'Natural' With Artificial Dyes

eat green grass, which is rich in the orange pigment beta-carotene. The pigment colors the fat in the cows’ milk, which gives the butter a golden color. But, in winter, cows don’t eat grass. Rather, they eat grain, which, unless it has been View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

17 Mar 2022
Research & Ideas

Navigating Tradeoffs: How Purpose Becomes a Company's ‘Lighthouse in the Storm’

genetically modified corn to manufacture it, and only consumers in locations with municipal composting facilities could compost this packaging. Most of the company’s compostable plastic would wind up in landfills, or even worse, consumers... View Details

Keywords: by Ranjay Gulati

07 Aug 2006
Research & Ideas

Whatever Happened to Caveat Emptor?

the center of global trade disputes. World Trade Organization (WTO) disputes between Europe and the United States over hormone-treated beef and genetically modified crops evoke how difficult it can be to reconcile different consumer... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Retail

16 Dec 2002
Research & Ideas

Mentoring—Using the Voice of Experience

the organization as a whole or does it just get lost? DL: I think what you're asking is an interesting question because it reminds me of the question of whether there is genetic learning in a sense—these people who do experiments with... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

15 Jul 2008
First Look

First Look: July 15, 2008

institute, The Broad Institute. The culture of the Broad centered on science, and those involved considered it to be at the edge of the scientific frontier. In just four years the Broad had made many important scientific contributions to the biomedical field. These... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

September 2019 (Revised August 2020)
Case

Engineering an Inclusive Bioeconomy

By: Tarun Khanna, Raffaella Sadun and Susie L. Ma

In 2019, entrepreneur Juan Carlos Castilla-Rubio was developing a project he hoped could generate and share wealth from the natural resources of the Amazon without destroying those resources. His idea, called Earth Bank of Codes (EBC), would create a library of the... View Details