Publications

March 2020 (Revised March 2022)
Case

Wachtell Lipton: Focused Excellence

By: Ashish Nanda and Margaret Cross

For years, Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz—a small, New York City law firm—has consistently boasted the highest profits per partner and one of the highest “prestige” ratings among U.S.-based law firms. The firm has remained loyal to a distinctive strategy ever since its... View Details

Keywords: Strategy; Law; Mergers and Acquisitions; Legal Services Industry; New York (city, NY)

February 2020
Technical Note

Talent Management and the Future of Work

By: William R. Kerr and Gorick Ng

The nature of work is changing—and it is changing rapidly. Few days go by without industry giants such as Amazon and AT&T announcing plans to invest billions of dollars towards retraining nearly half of their respective workforces for jobs of the future. What changes... View Details

Keywords: Human Resource Management; Human Capital Development; Human Resource Practices; Talent; Talent Acquisition; Talent Development; Talent Development And Retention; Talent Management; Talent Retention; Labor Flows; Labor Management; Labor Market; Strategy Development; Strategy Management; Strategy Execution; Strategy And Execution; Strategic Change; Transformations; Organization; Organization Alignment; Organization Design; Organizational Adaptation; Organizational Effectiveness; Management Challenges; Management Of Business And Political Risk; Change Leadership; Future Of Work; Future; Skills Gap; Skills Development; Skills; Offshoring And Outsourcing; Investment; Capital Allocation; Work; Work Culture; Work Force Management; Work/life Balance; Work/family Balance; Work-family Boundary Management; Workers; Worker Productivity; Worker Performance; Work Engagement; Work Environment; Work Environments; Productivity; Organization Culture; Soft Skills; Technology Management; Technological Change; Technological Change: Choices And Consequences; Technology Diffusion; Disruptive Technology; Global Business; Global; Workplace; Workplace Context; Workplace Culture; Workplace Wellness; Collaboration; Competencies; Productivity Gains; Digital; Digital Transition; Competitive Dynamics; Competitiveness; Competitive Strategy; Data Analytics; Data; Data Management; Data Strategy; Data Protection; Aging Society; Diversity; Diversity Management; Millennials; Communication Complexity; Communication Technologies; International Business; Work Sharing; Global Competitiveness; Global Corporate Cultures; Intellectual Property; Intellectual Property Management; Intellectual Property Protection; Intellectual Capital And Property Issues; Globalization Of Supply Chain; Inequality; Recruiting; Hiring; Hiring Of Employees; Training; Job Cuts And Outsourcing; Job Performance; Job Search; Job Design; Job Satisfaction; Jobs; Employee Engagement; Employee Attitude; Employee Benefits; Employee Compensation; Employee Fairness; Employee Relationship Management; Employee Retention; Employee Selection; Employee Motivation; Employee Feedback; Employee Coordination; Employee Performance Management; Employee Socialization; Process Improvement; Application Performance Management; Stigma; Institutional Change; Candidates; Digital Enterprise; Cultural Adaptation; Cultural Change; Cultural Diversity; Cultural Context; Cultural Strategies; Cultural Psychology; Cultural Reform; Performance; Performance Effectiveness; Performance Management; Performance Evaluation; Performance Appraisal; Performance Feedback; Performance Measurement; Performance Metrics; Performance Measures; Performance Efficiency; Efficiency; Performance Analysis; Performance Appraisals; Performance Improvement; Automation; Artificial Intelligence; Technology Companies; Managerial Processes; Skilled Migration; Assessment; Human Resources; Management; Human Capital; Talent and Talent Management; Retention; Demographics; Labor; Strategy; Change; Change Management; Transformation; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Culture; Working Conditions; Information Technology; Technology Adoption; Disruption; Economy; Competition; Globalization; AI and Machine Learning; Digital Transformation

2012
Article

Exploring Re-Identification Risks in Public Domains

By: Aditi Ramachandran, Lisa Singh, Edward Porter and Frank Nagle

While re-identification of sensitive data has been studied extensively, with the emergence of online social networks and the popularity of digital communications, the ability to use public data for re-identification has increased. This work begins by presenting two... View Details

Keywords: Safety; Analytics and Data Science; Social and Collaborative Networks

16 May 2011
Research & Ideas

What Loyalty? High-End Customers are First to Flee

competition." But as new research from Harvard Business School demonstrates, the customers you think are your best and most loyal are likely to be the first to cast you aside when a challenger to your... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna

12 Dec 2023
Blog Post

Bridging Science and Business: My Summer Internship at Eli Lilly

skills in business, making it a summer to remember. Our first academic year, known as the Required Curriculum (RC) year, laid a robust foundation for our new directions, but it... View Details

Career Coach

Johnny Weger

Johnny has been deeply embedded in healthcare strategy from a variety of angles and enjoys assisting students who are interested in providers and payers (incumbents as well as... View Details

14 Aug 2015
Working Paper Summaries

Are ‘Better’ Ideas More Likely to Succeed? An Empirical Analysis of Startup Evaluation

Keywords: by Pian Shu; Financial Services

November 2020 (Revised March 2021)
Case

Amazon: Cult or Culture?

By: Boris Groysberg, Sarah L. Abbott and Tricia Gregg

Amazon was one of the first entrants in e-commerce. Under the leadership of founder Jeff Bezos, Amazon had expanded beyond books to manufacturing and selling a wide range of products and services globally. Bezos had built a customer-centric culture that permeated all... View Details

Keywords: Culture; Technology Companies; Retail; Human Resource Practices; Growth; Founder; Leadership; Organizational Culture; Growth Management; Information Technology; Human Resources; Talent and Talent Management; Retail Industry; Technology Industry

October 2001 (Revised October 2017)
Case

Pilgrim Bank (A): Customer Profitability

By: Frances X. Frei and Dennis Campbell

Provides a context in which students can explore managerial decision making that is critically informed by data analysis. The setting is a retail bank and the decision making relates to the bank's policy toward online banking. The management team is evaluating whether... View Details

Keywords: Banks and Banking; Customers; Profit; Banking Industry

February 2020 (Revised June 2020)
Case

From Cradle to Heaven: Taikang Insurance Group

By: William C. Kirby, Shu Lin, John P. McHugh and Yuanzhuo Wang

Taikang Insurance Group was a leading Chinese insurance and financial services institution. It operated in the insurance, asset management, and health and senior care industries. Due to China’s underdeveloped social welfare state, Taikang saw an opportunity for the... View Details

Keywords: Health; Insurance; Strategy; Insurance Industry; China

April 1988 (Revised September 1992)
Case

Frito-Lay, Inc.: The Backhaul Decision

By: Janice H. Hammond

Prior to the Motor Carrier Act of 1980, companies with private trucking fleets were generally prohibited from selling transportation services to other companies. The deregulation of the trucking industry in 1980 allowed private carriers to offer for-hire transportation... View Details

Keywords: Cost Management; Revenue; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Marketing Strategy; Distribution; Service Operations; Sales; Salesforce Management; Transportation; Food and Beverage Industry

Blog

The Chao Center: The Heart of HBS Executive Education

Opened in 2016, the Ruth Mulan Chu Chao Center serves as a vibrant hub of campus life for those attending HBS Executive Education programs, complementing our classroom buildings and residences. Here,... View Details

2025
Working Paper

Enhancing Treatment Effect Prediction on Privacy-Protected Data: An Honest Post-Processing Approach

By: Ta-Wei Huang and Eva Ascarza

As firms increasingly rely on customer data for personalization, concerns over privacy and regulatory compliance have grown. Local Differential Privacy (LDP) offers strong individual-level protection by injecting noise into data before collection. While... View Details

Keywords: Targeted Intervention; Conditional Average Treatment Effect Estimation; Differential Privacy; Honest Estimation; Post-processing; Analytics and Data Science; Consumer Behavior; Marketing

SSRN

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January 2004
Case

Macroeconomic Policy and the State of the U.S. Economy, 2003

By: David A. Moss

Based on excerpts from Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan's testimony before the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs on July 16, 2003, as well as economic data that were available to Chairman Greenspan at the time. Taken together, the text... View Details

Keywords: Macroeconomics; Banks and Banking; Policy; Housing; Analytics and Data Science; Problems and Challenges; Urban Development; United States

March 2016 (Revised August 2018)
Case

JPMorgan Chase after the Financial Crisis: What Is the Optimal Scope of the Largest Bank in the U.S.?

By: David Collis and Ashley Hartman

When Jamie Dimon took over as CEO of JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPMorgan Chase) in 2005, he reaffirmed the commitment to pursue a "universal bank" strategy—providing a full range of products and services to both retail and wholesale clients. Yet the merits of the universal... View Details

Keywords: Scope; Regulatory Reforms; Universal Banking; Synergy; Optimization; Simplification; Finance; Strategy; Business Strategy; Financial Crisis; Consolidation; Corporate Strategy; Diversification; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Financial Services Industry; Financial Services Industry

March 2023 (Revised May 2025)
Case

On

By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell, Karolin Frankenberger and Sascha Mader

Founded in 2010, in just one decade, the Swiss company On had established itself as a main player in global sports footwear and apparel. Based on an unconventional strategy which one of the founders labeled as “obsessively distinct,” On grew its sales with a compound... View Details

February 2018 (Revised March 2018)
Case

Artificial Intelligence and the Machine Learning Revolution in Finance: Cogent Labs and the Google Cloud Platform (GCP)

By: Lauren Cohen, Christopher Malloy and William Powley

This case examines the intersection of two firms (Cogent Labs—a machine learning software firm in Tokyo; and Google, the technology infrastructure giant) attempting to exploit the benefits of artificial intelligence and machine learning in the financial services... View Details

Keywords: Technological Innovation; Finance; Growth and Development Strategy; Business Model; Applications and Software; Infrastructure; Financial Services Industry; Financial Services Industry

September 2020 (Revised December 2021)
Case

Building India's 2.0: PayNearby

By: Lauren Cohen and Spencer C. N. Hagist

Headquartered in Mumbai, India, FinTech startup Nearby Technologies has seen its flagship brand, PayNearby, rapidly flourish across most of its target market within just four years. The unprecedented success of its payment app, which allows users to access banking... View Details

Keywords: Fintech; Developing Markets; Payments; Financial Inclusion; Finance; Entrepreneurship; Emerging Markets; Competitive Strategy; Banking Industry; India