Publications

April 2005 (Revised July 2009)
Case

IBM's Decade of Transformation: Turnaround to Growth

By: Lynda M. Applegate, Robert D. Austin and Elizabeth Collins

Describes IBM's decade of transformation. Provides background on the company's history and the factors that led to its near death in the early 1990s and to its remarkable turnaround during Gerstner's reign as CEO. A rewritten version of an earlier case. View Details

Keywords: History; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Leading Change; Transformation; Growth and Development Strategy

01 Jun 2006
News

HBS Annual Report Details Strong Financial Growth

management knowledge fueled revenue growth, more than half of which came from two market-sensitive units — Executive Education and Harvard Business School Publishing. Both units have rebounded strongly from the recession four years ago.... View Details

Keywords: Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools; Educational Services

March 2012 (Revised May 2012)
Case

Virgin Group: Finding New Avenues for Growth

By: Gary P. Pisano and Elena Corsi

Keywords: Growth and Development Strategy; Financial Strategy; Organizational Structure

January 2024 (Revised May 2024)
Case

Generation Investment Management

By: Vikram S. Gandhi, Michael Norris and David Allen

In September 2021, the sustainable investment firm Generation Investment Management (Generation) considered whether to add Schneider Electric to the focus list of companies in which it was prepared to invest. Dedicated to promoting a sustainable world through its... View Details

Keywords: Sustainable Investing; Climate Change; Environmental Sustainability; Governance; Private Equity; Public Equity; Financial Markets; Investment Return; Investment Activism; Investment Funds; Investment Portfolio; Institutional Investing; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Financial Services Industry; United Kingdom; England; London

March 2024
Case

Lyft 2023: Roads to Growth and Differentiation

By: Ranjay Gulati and Jeffrey Huizinga

Set in San Francisco in winter 2023, this case explores the strategic challenges and initiatives at Lyft under the leadership of its new CEO, David Risher. Confronted with declining market share and financial pressures, Risher spent his first six months at the helm... View Details

Keywords: Technology; Turnarounds; Ridesharing; Transition; Strategy; Culture; Change Management; Transportation Industry; Technology Industry

14 Jul 2023
News

Defining a Growth Strategy in Uncertain Times

21 Apr 2003
Research & Ideas

Are Crummy Products Your Next Growth Opportunity?

have owned started out as a disruptive company.— Clayton M. Christensen Copying the management best practices of leading firms isn't necessarily the answer, Christensen said. When inventors in the Middle Ages tried to invent a contraption... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

August 2006 (Revised September 2008)
Case

Duane Morris: Balancing Growth and Culture at a Law Firm

By: Boris Groysberg and Robin Abrahams

After nearly 100 years as a mid-size regional law firm, Duane Morris entered a period of spectacular growth led by CEO Sheldon Bonovitz. Originally founded by Quakers, the firm had a distinct organizational culture featuring a number of unique or unusual business... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Growth and Development Strategy; Management Practices and Processes; Organizational Culture; Competitive Advantage; San Francisco

February 2024 (Revised January 2025)
Case

AGENTS.inc: Pathways to Growth at an AI Startup

By: Frank Nagle, Manuel Hoffmann, Karoline Ströhlein and Susan Pinckney

The case describes the history of AGENTS.inc. Despite being a small startup, with only four employees, that had never had a funding round, the company boasted an impressive client portfolio including multiple Fortune 500 companies. While AGENTS.inc had been an early... View Details

2024
Working Paper

Bank Capital and the Growth of Private Credit

By: Sergey Chernenko, Robert Ialenti and David Scharfstein

We show that business development companies (BDCs)—closed-end funds that provide a significant share of nonbank loans to middle market firms—are very well capitalized according to bank capital frameworks. They have median risk-based capital ratios of about 36%... View Details

Keywords: Financing and Loans; Capital; Credit; Financial Institutions

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May 2017
Teaching Note

Hilti Fleet Management (A) and (B)

By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell, Oliver Gassmann and Roman Sauer

These notes are meant to accompany Hilti Fleet Management (A): Turning a Successful Business Model on Its Head (717-427) and Hilti Fleet Management (B): Towards a New Business Model (717-465).
This case explores the introduction of fleet management in the... View Details

February 2010
Teaching Note

The Cleveland Clinic: Growth Strategy 2008 (TN)

By: Michael E. Porter, Elizabeth O. Teisberg, Jennifer F Baron and Carolyn Daly

Teaching Note for 709473. View Details

Keywords: Health Care and Treatment; Value; Restructuring; Groups and Teams; System; Transformation; Expansion; Integration; Alignment; Goals and Objectives; Leading Change; Customer Focus and Relationships; Health Industry; Cleveland; United States; Abu Dhabi; Canada

June 2016
Teaching Plan

Terrapin Laboratory

By: Joseph B. Fuller and Andrew Otazo

This teaching plan accompanies the case "Terrapin Laboratory," HBS No. 315-098. That case describes the formation and rapid growth of a drug testing company. The company needs to decide whether to enter the painkiller testing market, in addition to growing its drug... View Details

Keywords: Business Growth; Entrepreneurial Management; Growth Strategy; Market Entry; Venture Capital; Market Entry and Exit; Entrepreneurship; Health Testing and Trials; Growth and Development Strategy; Pharmaceutical Industry

Teaching Interest

General Management Program (GMP)

By: Stefan H. Thomke

As global business challenges become more complex, companies are turning to exceptional general managers who can take on greater cross-functional responsibilities and contribute to corporate growth on a more strategic level. Moving beyond your field of expertise,... View Details

September 2011
Case

Driving Profitable Growth at US Auto Parts

USAP faces extraordinary opportunities to change the way that automobiles are serviced in the US by selling parts at fair prices though online channels. View Details

Keywords: Business Growth and Maturation; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Disruptive Innovation; Business Model; Internet and the Web; Business Strategy; Internet and the Web; Machinery and Machining; Cost Management; Auto Industry; Retail Industry; United States