Strategy

The star of the 2018 Oscar-winning documentary "Free Solo" talks about how he prepares for climbs, the way he thinks about risk, and what's next now that...

What you measure is what you get. Senior executives understand that their organization’s measurement system strongly affects the behavior of managers and employees. Executives also understand that traditional financial accounting measures like return-on-investment and earnings-per-share can give misleading signals for continuous improvement and innovation—activities today’s competitive environment demands. The traditional financial performance measures worked well […]

For the past 20 years, the theory of disruptive innovation has been enormously influential in business circles and a powerful tool for predicting which...

This package begins with "What the West Gets Wrong About China," by Rana Mitter and Elsbeth Johnson, which discusses three fundamental misconceptions:...

Start by embracing the discomfort of not knowing.

Awareness of these forces can help a company stake out a position in its industry that is less vulnerable to attack

When Steve Jobs returned to Apple, in 1997, it had a conventional structure for a company of its size and scope. It was divided into business units, each...

Firms have never known more about their customers, but their innovation processes remain hit-or-miss. Why? According to Christensen and his coauthors,...

Asking the question, "What makes a great COO?" is akin to asking "What makes a great candidate for U.S. vice-president?" It all depends on the first name...

The U.S.-China trade war and the supply and demand shocks brought on by the Covid-19 crisis are forcing manufacturers everywhere to reassess their supply...

Harvard Business School's Christensen teaches aspiring MBAs how to apply management and innovation theories to build stronger companies. But he also believes...

Governments, NGOs, companies, and community members must all be involved in programs to create shared value, yet they work more often in opposition than...

Over the past decade, I have watched more than 100 companies try to remake themselves into significantly better competitors. They have included large organizations (Ford) and small ones (Landmark Communications), companies based in the United States (General Motors) and elsewhere (British Airways), corporations that were on their knees (Eastern Airlines), and companies that were earning […]

For the better part of a decade, strategy has been a business buzzword. Top executives ponder strategic objectives and missions. Managers down the line rough out product/market strategies. Functional chiefs lay out “strategies” for everything from R&D to raw-materials sourcing and distributor relations. Mere planning has lost its glamor; the planners have all turned into […]

In the past few years, a new methodology for launching companies, called "the lean start-up," has begun to replace the old regimen. Traditionally, a venture's...

What consumers truly value can be difficult to pin down and psychologically complicated. But universal building blocks of value do exist, creating opportunities...

To meet the challenges of a complex world, strategic planners need to understand the differences between the four elements of VUCA--volatility, uncertainty,...

Smart companies match their approach to the nature of the threats they face.

Everyone agrees that managing change is tough, but few can agree on how to do it. Most experts are obsessed with "soft" issues, such as culture and motivation...

Why is it so hard to build and maintain the capacity to innovate? The reason is not simply a failure to execute but a failure to articulate an innovation...

In January 2010, Jen McDonald, head of Bank of America Corporation's (BoA) Digital Marketing group, was discussing the bank's mobile strategy with Douglas...

Marketing managers are often called upon to make recommendations for or against programs that cost money to implement. Before expenditures are made, managers...

This case study features ProsFit, a European start-up company founded in 2013 that used breakthrough technology - Computer Aided Design (CAD) and 3D printing...

In 2007, Braeden Ruud was a sophomore in high school when the United States faced one of its worst pet food contaminations in history. In an effort to...

In July 2013, composer, writer, actor and rapper Lin-Manuel Miranda, director Tommy Kail, and producer Jeffrey Seller met to discuss how to launch Hamilton,...

Discovery Communications Inc., an American global networks company, had entered the Indian television market in 1995 with its eponymous channel offering...

In October 2007, the OLPC reported production delays and missed its shipment date. In early November, the $100 PC finally went into production, with initial...

Domino's Pizza is the world's second-largest pizza company with 9,436 stores globally, 95% of which are franchised. Domino's franchisees in the U.S. market...

In 2000, Dr. Gary Kaplan became CEO of the Virginia Mason Medical Center in Seattle, Washington. The hospital was facing significant challenges: It was...

Internet service firm Livedoor allegedly took advantage of loopholes in securities trading laws to swell the amount of assets held by the firm and its...

On March 1, 2017, Best Buy Company, Inc., North America's largest retailer of consumer electronics and appliances, announced a third year of comparable-store...

In November 2016, the co-founders of Poppy Barley Inc. (Poppy Barley) had just finished discussing the company's fiscal projections and sustainability...

The case reveals how Booking.com has become the world's leading travel accommodation platform. The company has put online experimentation at the heart...

Aguas Danone de Argentina (ADA) faced an adverse scenario. Argentina was undergoing its worst economic crisis in history, and bottled water sales were...

iBasis examines the development of a long-term relationship between equipment manufacturer Cisco and start-up iBasis, a voice-over-internet wholesaler....

Merloni Elettrodomestici is a leading Italian manufacturer of domestic appliances. In 1986, an exposition for Merloni customers is scheduled at its Milano...

As the food industry becomes more sophisticated, and as genomics and other factors provide for quality control from the producers to the consumers in...

StepSmart Fitness, a manufacturer of exercise equipment, is undergoing a sweeping reorganization. The new CEO has terminated the District Sales Director...

Investigates how the rise of the Internet as a vehicle for renting and buying movies has disrupted the video rental industry and how market leader Blockbuster...

The star of the 2018 Oscar-winning documentary "Free Solo" talks about how he prepares for climbs, the way he thinks about risk, and what's next now that...

What you measure is what you get. Senior executives understand that their organization’s measurement system strongly affects the behavior of managers and employees. Executives also understand that traditional financial accounting measures like return-on-investment and earnings-per-share can give misleading signals for continuous improvement and innovation—activities today’s competitive environment demands. The traditional financial performance measures worked well […]

For the past 20 years, the theory of disruptive innovation has been enormously influential in business circles and a powerful tool for predicting which...

This package begins with "What the West Gets Wrong About China," by Rana Mitter and Elsbeth Johnson, which discusses three fundamental misconceptions:...

Start by embracing the discomfort of not knowing.

Awareness of these forces can help a company stake out a position in its industry that is less vulnerable to attack

When Steve Jobs returned to Apple, in 1997, it had a conventional structure for a company of its size and scope. It was divided into business units, each...

Firms have never known more about their customers, but their innovation processes remain hit-or-miss. Why? According to Christensen and his coauthors,...

Asking the question, "What makes a great COO?" is akin to asking "What makes a great candidate for U.S. vice-president?" It all depends on the first name...

The U.S.-China trade war and the supply and demand shocks brought on by the Covid-19 crisis are forcing manufacturers everywhere to reassess their supply...