Publications

2011
Teaching Note

The Haidilao Company

By: F. Warren McFarlan, Zheng Xiaoming and Ziqian Zhao

Haidilao Hot Pot brings customers delightful dining experiences. Like most restaurants, its workforce is mostly composed of young employees born in underdeveloped suburban areas. Instilled with the founder's unique entrepreneurial values, they are enthused and... View Details

Keywords: Competitive Strategy; Customer Service; Employee Empowerment; Global Corporate Cultures; Organizational Values; Transformations; China; Restaurants; China

20 Feb 2006
Research & Ideas

Are Company Founders Underpaid?

CEO is the highest paid executive and almost always out-earns her direct reports by a significant margin. Also, multiple studies have found that the more equity the CEO holds, the more compensation she commands. However, the patterns are completely different in View Details

Keywords: by Sarah Jane Gilbert; Financial Services; Technology

08 Apr 2015
What Do You Think?

Are Technology Companies Ripe for Disruption?

can actually use." Paul Hamilton-Smith opined that software companies "mostly subsist from their renewal revenue stream. That stream is generated by 'new and improved' software versions." And Julian Lowe commented that... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett; Computer; Technology

05 Dec 2022
Research & Ideas

5 Companies Where Employees Move Up the Ladder Fast

Companies vying to fill entry-level roles should take a page from AT&T and American Express and offer aggressive advancement opportunities to workers without college degrees to help expand the talent pool, says a new report. According... View Details

Keywords: by Pamela Reynolds

February 2016 (Revised February 2017)
Case

Alvogen

By: Daniel Isenberg and William Kerr

Alvogen is a young Icelandic generic pharmaceutical company, whose CEO believes that his global strategy will give them an edge in this competitive industry.
Robert Wessman, Alvogen’s CEO, was also previously the CEO of Actavis, another Icelandic generics... View Details

Keywords: Pharmaceutical Companies; Generic Drugs; Entrepreneurship; Globalization; Risk and Uncertainty; Pharmaceutical Industry; Iceland

16 May 2000
Research & Ideas

Getting the Message: How the Internet is Changing Advertising

In 1994, the World Wide Web was not yet a household name. A new company called Yahoo! had just developed a way to look for sites on the Internet—the search engine. HotWired debuted as the first online magazine to carry advertisements.... View Details

Keywords: by Susan Young

17 Jun 2016
Op-Ed

Companies Need to Start Marketing Security to Customers

is viewed as a "must have" but not a differentiator. Volvo is one of a few brands that have relentlessly emphasized safety in its marketing, being early into seat belts, side air bags and other features that appealed especially to middle class families... View Details

Keywords: by John A. Quelch; Entertainment & Recreation

December 2006 (Revised October 2016)
Case

eClinicalWorks: The Paths to Growth

By: Robert F. Higgins and Mark Rennella

In January 2006, eClinicalWorks (eCW) had an acquisition opportunity that could fundamentally change the way they had done business since the inception of the company in 1999. eClinicalWorks was a privately run business in the healthcare information technology field... View Details

Keywords: Young Companies; Strategic Revelation; Strategy And Execution; Strategy Development; Strategy And Leadership; Financing Strategy; Financing Risk; Financing; Expansion; Business Growth and Maturation; Organizational Culture; Financing and Loans; Customer Focus and Relationships; Acquisition; Growth and Development Strategy; Information Technology Industry; Health Industry; Massachusetts

29 Oct 2000
Research & Ideas

The Entrepreneurial Venture: A Conversation

First, there were changes in ERISA (Employee Retirement Income Security Act) legislation that allowed pension funds to invest in private equity; second, the growth of the microprocessor and the semiconductor; and third, the rise of entrepreneurial activity, which drew... View Details

Keywords: by Susan Young

11 Apr 2000
Research & Ideas

Financial Services 24/7

customers to take their business elsewhere. With new Internet-only banks and brokerages popping up regularly, established firms must find innovative ways to hold onto their customers. "Traditionally, strategy was institutionally driven—insurance View Details

Keywords: by Susan Young

02 Apr 2001
Research & Ideas

What Makes a Good Leader?

When discussing business leadership, a distinction is often made between good management and good leadership. Managers are thought to be the budgeters, the organizers, the controllers — the ants, as one observer puts it — while leaders are the charismatic, big-picture... View Details

Keywords: by Deborah Blagg & Susan Young

30 Jun 2022
HBS Case

Peloton Changed the Exercise Game. Can the Company Push Through the Pain?

Few companies create an entirely new consumer market and reach icon status—and then set out to reinvent themselves. But that’s the hill the at-home, interactive-exercise firm Peloton is now climbing. Peloton was one of the freewheeling... View Details

Keywords: by Lane Lambert; Media & Broadcasting; Health; Bicycle

07 Jan 2010
Working Paper Summaries

International Differences in the Size and Roles of Corporate Headquarters: An Empirical Examination

Keywords: by David Collis, David Young & Michael Goold

16 May 2018
Research & Ideas

How Companies Managed Risk (and Even Benefitted) in World War Internment Camps

companies from Germany dealt with the incarceration of thousands of their German national employees in India during World War I and World War II in her recent working paper, Countering Political Risk in Colonial India: German... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Manufacturing

September 1998 (Revised December 1998)
Case

Walnut Venture Associates (A): RBS Group Investment Memorandum

The Walnut Group's investigation of the RBS Group, a young software company is described. The RBS business plan is also included. View Details

Keywords: Venture Capital; Business Plan; Research; Software; Entrepreneurship; Business Startups; Information Technology Industry

December 2011 (Revised April 2012)
Case

Pierre Frankel in Moscow (A): Unfreezing Change

By: Rosabeth Moss Kanter and Matthew Bird

A young and upcoming French executive in a global technology company is sent to Moscow as deputy managing director to turn around the Russia subsidiary. He must report to the subsidiary's managing director (a large reason for the organization's underperformance) and to... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Selection and Staffing; Change Management; Restructuring; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Moscow

March 1998 (Revised February 2001)
Case

PlanetAll

By: Jeffrey F. Rayport

PlanetAll is a Web-based contact manager that automatically updates users' contact information. In early 1998, the young company must decide whether to compete with large Web sites and become a destination site or to become an enabling technology for other contact... View Details

Keywords: Business or Company Management; Marketing Strategy; Internet and the Web; Information Technology; Business Startups; Web Services Industry; Information Technology Industry

Find at Harvard

February 2003 (Revised October 2003)
Case

Versity.com

By: Leslie A. Perlow

Versity.com has grown from four college students working out of a dorm to a $125 million venture capital-backed company. The young founders and new professional managers struggle to create a company vision and grapple with the question of whether to acquire another... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Growth and Development; Organizational Design; Mission and Purpose; Strategic Planning; Conflict and Resolution; Mergers and Acquisitions; Management Teams; Core Relationships