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In late 2012, recent Harvard Business School graduate Hannah Lopez is given the opportunity to lead entry into a new market for Pl mo, a company that created startup companies in Europe and emerging markets based upon existing successful business models. She had only been with the company a few mon... More

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In late September 2013, Exxon Mobil Corporation announced that it would begin offering benefits to the spouses of its employees in same-sex marriages. This short supplement touches upon what led Exxon Mobil to this decision, some insights into its previous relationship with the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexua... More

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The global consumer goods company Unilever was on pace to hit a number of aggressive targets by 2020 as part of the Unilever Sustainable Living Project, including a goal to halve the waste associated with the disposal of its products. Unilever's Chief Supply Chain Officer Pier Luigi Sigismondi and h... More

GenapSys, a California-based startup, was soon to release a new DNA sequencer that the company's founder, Hesaam Esfandyarpour, believed was truly revolutionary. The sequencer would be substantially less expensive-potentially costing just a few thousand dollars-and smaller than other sequencers, man... More

The region around Cambridge, England (known colloquially as Silicon Fen) is home to a cluster of high-tech startups and established businesses. It has a deep history stretching back to the foundation of the city's elite university in 1284. Silicon Fen shares many characteristics with Silicon Valley ... More

DaVita had launched Paladina in early 2011 and the startup was struggling to gain traction: Paladina had already used a significant amount of the $40 million in funding committed by DaVita; the company's primary care clinics had not yet reached the number of patients necessary to sustain a profitabl... More

Scott and Ally Svenson, the founders of MOD Pizza, had to make a number of decisions in planning how to scale their small company. They wanted to grow MOD from 45 stores as of May 2015 to 200 stores by the end of 2016, and while the two believed that MOD could manage this growth from an operational ... More

Mark Bertolini, chairman and CEO of the health insurer Aetna, faces a number of questions as he seeks to transform Aetna from a classic insurance company into a business that will engage much more deeply with its members around their personal health goals. His strategy depends on Aetna’s ability to ... More

Case: Senior Lecturers Frank V. Cespedes and Shikhar Ghosh, and Case Researcher Matthew Preble of the Case Research & Writing Group prepared this case. It was reviewed and approved before publication by a company designate. Funding for the development of this case was provided by Harvard Business Sc... More

"During the late 1950s and very early 1960s, thalidomide was considered a “wonder drug.”1 It could be used by patients suffering from sleeplessness or related issues, such as anxiety and depression, with apparently no risk from misuse or overdose.2 Pregnant women began taking thalidomide to alleviat... More

For roughly six weeks between late December 1936 and February 1937, a major strike at several critical General Motors (GM) plants in Flint, Michigan essentially halted the corporation's U.S. production and resulted in significant gains for the nascent United Automobile Workers of America union and t... More

Throughout the second half of the 20th century, Polaroid first invented-and then continuously reinvented-the field of instant photography. Under the leadership of its mercurial founder Edwin Land, the company regularly released new instant cameras and films, often without any market research. Land c... More

"Miguel McKelvey was sitting in his office at WeWork’s Manhattan headquarters one morning in April 2018, scrutinizing the whiteboard that covered the entirety of one large wall. On it, he had mapped out the key components of WeWork’s culture, and he had filled the columns—or what he called “pillars”... More

For roughly six weeks between late December 1936 and February 1937, a major strike at several critical General Motors (GM) plants in Flint, Michigan essentially halted the corporation's U.S. production and resulted in significant gains for the nascent United Automobile Workers of America union and t... More

In April 2017, Victoria Sopik and Jennifer Nashmi, CEO and CFO (respectively) of Kids & Company, a Canadian childcare provider that they had co-founded in the early 2000s and developed into a nearly 100-unit enterprise, are discussing how the company should proceed with its planned U.S. expansion. K... More

CareerWise Colorado (CWC) is an organization that equips high school students with the skills to build successful careers through apprenticeships. Founded in 2016, the young organization has attracted interest from different groups and civic leaders from across the U.S., some of whom want to replica... More

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Railroad magnate Jay Gould, a controversial figure in the history of U.S. capitalism, was a disruptive influence on an industry that had previously relied on formal and informal agreements to move traffic long distances across lines operated by different companies. Gould and his competitors replaced... More

During the 1980s, President Ronald Reagan and his administration instituted several far-reaching economic policies that had both near- and long-term impacts on such aspects of the U.S. economy as monetary policy, inflation, the tax structure, and the role of government. While observers were divided ... More

Scott and Ally Svenson, the founders of MOD Pizza, had to make a number of decisions in planning how to scale their small company. They wanted to grow MOD from 45 stores as of May 2015 to 200 stores by the end of 2016, and while the two believed that MOD could manage this growth from an operational ... More

Case... More

This is an abridged version of MOD Pizza: A Winning Recipe? Case study number 416-004. Scott and Ally Svenson, the founders of MOD Pizza, had to make a number of decisions in planning how to scale their small company. They wanted to grow MOD from 45 stores as of May 2015 to 200 stores by the end of... More