HBR On Strategy

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 st...

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...

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 insight can help you improve your products and services. In this episode, you’ll learn how to define your superconsumers and use their insigh...

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...

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 s...

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 h...

In 2023, the auto industry went through huge changes in pursuit of lower carbon emission. Some automakers announced their plans to stop selling vehicles with internal combustion engines. 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 l...

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 editor-in-chief Adi Ignatius, Microsoft’s head of strategy Chris Young, and Harvard Business School professor Andy Wu lay out Gen-AI’s emerging value cha...

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 there decide when—and when not to—adopt new technologies. Plus...

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 te...

Are you considering a refresh of your brand? Roger Martin, one of the world’s leading thinkers on strategy, says you should probably rethink that. 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...

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 in order to attract new customers, Nielsen knew he needed to strengthen the firm’s governance. In this episode, you’ll learn how Nielsen selects board members and holds them accountabl...

In addition to traditional and emotional intelligence, Pauline Brown argues that great leaders also need to develop what she calls aesthetic intelligence. They need to understand how their products make their customers feel. Brown was formerly chairperson of the luxury goods company LVMH, which includes brands like Louis Vuitton, Christian Dior, Sephora, and Hennessy. In this episode, she explains...

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...

As the former CEO of PepsiCo, Indra Nooyi played an important role in shaping the company’s global strategy. Perhaps most notably, she introduced design thinking into the company’s innovation process. In this episode, Nooyi explains how design thinking shifted the culture at PepsiCo to ultimately make the company’s operations more centralized and coordinated.

Direct-to-consumer businesses play an outsize role in disrupting industries. But after that initial disruption, industry competitors often adapt. Harvard Business School professor Len Schlesinger and co-founder and CEO of RSE Ventures Matt Higgins studied the teledentistry company SmileDirectClub and wrote a case study about its challenges as it scaled. In this episode, they explain how the compan...

Who are your primary customers? Harvard Business School professor Robert Simons says that’s the most important question of your strategy — and the hardest to answer. In this episode, you’ll learn how to accurately define your primary customers — using factors like your firm’s culture, your core capabilities, and where you get the most profit.

What can we learn from fast-moving companies — like Amazon, Google, and Alibaba — about how to organize to promote strategic growth? University of Michigan business professor Dave Ulrich went inside these companies to study how internal organization helps them stay nimble, innovative, and market-oriented.

Wolters Kluwer started in the 1830s as a publishing house. But the Dutch multinational corporation has grown into a global, information services company and now earns more than 90 percent of its revenue from digital products. In this episode, chair and CEO Nancy McKinstry discusses how she successfully shifted the company’s strategy to focus on digital products.

OXXO was the dominant convenience store chain in Mexico—until its chief rival doubled in size almost overnight. In this episode, Harvard Business School professor Tatiana Sandino explains how OXXO CEO Eduardo Padilla responded to this strategic challenge by focusing on operations and the company’s culture.

To many people, strategy is a total mystery. But Harvard Business School professor Felix Oberholzer-Gee says strategy doesn’t have to be complicated if you focus on creating value.

Major strategy shifts need time to play out. Customers have their habits, employees are used to doing things a certain way, and fine-tuning a plan takes time in the market. But what if you don’t have the luxury of waiting years to know if your strategy really is working? In this episode, expert guests debate a fictional case study about a struggling retail chain’s attempt to rebrand.

As technology changes everything, how can existing businesses create innovation and change from within? Harvard Business School fellow Karen Mills studied how one 200-year-old regional bank in the U.S. used intrapreneurship to develop a completely automated small business lending product to compete with online lenders. Mills breaks down Eastern Bank’s strategy for innovation -- from its early part...

When was the last time you practiced your critical thinking skills? Helen Lee Bouygues, an expert in business transformation, says many business problems are really about simple errors in critical thinking. In this episode you’ll learn how to practice your critical thinking skills. Bouygues outlines three key components of critical thinking: questioning your assumptions, reasoning through logic, a...

Harvard Business School senior lecturer Derek van Bever and former lecturer Stephen P. Kaufman studied global brewing company Molson Coors, as it prepared to enter the cannabis beverages business in 2019. Molson Coors initially planned to slowly test a few products in a small market to see if there might be a viable business. But ultimately the company decided to take a more aggressive and expensi...