HBR On Strategy

In 2020, Kwame Spearman left his consulting job in New York City to take over an iconic independent bookstore, the Tattered Cover Book Store in Denver, Colorado—his hometown.

Spearman saw an opportunity to reinvent the local business to build a community space after the pandemic. But to keep the store successful, he had figure out how to compete with online retailers and big box stores, amid technological change and shifting business models.

In this episode, Harvard Business School associate professor Ryan Raffaelli is joined by Spearman to discuss his case, “Kwame Spearman at Tattered Cover: Reinventing Brick-and-Mortar Retail.” He and Spearman explain how to set sustainable wages for employees and why community engagement is a key part of the store’s strategy for growth.

Key episode topics include: strategy, leadership, marketing, innovation, retail and consumer goods, books, wages, community engagement. 

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.

Does your company have a strategy for working with investors?

Whether your company is big or small, IBM’s former CEO Sam Palmisano says it’s essential to build relationships with your shareholders before there’s a specific problem to address.

In this episode, you’ll learn how to communicate with your investors to meet their needs — without needing to change your strategy. When Palmisano was leading IBM, he offered investors detailed multi-year projections of revenue growth, rather than quarterly outlooks. This approach helped to keep the company’s focus on the long term. As he describes, “We needed to give [investors] something that worked for us and our management system and our strategy, but also was simpler and clearer so they could decide what investments they would like to make.”

You’ll also learn how Palmisano approached his role as CEO in shareholder meetings in order to send the right message to both shareholders and employees.

Key episode topics include: strategy, leadership, growth, growth strategy, economics, investors, Wall Street, shareholders, IBM.

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.

Efficiency is usually something businesses strive for, but is it possible to be too efficient?

Roger Martin is professor emeritus at the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto. He warns that an obsession with eliminating inefficiencies in U.S. companies has come with social and economic costs. He sees those downsides in everything from staffing to wages and even corporate debt levels. But he argues that it’s not too late for businesses to change their priorities.

In this episode, Martin helps leaders understand how to shift their thinking to connect excess resources in the shorter term with a positive outcome: long-term resilience. Martin also explains why it’s important to avoid the strategy trap of setting and meeting singular goals.

Key episode topics include: strategy, business and society, operations and supply chain management, efficiency, corporate debt, wages, staffing, inequality, goals.

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 Hubert Joly became CEO of Best Buy in 2012, online retailers like Amazon were exploding in popularity, and Best Buy was facing a sea change.

But Joly famously turned around the struggling electronics retailer by changing the organization’s holistic strategy. He prioritized fair pay for workers, opportunities for employees to advance, and working with consumers, the larger community, and even competitors.

In this episode, you’ll learn how Joly re-defined Best Buy’s purpose and aligned incentives with that larger strategy. You’ll also learn how he found mutually beneficial ways for the company to work with competitors and suppliers, including Amazon, the e-commerce giant that once threatened the company’s survival.

Key episode topics include: strategy, business management, corporate social responsibility, leadership and managing people, retail strategy, leading through change, leadership transition, innovation, customer service.

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.

Careem launched as the “Uber of the Middle East” in Dubai in 2012, with a mission to make life and work better for drivers in the region.

Despite technical, cultural, and financial challenges, Careem eventually became the Middle East’s first unicorn start-up, valued at more than a billion dollars. It was acquired by Uber in 2019 for $3.1 billion.

In this episode, Harvard Business School professor Shikhar Ghosh discusses his case, “Careem: Raising a Unicorn.” He explains how the company scaled its operations and expanded from Dubai into Africa and South Asia. That growth required many small and large innovations—from creating their own localized version of Google maps to forging relationships with local and national governments.

Key episode topics include: strategy, growth strategy, innovation, technology, ride share, startup, Middle East, scaling, recruiting.

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.

Have you ever put a lot of time and energy into strategy work, but instead of finding clarity, ended up even more overwhelmed by conflicting priorities?

Harvard Business School professor Felix Oberholzer-Gee says it doesn’t have to be this way. He argues that all companies should simplify and focus on two value drivers: customer satisfaction and employee satisfaction.

In this episode, he offers step-by-step guidance for implementing a value-based strategy in your organization, using a “value map.” He also explains why it’s important to separate financial planning from strategic planning.

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.

The Swedish furniture maker IKEA found huge success producing quality furniture at affordable prices. But in 2017, the company was at a crossroads. Its beloved founder had died, and the exponential rise of online shopping posed a new challenge.

In this episode, Harvard Business School professors Juan Alcacer and Cynthia Montgomery break down how IKEA developed, selected, and embraced new strategic initiatives, while fortifying its internal culture. They studied how IKEA made big changes for the future and wrote a business case about it.

They explain how the company reworked its franchise agreements to ensure consistency among its global stores. They also discuss how IKEA balanced global growth with localization, developing all-new supply chains.

Key episode topics include: strategy, growth strategy, disruptive innovation, emerging markets, leadership transition, competitive strategy, company culture, succession.

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 know who your “superconsumers” are, and why they’re so important for your strategy decisions?

Growth strategy expert Eddie Yoon says they’re your most passionate, most valuable customers—not just because they spend more than average, but because their insights can help you improve your products and services.

“You start with superconsumers and ask them to figure out what would need to be true for you to pay double the price of what I sell you now today,” he explains. “If you ask any regular consumer, they’d say, ‘no way would I let you do that.’ But a superconsumer would say, ‘well, if you did this, this, and this; I would actually pay three times as much for it.’ Start with the passionate core, and let them do your work for you.”

In this episode, you’ll learn how to define your superconsumers and use their insights to attract new users to your products and services, with plenty of real-world examples, from Velveeta cheese to vitamins and video games.

Yoon is the author of the book Superconsumers: A Simple, Speedy, and Sustainable Path to Superior Growth.

Key episode topics include: strategy, growth strategy, customer experience, product development. 

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.

Rohit Gera had turned his family’s boutique real estate development firm into a dynamic housing solutions innovator for urban Indian families. But as he prepared to retire, Gera had to decide who would take over for him. Should he define a strategy for future growth and pick a successor who would enact it? Or should he identify his replacement and allow them to set the company’s new strategy? And should Gera’s replacement come from within his family or not?

In this episode, Harvard Business School senior lecturer Christina Wing is joined by Gera to discuss her case, “Gera Developments: Leadership at a Crossroads.” She and Gera explain how to select a growth strategy for the future. They also discuss best practices for ensuring a successful leadership transition in a family business.

Key episode topics include: strategy, growth strategy, family business, leadership, leadership transitions, real estate, India, succession.

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, TikTok became the fourth largest social network by number of users, behind Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram. Meanwhile, competition in the market for short-form videos intensified. Instagram introduced Reels and YouTube launched Shorts—innovations that imitated TikTok’s approach.

In this episode, Harvard Business School professor Felix Oberholzer-Gee discusses imitation as a competitive strategy among the leading social networks. Standard business strategy emphasizes the need to differentiate your product or service from competitors. However, as these social networks have shown, imitation can sometimes lead to better financial performance. The question is: When is imitation useful and when does it become detrimental?

This is the final 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, social media, competitive strategy, organizational change.

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.