Publications

July 2020
Case

Michael Solomonov: Jerusalem in a Bowl

By: Boris Groysberg, Evan M.S. Hecht and Katherine Connolly Baden

Before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Michael Solomonov and Steven Cook had begun to wonder whether it might be time to rethink their opportunistic approach to the expansion of their small restaurant empire in Philadelphia, CooknSolo. The pandemic, however, caused an... View Details

Keywords: Restaurant Industry; Entrepreneur; COVID-19; Crisis; Crisis Response Plans; Entrepreneurship; Food; Health Pandemics; Crisis Management; Innovation and Invention; Leadership; Creativity; Strategy; Ownership; Problems and Challenges; Risk and Uncertainty; Situation or Environment; Food and Beverage Industry; United States

Web

Technology & Innovation - Faculty & Research

dataset of firms from the U.S. and seven European countries we study the impact of ICT on worker autonomy, plant manager autonomy, and span of control. Consistent with the theory, we find that better information technologies (Enterprise... View Details

01 Sep 2023
News

Solving for Z

showed that 72 percent of Gen Zers were considering leaving their jobs in 2023, while a January 2023 study by management consultancy Oliver Wyman found that 70 percent of those who described themselves as “loyal” to their employers were... View Details

Keywords: Alexander Gelfand; Illustrations by Doug Chayka; Administration of Human Resource Programs; Government

November 2019 (Revised December 2020)
Case

Grupo Éxito: Facing Colombia's Competitive Grocery Retail Industry

By: José B. Alvarez, Carla Larangeira, Jenyfeer Martinez Buitrago and Miguel Diaz Moreno

Grupo Éxito, a leading South American retailer, faced declining market shares in Colombia in 2019 with the arrival of low-cost competitors and emerging digital trends. Originally founded in Medellín, Éxito had over the course of its seventy-year history evolved from a... View Details

Keywords: Grocery; Market Share; Information Technology; Trends; Competitive Strategy; Retail Industry; Colombia; Latin America

August 2017 (Revised November 2021)
Case

Ryan Greene at Rainier Wearables

By: Shikhar Ghosh, Thomas R. Eisenmann and Christopher Payton

This case provides a platform for discussing mental health and depression in entrepreneurship. Why do entrepreneurs have more mental health issues than other professions? What can an entrepreneur do if they face a situation where their mental well-being is being... View Details

Keywords: Mental Health; Depression; Entrepreneurship; Well-being; Personal Development and Career

August 2017 (Revised July 2018)
Case

MannKind Corporation: Take a Deep Breath, This Time Afrezza Will Work

By: Elie Ofek and Amanda Dai

In June 2014, MannKind Corporation announced that after years of development and billions of dollars in expenses, the FDA had finally approved its drug, Afrezza. MannKind would thus be the only company with an inhalable insulin on the market. As an alternative to... View Details

Keywords: Health Care and Treatment; Product Launch; Product Positioning; Marketing Strategy; Adoption; Pharmaceutical Industry

22 May 2024
HBS Case

Banned or Not, TikTok Is a Force Companies Can’t Afford to Ignore

Beijing-based ByteDance, TikTok blew past Google in 2021 to become the world’s most visited domain. In the United States alone, TikTok boasts more than 150 million users—almost half the country’s population. “It is where the future is,” says Shikhar Ghosh, MBA Class of... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne; Technology

02 Apr 2020
What Do You Think?

What Are Lessons for Leaders from This Black Swan Crisis?

legal protections in the event of failed experiments? Could this speed up the vaccine development process? Some may conclude that it’s a fool’s errand to look for management lessons from anyone Black Swan.... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

Web

Entrepreneurship - Faculty & Research

management of UCCA wondered what they could do to achieve growth and financial viability while continuing to realize their mission. 2014 Discussion Paper The Promise of Microfinance and Women's Empowerment: What Does the Evidence Say? By:... View Details

29 Nov 2022
Cold Call Podcast

How Will Gamers and Investors Respond to Microsoft’s Acquisition of Activision Blizzard?

Keywords: Re: Joseph Pacelli; Technology; Media & Broadcasting

April 1994 (Revised August 1996)
Case

American Express (A)

By: Jay W. Lorsch

In January 1993, the American Express board met to decide who would succeed James D. Robinson, III as chairman and CEO. The board needed to act in the spotlight of intense media and investor scrutiny, and after leaks had revealed that there was a conflict among the... View Details

Keywords: Decision Making; Corporate Governance; Resignation and Termination; Leadership; Management Succession; Performance Evaluation

January 2009 (Revised December 2009)
Supplement

Playing with Fire at Sittercity (B)

By: Noam T. Wasserman and Rachel Gordon

To help her finance her aggressive expansion plans, Genevieve Thiers plans to raise venture capital for the first time. She has spent the last six long years building Sittercity into the nation's leading babysitting web service, larger than all of its competitors... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Venture Capital; Problems and Challenges; Risk Management; Agreements and Arrangements; Service Operations; Family and Family Relationships; Competition; Expansion; Internet

September 2021
Case

Posse Foundation: Developing Strong Leaders from Diverse Backgrounds

By: John J-H Kim, Robin Mendelson and Julia Kelley

Founded in 1989, Posse Foundation was a nonprofit organization with a mission of developing future leaders who reflected the U.S.’s rich diversity. The organization ran a selective, localized admissions process in 10 U.S. cities to identify outstanding students with... View Details