Cold Call

Shake Shack began in 2001 as a single hot dog cart in New York City and grew into a global fast-casual chain known for quality ingredients and a strong hospitality ethos. In 2024, following a rapid digital transformation that introduced kiosks, mobile ordering, and app-based personalization, Chief Growth Officer Stephanie So wondered whether the model they had built was truly ready to scale—or sti...

During a busy travel season, digital travel platform Booking.com tried a risky experiment that meant changing the site’s landing page. Then CEO Gillian Tans made the decision to lean into the company’s “test everything” culture—even if it meant failure. In this episode from 2019, HBS Professor Stefan Thomke and host Brian Kenny discuss the case Booking.com. They explore how past experience and int...

Ming Min Hui, executive director of Boston Ballet, is unique in her field. As a young, Asian American woman with a HBS MBA and a background in finance, she focuses on ensuring the ballet company stays true to its art form and still relevant to its times. Hui had worked for eight years at Boston Ballet as chief of staff and chief financial officer before taking the helm. Now leading one of the fore...

Bill Wilson was an incredibly entrepreneurial young man with tremendous potential. He was also a drunk, until an epiphany made him sober. With his personal drive and fellowship with former drinking buddies, Wilson built a social movement and worldwide organization. Founded in 1935, Alcoholics Anonymous has helped millions of “friends of Bill” recover from alcohol addiction. In this episode of Cold...

Keurig Green Mountain (KGM) invented a category and became a household name in at-home coffee brewing in North America. But by the early 2010s, the public company suffered a series of product missteps, negative media scrutiny, and challenging partner relationships. In late 2015, the company was acquired by JAB Holding Company. The new CEO Bob Gamgort first strengthened partnerships, raised product...

The 2023 movie Barbie and its accompanying marketing blitz reinstated a celebrated icon at the forefront of cultural conversation. This sudden goodwill stood in contrast to decades of criticism of the Barbie brand. Although proponents had celebrated Barbie for her promise to “inspire the limitless potential in every girl,” detractors felt that the doll promoted a narrow beauty standard and perpetu...

Launched in 2011, Duolingo grew into the most downloaded education app in the world. Its gamified approach to language learning and use of adaptive AI technology helped it reach 100 million monthly active users and a market capitalization approaching $15 billion by late 2024. The company also saw the potential of Gen AI to power innovative products beyond languages. CTO Severin Hacker envisioned a...

In 1952, Palenstinian refugee Elia Nuqul started a trading business in Jordan. Nuqul Group subsequently grew into one of the country’s largest family businesses. Its flagship company, Fine Hygienic Holding (FHH), was a leader in hygienic paper products across the Middle East and North Africa. After Nuqul’s death in 2022, his son Ghassan and three siblings decided to split the Group’s assets so tha...

In 2021, Donna Lee and Duncan van Bergen founded Calyx Global to improve the quality of carbon credits sold in the voluntary carbon market. Organizations buy those credits for their decarbonization efforts to meet net-zero commitments. The startup had carefully avoided perceptions of conflicts of interest. But it was a challenging time for the industry. Lee and van Bergen had to decide whether tap...

How important is it to maintain a happy workforce? With this question in mind, Lanco Medical Group, a small but fast-growing pharmaceutical distributor serving Latin America, designed their employee benefits and incentives program. But there were gaps between what leadership believed motivated employees and what employees truly valued. So, the organization collected data about those drivers. Prior...

Porsche has reigned as a leading sports and luxury car company for nearly 80 years. Central to the German automaker’s growth strategy is creating great products, such as the legendary 911 Carrera sports car. But the automotive industry is facing disruption and new competition. Company leadership is adapting Porsche’s product portfolio, recently adding the electric model Taycan. They’re also innova...

Google formally announced the innovative video game service Stadia at the 2019 Game Developer Conference. The company invested substantial resources to support the demanding requirements of cloud gaming. But the early uptake by premium video gamers was disappointing. The leadership team faced a decision. Should they double down by refocusing Stadia on the casual gamer segment? Or should they pull...

Cold Call is celebrating its tenth year of distilling Harvard Business School case studies. To kick off the 2025 anniversary, the podcast’s production team has curated three favorite episodes from 2024. Host Brian Kenny recommends one on leadership with HBS Senior Lecturer Tony Mayo. Show producer Robin Passias selects an innovation episode with HBS Professor Frances Frei and entrepreneur Paul Eng...

Artificial intelligence is changing how we live and work in ways large and small. And it's why today we’re sharing an episode of Harvard Business School’s Managing the Future of Work podcast. In the episode “Microsoft’s AI perspective: From chatbots to reengineering the organization” from February 21, 2024, HBS Professor Bill Kerr talks to Jared Spataro, Corporate Vice President of Modern Work and...

In 2022, Deion Sanders, known as “Coach Prime,” was hired as head coach of the University of Colorado football team, which had only one winning season in the previous 15 years. Many observers were excited to have the two-time Super Bowl champion as CU’s new head coach. But some questioned whether Sanders had the experience needed to turn around a team in a highly competitive athletic conference. O...

One of the oldest Black-owned security firms in the U.S., Johnson Security Bureau credits much of its success to its status as a woman-owned, minority-owned family firm. To grow the business, however, CEO Jessica Johnson-Cope considers partnering with security firms in other states, something that threatens to weaken some of her company’s founding values. She also considers expanding the business...

Entrepreneur Duke Rohlen creates California-based Ajax Health under a new model. Partnering with private equity firms, Rohlen considers a $1 billion bid to buy medical device maker Cordis. If Ajax’s bid is successful, they will invest an additional $300 million to fund an accelerator to develop innovative new products to drive growth. Is Cordis the right opportunity for Rohlen and his team? Ajax H...

In 1985, pop music superstar Michael Jackson instructed his attorney, John Branca, to bid for the Northern Songs music catalog, which contained the songs of the Beatles. In a challenging negotiation, Branca secured the rights to the collection. Over the next three decades, first as Jackson’s attorney and later as the executor of his estate, Branca undertook numerous complex negotiations to secure...

With operations in 70 countries and 20,000 employees, Pernod Ricard is a leader in premium international spirits. The company had achieved its leadership position in the market largely through strategic acquisition and an ability to build and grow its brand over time. But pressure to continually expand its extensive brand portfolio in order to meet customer demand meant that its traditional analog...

Katie Holyfield and Taylor Matkins founded Lucky Ones Coffee in 2017, a coffee shop with a mission to create jobs in Park City, Utah, for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. The company quickly earned strong support from the local community, and by early 2023, Holyfield and Matkins employed 17 people across two coffee shops. The two entrepreneurs must now decide how to grow th...

Sequoia Capital, a venture capital firm founded in 1972, grew to become one of the most storied venture capital firms in the world. The firm’s investment track record includes the names of some of the largest global companies. But the venture capital industry began facing new challenges in 2022, and investors were increasingly cautious. At that time Sequoia also began restructuring the firm and ma...

Early in her career Brooke Boyarsky Pratt (MBA 2013) enjoyed considerable success in roles at McKinsey and Berkadia, a Berkshire Hathaway portfolio company. But a routine visit to the doctor in 2020, where she experienced weight stigma yet again, led her to address the problem of obesity care. Boyarsky Pratt had struggled with her weight since she was young. So when she started knownwell, an integ...

In 2017 Fawn Weaver launched a premium American whiskey brand, Uncle Nearest. It became the fastest growing and most awarded whiskey brand in America, despite the challenges Weaver faced as a Black woman and outsider to the spirits industry, which is capital-intensive, highly regulated, competitive, and male-dominated. In October 2023, Weaver announced plans to expand into cognac with the goal of...

In February 2023, U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo was deciding whether or not to sign off on a Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) for $39 billion in direct semiconductor manufacturing incentives. But this NOFO had several unconventional provisions: a pre-application (pre-app) to the actual application, upside sharing provisions to align incentives, and funding milestones so that only award...

Angel City Football Club (ACFC) was founded in 2020 by venture capitalist Kara Nortman, entrepreneur Julie Uhrman, and actor and activist Natalie Portman. As outsiders to professional sports, the all-female founding team had rewritten the playbook for how to build a sports franchise by applying lessons from the tech and entertainment industries. The club’s early success was reflected in its market...