Publications

March 2020
Technical Note

Intrapreneurship: Leading Innovation Efforts in Established Organizations

By: Karen G. Mills and Annie Dang

“Intrapreneurship” is the use of entrepreneurial management techniques within established companies to create new environments that foster innovation. Mature firms have consistently faced risk of elimination from competitors, shifting consumer preferences, and... View Details

Keywords: Intrapreneurship; Innovation; Corporate Venture Capital; Accelerators; Incubators; Lean Startup; Hypothesis Testing; Business Ventures; Entrepreneurship; Innovation and Invention; Leadership; Framework; Disruption

April 1998 (Revised November 1999)
Case

Hambrecht & Quist

By: Thomas J. DeLong and Nicole Tempest

Hambrecht & Quist (H&Q), an investment bank headquartered in San Francisco, has a very unique culture relative to its Wall Street counterparts. Firm members and even competitors describe the culture as entrepreneurial, team-driven, non-bureaucratic, and... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Investment Banking; Growth and Development Strategy; Emerging Markets; Organizational Culture; Competitive Advantage; Banking Industry; San Francisco

Web

Commercialization of the Polarizer - Edwin H. Land & Polaroid | Harvard Business School

Clubs Faculty & Research Business & Environment Business History Christensen Center for Teaching & Learning Entrepreneurship Faculty & Research Global Healthcare HBS Working Knowledge Institute for Strategy & Competitiveness Leadership... View Details

August 2022 (Revised February 2023)
Case

NewLab: Scaling an Innovation Engine

By: Tarun Khanna and George Gonzalez

Silicon Valley-veteran Shaun Stewart is the CEO of NewLab, a dynamic technology hub headquartered in the storied Brooklyn Navy Yard. Founded in 2016, NewLab fostered a community of entrepreneurs, corporate and government partners, and investors, all seeking to apply... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Social and Collaborative Networks; Global Range; Partners and Partnerships; Networks; Growth and Development Strategy; Opportunities; Brooklyn

October 2008 (Revised February 2011)
Case

Apple's Core

By: Noam T. Wasserman

Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak are best friends who enjoy pulling pranks together and talking about electronics. After several small collaborations, Jobs pitches Wozniak on starting a company together to sell computers based on Wozniak's design for a personal computer.... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Entrepreneurship; Equity; Managerial Roles; Partners and Partnerships; Conflict Management

Portrait Project

Phil Black

5-year plan (pre-HBS) start a business with two HBS classmates grow sales to $500 million in first three years IPO within 5 years get on cover of Entrepreneurship magazine with cofounders repeat sleep (optional) Revised 5-year plan... View Details

November 2019 (Revised April 2020)
Case

Away: Scaling a DTC Travel Brand

By: Jill Avery and Joseph B. Fuller

Away, a direct-to-consumer, digital native e-commerce seller of travel luggage, is debating how to invest its latest round of venture funding. How quickly could and should Away scale and what were the most promising growth trajectories to maximize its potential? Three... View Details

June 1998 (Revised August 2001)
Case

Wells Fargo Online Financial Services (A)

By: Robert S. Kaplan and Nicole Tempest

Wells Fargo, the industry leader in electronic banking, has implemented a Balanced Scorecard in its online financial services group (OFS) to track and measure performance. The OFS group develops and supports services that allow existing and future banking customers to... View Details

Keywords: Balanced Scorecard; Internet and the Web; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Corporate Strategy; Performance Evaluation; Finance; Change; Situation or Environment; Measurement and Metrics; Banking Industry; Financial Services Industry

Web

Industry Information - Alumni

entertainment news and analysis on everything from film to television to music and gaming. Sign up to receive one or more of their free, topical newsletters. + – Entrepreneurship Breakout List Stanford Graduate School of Business... View Details

06 Sep 2022
Cold Call Podcast

Reinventing an Iconic Independent Bookstore

Keywords: Re: Ryan L. Raffaelli; Retail

March 2018 (Revised December 2019)
Case

Edward Lewis: Essence Magazine

By: Steven Rogers and Jacqueline Adams

Essence, the first magazine aimed at African-American women, was created by four, young, Black entrepreneurs in the aftermath of massive racial and political upheaval in the United States in 1968. The venture was a financial, branding and cultural success. By 2005, the... View Details

Web

Online Business Courses for Organizations | HBS Online

Business Essentials Leadership & Management Entrepreneurship & Innovation Strategy Finance & Accounting Business in Society There are multiple ways for employees to learn. They can complete one course to earn a Certificate of Completion... View Details

July 2011
Case

Teach Plus: Mobilizing a New Generation of Teacher Leaders

By: David A. Thomas and Stephanie J. Creary

This case profiles the evolution of Teach Plus, a non-profit organization founded on the premise that in order for public schools to continuously improve urban student achievement, teaching must become a career that motivates and retains effective early career... View Details

Keywords: Leadership; Decision Making; Strategy; Nonprofit Organizations; Social Entrepreneurship; Teaching; Cambridge; Boston

September 2018
Case

OYO: Creating Effective Spaces

By: Das Narayandas, Sunil Gupta, Rachna Tahilyani and Mahima Rao-Kachroo

Twenty-four-year old Ritesh Agarwal, founder and CEO of India-based online hotel branding network OYO Rooms, has tackled the issue of unreliability in India's highly fragmented budget hotel industry. In 2018, OYO branded 8,500 properties across 200 cities and managed... View Details

Keywords: Technology; Accomodation; App Development; Operations And Processes; Innovation; Strategy; Change Management; Entrepreneurship; Information Technology; Research; Marketing; Operations; Innovation Strategy; Sales; Accommodations Industry; India; South Asia

September 2016
Case

Partners Group: Ain't No Mountain High Enough

By: Nori Gerardo Lietz and Ricardo Andrade

Partners Group (PG), a Swiss-based PE manager, initiated a series of strategic shifts and evolved from a predominately fund-of-funds manager into a large, multi-asset class PE firm focused on direct investments. PG was the first PE firm to go public in 2006. A number... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Management Practices and Processes; Entrepreneurship

September 2016
Case

Hotel Vertu: Analyzing the Opportunity in the Boutique Hotel Industry

By: Howard H. Stevenson and Michael J. Roberts DBA

Two soon-to-be MBA graduates are considering a business opportunity in the boutique hotel industry. Having found a seemingly attractive property in Savannah, Georgia, Yvonne D'Arcy and Elisabeth Whiting face questions about career issues, planning, financing, and the... View Details

Keywords: Business Ventures; Entrepreneurship; Planning; Accommodations Industry

October 2003 (Revised December 2020)
Case

Globalizing Consumer Durables: Singer Sewing Machine before 1914

By: Geoffrey Jones and David Kiron

Examines the global strategy of Singer, one of the world's first multinationals, before 1914. Singer, a U.S. pioneer of the modern sewing machine, established its first foreign factory in Scotland in 1867. Investments followed in manufacturing and marketing in other... View Details

Keywords: Business History; Multinational Firms and Management; Global Strategy; Entrepreneurship; Investment; Globalization

October 2013 (Revised April 2018)
Technical Note

Non-Equity Financing for Entrepreneurial Ventures

By: Joan Farre-Mensa, Ramana Nanda and Piyush Jain

Young, and particularly high-growth ventures often need to raise significant external finance, since their internal cash flow is usually insufficient to support the investments needed to grow. Although raising equity from venture capital or angel investors is the... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurial Finance; Entrepreneurship; Finance; Financial Services Industry

January 2023 (Revised June 2024)
Case

Elon Musk at Tesla

By: George Serafeim and Amram Migdal

This case gives an overview of Elon Musk’s career arc through the lens of the 2003 founding of Tesla and its growth through 2022. Background information is included on Tesla’s unique strategic decisions, its operational and reputational struggles and successes, and the... View Details