Publications

July 2005 (Revised September 2016)
Case

24 Hour Fitness (A): The Rise, 1983–2004

By: John R. Wells, Elizabeth A. Raabe and Gabriel Ellsworth

In October 2004, Mark S. Mastrov, CEO of 24 Hour Fitness, reflected on how far his company had come in just over 20 years. From humble beginnings in 1983 in San Leandro, California, 24 Hour Fitness had grown to become the largest privately-owned health-club chain in... View Details

Keywords: 24 Hour Fitness; Mark Mastrov; Health Clubs; Fitness; Gyms; Chain; Weight Loss; Exercise; Personal Training; Retention; Sales Force Compensation; Incentive Systems; Buildings and Facilities; Business Growth and Maturation; Business Model; For-Profit Firms; Customers; Customer Focus and Relationships; Customer Satisfaction; Private Equity; Revenue; Geographic Scope; Multinational Firms and Management; Nutrition; Business History; Employees; Recruitment; Selection and Staffing; Human Capital; Business or Company Management; Goals and Objectives; Growth and Development Strategy; Marketing; Operations; Service Operations; Private Ownership; Problems and Challenges; Sales; Salesforce Management; Sports; Strategy; Business Strategy; Competition; Competitive Advantage; Competitive Strategy; Corporate Strategy; Expansion; Segmentation; Information Technology; Internet; Technology Platform; Web; Web Sites; Capital Structure; Performance; Organizational Structure; Organizational Culture; Health Industry; United States; California; San Francisco

April 2021 (Revised August 2021)
Case

Borusan CAT: Monetizing Prediction in the Age of AI (A)

By: Navid Mojir and Gamze Yucaoglu

Borusan Cat is an international distributor of Caterpillar heavy machines. Esra Durgun (Director of Strategy, Digitization, and Innovation) and Ozgur Gunaydin (CEO) seem to have bet their careers on developing Muneccim, a new predictive technology that is designed to... View Details

Keywords: Monetization Strategy; Artificial Intelligence; AI; Forecasting and Prediction; Applications and Software; Technological Innovation; Marketing; Segmentation; AI and Machine Learning; Construction Industry; Turkey

17 May 2017
Working Paper Summaries

Turbulence, Firm Decentralization and Growth in Bad Times

Keywords: by Philippe Aghion, Nicholas Bloom, Brian Lucking, Raffaella Sadun, and John Van Reenen

September 2004
Case

Valhalla Partners Due Diligence

By: William A. Sahlman and Dan Heath

The Valhalla Partners venture capitial firm introduced a new approach to the due-diligence process. An internal due-diligence report analyzes Telco Exchange, a startup company in the IT software space. An extended excerpt examines the trade-offs involved in the new... View Details

Keywords: Communication Technology; Risk Management; Venture Capital; Business Plan; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Investment; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Corporate Finance; Financial Services Industry; Telecommunications Industry

December 2002 (Revised October 2006)
Case

Tesco Plc.

By: David E. Bell

Tesco, a supermarket chain, has been transformed from a third-rate retailer to a global leader in the past ten years. This case describes how that was accomplished. Interviews with Tesco employees explain the company's approach to understanding customers, motivating... View Details

Keywords: History; Motivation and Incentives; Leadership; Internet and the Web; Supply Chain Management; Global Strategy; Globalization; Customer Focus and Relationships; Business Strategy; Retail Industry

March 2002 (Revised December 2002)
Background Note

A Note on Corporate Venturing and New Business Creation

By: David A. Garvin

Presents an introduction and overview of corporate venturing. Describes the need for companies to create new businesses, the stages in the process, predictable problems and challenges, the strengths and weaknesses of alternative approaches such as internal venture... View Details

Keywords: Business Plan; Business Startups; Forecasting and Prediction; Venture Capital; Problems and Challenges

05 Oct 2015
News

Marcus Jadotte, Karen Gordon Mills on Trade Opportunities

29 Jan 2019
News

Space Tourism

02 Aug 2018
News

Learning From Henry Kissinger

March 2006
Module Note

Finance in Weak Institutional Environments

By: Mihir A. Desai and Kathleen Luchs

Describes the sixth module in the International Finance course at Harvard Business School. The module explores the issues confronting firms that operate in weak institutional environments. The cases examine situations where investor protections are limited and how... View Details

Keywords: International Finance; Curriculum and Courses; Business Ventures; Framework; Organizational Design; Outcome or Result; Education Industry

Research Summary

Working on paper on how to restructure the public and private market for home mortgages in the US

the paper analyzes the main rationales for subsidizing homeownership from an international perspective, offers criteria for who should be subsidized in the future, discusses how these governmental subsidies should be implemented and how the private market for mortgage... View Details

September 1993
Supplement

Manufacturing at ALZA: The Right Prescription? (C)

By: Dorothy A. Leonard

ALZA, a drug delivery company, considers marketing its own and other companies' products. The primary issue is whether to build an internal sales force focused on a few niche markets, to finance a sales force through alliances, or to acquire a marketing company. View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Product Marketing; Alliances; Research and Development; Salesforce Management; Business Strategy; Pharmaceutical Industry

Find at Harvard

Professor Lodge had been a member of the Harvard Business School faculty since 1963. Before his retirement in 1997, he taught a number of courses in the MBA Master's Program and in various HBS executive programs. in the MBA program these included: Business,... View Details

Satish K. Tadikonda

Satish Tadikonda is a Senior Lecturer in the Entrepreneurial Management Unit at Harvard Business School. In the MBA program, Satish teaches The Entrepreneurial Manager, a required first-year MBA course, and Entrepreneurship in Life Sciences, an elective course for... View Details

Article

No Team is an Island: How Leaders Shape Networked Ecosystems for Team Success

By: Inga Carboni, Robert Cross and Amy C. Edmondson

Today’s organizations rely on networks of dynamic systems of “agile” teams to get work done. Teams are distributed, transient, and loosely bounded in service of responsiveness and innovation. The key to this new way of doing work is managing the networked ecosystem in... View Details

Keywords: Cross-functional Teams; Teams; Interviews; Leadership; Groups and Teams; Networks

Find at Harvard

Register to Read

2007
Working Paper

Proprietary vs. Open Two-Sided Platforms and Social Efficiency

By: Andrei Hagiu

This paper identifies a fundamental economic welfare tradeoff between two-sided open platforms and two-sided proprietary (closed) platforms connecting consumers and producers. Proprietary platforms create two-sided deadweight losses through monopoly pricing but at the... View Details

Keywords: Two-Sided Markets; Platforms; Indirect Network Effects; Product Variety; Social Efficiency; Two-Sided Platforms; Network Effects; Welfare or Wellbeing

Read Now

23 Jan 2014
Working Paper Summaries

Tommy Koh: Background and Major Accomplishments of the ’Great Negotiator, 2014

Keywords: by James K. Sebenius & Laurence A. Green

June 1983 (Revised March 1985)
Supplement

EMI and the CT Scanner (B)

By: Christopher A. Bartlett

Describes the development of the first CT Scanner by EMI, a company new to the medical industry, and EMI's entry into the U.S. market. The company's early success is threatened by the entry of a dozen competitors (some very large and experienced), by government... View Details

Keywords: Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Technological Innovation; Market Entry and Exit; Industry Structures; Product Development; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry

May 2022
Case

RacingThePlanet’s 20-Year Marathon

By: Daniel Isenberg and William Kerr

Mary Gadams, founder and CEO of RacingThePlanet, has managed to stage sporting events in some of the world's most inhospitable locations for the last 20 years. New challenges, including the COVID-19 pandemic, have arisen. How can this small company navigate the global... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurial Management; Sports; Sports Management; COVID-19 Pandemic; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Problems and Challenges; Sports Industry