Stay ConnectedBusiness strategy isn’t just a plan, it’s a framework for success.
Whether you’re building, innovating, or executing, HBR On Strategy is your destination for insights and inspiration from the world’s top experts on business strategy and innovation.
Every Wednesday, the editors at the Harvard Business Review hand-picked case studies and conversations from across HBR podcasts, videos, articles, and beyond to help you unlock new ways of doing business.
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As interest rates have risen in recent years, venture capital funding has dried up. How can founders grow their companies in this new environment?
In this episode, a founder who grew a $600 million company using just $10,000 of his own money, shares his strategy. Mike Salguero is the CEO and founder of the meat subscription service ButcherBox. He explains how he formulated a growth strategy that had a laser focus on costs and creatively leveraged the marketing power of influencers.
This is the third episode in a special series highlighting the four best strategy episodes of 2023, curated from across Harvard Business Review’s podcasts.
Key episode topics include: strategy, entrepreneurship, entrepreneurial finance, fundraising, selling entrepreneurial ventures, venture capital, pricing strategy, customer strategy, marketing.
HBR On Strategy curates the best case studies and conversations with the world’s top business and management experts, to help you unlock new ways of doing business. New episodes every week.
In 2023, the auto industry went through huge changes in pursuit of lower carbon emission. Some automakers, like Ford, Mercedes, and General Motors, announced their plans to stop selling vehicles with internal combustion engines. The reaction from investment analysts was overwhelmingly positive, despite the fact that the production of electric vehicles (EVs) actually increases emissions in the supply chain.
In contrast, BMW decided to pursue a more flexible decarbonization strategy. Their plans include gasoline and diesel-fueled internal combustion engines, plug-in hybrid EVs, and battery EVs. The goal is to reduce lifecycle emissions across BMW’s supply chain, their production, and tailpipe emissions.
In this episode, Harvard Business School assistant professor Shirley Lu explains how BMW analyzed its sustainability goals alongside market-based risks to formulate their decarbonization strategy. She also discusses how the company’s leadership presented their strategy to skeptical stakeholders.
This is the second episode in a special series highlighting the four best strategy episodes of 2023, curated from across Harvard Business Review’s podcasts.
Key episode topics include: strategy, environmental sustainability, climate change, operations and supply chain management, financial performance measurement, transportation and distribution.
HBR On Strategy curates the best case studies and conversations with the world’s top business and management experts, to help you unlock new ways of doing business. New episodes every week.
ChatGPT dominated news headlines in 2023. But generative AI isn’t just a hack to boost productivity. Many businesses are exploring its potential to create new products and services, which requires entirely new strategic work.
In this episode, HBR’s editor in chief, Adi Ignatius, speaks to Microsoft’s head of strategy Chris Young and Harvard Business School professor Andy Wu, an expert in growth and innovation strategy. They lay out Gen-AI’s emerging value chains and break down the competitive risks and tradeoffs that businesses should consider as they experiment with this new technology.
This is the first episode in a special series highlighting the four best strategy episodes of 2023, curated from across Harvard Business Review’s podcasts.
Key episode topics include: strategy, leadership, AI and machine learning, automation, technology and analytics, disruptive innovation, digital transformation.
HBR On Strategy curates the best case studies and conversations with the world’s top business and management experts, to help you unlock new ways of doing business. New episodes every week.
Pencil-maker Faber-Castell has been in business since 1761, but it is still innovating and adopting new technology.
In this episode, Harvard Business School associate professor Ryan Raffaelli discusses his case, “Faber-Castell.” He explains how the company balances stewardship of its brand with innovation and evolution, and how leaders decide when—and when not to—adopt new technologies. Plus, he breaks down Faber-Castell’s “generational” approach to formulating strategy to sustain their business for the longer term.
Key episode topics include: strategy, product development, innovation, family businesses.
HBR On Strategy curates the best case studies and conversations with the world’s top business and management experts, to help you unlock new ways of doing business. New episodes every week.
When companies cut costs, they tend to trim spending across the board. But Cesare Mainardi, former CEO of global management consultancy Booz & Company, says that cost cutting should be a careful, strategic process.
In this episode you’ll learn how to ensure that your company’s strategic capabilities aren’t negatively affected by necessary cuts. You’ll also learn how top leadership can work with teams to understand the trade-offs involved in reducing costs.
Mainardi is now a business strategy author and professor. He’s the author of the book, Cut Costs, Grow Stronger: A Strategic Approach to What to Cut and What to Keep.
Key episode topics include: strategy, costing, reducing costs, leadership.
HBR On Strategy curates the best case studies and conversations with the world’s top business and management experts, to help you unlock new ways of doing business. New episodes every week.
Are you considering a refresh of your brand? Roger Martin says you should probably rethink that.
“When you rebrand, the [consumer’s] subconscious is saying ‘whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, where’s that thing we were comfortable with?’ And in some sense, it puts you back to square one. You’re now competing to establish a new habit,” he explains.
Martin is the former dean of the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto — and one of the world’s leading thinkers on strategy.
In this episode, he explains how customer habits build “cumulative advantage” for brands — and why that’s so important, yet fragile. Martin also offers real-world examples of brand updates gone wrong (and right) —from laundry detergents to social media platforms and even the iPhone.
Key episode topics include: strategy, brand management, marketing, consumer behavior, cumulative advantage, Tide, Instagram.
HBR On Strategy curates the best case studies and conversations with the world’s top business and management experts, to help you unlock new ways of doing business. New episodes every week.
Jorge Quintanilla Nielsen started the private asset management firm Capital SAFI in 2007 — and planned to expand from Bolivia across South America. As a private firm, Capital SAFI isn’t required to have a board, but he knew that governance would be one of the main aspects potential partners would evaluate.
In this episode, Harvard Business School professor V. G. Narayanan discusses his case, “Building the Governance to Take Capital SAFI to the Next Level.” He explains how Nielsen selects board members and holds them accountable in their roles. He also discusses how Capital SAFI’s board guides the firm’s growth, risks, and overall strategy.
Key episode topics include: strategy, corporate strategy, corporate governance, sustainable business practices, boards, investment management, growth strategy, global growth, assessing risk.
HBR On Strategy curates the best case studies and conversations with the world’s top business and management experts, to help you unlock new ways of doing business. New episodes every week.
Do you have good AI? That’s “aesthetic intelligence” — not artificial intelligence.
Pauline Brown, former chairman of North America for the luxury goods company LVMH, argues that great leaders need to develop “aesthetic intelligence” to stand out among competitors. They need to understand how their products or services can “elicit true delight.”
“When you look at the research, the vast majority of reasons that anyone will buy one product over another is based on how that product or service makes the person feel,” she tells IdeaCast host Alison Beard.
In this episode, you’ll learn from companies—like Starbucks, Airbnb, and, of course, Apple—that successfully use aesthetics to set their products apart. You’ll also learn why it’s important for leaders or founders—not customers—to define and maintain a company’s aesthetic principles. Brown is the author of the book Aesthetic Intelligence: How to Boost It and Use It in Business and Beyond.
Key episode topics include: strategy, creativity, design thinking, Starbucks, Apple, aesthetics, design, customer centricity, consumer research, competition.
HBR On Strategy curates the best case studies and conversations with the world’s top business and management experts, to help you unlock new ways of doing business. New episodes every week.
Many founders try to emulate startups that have already become successful. But Thales Teixeira says that approach, which often involves trying to do too much, too quickly, can lead to failure.
In this episode, you’ll learn how to find customers who aren’t being served by existing businesses and how to work with early adopters to improve your product and service. You’ll also learn when to focus on developing your technology and when to make key hires — with real-world examples from Uber, Airbnb, and Netflix.
Thales Teixeira is a former associate professor at Harvard Business School, where he taught a course in e-commerce and digital marketing. He’s now the co-founder of digital disruption consultancy Decoupling and the author of the book, Unlocking the Customer Value Chain: How Decoupling Drives Customer Disruption.
Key episode topics include: strategy, customer service, disruptive innovation, entrepreneurship, early adopters, scaling, digital disruption, digital marketing, founders, e-commerce.
HBR On Strategy curates the best case studies and conversations with the world’s top business and management experts, to help you unlock new ways of doing business. New episodes every week.
As the former CEO of PepsiCo, Indra Nooyi played an important role in shaping the company’s global strategy. She shifted PepsiCo’s focus to healthier products, worked to improve sustainability, and perhaps most notably: introduced design thinking into the company’s innovation process.
“It’s a fine line between innovation and design. Hopefully design leads to innovation, and innovation demands design,” Nooyi tells Harvard Business Review editor-in-chief Adi Ignatius.
In this episode, you’ll learn how Nooyi thinks about the relationship between innovation and design — and why she says that “design” is about more than just creating eye-catching packaging. You’ll also learn how design thinking shifted the culture at PepsiCo to ultimately make the company’s operations more centralized and coordinated.
Key episode topics include: strategy, change management, design thinking, food and Beverage sector, sustainability, innovation, culture shift, global strategy, user experience, design, packaging.
HBR On Strategy curates the best case studies and conversations with the world’s top business and management experts, to help you unlock new ways of doing business. New episodes every week.
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