Publications

November 2008 (Revised January 2010)
Case

Stone Finch, Inc.: Young Division, Old Division

By: Richard G. Hamermesh and Elizabeth Collins

CEO Jim Billings wants to attract energetic, entrepreneurial talent to Stone Finch, Inc., which comprises an older division that fabricates products like piping and tanks for water and wastewater processing plants, and a much newer division that develops biochemical... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Behavior; Human Resource Management; Motivation; Business Growth; Motivation and Incentives; Leadership; Business Subsidiaries; Innovation Strategy; Resource Allocation; Organizational Structure; Organizational Culture; Retention; Operations; Recruitment; Integration; Business Growth and Maturation; Mergers and Acquisitions; Growth and Development Strategy; Manufacturing Industry

July 2009 (Revised March 2010)
Case

Sotheby's & Christie's Inc.

By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell and Catherine Jane Wise

The fine art auction business has remained a duopoly over its 250 year history. The industry is dominated by Sotheby's and Christie's Inc. Curiously, neither competitor has been able to overtake the other by a notable margin despite the clear network effects of this... View Details

Keywords: Arts; Business Model; Restructuring; Economics; Auctions; Market Entry and Exit; Duopoly and Oligopoly; Operations; Competition

28 Nov 2018
HBS Case

On Target: Rethinking the Retail Website

scaling up its capabilities to make decisions and solve problems in other areas of the business, such as marketing, store sales, and the supply chain. But when the time was right, this data-analytic approach would help dictate a variety... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Retail

Article

Beyond Magic Bullets: True Innovation in Health Care

By: Vaibhav A. Narayan, Marco Mohwinckel, Gary Pisano, Michael Yang and Husseini Manji

The molecular medicine revolution—based on advances in fields such as genomics and network modeling in the decade since the human genome sequence was completed—has changed the way we think about, study, and approach the development of novel therapies. However, these... View Details

Keywords: Integration; Business Model; Organizational Structure; Health Care and Treatment; Innovation and Invention; Pharmaceutical Industry

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22 Aug 2005
Research & Ideas

Restoring a Global Economy, 1950–1980

industries. Europe and Japan had to spend the immediate postwar decade undergoing extensive reconstruction, heavily dependent on official aid from the United States, yet over time Europe and Japan closed the technological and productivity... View Details

Keywords: by Geoffrey Jones

April 2008 (Revised April 2009)
Case

Heidrick & Struggles International, Inc.

By: Robert G. Eccles and David Lane

As CEO of leading executive search firm Heidrick & Struggles for the past 18 months, Kevin Kelly was pleased with his accomplishments so far but concerned about threats he perceived to Heidrick's position at the highest levels of the executive search business. In... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Recruitment; Disruptive Innovation; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Culture; Competition; Competitive Strategy; Employment Industry; Service Industry

Web

Fostering Innovation in Life Sciences - Health Care

Impact Fostering Innovation in Life Sciences Gaining Ground on ALS Re: Rob Blum (MBA 1991) Health Minute: How Can Technology Improve 21st Century Health Care Health Minute: How Can Companies Bring "Missing Drugs" to Market? More “Life... View Details

05 Sep 2012
First Look

First Look: September 5

with a request for proposal, the company's largest customer performs a routine evaluation and ranks PV Technologies third behind two key competitors. The director of sales and marketing must weigh the possible consequences of the report... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

September 2016 (Revised March 2020)
Teaching Note

Fasten: Challenging Uber and Lyft with a New Business Model

By: Feng Zhu

Fasten, a new ridesharing start-up in Boston, entered the scene in September 2015 hoping its unique vision of transparency for both driver and passenger and strategy to keep riders' fares low and charge drivers a flat $0.99 fee per ride, as opposed to the 20%–30%... View Details

Keywords: Information Technology; Transportation; Business Startups; Business Model; Transportation Industry; Boston

26 Feb 2013
First Look

First Look: Feb. 26

determine whether they think the company is ready to scale those efforts or whether it is premature to do so. Purchase this case:http://hbr.org/search/813107-PDF-ENG Longtop Financial Technologies (D)... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

April 2021 (Revised June 2021)
Case

IBM: Design Thinking

By: Srikant M. Datar, Amram Migdal and Paul Hamilton

This case describes the 2012-2020 effort at IBM to implement design thinking throughout the company and hire thousands of designers to serve on every product team alongside technical engineers and developers and product managers. IBM’s design transformation is told... View Details

Keywords: Business Ventures; Business Divisions; Business Units; Business Organization; Change; Change Management; Transformation; Competency and Skills; Talent and Talent Management; Design; Human Resources; Recruitment; Selection and Staffing; Innovation and Invention; Collaborative Innovation and Invention; Innovation and Management; Innovation Strategy; Jobs and Positions; Job Design and Levels; Leading Change; Management; Business or Company Management; Goals and Objectives; Management Practices and Processes; Operations; Product; Product Design; Product Development; Organizations; Business Processes; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Design; Organizational Structure; Strategy; Adaptation; Adoption; Technological Innovation; Information Infrastructure; Information Technology; Technology Industry; Technology Industry; United States

06 Feb 2020
Research & Ideas

What We Learned from Reading Jeff Bezos’ Patents

answer is yes. The founder’s early fascination with innovation proved key because he remains an active inventor with many patents to his name. Bezos has been known to view Amazon as “a technology company pioneering e-commerce, not a... View Details

Keywords: by Tricia Gregg and Boris Groysberg; Retail

April 2022
Article

The Past Is Prologue? Venture-Capital Syndicates' Collaborative Experience and Start-Up Exits

By: Dan Wang, Emily Cox Pahnke and Rory M. McDonald

Past research has produced contradictory insights into how prior collaboration between organizations—their relational embeddedness—impacts collective collaborative performance. We theorize that the effect of relational embeddedness on collaborative success is... View Details

Keywords: Inter-organizational Networks; Collaboration; Entrepreneurship; Networks; Organizations; Performance; Venture Capital

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December 2000
Background Note

Internet Access Providers

By: Thomas R. Eisenmann and Daniel Green

Describes the Internet access provider business model. First, it defines the model and presents different ways to categorize access providers. Second, it offers a summary of the various ways that Internet access providers create value for their customers. Next, it... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Internet; Web Services Industry

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25 Aug 2003
Research & Ideas

Why IT Does Matter

years, as society's insights on how to use the technology changed. It is worth noting that although these technologies mutated significantly (for trains, it meant moving from fifteen miles an hour to eighty... View Details

Keywords: by F. Warren McFarlan & Richard L. Nolan

Web

Eligibility & Rules - Alumni

Applicant must be a first or second-time founder/co-founder only. Must have business model validation, traction, revenue, or customer commitments. The alumni track is geared towards high growth ventures with viable business models that... View Details

April 2024 (Revised December 2024)
Case

Anthropic: Building Safe AI

By: Shikhar Ghosh and Shweta Bagai

In late 2024, Anthropic, a leading AI safety and research company, achieved a significant breakthrough with computer use capabilities that allowed AI to interact with computers like humans. Co-founded by former OpenAI employees and known for its generative AI... View Details

Keywords: AI and Machine Learning; Corporate Accountability; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Business Growth and Maturation; Corporate Strategy; Technology Industry; United States