Case Studies

Google's Project Oxygen: Do Managers Matter?

Google's Project Oxygen started with a fundamental question raised by executives in the early 2000s: do managers matter? The topic generated a multi-year research project that ultimately led to a...

Big Hit Entertainment and Blockbuster Band BTS: K-Pop Goes Global

Bang Si-Hyuk ('Hitman Bang') is the founder and co-chief executive officer of Big Hit Entertainment, the company behind BTS, a 'K-pop' band that has found unparalleled success around the globe-a...

Cirque du Soleil

Retaining talent is an issue for any company whose success relies on the creativity and excellence of its employees. This is especially true for Cirque du Soleil, the spectacularly successful "circus...

GE's Two-Decade Transformation: Jack Welch's Leadership

GE is faced with Jack Welch's impending retirement and whether anyone can sustain the blistering pace of change and growth characteristic of the Welch era. After briefly describing GE's heritage and...

Pinckney Street

Although inexperienced in real estate, Edward Alexander hopes in June 2013 that youthful enthusiasm and an $240,000 in savings and inheritance will help him enter the real estate business. His...

Army Crew Team

The coach of the varsity Army crew team at West Point assembled his top eight rowers into the first crew team and the second tier of rowers into the second team using objective data on individual...

Chase Sapphire: Creating a Millennial Cult Brand

The Inside the Case video that accompanies this case includes teaching tips and insight from the author (available to registered educators only). The launch of the Chase Sapphire Reserve credit card...

Trader Joe's

The Inside the Case video that accompanies this case includes teaching tips and insight from the author (available to registered educators only). Based on a variety of metrics, Trader Joe's ranked as...

Amazon.com, 2021

In February 2021, Amazon announced 2020 operating profits of $22,899 million, up from $2,233 million in 2015, on sales of $386 billion, up from $107 billion five years earlier (see Exhibit 1). The...

Leadership in Crisis: Ernest Shackleton and the Epic Voyage of the Endurance

Provides an opportunity to examine leadership and entrepreneurship in the context of Ernest Shackleton's 1914 Antarctic expedition, a compelling story of crisis, survival, and triumph. Summarizes...

The Tulsa Massacre and the Call for Reparations

The Inside the Case video that accompanies this case includes teaching tips and insight from the author (available to registered educators only). How should historic social injustices be addressed?...

Eli Lilly: Weighing Even More Options in the Obesity Drug Market

By the summer of 2026, pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly (Lilly) had gained an edge in the lucrative obesity drug market over its rival, Novo Nordisk (Novo). Even as Lilly had reduced prices for its...

Microsoft Global Small and Medium Business: The Bet on Agentic AI

As the business world entered the agentic AI era, Microsoft executive Allison West Hughes considered how the groundbreaking new technology could help Microsoft accelerate its growth in the Small and...

The Venture Capital Job: How to Get It, How to Start Off Strong

How to get a venture capital job? And how to kick off a VC career? Two HBS alumni (Christina Warner and Kishen Patel) work on a long, opaque, "just in time" venture capital job search-hundreds of...

Innovation at Master Kong Beverages

Hong-Chen Wei (HBS MBA 2014), Chairman of KSF Beverage Holding Co., Ltd. (KSFB), was steering the company toward the premium segment with the launch of "InheriTea," a premium, sugar-free tea product...

Considering Moonshots at Walmart (2026)

Uber: Improving the Bad Pick Up Experience

Raizen: Helping to Decarbonize the World? (B)

BYD: Entry to the North American Passenger EV Market

In early 2026, BYD, the world's largest EV maker, had few paths open to it to enter the North American market. The 100 per cent tariffs set by the US and Canada foreclosed direct export into those...

Dongjiao Daojia: Governing a Rapidly Growing Platform

This case examines the rapid growth of Dongjiao Daojia (Dongjiao), a Chinese online-to-offline in-home massage platform. After limited success with an offline massage parlor, the company had pivoted...

Dos Tacos: Time for Dos Locations?

The owners of Dos Tacos needed to decide whether to expand their business and open a second location of their restaurant. Dos Tacos was a quick-service restaurant in London, Ontario, Canada, known...

Soy Boys Inc.: Exploring the Alternative

Soy Boys was a popular fast-food restaurant in Toronto, Ontario, that specialized in 100 per cent plant-based hamburgers, waffle fries, and ice cream. Since opening four years earlier on Church...

Advantage Health Africa: The Paddling Duck

In December 2025, the chief executive officer contemplated her next move for Advantage Health Africa (AHA), the Nigerian pharmaceutical venture she had founded in 2017 to improve access to quality...

The High Buds Club: Winning the Last Five Feet

In the spring of 2026, the founder and CEO of High Buds Club (HBC) faced a defining strategic choice. HBC had built what it described as "Cannabis' Most Influential Community"-a private, gated...

Scale AI's Strategy: The Meta Dilemma

In June 2025, Meta Platforms Inc. (Meta) invested US$14.3 billion for a 49 per cent stake in Scale AI Inc. (Scale), a leading provider of data labelling services for AI developers, reshaping the...

Does Going First Matter? Evidence from NHL Shootouts

There was a huge debate about the advantages of going first in National Hockey League (NHL) shootouts. Most NHL coaches opted to shoot first based on a perception that it was an advantage. This...

Air Water: Green Project Management Under Time Constraints

In November 2025, Jiangsu Air Water Environmental Protection Technology Co. Ltd. (Air Water) secured an important contract to design and implement a flue gas desulfurization system for the hot blast...

SabPaisa: Breaking Barriers or Falling Behind? A Go-to-Market Dilemma in Fintech

In June 2024, Pathikrit Dasgupta, co-founder and chief business officer of SabPaisa, faced a defining strategic decision after securing the Reserve Bank of India Payment Aggregator licence. Although...

Danske Bank: Choosing a Sustainability Strategy

In May 2025, Jakob Bøss, head of group positioning and sustainability at Danske Bank A/S, was preparing a presentation for an upcoming meeting of the bank's supervisory board. The board had...

Sri Mandir: Defining Devotion in the Digital Age

In June 2025, Prashant Sachan, founder and chief executive officer of FirstPrinciple AppsForBharat Private Limited (AppsForBharat), faced a critical decision ahead of a funding round for Sri Mandir,...

Building the Happiest Chinese Law Firm: Vision, Mission, and Values of Shentong

In January 2026, Linbing Yang, founder and managing partner of Shentong Law Firm (Shentong), sat in his Shanghai headquarters reflecting on the firm's exponential growth to 200 legal professionals...

Quali Health: The Phoenix Model-New Beginnings in Health Care

In February 2024, the founder of the South African health care provider Quali Health was planning a strategic shift, several years after suffering a total collapse and rebirth of her original...

Pardada Pardadi: Elite Attention to Gender Subjugation

In 2025, in a campus tour of Pardada Pardadi Educational Society in Anupshahr, Uttar Pradesh, India, Arjun Bhardwaj and Ahmad Faraz Khan remarked how this school was transforming girls from...

Valuing Warner Bros. Discovery for Acquisition: A Bidding War Between Netflix and Paramount

On January 22, 2026, the co-chief executive officer of Netflix Inc. (Netflix) faced a critical valuation decision. Six weeks earlier, Netflix had agreed to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery Inc. (WBD)...

Patentrova: Negative Validation of a University AI Venture

An economist and academic entrepreneur at the University of Waterloo built Patentrθva, an AI platform predicting patentability for university invention disclosures. It benefited from the Velocity...

IKEA Canada: From Inclusive Marketing to Brand Activism

This case examines the dilemmas that a mainstream consumer brand faces in navigating the fine line between inclusive marketing and brand activism. The case is set in late 2025, coinciding with the...

Too Good to Go: Designing a Digital Platform for Food Sustainability

In 2016, after witnessing substantial amounts of edible food being discarded at buffet restaurants, a group of entrepreneurs based in Copenhagen, Denmark, ideated and implemented a creative solution...

Pop Mart: Strategic Choices and Financial Ratio Analysis in the Blind-Box Boom

An equity analyst must decide whether to buy, hold, or sell shares of Pop Mart International Group Limited (Pop Mart), a fast-growing designer toy company built on the blind-box model. The case uses...

Dacheng Environmental Technology: Designing Artificial Intelligence Solution for Waste Recycling

Plastic waste recycling was critical for reducing environmental pollution, conserving natural resources, and mitigating the harmful impacts on human health. Hainan Dacheng Environmental Technology Co...

Grand Seiko: Embodying the Nature of Time

As the end credits to The Gift of Time rolled at a private screening in Tokyo in October 2024, Mr. Akio Naito, president of the Seiko Watch Corporation, reflected on the themes of the short film and...

Digital Insurance Services: Reinventing Subrogation with Agentic AI

By mid-2025, Philadelphia, US-based Digital Insurance Services LLC (DIS) had transformed the slow, error-prone auto-insurance subrogation process with DISision, an artificial intelligence (AI)...

Data Sovereignty: Charting Canada's Digital Future

Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED) is advising the cabinet amid growing reliance on foreign hyperscale cloud providers. Policies have accelerated cloud adoption and reshaped...

Herr's: Staying Salty in a National Snack Market

The case examines the strategic challenges facing Herr Foods Inc. (Herr's), a family-owned regional snack manufacturer based in Nottingham, Pennsylvania, competing in a category dominated by...

EqCap's Investment Dilemma: The Meme-Stock Phenomenon

On April 5, 2025, the chief executive officer of EqCap Group (EqCap), received an email from a high-net-worth client, forwarding an article about meme stocks. The email reopened a discussion from...

BharatAI Innovations: Paving the Way for AI-Powered Lead Management

This case examines the funding decision faced by the founders of BharatAI Innovations Pvt. Ltd. (BharatAI). BharatAI is an early-stage artificial intelligence (AI)-driven software-as-a-service (SaaS)...

Stitching the Plan: Aggregate Production Planning at Central Loom Apparel

Central Loom Apparel Pvt. Ltd. (Central Loom), a medium-sized apparel-manufacturing firm based in Nagpur, India, produced various types of casual wear in the mid-to-premium segment for a variety of...

Aziz Shop and the Medina Market: Go Digital or Remain Traditional?

As Morocco's retail landscape was undergoing rapid digital modernization in June 2024, Abbouh Aziz, a 43-year-old lingerie vendor operating in the historic Medina market of Rabat, Morocco, faced a...

Kara LeBlanc and MedReddie: Navigating Growth in a Health Tech Start-Up

MedReddie was an artificial intelligence-driven health care procurement platform founded by Kara LeBlanc in 2023. Based out of Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada, MedReddie's platform helped...

Trump's Call to "Make It in America Again": MAXPRO Fitness and the China + 1 Dilemma

Nezar Akeel, founder and CEO of MAXPRO Fitness (MAXPRO), had developed a portable "smart gym" product in the United States with components by high-precision production partners in Shenzhen, China. In...

Agnico Eagle: Prospecting for Sustainable Growth

The case takes the position of Ammar Al-Joundi, CEO of gold miner Agnico Eagle Mines Limited (Agnico Eagle), in mid-2025, as he considers his options for further growth. Agnico Eagle is performing...

Aier Eye Hospital Group: Value-Based Health Care

Aier Eye Hospital Group Co. Ltd. (Aier) grew from a local Chinese provider into a global ophthalmology hospital chain, supported by a split leadership structure separating the hospital chief...