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Cold Call
A podcast featuring faculty discussing cases they've written and the lessons they impart.
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Would You Live in a Smart City Where Government Controls Privacy?

Toronto is experimenting with smart-city concepts envisioned by Google spinoff Sidewalk Labs. Harvard Business School Professors Leslie John and Mitch Weiss discuss the tradeoffs of using technology to improve modern city life at potential costs to digital privacy from their case, “Sidewalk Labs: Privacy in a City Built from the Internet Up.” Is it worth it?  Open for comment; 0 Comment(s) posted.

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The Revolution in Advertising: From Don Draper to Big Data

Re: John A. Deighton

The Mad Men of advertising are being replaced by data scientists and analysts. In this podcast, marketing professor John Deighton and advertising legend Sir Martin Sorrell discuss the positives and negatives of digital marketing. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

ShotSpotter: A Gunfire Detection Business Looks for a New Market

Re: Mitchell B. Weiss

ShotSpotter sells its gunfire detection services to cities, but is thinking of branching out to private institutions like shopping malls and schools. This podcast with Mitch Weiss discusses his case study around ShotSpotter's options. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

Building India’s First $100 Billion Company

Re: Sunil Gupta

Startups welcome growth but are often strangled by it. In this podcast, Sunil Gupta discusses how entrepreneur Vijay Shekhar Sharma is meeting this challenge with his mobile payments company Paytm. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

Reversing the Losing Streak on Sesame Street

Re: Rosabeth M. Kanter, Ryan L. Raffaelli

When CEO Jeffrey Dunn took over Sesame Street in 2014 with a new mission to “Make kids smarter, stronger, and kinder,” skepticism ran high as Big Bird's hair. In this podcast, Rosabeth Moss Kanter, who wrote the case with Ryan Raffaelli, talks about reversing a losing streak, answering foundational questions like, “Who are we if we make this deal?” Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

Leading a Team to the Top of Mount Everest

Re: Amy C. Edmondson

In a podcast, Amy Edmondson describes how students learn about team communication and decision making by making a simulated climb up Mount Everest. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

Making Health Insurance That Consumers Actually Like

Re: Regina E. Herzlinger

By motivating its insurance customers to take care of themselves, South African firm Vitality has expanded to the United Kingdom and China. In this podcast, Professor Regina Herzlinger discusses potential impacts of this model for health care in the United States. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

Why German Business Supports, Trains and Hires Syrian Refugees

Re: Rebecca M. Henderson

Germany has been taking in more than a million Syrian refugees each year, and involves the business community in making them productive workers. Has it worked out as hoped? In this podcast, Rebecca Henderson discusses her case study on Germany's experience. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

Cost-cutting Leads to Turbulence in the Airline Industry

Re: Susanna Gallani

When a business known for delivering an exemplary customer experience faces cutbacks, what services get chopped? Assistant Professor Susanna Gallani discusses a recent case study about an airline that looks not just to survive a downturn but emerge stronger. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

IDEO is Changing the Way Managers Think About Thinking

Re: Ryan W. Buell

IDEO’s human-centered design thinking is a systematic approach used to help create new products and services. Professor Ryan Buell explores this process as a leading movie cinema chain in Peru rethinks the movie-going experience. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

Black Business Leaders Series: Franklin Leonard, 'Black List' Mastermind

Re: Henry W. McGee

Using crowdsourcing to identify Hollywood’s hottest yet unproduced screenplays, Franklin Leonard's Black List is a coveted place to be—three films that appeared on the list are nominated for Best Picture awards this year. Professor Henry McGee, former president of HBO Home Entertainment, discusses his case study about Leonard and navigating Hollywood's film industry. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

Black Business Leaders Series: A Remarkable Legacy of Firsts, Maggie Lena Walker

Re: Anthony Mayo

Maggie Lena Walker used her leadership of the Independent Order of St. Luke to form a bank, newspaper, and department store—all in the stronghold of the Confederacy. Tony Mayo discusses his case study about this pioneering African American woman. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

Black Business Leaders Series: Putting Diversity to Work

Re: Robin J. Ely

In theory, most companies would love to diversify their workforce. In practice, hiring specifically to increase diversity can cause a variety of cultural problems within an organization. Professor Robin Ely discusses two case studies that train a critical lens on race-based and race-blind hiring. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

Black Business Leaders Series: The Entrepreneurship Behind Ebony Magazine

Re: Steven S. Rogers

Over seven decades Ebony magazine has covered the most important African-American issues, personalities, and interests. Now it faces difficult times that most publications confront. Senior Lecturer Steve Rogers discusses his case study of Ebony's past, present, and future in this podcast. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

Can Wynton Marsalis and Lincoln Center Save Jazz Music?

Re: Rohit Deshpande

With its listenership in steep decline, jazz legend Wynton Marsalis is looking to rebrand the genre and engineer its comeback. Rohit Deshpande discusses his recent case study on the effort. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

The American Food Paradox: Growing Obese and Going Hungry

Re: Jose B. Alvarez

One third of the United States population is obese, even as 50 million Americans struggle to find enough to eat. And all that in a country where 40 percent of the food made each year is thrown away. Jose Alvarez discusses how the former president of Trader Joe’s is experimenting with a potentially elegant, sustainable solution in a pilot store in Massachusetts. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

Target's Expensive Cybersecurity Mistake

Re: Suraj Srinivasan

Professor Suraj Srinivasan explores one of the largest cyber breaches in history, analyzing why failures happen, who should be held accountable, and how preventing them is both a technical problem and a matter of organizational design. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

How Wayfair Built a Furniture Brand from Scratch

Re: Thales S. Teixeira

What was once a collection of 240 home furnishing sites is now a single, successful brand, Wayfair.com. How that brand developed over time and the challenges and opportunities presented by search engine marketing are discussed by Thales Teixeira. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

Digital Change: Lessons from the Newspaper Industry

Re: Bharat N. Anand

In a podcast, Professor Bharat Anand discusses Norwegian media giant Schibsted’s resounding success in the newspaper business through modernization of classified ads, bringing users together, and adopting a digital-first approach. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

Building Affordable Health Care in Paradise

Re: Tarun Khanna

By some accounts, only about 5 percent of people worldwide receive cardiac treatment they need to survive. Professor Tarun Khanna highlights the need for affordable health care at scale, and a possible model based on factory-like repetition and learning in the Cayman Islands. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

You're Fired: Managing Gray-Area Decisions

Re: Joseph L. Badaracco

Joseph Badaracco discusses how managers can sort through difficult gray-area decisions, such as firing an employee. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.