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Don’t Be a Hypocrite About Failure
Career coaching Digital ArticleOwn up to your shortcomings. -
Selection Bias and the Perils of Benchmarking
Strategy & Execution Magazine ArticleTo find the secrets of business success, what could be more natural than studying successful businesses? In fact, nothing could be more dangerous, warns... -
Seven Ways to Fail Big
Strategy & Execution Magazine ArticleWhat causes companies to fail spectacularly? A recent study of 750 of the biggest U.S. business disasters of the past 25 years reveals that seven popular... -
Upside of Falling Flat
Strategy & Execution Magazine ArticleThe failed McDonald's hotel project is a good example of a "real option"--a set investment for an uncertain but potentially high return--and shows that... -
Why So Many High-Profile Digital Transformations Fail
Finance & Accounting Digital ArticleThe graveyard includes GE, Ford, Burberry, Nike, Lego, and P&G. -
The Positive Power of Failure
Innovation & Leadership Digital ArticleThis post is part of HBR's special issue on failure. This post was written with Mark Sebell and Jay Terwilliger, managing partners at Creative Realities,... -
Why CRM Projects Fail and How to Make Them More Successful
Sales & Marketing Digital ArticleUse them to improve the sales process, not just evaluate it. -
The Scary Truth About Corporate Survival
Organizational Development Magazine ArticleNew research shows that companies really are failing faster than they used to: In particular, digital companies are far more vulnerable to quick imitation... -
What Big Companies Can Learn from Shark Tank
Finance & Accounting Digital ArticleBy utilizing the reality show format, corporations can create a more effective forum for pitching innovative products. -
Simple Ways to Spot Unknown Unknowns
Leadership & Managing People Digital ArticleAvoid mistakes that, in hindsight, are obvious. -
Finding Your Company's Second Act
Innovation & Entrepreneurship Magazine ArticleAccelerating technological improvements have changed the speed with which new innovations penetrate markets. Graphed over time, the market adoption of... -
Use Failure as an Opportunity to Reflect on Your Strengths
Difficult conversations Digital ArticleRejection hurts — but it isn’t the end. -
Can Zombie Firms Survive Rising Interest Rates?
Financial markets Digital ArticleThey feast on cheap credit, which is drying up. -
Why Innovation Labs Fail, and How to Ensure Yours Doesn’t
Incubators Digital ArticleSetting up a research hub is easy. Setting it up to succeed is harder. -
Today's Innovation Can Rise from Yesterday's Failure
Innovation & Leadership Digital ArticleThis post is part of HBR's special issue on failure. This blog was co-authored with Jay F. Terwilliger and Mark H. Sebell, managing partners at Creative... -
Why Hard-Nosed Executives Should Care About Management Theory
Strategy & Execution Magazine ArticleTheory often gets a bum rap among managers because it's associated with the word "theoretical," which connotes "impractical." But it shouldn't. Because... -
Why Haven Healthcare Failed
Global Business Digital ArticleDespite being backed by Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway, and JPMorgan Chase, the company is disbanding less than three years after its launch. -
When the CEO Dies, What Comes First: His Company or His Family? (HBR Case Study and Commentary)
Organizational Development Magazine ArticleShortly after the sudden death of her beloved husband, Priya Gowda learns that the company he built from a small dairy farm into a major Indian conglomerate... -
Stop Kissing Frogs
Strategy & Execution Magazine ArticleCompanies attempting to grow by entering new businesses fail nine times out of 10. The problem isn't that big companies are too risk averse. Quite the... -
5 Steps to Help Yourself Recover from a Setback
Leadership & Managing People Digital ArticleAn exercise in counterfactual thinking.
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Successes and Failures of Amazon's Growth Strategies: Causes and Consequences
Strategy & Execution Case Study11.95View Details On 30 May 2017, Amazon shares traded at a record high - above $1,000 - surpassing the share price of Google parent Alphabet. Started as an online bookstore... -
Aptera: The Future of Financing (C)
Innovation & Entrepreneurship Case Study5.00View Details Aptera is on its second life. It originally began as a VC-backed electric car company in the 1990s. But that first life ended badly, as the company could... -
Lyondell Chemical Company
Finance & Accounting Case Study11.95View Details Hit with an industry recession and the global financial crisis of 2008, in January 2009 LyondellBasell Industries AF S.C.A., one of the world's largest... -
First National Bank of Westhaven (B)
Finance & Accounting Case Study5.00View Details Describes the events leading to deterioration of a goose farming operation. -
Quibi: The Failure of Hollywood's "Next Big Thing"
Innovation & Entrepreneurship Case Study11.95View Details Following its official launch on April 6, 2020, Quibi, a mobile-only short-form video streaming platform that had raised over $1.7 billion had failed... -
Battling Over a New York Workout: the W Hotel Strategy Loan Agreement
Finance & Accounting Case Study5.00View Details On October 11, 2006, Istithmar, a subsidiary of Dubai World, the flagship investment company of the government of Dubai, purchased the 270-room W Hotel... -
Ça Va de Soi: A Phoenix Rises from the Ashes of a Failed IT Project - Part A - The Fall
Technology & Operations Case Study11.95View Details This two-part case study of a Canadian knitwear SME called Ça Va de Soi (CVDS) presents a real-life situation: an IT project failure (part A) and how... -
Ron Johnson: Retail at Target, Apple, and J.C. Penney
Sales & Marketing Case Study11.95View Details In April 2013, Ron Johnson (HBS '84) stepped down after just 18 months as CEO of J.C. Penney. In his brief tenure, Johnson, an acclaimed retailer respected... -
Groupe Eurotunnel S.A. (A)
Finance & Accounting Case Study11.95View Details In the summer of 2006 the chairman and CEO of Eurotunnel Group is faced with the decision whether to file for bankruptcy protection, after having failed... -
Quincy Apparel (B)
Innovation & Entrepreneurship Case Study5.00View Details The (B) case provides post-mortem analysis from Quincy's cofounders on why their startup failed and what they could have done differently. Explanations... -
Mergers and People: Key Factors for an Effective Acquisition and for Surviving One
Leadership & Managing People Case Study8.95View Details The aim of this technical note is to consider the human dimension of mergers and acquisitions and the way these processes impact people. In the substantial... -
Proday: Calling the Right Play
Management Case Study11.95View Details Sarah Kunst knew the elements of a successful startup from her tenure at venture capital firms. In April 2018, however, her own app - Proday, a home fitness... -
Katerra (A)
Innovation & Entrepreneurship Case Study11.95View Details In April 2020, Katerra executives struggled with a series of decisions that would determine the fate of one of the best-funded construction startups in... -
Fabricato: The phoenix of Colombian textile industry
Finance & Accounting Case Study11.95View Details In March 2013, Alberto Silva, president of the newly appointed Board of Directors of Fabricato, one of Colombia's oldest textile companies, met with representatives... -
GoPro: The Disruptive Innovator Faces Challenges
Sales & Marketing Case Study11.95View Details GoPro, Inc. was an American action camera and software manufacturer founded in 2002 by a young entrepreneur. The company introduced innovative action... -
Theranos: Who Has Blood on Their Hands? (A)
Technology & Operations Case Study11.95View Details This case covers the rise and fall of Theranos, the company founded by Elizabeth Holmes in 2004 to revolutionize the blood testing industry by creating... -
Lehman Brothers: Too Big to Fail?, Epilogue
Global Business Case Study5.00View Details In September 2008, Hank Paulson, U.S. Treasury Secretary, Ben Bernanke, Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, and Tim Geithner, President... -
Aptera: Technology and Manufacturing Choices (B)
Innovation & Entrepreneurship Case Study5.00View Details Aptera is on its second life. It originally began as a VC-backed electric car company in the 1990s. But that first life ended badly, as the company could... -
BANEX and the No Pago Movement (A)
Finance & Accounting Case Study11.95View Details ... -
Fail Better: Design Smart Mistakes and Succeed Sooner
Strategy & Execution Book30.00View Details If you're aiming to innovate, failure along the way is a given. But can you fail better? Whether you're rolling out a new product from a city-view office...
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Don’t Be a Hypocrite About Failure
Career coaching Digital ArticleOwn up to your shortcomings. -
Successes and Failures of Amazon's Growth Strategies: Causes and Consequences
Strategy & Execution Case Study11.95View Details On 30 May 2017, Amazon shares traded at a record high - above $1,000 - surpassing the share price of Google parent Alphabet. Started as an online bookstore... -
Selection Bias and the Perils of Benchmarking
Strategy & Execution Magazine ArticleTo find the secrets of business success, what could be more natural than studying successful businesses? In fact, nothing could be more dangerous, warns... -
Aptera: The Future of Financing (C)
Innovation & Entrepreneurship Case Study5.00View Details Aptera is on its second life. It originally began as a VC-backed electric car company in the 1990s. But that first life ended badly, as the company could... -
Lyondell Chemical Company
Finance & Accounting Case Study11.95View Details Hit with an industry recession and the global financial crisis of 2008, in January 2009 LyondellBasell Industries AF S.C.A., one of the world's largest... -
How to Fail Right
Strategy AudioWhy and how you fail is more important than success. -
First National Bank of Westhaven (B)
Finance & Accounting Case Study5.00View Details Describes the events leading to deterioration of a goose farming operation. -
Quibi: The Failure of Hollywood's "Next Big Thing"
Innovation & Entrepreneurship Case Study11.95View Details Following its official launch on April 6, 2020, Quibi, a mobile-only short-form video streaming platform that had raised over $1.7 billion had failed... -
Seven Ways to Fail Big
Strategy & Execution Magazine ArticleWhat causes companies to fail spectacularly? A recent study of 750 of the biggest U.S. business disasters of the past 25 years reveals that seven popular... -
Upside of Falling Flat
Strategy & Execution Magazine ArticleThe failed McDonald's hotel project is a good example of a "real option"--a set investment for an uncertain but potentially high return--and shows that...
