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- July 2025
- Case
Toilets for the Underserved: The SURT Commercialization Challenge
By: Maria P. Roche, Anne Marie Knott and Alexander Oettl
In 2021, a breakthrough in sanitation technology developed under the Gates Foundation’s “Reinvent the Toilet” initiative stood ready for commercialization. The Single User Reinvented Toilet (SURT), engineered by Dr. Shannon Yee, offered an off-grid, self-contained... View Details
Keywords: Technological Innovation; Commercialization; Social Issues; Social Enterprise; Public Sector; Private Sector; Market Entry and Exit; Strategic Planning; Engineering; Infrastructure; Innovation Strategy; Utilities Industry; Consumer Products Industry; United States; South Africa; India; France
- July 2025
- Teaching Note
Designed for Purpose: “Never a Failure. Always a Lesson”
By: James Riley and Andrea Dorbu
In 2017, Rihanna launched Fenty Beauty under LVMH, disrupting the cosmetics industry with an inclusive 'Beauty for All' strategy that emphasized accessibility across skin tones. The brand’s success was followed by the launch of Savage X Fenty, a lingerie line upholding... View Details
- July 2025
- Case
Designed for Purpose: “Never a Failure. Always a Lesson”
By: James Riley and Andrea Dorbu
In 2017, Rihanna launched Fenty Beauty under LVMH, disrupting the cosmetics industry with an inclusive 'Beauty for All' strategy that emphasized accessibility across skin tones. The brand’s success was followed by the launch of Savage X Fenty, a lingerie line upholding... View Details
- July 2025
- Module Note
Supply and Demand for Strategists
By: Quan Le
This module note introduces students to the foundational microeconomic principles of supply and demand. It uses the example of an aluminum plant (specifically, production quantity and shutdown decisions) to discuss short-run vs. long-run decisions, marginal costs, sunk... View Details
Keywords: Business Exit or Shutdown; Business or Company Management; Business Strategy; Competition; Competitive Advantage; Cost of Capital; Cost vs Benefits; Decision Making; Decisions; Demand and Consumers; Economics; Economic Systems; For-Profit Firms; Market Entry and Exit; Market Participation; Markets; Metals and Minerals; Microeconomics; Price; Revenue; Strategy; Supply and Industry; Manufacturing Industry
- March 27, 2025
- Article
How One Company Used AI to Broaden Its Customer Base
By: Sunil Gupta and Frank V. Cespedes
The software company SAP successfully leveraged AI tools to begin selling to the small and medium enterprises (SMEs) market, which had previously been uneconomical for its in-person sales approach. By mapping the customer journey and deploying over 40 AI tools, SAP... View Details
- January 2025 (Revised April 2025)
- Case
Duolingo: On a 'Streak'
By: Jeffrey F. Rayport, Nicole Tempest Keller and Nicole Luo
In December 2024, Severin Hacker, Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer of Duolingo, reflected on the remarkable evolution of the language-learning app he helped launch in 2011. As the #1 most downloaded education app in the world, Duolingo had over 100 million... View Details
- January 2025
- Case
Intuition Robotics: An AI Companion for Older Adults
By: Amit Goldenberg, Elie Ofek and Orna Dan
Intuition Robotics, a startup that makes an AI companion robot to alleviate older adults’ loneliness, debates whether to pursue a B2C model or B2G route. If it opts for the government vertical, it must determine how to negotiate a favorable deal. Two weeks after... View Details
- January 2025
- Case
Olive Young: Formulating Beauty Innovation
By: Rebecca Karp and Shu Lin
Sun-jung Lee, CEO of Olive Young, South Korea's largest beauty and health retailer, saw significant potential in the U.S. market and considered three pathways: replicating Korea's omnichannel model, adopting a digital-native approach with curated products, or relying... View Details
- January 2025 (Revised April 2025)
- Case
Blue Frontier: Disrupting Air Conditioning
By: Rosabeth Moss Kanter and Jacob A. Small
Serial entrepreneur Daniel Betts founded Blue Frontier in South Florida to offer a climate-friendly solution to increase air conditioning efficiency and dehumidify using new technology he developed. Backed by significant venture capital, Blue Frontier had to choose... View Details
- December 2024 (Revised July 2025)
- Case
Arcor Group: Navigating Agribusiness Challenges in Argentina
By: Alberto Cavallo, Jenyfeer Martinez Buitrago and Mariana Cal
In 2016, Arcor Group, Argentina's leading food company, faced a pivotal decision regarding its newly formed Agribusiness division. CEO Luis Alejandro Pagani and Modesto Magadán, General Manager of the Agribusiness division, evaluated whether to increase investments in... View Details
- November 2024 (Revised April 2025)
- Case
Cheerful Music
By: Shunyuan Zhang, Feng Zhu and Nancy Hua Dai
Established by Snow Jiang in 2019 in Shenzhen, China, Cheerful Music was a record label company that had created many hit songs in China. “Yi Xiao Jiang Hu,” its most famous hit song, gained billions of views on social media platforms in China and overseas as the... View Details
- October 2024
- Case
Sacoor Brothers: From Co-Family CEOs to No Family CEOs?
By: Lauren Cohen, David Ager and Alpana Thapar
Sacoor Brothers, a luxury clothing retail company, was founded in 1989 in Lisbon, Portugal, by four brothers—Malik, Salim, Rahimo, and Moez. After establishing a strong presence in Portugal, the brothers were drawn to the rapidly growing retail markets in the Middle... View Details
Keywords: Growth; Geographic Mobility; Family Office; Professionalization; Institutional Development; Second-generation; Third-generation; Family Business; Private Equity; Investment; Governance; Transition; Business Model; Growth and Development Strategy; Management Succession; Market Entry and Exit; Family and Family Relationships; Expansion; Retail Industry; Fashion Industry; Middle East; United Arab Emirates; Saudi Arabia; Portugal; Jordan; Dubai
- October 2024
- Case
Allurion: Competing in the Age of GLP-1
By: Satish Tadikonda, Rajiv Lal, David Lane and Sarah Sasso
Shantanu Gaur had built Allurion into a formidable business internationally, providing obesity patients with a less invasive option long before GLP-1 drugs became the latest craze. Selling Allurion's medical device across 60+ countries, he awaited FDA approval to bring... View Details
- October 2024
- Article
Strategic Decision Making at Platform Transitions: The Case of Nokia (2010-2011).
By: Timo O. Vuori and Michael Tushman
We studied Nokia’s decision to adopt the Windows platform in 2011 to induce new theory on the emotional dynamics of incumbent firms’ strategic decision making at platform transitions. We find that platform companies’ entry into an established industry activates a... View Details
- August 2024
- Case
Iogen: Decarbonizing Hard-to-Abate Sectors
By: George Serafeim, Charlotte Foody and John Mulliken
Brian Foody, CEO of Iogen Corporation, was an early leader in advanced biofuels, developing a range of technologies to transform agricultural waste into transportation fuel. With $100 million in revenue and 350 patents across various biofuel technologies, Iogen was... View Details
- August 2024 (Revised November 2024)
- Case
Commonwealth Fusion Systems: Born at Scale
This case study chronicles the journey of Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS) on its ambitious mission to commercialize fusion energy and become the world’s leading provider of fusion power plants. Emerging from a “special arrangement” with MIT's Plasma Science and... View Details
- July 2024
- Case
The Voice Wars Continues 2024: Hey Google vs. Alexa vs. Siri vs. ChatGPT
By: David B. Yoffie and Sarah von Bargen
In 2024, the Voice War was transforming from a relatively simple index-based technology system, which relied on a list of commands and answers, to a generative AI system, which offered the promise to enable free flowing conversations between people and machines. The... View Details
- May 2024 (Revised February 2025)
- Case
Choosing the Course of Passion: Brooke Boyarsky Pratt at knownwell
By: Jon M. Jachimowicz and Alexis Lefort
Brooke Boyarsky Pratt (HBS ’13) enjoyed considerable success in her early career, quickly climbing the ranks to associate partner at McKinsey, and later becoming an executive vice president at Berkadia, a Berkshire Hathaway portfolio company. Throughout these years,... View Details
- April 2024
- Supplement
Recycle & Re-Match: The Future of Soccer Turfs
By: George Serafeim
Keywords: Carbon Emissions; Carbon Abatement; Sustainability; Recycling; Waste Management; Technology; Entrepreneurial Management; Business Growth and Maturation; Business Model; Decisions; Energy Conservation; Investment Return; Profit; Technological Innovation; Patents; Growth and Development Strategy; Market Entry and Exit; Digital Platforms; Wastes and Waste Processing; Business Strategy; Competition; Expansion; Technology Adoption; Sports; Environmental Sustainability; Entrepreneurship; Green Technology Industry; Service Industry; Manufacturing Industry; Rubber Industry; Sports Industry; Denmark; Netherlands; France; United States; Pennsylvania; Europe
- February 2024 (Revised December 2024)
- Case
Best Buy Health: Enabling Care at Home
This case explores retailer Best Buy’s decision to enter health care. Best Buy Health aims to enable care at home across three prongs: consumer health, active aging, and virtual care. A key pillar of Best Buy Health's strategy is leveraging the Geek Squad—the company's... View Details