Publications

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11 Apr 2011
Lessons from the Classroom

Teaching a ‘Lean Startup’ Strategy

doing that, and waste a lot of money on sales and marketing trying to sell that wrong product," says Tom Eisenmann, a professor in the Entrepreneurial Management Unit at Harvard Business School. "It takes a lot of time, time... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Technology; Computer

Waze Connected Citizens Program

Di-Ann Eisnor, Director of Growth at Waze, founded the company’s Connected Citizens Program (CCP), a data-sharing partnership that provided officials with traffic incident and congestion data in exchange for data on anticipated road closures, re-routing, etc.... View Details

TeachingInterests

MBA Elective Curriculum Business-to-Business Marketing

Business markets differ from consumer markets in important ways. Typically, the buying process is more complex, the buying units and purchase criteria differ, and marketing decisions are more closely interrelated with firm-wide strategic choices. In addition,... View Details

August 1994
Case

Higashimaru Shoyu Company, Ltd. (A): Price Control System

Illustrates how Japanese firms use profit pressures to increase efficiency. In particular, explores how pseudo profit centers create pressure on workers to increase revenues and reduce costs, and the use of semiautonomous teams in a traditional Japanese workforce. View Details

Keywords: Cost Management; Groups and Teams; Organizational Structure; Performance Efficiency; Management Systems; Japan

July 2023
Supplement

Reimagining Enel: Enabling Sustainable Progress (A)

By: Michael Tushman and Kerry Herman

This case describes the transformation of Enel from a traditional “brown” or fossil fuel energy firm to a sustainable and green firm focused on renewables, and finally to an energy supplier and integrated energy services firm. It describes a set of capabilities... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Innovation and Invention; Transformation; Green Technology; Renewable Energy; Energy Industry

January 2020
Supplement

Chemours (B)

By: David G. Fubini and David Lane

Supplement to the (A) case, describing actions taken by Chemours CEO Mark Vergnano and members of his executive team to execute a successful turnaround of the company. View Details

Keywords: Transformation; Leading Change; Crisis Management; Organizational Change and Adaptation; United States

November 2024
Background Note

Social Enterprise in the MENA Region

By: Brian Trelstad and Ahmed Dahawy

This research note provides an overview of the socio-economic landscape of social enterprise in the Middle East and North Africa. It highlights the diversity of players in the region including social enterprise organizations (in their many forms) and supporting... View Details

November 2012 (Revised April 2013)
Case

TWA Parts (Abridged)

By: V.G. Narayanan

Transworld Auto Parts had to implement its new strategy flawlessly to survive the auto industry upheaval. The new CEO asked her leadership team to craft strategy maps and balanced scorecards to help each division implement its strategies. View Details

Keywords: Business Divisions; Leadership; Balanced Scorecard; Management Teams; Business Strategy; Corporate Strategy; Auto Industry; Manufacturing Industry

11 Jul 2023
Blog Post

Second Life: Reflections on Complementing Success with an Encore Career

In 2015, Steve Kloeblen retired and thought he was done with the corporate world. A graduate of HBS Executive Education’s General Management Program, Kloeblen had more than 30 years of experience with IBM, culminating with his transition... View Details

January 2020
Case

Lunchclub: Algorithmic Networking

By: Scott Duke Kominers and George Gonzalez

Algorithmic networking startup Lunchclub coordinates in-person meetings between professionals who would have been unlikely to meet. The company faces marketplace design, growth, and monetization challenges: The executive team has to refine Lunchclub's marketplace... View Details

Keywords: Monetization Strategy; Networking; Business Startups; Marketplace Matching; Market Design; Growth and Development Strategy; Information Industry

22 Mar 2010
Research & Ideas

One Strategy: Aligning Planning and Execution

CEO and the senior management team believe the firm should focus on. The second is bottom-up, "emergent" strategy, which is established by the actual decisions and behaviors in the organization.... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Video Game; Web Services

April 2009
Case

Invest Early: Early Childhood Development in a Rural Community

By: Stacey M. Childress and Geoff Eckman Marietta

Invest Early was an early childhood development partnership in rural northern Minnesota between 14 different organizations, which worked together through an advisory board, governing board, and leadership team in order to deliver coordinated early childhood services to... View Details

Keywords: Early Childhood Education; Rural Scope; Management Teams; Managerial Roles; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Business and Community Relations; Partners and Partnerships; Social and Collaborative Networks

Find at Harvard

Rem Koning is the Mary V. and Mark A. Stevens Associate Professor at Harvard Business School. He researches and teaches entrepreneurship, exploring the biases and frictions that shape how founders and markets learn. His current research explores... View Details

Keywords: high technology; software; biotechnology

2008
Book

Ownership Quotient: Putting the Service Profit Chain to Work for Unbeatable Competitive Advantage

By: James L. Heskett, W. Earl Sasser Jr. and Joe Wheeler

Hundreds of large organizations worldwide have used the groundbreaking Service Profit Chain to improve business performance. Now The Ownership Quotient reveals the next generation of the chain: customer and employee "owners" of your business. Employee-owners exhibit... View Details

Keywords: Customer Satisfaction; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Customer Ownership; Employee Ownership; Competitive Advantage; Value Creation

Find at Harvard

September 2009 (Revised August 2011)
Case

Transworld Auto Parts (A)

By: V.G. Narayanan and Lisa Brem

Transworld Auto Parts had to implement its new strategy flawlessly to survive the auto industry upheaval. The new CEO asked her leadership team to craft strategy maps and balanced scorecards to help each division implement its strategies. View Details

Keywords: Business Divisions; Leadership; Balanced Scorecard; Management Teams; Business Strategy; Corporate Strategy; Auto Industry; Manufacturing Industry

2017
Book

Geography, Location, and Strategy

By: Juan Alcácer, Bruce Kogut, Catherine Thomas and Bernard Yin Yeung

Changes in both technology and global political economy have vastly accelerated the pace of globalization in the last 40 years, eroding barriers that limited firms' geographic scope and unleashing a seemingly unlimited set of new threats, challenges, and opportunities... View Details

Keywords: Geographic Location; Global Strategy; Value Creation