Publications

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Publications - Institute For Strategy And Competitiveness

Health Care by Alee Hernandez, Robert S. Kaplan, Mary L. Witkowski, C. Forrest Faison and Michael E. Porter In 2016, the Surgeon General of the Navy launched a value-based health care project at Naval Hospital Jacksonville. The project’s... View Details

28 Mar 2024
News

Rooms with a View

Alexander Mirza (MBA 1997) has spent two decades in the hospitality industry, opening and growing major hotel brands, including Hilton, Starwood, and Caesars, with locations around the world. And with each new project, Mirza faced the same primary challenge. “It didn’t... View Details

Keywords: April White; photos by Christina Gandolfo; Hospitality

20 Oct 2023
News

Highlights from the Fall 2023 Alumni Board Meeting

a cost of customer acquisition that has more than doubled. In addition to managing those challenges, HBS Online is focused on staying engaged in the market, experimenting with emerging trends like AI, and launching new products. Notable... View Details

20 Dec 2022
Op-Ed

Employee Feedback: The Key to Retention During the Great Resignation

between advocacy and inquiry. The senior team advocates an organizational direction and then launches an inquiry into the organization’s strengths and its barriers to success. 3. Make sure the conversation is constructive. Keep the... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Beer

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For Alumni - Entrepreneurship

Competition offers aspiring entrepreneurial alumni with high potential new ventures a launching pad for continued development and an opportunity for valuable feedback and prize money. Rock Entrepreneurship Advisor Program The Rock... View Details

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Team - Case Method Project

which received the MacArthur Award for Creative and Effective Institutions. In 2013, David launched a case-based course on the history of American democracy for Harvard undergraduates and MBA students. The success of this course inspired... View Details

June 2024 (Revised March 2025)
Case

Wemade: (Re)Establishing Trust in Blockchain Games (A)

By: Jung Koo Kang, Charles C.Y. Wang, David Allen and Kwangmoon So

This case explores the fundamental challenges and accounting issues arising from the integration of blockchain technology into traditional business models. It features Wemade, a South Korean online gaming company that has staked its future on blockchain-based games.... View Details

Keywords: Blockchain; Cryptocurrency; Video Games; Accounting; Financial Reporting; Revenue Recognition; Games, Gaming, and Gambling; Corporate Disclosure; Information Technology; Technology Adoption; Accounting Industry; Information Technology Industry; Video Game Industry; South Korea

March 2024 (Revised September 2024)
Case

Supercell 2.0: Clash of Plans

By: Jeffrey F. Rayport and George Gonzalez

Founded in 2010, Supercell was a Helsinki, Finland-based mobile gaming company that had developed and launched five global hit mobile games: Clash of Clans, Clash Royale, Hay Day, Brawl Stars, and Boom Beach. The company’s early philosophy was that it could produce... View Details

Keywords: Business Growth and Maturation; Restructuring; Games, Gaming, and Gambling; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Culture; Organizational Structure; Corporate Strategy; Video Game Industry; Finland

January 2024 (Revised June 2024)
Case

School of Rock: Tuning into Structured Empowerment (A)

By: Tatiana Sandino, Jeffrey Rayport, Samuel Grad and Stacy Straaberg

In summer 2021, School of Rock was a youth-oriented music education company with 291 franchise- and company-owned schools globally. Before CEO Rob Price’s hire in 2017, School of Rock’s nonconformist rock ‘n’ roll culture led to variability in teaching styles,... View Details

June 2022
Case

PFA Pensions: The Climate Plus Product

By: Daniel Green, Victoria Ivashina and Alys Ferragamo

The case explores whether alternative investments play a unique role in achieving low carbon dioxide emissions at the portfolio level. This case is set in April of 2020 and follows Kasper Ahrndt Lorenzen, Chief Investment Officer, and Peter Tind Larsen, Head of... View Details

Keywords: Carbon Emissions; Carbon Footprint; Alternative Assets; Alternative Investment Vehicles; Pension Fund Investing; Private Equity; Renewable Energy; Investment Portfolio; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Environmental Sustainability; Denmark

February 2021
Case

Enterprise Agility at Komerční Banka

By: Euvin Naidoo, Suraj Srinivasan and Sarah Gulick

In 2017, Jan Juchelka, the new CEO of Komerční Banka, identified the need for the bank to start an enterprise wide agile transformation. He started by working to create a sense of urgency to kick-start a process to enable the level of service delivery to customers he... View Details

Keywords: Agile; Agility; Transformation; Organizational Structure; Business Headquarters; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Management Systems; Banking Industry; Czech Republic

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Advisory Board - Entrepreneurship

Harvard spent a winter break week in New York exploring new ventures in fashion, food, and fine arts, and co-led four similar winter break trips to Silicon Valley . Eisenmann also created the MBA electives Launching Technology Ventures ,... View Details

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Jana Kierstead | About

intellectual property, academic pedagogy and faculty talent of the School as a premier provider of high quality online business education. Since its inception in January 2013, HBS Online has launched twelve products on two distinct... View Details

June 2020 (Revised July 2023)
Case

Time Out: The Evolution from Media to Markets

By: Kate Barasz and Eva Ascarza

In February 2020, Time Out’s chief executive officer Julio Bruno is evaluating the strategic direction of the company. Over the span of five decades, Time Out — the global media and entertainment brand — had gone from a self-published counterculture publication in... View Details

Keywords: Branding; Media Businesses; Hospitality; Hospitality Industry; Digital; Brands and Branding; Media; Marketing; Marketing Strategy; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Strategy; Media and Broadcasting Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; United Kingdom; United States

January 2020
Case

Ureed.com: The Marketplace for Language

By: Ashley V. Whillans, Esel Çekin and Alpana Thapar

Jordanian entrepreneur, Nour Al Hassan, founded Tarjama in 2008, tapping into an underserved and high demand need: Arabic translation service. Its lean model comprised of hiring full-time employees, mainly women, who worked from home. It steadily grew over the... View Details

Keywords: Language Translation; Freelancers; Entrepreneurship; Human Resources; Management; Expansion; Quality; Growth and Development Strategy

June 2018 (Revised July 2023)
Case

John Chambers, Cisco, and China: Upgrading a Golden Shield

By: Geoffrey Jones and Emily Grandjean

This case examines the role of Cisco led by John Chambers in facilitating web filtering in China. It begins by tracing the origins of Cisco as a pioneer of networking equipment. John Chambers, who had worked as a sales manager at IBM and Wang Laboratories, joined Cisco... View Details

Keywords: Cisco; Internet and the Web; Governance Controls; Ethics; Rights; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Technology Industry; China