Publications

April 2017 (Revised February 2020)
Case

edaixi (eWash): Digital Transformation of Laundry Services (A)

By: Feng Zhu, Weiru Chen, Chuang Chen and Ciwu Lin

Founded in 2013 as a laundry service featuring online ordering for home pickup and delivery, China’s edaixi (eWash) illustrated the online-to-offline (O2O) business model. As yet unclear in 2016 was the optimal way to organize third-party laundry service providers,... View Details

Keywords: Laundry; O2O; Online-to-offline; Business Model; Service Operations; Ownership Type; Digital Platforms; Transformation; China

February 2014
Case

Arcos Dorados: How to Lead and From Where

By: Krishna Palepu and Gustavo Herrero

Acros Dorados, an Argentina-based multinational, is facing new organizational challenges as it seeks to build on its recent turnaround, and grow in Brazil and Mexico. Woods Staton and his management team have to make some hard decisions on how to structure and lead the... View Details

Keywords: Execution; Restaurant; Consumer; Emerging Markets; Strategy; Latin America

April 1999 (Revised March 2001)
Case

Be Our Guest, Inc.

By: Dwight B. Crane and Penny Joseph

Be Our Guest is a rapidly growing equipment rental company with substantial seasonality in its revenues and profits. In the spring of 1998, the senior management team is reviewing its financial plans in preparation for a meeting with the company's bank. The case... View Details

Keywords: Financial Strategy; Borrowing and Debt; Banks and Banking; Revenue; Management Teams; Business Plan; Forecasting and Prediction; Utilities Industry; Service Industry

Web

Technology & Operations Management - Doctoral

gross margins; How familiarity among team members fosters organizational capabilities among teams; The implications of operations management for investors; and How firms influence service quality, and how service quality affects... View Details

Article

Stop the Meeting Madness: How to Free Up Time for Meaningful Work

By: Leslie Perlow, Constance Noonan Hadley and Eunice Eun

Many executives feel overwhelmed by meetings, and no wonder: On average, they spend nearly 23 hours a week in them, up from less than 10 hours in the 1960s. What’s more, the meetings are often poorly timed, badly run, or both. We can all joke about how painful they... View Details

Keywords: Time Management; Performance Efficiency; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Performance Improvement

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Program

Managing Turbulence

raises the bar for everyone Attract and retain the best talent with a diversity and inclusion approach Build a powerful coalition of high-performing individuals and teams Cultivate self-awareness and authentic leadership at every level... View Details

April 2021 (Revised December 2023)
Case

The Mahindra Group: Leading with Purpose

By: Ranjay Gulati and Rachna Tahilyani

India headquartered Mahindra Group is a multibillion-dollar federation of companies operating across the globe. It is ahead of its time in articulating its purpose and mapping its values, something it had first done at inception and then refreshed yet again as ‘Rise’... View Details

Keywords: Mission and Purpose; Organizational Culture; Change Management; Communication Strategy; Family Ownership; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Revenue; Auto Industry; Financial Services Industry; Manufacturing Industry; Technology Industry; Asia; India; Mumbai; South Korea; Italy; United States

28 Mar 2018
Blog Post

Event Planning for Recruiting Success - Part 1

Hosting a company recruiting event is a great way to build brand awareness and engage with HBS students. At the same time, we know that event planning requires a commitment from your team in preparing materials, securing speakers,... View Details

Keywords: All Industries

4 PM – 5 PM EST, 10 Mar 2021
Virtual Programming

Meet the i-labs Unicorns: Celebrating Venture Success Stories

How did two Harvard Innovation Lab alumni teams achieve valuations of more than $1 billion. In a discussion moderated by i-lab executive director Matt Segneri (AB 2004, MBA 2010), Will Ahmed (AB 2012), founder and CEO of WHOOP, and Lissy Hu (MD/MBA 2014), founder and... View Details

August 1998 (Revised October 1998)
Case

Lark International Entertainment Ltd. (A)

By: Linda A. Hill and Jennifer Suesse

Two HBS MBA's leave McKinsey and Morgan Stanley to become entrepreneurs in Hong Kong. Together they start up a cinema chain throughout Asia. This case describes the experiences of managing a team in their Wuhan, China cinema. Looks at the challenges of managing growth... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Problems and Challenges; Business Growth and Maturation; Business Startups; Emerging Markets; Leadership Style; Leadership; Groups and Teams; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; Hong Kong; China; Asia

April 2021 (Revised July 2021)
Case

Public Equities Impact Investing at BlackRock

By: Shawn A. Cole, Vikram S. Gandhi, Michael Norris and John Masko

In early 2021, BlackRock—the world’s largest asset manager with $9 trillion in assets under management (AUM)—sought to become a leader in promoting environmental and social sustainability. Over the previous ten years, CEO Larry Fink had written an annual open letter to... View Details

Keywords: Impact Investing; Renewable Energy; Climate Change; Environmental Sustainability; Equity; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Financial Management; Investment Funds; Investment Return; Mission and Purpose; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Financial Services Industry; United States

June 2019
Case

Athena Bancorp

By: Leonard A. Schlesinger and Sarah Abbott

Athena Bancorp was founded in 2016 by Beth Daniels, a banking professional with 15 years of experience in the industry. Daniels took advantage of what she perceived as a gap in the market caused by recent industry consolidation, a decreasing industry focus on branch... View Details

Keywords: Banks and Banking; Entrepreneurship; Growth and Development Strategy; Organizational Culture; Human Resources; Strategy; Service Delivery; Banking Industry

06 Sep 2006
Lessons from the Classroom

Mixing Students and Scientists in the Classroom

five or ten universities in the world where you could teach a course like this. We draw on science from labs across Harvard, and our student teams are tasked with determining if there is a market for the science, who the competition is,... View Details

Keywords: by Deborah Blagg; Education

8 AM – 5 PM PDT, 19 Mar 2019
Career Events

HBS Career Reboot Camp in San Francisco

Career Reboot Camp is coming to San Francisco! Led by Professor Tim Butler and facilitated by HBS career coaches, participants will work through exercises to reflect on their key career interests, what's important to them in work and life, and create a plan to move... View Details

8 AM – 5 PM EDT, 26 Oct 2018
Career Events

HBS Career Reboot Camp in New York

Career Reboot Camp is coming to New York! Led by Professor Tim Butler and facilitated by HBS career coaches, participants will work through exercises to reflect on their key career interests, what's important to them in work and life, and create a plan to move forward... View Details

8 AM – 5 PM EDT, 15 Mar 2018
Career Events

Career Reboot Camp in Silicon Valley

Career Reboot Camp is coming to Silicon Valley! Led by Professor Tim Butler and facilitated by HBS career coaches, participants will work through exercises to reflect on their key career interests, what's important to them in work and life, and create a plan to move... View Details

8 AM – 5 PM EST, 25 Jan 2018
HBS Alumni Events

Career Reboot Camp in New York City

Career Reboot Camp is coming to New York! Led by Professor Tim Butler and facilitated by HBS career coaches, participants will work through exercises to reflect on their key career interests, what's important to them in work and life, and create a plan to move forward... View Details

8:30 AM – 4:30 PM EST, 09 Jan 2015

Career Reboot Camp in New York City

Career Reboot Camp is coming to New York! Led by Professor Tim Butler and facilitated by HBS career coaches, participants will work through exercises to reflect on their key career interests, what's important to them in work and life, and create a plan to move forward... View Details

July 2006 (Revised August 2007)
Case

Charles Veillon, S.A. (A)

By: Lynn S. Paine and Aldo Sesia

The top management team at Charles Veillon, a Swiss mail-order company, is considering whether to work with a human rights organization to monitor the labor practices of its suppliers. A particular concern is avoiding child labor and other forms of workplace coercion.... View Details

Keywords: Ethics; Governance Controls; Labor; Rights; Nonprofit Organizations; Switzerland