Cold Call

Oakland Athletics General Manager Billy Beane brought a data driven and unconventional approach to winning baseball games. By setting strategy and articulating the metric to evaluate and acquire the players who would ultimately implement his strategy on the field, Beane’s sabermetrics approach brought about a cultural shift in baseball from the players and managers to coaches and scouts. Harvard Business School professor Srikant Datar discusses his case study entitled, “The Oakland Athletics: Strategy and Metrics for a Budget,” co-written with Caitlin N. Bowler about how strategy and metrics work hand-in-hand, and how Beane’s story provides companies with important lessons in data science.

Harvard Business School professor Geoffrey Jones examines the career of Ernesto Tornquist, a cosmopolitan financier considered to be the most significant entrepreneur in Argentina at the end of the 19th century. He created a diversified business group, linked to the political elite, integrating Argentina into the trading and financial networks of the first global economy. The case, “Ernesto Tornquist: Making a Fortune on the Pampas,” provides an opportunity to understand why Argentina was such a successful economy at this time, and to debate whether its very success laid the basis for the country’s subsequent poor economic performance.

American President Donald Trump pulled out of the 2015 Paris agreement on climate change just over a year ago. What does that mean for the role of United States companies and business leaders in confronting climate change challenges? Harvard Business School professor Vincent Pons looks at the historical debate and what the road ahead looks like for the role of business in improving the environment. Pons is the author of the case entitled “Climate Change: Paris and the Road Ahead.”

Coming out of the financial crisis, Wells Fargo was one of the world’s largest and most successful banks, viewed as a role model in how to manage in times of crisis. The news of its sales misconduct — opening more than 2 million fake accounts — in 2016 rocked consumer confidence and inundated the news. Harvard Business School professor Suraj Srinivasan discusses his case titled “Sales Misconduct at Wells Fargo Community Bank” — how sales culture, leadership, board oversight, and risk management all played a role.

In early 2015, Amy Hood, CFO of Microsoft, and the rest of the senior leadership team faced a set of fundamental choices. The firm had opportunities to serve customers in ways that would be associated with higher growth but lower margin. Harvard Business School professor Fritz Foley discusses his case entitled “The Transformation of Microsoft” — how leaders faced these difficult decisions, and worked to get investors and employees on board.

The Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra faced real challenges, as all U.S. orchestras did: an aging subscriber base, disinterest from younger audiences, and development of a pipeline of donors for the future. Harvard Business School professor Rohit Deshpande discusses his case entitled “The Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra: Cultural Entrepreneurship” — how protagonist Deborah Borda positioned the orchestra for continued success, building on healthy financials, a celebrity music director (Gustavo Dudamel), the beautiful Walt Disney Concert Hall, and the development of a youth orchestra.

The Chase Sapphire Reserve credit card was one of the hottest product launches in 2016 enthusiastically received by millennial consumers, a group that had previously eluded JPMorgan Chase and its competitors. Harvard Business School professor Shelle Santana discusses her case, “Chase Sapphire: Creating a Millennial Cult Brand” — how protagonists Pam Codispoti and Eileen Serra shifted their focus to retaining customers attracted by the one-time signup bonus of 100,000 reward points and on acquiring new customers now that the bonus had been reduced.

Ride-hailing service Careem, the “Uber of the Middle East,” experienced expansion so dramatic that it monitored its growth target every 15 minutes. Was this a fabled startup unicorn? But doubling the size of the company every six months took its toll. Harvard Business School professor Shikhar Ghosh discusses his case, “Careem: Raising a Unicorn” — how the founders approached a number of critical organizational and cultural issues to keep its 4 million customers satisfied.

Riccardo Zacconi was the co-founder and CEO of King Digital Entertainment, the video game company that had quickly established itself as the world’s leading maker of casual games for mobile devices after the sensational success of its game “Candy Crush Saga.” He’s faced with the central question of whether and how to scale the company through an astronomical period of growth. Harvard Business School professor Jeffrey Rayport discusses his case “King Digital Entertainment” — whether a single creative studio can scale to manage a portfolio of almost 200 games, when one of them is the mammoth hit Candy Crush.

JPMorgan Chase is working with local economic- and workforce-development organizations, small businesses, philanthropies, and the mayor. The goal? To put in place a series of investments to help turn around the struggling city. Harvard Business School professor Joseph Bower and JPMorgan’s head of corporate responsibility, Peter Scher, discuss why businesses should create philanthropic programs of their own. Bower is the author of the case study, “JPMorgan Chase: Invested in Detroit.”