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Strategy

Strategy

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    • March 2023
    • Case

    Metaverse Wars

    By: Andy Wu, David B. Yoffie and Matt Higgins

    In 2023, the term metaverse — a combination of the words “meta” and “universe” — had become a catch-all for a diverse set of expectations about online virtual worlds, virtual reality (VR), mixed reality (MR), augmented reality (AR), and the future of the internet, which each meant different things to different people. What did seem certain was that a piece of the future was up for grabs. In October 2021, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that his company was “all in on the metaverse,” and changed its name to Meta to position itself for the coming shift. Meta’s big bet was based on one vision of a still-evolving future. Executives at other companies like Epic Games, Microsoft, Nvidia, Electronic Arts, and Roblox had vastly different views of whether, how, and when the metaverse would take shape. In the midst of the debate and uncertainty, executives and entrepreneurs had to deal with several critical questions as they strove to form their own vision and strategy for the metaverse. First, was the metaverse going to emerge in the next few years or much further down the road (if at all)? Second, what would be the main use cases of the metaverse, and which one(s) would come first? Some expected consumer use cases like gaming to lead the way, while others expected enterprise use cases to really demonstrate the value. Third, and perhaps most critically, would the metaverse be an open, interoperable, interconnected virtual world, much like the Internet in 2023? Or would it play out like most social networks, as large but separate and closed walled gardens?

    • March 2023
    • Case

    Metaverse Wars

    By: Andy Wu, David B. Yoffie and Matt Higgins

    In 2023, the term metaverse — a combination of the words “meta” and “universe” — had become a catch-all for a diverse set of expectations about online virtual worlds, virtual reality (VR), mixed reality (MR), augmented reality (AR), and the future of the internet, which each meant different things to different people. What did seem certain was...

    • 2023
    • Working Paper

    Remote Work across Jobs, Companies, and Space

    By: Stephen Hansen, Peter John Lambert, Nick Bloom, Steven J. Davis, Raffaella Sadun and Bledi Taska

    The pandemic catalyzed an enduring shift to remote work. To measure and characterize this shift, we examine more than 250 million job vacancy postings across five English-speaking countries. Our measurements rely on a state-of-the-art language-processing framework that we fit, test, and refine using 30,000 human classifications. We achieve 99% accuracy in flagging job postings that advertise hybrid or fully remote work, greatly outperforming dictionary methods and also outperforming other machine-learning methods. From 2019 to early 2023, the share of postings that say new employees can work remotely one or more days per week rose more than three-fold in the U.S. and by a factor of five or more in Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the U.K. These developments are highly non-uniform across and within cities, industries, occupations, and companies. Even when zooming in on employers in the same industry competing for talent in the same occupations, we find large differences in the share of job postings that explicitly offer remote work.

    • 2023
    • Working Paper

    Remote Work across Jobs, Companies, and Space

    By: Stephen Hansen, Peter John Lambert, Nick Bloom, Steven J. Davis, Raffaella Sadun and Bledi Taska

    The pandemic catalyzed an enduring shift to remote work. To measure and characterize this shift, we examine more than 250 million job vacancy postings across five English-speaking countries. Our measurements rely on a state-of-the-art language-processing framework that we fit, test, and refine using 30,000 human classifications. We achieve 99%...

    • February 2023
    • Case

    Grupo Sancor Seguros: Facing the Digital Transformation of Insurance in Argentina (A)

    By: Jorge Tamayo and Jenyfeer Martínez Buitrago

    In 2020, Alejandro Simón, CEO of Sancor Seguros Group, a nearly 75-year-old cooperative that had become Argentina’s insurance leader, had to decide about the Group’s digital transformation strategy. The Group’s values and history needed to be considered during the analysis, especially regarding its relationship with individual agents selling Sancor Seguros Group’s products, who drove much of the Group’s revenues. Sancor Seguros Group had always taken into consideration agents’ input when making important decisions, which extended to the Group’s recent efforts on its digital transformation. Yet, not all of them had adapted to new technologies. However, the use of digital channels to sell goods and services accelerated after almost two months of a mandatory quarantine that restricted out-of-home activities to buying essentials such as food and medicines. Would the momentum gained by these digital channels persist, serving as the platform for agents to catch up with the industry’s newest global trends? Accordingly, how could Sancor Seguros Group help agents capture the value created by new technologies? How should the Group approach its presence on less personalized channels, like the ones offered by brokers or digital channels? The Group could also concentrate its efforts on long-term actions and focus on revamping its product offering.

    • February 2023
    • Case

    Grupo Sancor Seguros: Facing the Digital Transformation of Insurance in Argentina (A)

    By: Jorge Tamayo and Jenyfeer Martínez Buitrago

    In 2020, Alejandro Simón, CEO of Sancor Seguros Group, a nearly 75-year-old cooperative that had become Argentina’s insurance leader, had to decide about the Group’s digital transformation strategy. The Group’s values and history needed to be considered during the analysis, especially regarding its relationship with individual agents selling...

About the Unit

The Strategy unit studies firms as competitors in an economic landscape. Key issues include: the development and effectiveness of firm strategy at both a business and corporate level; the analysis of the competitive environment; and the sustainability of strategy over time.

Our research, course development, and teaching draws on multiple disciplines, including economics, sociology, and political science, and focuses on both domestic and global competition. The objective of the work is to generate findings and develop concepts that will help managers improve their strategic decisions while advancing the state of knowledge in the academic study of strategy and related disciplines.

Recent Publications

Metaverse Wars

By: Andy Wu, David B. Yoffie and Matt Higgins
  • March 2023 |
  • Case |
  • Faculty Research
In 2023, the term metaverse — a combination of the words “meta” and “universe” — had become a catch-all for a diverse set of expectations about online virtual worlds, virtual reality (VR), mixed reality (MR), augmented reality (AR), and the future of the internet, which each meant different things to different people. What did seem certain was that a piece of the future was up for grabs. In October 2021, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that his company was “all in on the metaverse,” and changed its name to Meta to position itself for the coming shift. Meta’s big bet was based on one vision of a still-evolving future. Executives at other companies like Epic Games, Microsoft, Nvidia, Electronic Arts, and Roblox had vastly different views of whether, how, and when the metaverse would take shape. In the midst of the debate and uncertainty, executives and entrepreneurs had to deal with several critical questions as they strove to form their own vision and strategy for the metaverse. First, was the metaverse going to emerge in the next few years or much further down the road (if at all)? Second, what would be the main use cases of the metaverse, and which one(s) would come first? Some expected consumer use cases like gaming to lead the way, while others expected enterprise use cases to really demonstrate the value. Third, and perhaps most critically, would the metaverse be an open, interoperable, interconnected virtual world, much like the Internet in 2023? Or would it play out like most social networks, as large but separate and closed walled gardens?
Keywords: Metaverse; Technology; Virtual Reality; Facebook; Social Media; Technological Innovation; Internet and the Web
Citation
Educators
Related
Wu, Andy, David B. Yoffie, and Matt Higgins. "Metaverse Wars." Harvard Business School Case 723-431, March 2023.

Remote Work across Jobs, Companies, and Space

By: Stephen Hansen, Peter John Lambert, Nick Bloom, Steven J. Davis, Raffaella Sadun and Bledi Taska
  • 2023 |
  • Working Paper |
  • Faculty Research
The pandemic catalyzed an enduring shift to remote work. To measure and characterize this shift, we examine more than 250 million job vacancy postings across five English-speaking countries. Our measurements rely on a state-of-the-art language-processing framework that we fit, test, and refine using 30,000 human classifications. We achieve 99% accuracy in flagging job postings that advertise hybrid or fully remote work, greatly outperforming dictionary methods and also outperforming other machine-learning methods. From 2019 to early 2023, the share of postings that say new employees can work remotely one or more days per week rose more than three-fold in the U.S. and by a factor of five or more in Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the U.K. These developments are highly non-uniform across and within cities, industries, occupations, and companies. Even when zooming in on employers in the same industry competing for talent in the same occupations, we find large differences in the share of job postings that explicitly offer remote work.
Keywords: Remote Work; Hybrid Work; Work From Home (WFH); Pandemic; Labor Market; Job Search; Job Design and Levels; Trends
Citation
Find at Harvard
Read Now
Purchase
Related
Hansen, Stephen, Peter John Lambert, Nick Bloom, Steven J. Davis, Raffaella Sadun, and Bledi Taska. "Remote Work across Jobs, Companies, and Space." NBER Working Paper Series, No. 31007, March 2023. (Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 23-059, March 2023.)

Cost Plus Drugs

By: Alexander J. MacKay
  • February 2023 |
  • Teaching Note |
  • Faculty Research
Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 723-362.
Citation
Purchase
Related
MacKay, Alexander J. "Cost Plus Drugs." Harvard Business School Teaching Note 723-037, February 2023.

EnergyNow: Powering a New Market

By: Alexander J. MacKay
  • February 2023 |
  • Teaching Note |
  • Faculty Research
Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 723-361.
Citation
Purchase
Related
MacKay, Alexander J. "EnergyNow: Powering a New Market." Harvard Business School Teaching Note 723-036, February 2023.

Twitter Turnaround and Elon Musk

By: Andy Wu and Goran Calic
  • February 2023 (Revised March 2023) |
  • Case |
  • Faculty Research
Late afternoon on Friday, October 27th, 2022, Elon Musk was the center of attention at Twitter’s San Francisco headquarters. The night before, Musk officially took the company private and became Twitter’s majority shareholder, finally ending a months-long acquisition saga. He appointed himself CEO and brought in his own team to clean house. He now needed to decide on short-term actions and a long-term strategy to turnaround the company. In the immediate days and weeks, Musk needed to take decisive steps to succeed against the major opposition to his leadership from both inside and outside the company. Twitter employees circulated an open letter protesting expected layoffs, where they called him “reckless,” “unfair,” and “impulsive.” Advertising agencies advised their clients to pause spending on Twitter, and some threatened to leave. EU officials considered a broader Twitter ban should Twitter not abide by their moderation policies.
Keywords: Elon Musk; Twitter; Acquisition; Revenue; Advertising; Social Media; Business or Company Management; Public Opinion; Job Cuts and Outsourcing
Citation
Educators
Related
Wu, Andy, and Goran Calic. "Twitter Turnaround and Elon Musk." Harvard Business School Case 723-418, February 2023. (Revised March 2023.)

Reshaping Competition: Introduction to the Course: Note for Students

By: Alexander J. MacKay
  • February 2023 |
  • Course Overview Note |
  • Faculty Research
Citation
Purchase
Related
MacKay, Alexander J. "Reshaping Competition: Introduction to the Course: Note for Students." Harvard Business School Course Overview Note 723-428, February 2023.

Grupo Sancor Seguros: Facing the Digital Transformation of Insurance in Argentina (B)

By: Jorge Tamayo, Jenyfeer Martinez Buitrago and Mariana Cal
  • February 2023 |
  • Supplement |
  • Faculty Research
In 2021, Alejandro Simón, CEO of Sancor Seguros Group, had to reassess the Group’s digital transformation strategy.
Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Culture; Cooperative Ownership; Strategy; Business Strategy; Adaptation; Technology Adoption; Insurance Industry; Latin America; South America; Argentina
Citation
Related
Tamayo, Jorge, Jenyfeer Martinez Buitrago, and Mariana Cal. "Grupo Sancor Seguros: Facing the Digital Transformation of Insurance in Argentina (B)." Harvard Business School Supplement 723-423, February 2023.

Grupo Sancor Seguros: Facing the Digital Transformation of Insurance in Argentina (A)

By: Jorge Tamayo and Jenyfeer Martínez Buitrago
  • February 2023 |
  • Case |
  • Faculty Research
In 2020, Alejandro Simón, CEO of Sancor Seguros Group, a nearly 75-year-old cooperative that had become Argentina’s insurance leader, had to decide about the Group’s digital transformation strategy. The Group’s values and history needed to be considered during the analysis, especially regarding its relationship with individual agents selling Sancor Seguros Group’s products, who drove much of the Group’s revenues. Sancor Seguros Group had always taken into consideration agents’ input when making important decisions, which extended to the Group’s recent efforts on its digital transformation. Yet, not all of them had adapted to new technologies. However, the use of digital channels to sell goods and services accelerated after almost two months of a mandatory quarantine that restricted out-of-home activities to buying essentials such as food and medicines. Would the momentum gained by these digital channels persist, serving as the platform for agents to catch up with the industry’s newest global trends? Accordingly, how could Sancor Seguros Group help agents capture the value created by new technologies? How should the Group approach its presence on less personalized channels, like the ones offered by brokers or digital channels? The Group could also concentrate its efforts on long-term actions and focus on revamping its product offering.
Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Digital Transformation; Organizational Culture; Cooperative Ownership; Strategy; Business Strategy; Adaptation; Technology Adoption; Insurance Industry; Latin America; South America; Argentina
Citation
Educators
Related
Tamayo, Jorge, and Jenyfeer Martínez Buitrago. "Grupo Sancor Seguros: Facing the Digital Transformation of Insurance in Argentina (A)." Harvard Business School Case 723-422, February 2023.
More Publications

In the News

    • 29 Mar 2023
    • White House

    Economic Report of the President

    Re: Alexander MacKay
    • 14 Mar 2023
    • TIME

    Maybe Americans Don’t Mind High Prices Anymore

    Re: Alexander MacKay
    • 14 Mar 2023
    • HR Leaders Podcast

    Better, Simpler Strategy: A Value-Based Guide to Exceptional Performance

    Re: Felix Oberholzer
→More Faculty News

HBS Working Knowledge

    • 29 Nov 2022

    Is There a Method to Musk’s Madness on Twitter?

    Re: Andy Wu
    • 09 Nov 2022

    COP27: What Can Business Leaders Do to Fight Climate Change Now?

    by Lynn Schenk and Danielle Kost
    • 14 Jul 2022

    When the Rubber Meets the Road, Most Commuters Text and Email While Driving

    Re: Raffaella Sadunby Jay Fitzgerald
→More Working Knowledge Articles

Harvard Business Publishing

    • October 12, 2017
    • Article

    A Survey of How 1,000 CEOs Spend Their Day Reveals What Makes Leaders Successful

    By: Oriana Bandiera, Raffaella Sadun, Andrea Prat and Stephen Hansen
    • February 2023 (Revised March 2023)
    • Case

    Hey, Insta & YouTube, Are You Watching TikTok?

    By: Felix Oberholzer-Gee
    • 2008
    • Book

    On Competition

    By: M. E. Porter
→More Harvard Business Publishing

Seminars & Conferences

Apr 04
  • 04 Apr 2023

Leslie Marx, Duke University Fuqua School of Business

STRAT Seminar
→More Seminars & Conferences

Faculty Positions

Harvard Business School seeks candidates in all fields for full time positions. Candidates with outstanding records in PhD or DBA programs are encouraged to apply.
→Learn More

Contact Information

Strategy Unit
Harvard Business School
Morgan Hall
Soldiers Field
Boston, MA 02163
Strategy@hbs.edu

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