Cold Call
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Cold Call
Cold Call distills Harvard Business School's legendary case studies into podcast form. Hosted by Brian Kenny, the podcast airs every two weeks and features Harvard Business School faculty discussing cases they've written and the lessons they impart.
Neueste Episoden
269 Episoden
How Lyft’s CEO Got the Company Moving Again
In the winter of 2023, Lyft was facing declining market share and financial pressures. Enter new CEO David Risher, who took the helm amid low morale a...
Partnerships Power Highland Electric’s Expanding Fleet of School Buses
How do you scale innovation in a system where critical pieces are out of your control? That is the challenge Highland Electric Fleets faced as it work...
Atlassian Anchors Remote Flexibility in Structured Daily Practices
Atlassian promised employees they could work from anywhere, permanently. By 2024, its data-driven routines and workplace experiments were shaping both...
Disrupting the Freezer Aisle: Dr. Bombay Ice Cream
When Happi Co. CEO Sam Rockwell partnered with Snoop Dogg and his son, Cordell Broadus, to launch Dr. Bombay Ice Cream, the team set out to disrupt a...
Shake Shack’s Digital Playbook: More Tech, Same Hospitality?
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 stron...
At Booking.com, Innovation Means Constant Failure (Summer Repeat)
During a busy travel season, digital travel platform Booking.com tried a risky experiment that meant changing the site’s landing page. Then CEO Gillia...
Ensuring Boston Ballet Stays Relevant
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...
How Bill Wilson Cofounded Alcoholics Anonymous and Created a Lasting Social Movement
Bill Wilson was an incredibly entrepreneurial young man with tremendous potential. He was also a drunk, until an epiphany made him sober. With his per...
How Keurig Brewed a Return to Growth
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 pu...
Mattel’s Barbie Playbook: Replicating Success Across the Company’s Portfolio
The 2023 movie Barbie and its accompanying marketing blitz reinstated a celebrated icon at the forefront of cultural conversation. This sudden goodwil...
How Duolingo Aims to Diversify Beyond Language Learning
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...
The Nuqul Group Works to Preserve Its Founder’s Legacy
In 1952, Palenstinian refugee Elia Nuqul started a trading business in Jordan. Nuqul Group subsequently grew into one of the country’s largest family...
Calyx Global: Improving the Quality of Carbon Credits
In 2021, Donna Lee and Duncan van Bergen founded Calyx Global to improve the quality of carbon credits sold in the voluntary carbon market. Organizati...
How Lanco Medical Group Fosters Workforce Happiness to Motivate Employees and Grow Fast
How important is it to maintain a happy workforce? With this question in mind, Lanco Medical Group, a small but fast-growing pharmaceutical distributo...
The Evolution of Luxury Brand Porsche
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 grea...
Should Google Stay in the Cloud Gaming Business?
Google formally announced the innovative video game service Stadia at the 2019 Game Developer Conference. The company invested substantial resources t...
Celebrating 10 Years of Cold Call
Cold Call is celebrating its tenth year of distilling Harvard Business School case studies. To kick off the 2025 anniversary, the podcast’s production...
Managing the Future of Work: Microsoft’s AI Perspective
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 Scho...
The Leadership Style of Football Legend Deion Sanders
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...
Scaling a Family Business While Maintaining Founding Values
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...
A New Model for Funding Healthcare Innovation
Entrepreneur Duke Rohlen creates California-based Ajax Health under a new model. Partnering with private equity firms, Rohlen considers a $1 billion b...
How Entertainment Lawyer John Branca Negotiated for the Beatles Songs Catalog
In 1985, pop music superstar Michael Jackson instructed his attorney, John Branca, to bid for the Northern Songs music catalog, which contained the so...
How Pernod Ricard Is Integrating AI into Its Workforce
With operations in 70 countries and 20,000 employees, Pernod Ricard is a leader in premium international spirits. The company had achieved its leaders...
Can a Coffee Shop in Utah Help Solve Underemployment for People with Disabilities?
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...
What Sequoia Capital Can Teach Leaders About Sustaining Long-Term Growth
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 investm...
Choosing Passion: A Founder’s Mission to Meet a Need for Obesity Care
Early in her career Brooke Boyarsky Pratt (MBA 2013) enjoyed considerable success in roles at McKinsey and Berkadia, a Berkshire Hathaway portfolio co...
Fawn Weaver’s Entrepreneurial Journey as an Outsider in the Spirits Industry
In 2017 Fawn Weaver launched a premium American whiskey brand, Uncle Nearest. It became the fastest growing and most awarded whiskey brand in America,...
How the U.S. Government Is Innovating in Its Efforts to Fund Semiconductor Manufacturing
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 bill...
Angel City Football Club: A New Business Model for Women’s Sports
Angel City Football Club (ACFC) was founded in 2020 by venture capitalist Kara Nortman, entrepreneur Julie Uhrman, and actor and activist Natalie Port...
How EdTech Firm Coursera Is Incorporating GenAI into Its Products and Services
In early 2023, Jeff Maggioncalda, CEO of Coursera, started developing the EdTech firm’s strategy for incorporating GenAI into their offerings. By earl...
Transforming the Workplace for People with Disabilities
Nadine Vogel, Founder and CEO of Springboard Consulting, joins Harvard Business School professor Lakshmi Ramarajan and Harvard Kennedy School professo...
Should You Buy a Seasonal Business? (from Think Big, Buy Small)
Today we’re sharing a special episode from Think Big, Buy Small, the new podcast from Harvard Business School. Think Big, Buy Small explores an innova...
Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) and Brand Building
Non-fungible tokens (NFTs), which allow individuals to own their digital assets and move them from place to place, are changing the interaction betwee...
How Natural Winemaker Frank Cornelissen Innovated While Staying True to His Brand
In 2018, artisanal Italian vineyard Frank Cornelissen was one of the world’s leading producers of natural wine. But when weather-related conditions da...
How One Insurtech Firm Formulated a Strategy for Climate Change
The Insurtech firm Hippo was facing two big challenges related to climate change: major loss ratios and rate hikes. The company used technologically e...
The Importance of Trust for Managing Through a Crisis
In March 2020, Twiddy & Company, a family-owned vacation rental company known for hospitality rooted in personal interactions, needed to adjust to con...
Lessons in Business Innovation from Legendary Restaurant elBulli
Ferran Adrià, chef at legendary Barcelona-based restaurant elBulli, was facing two related decisions. First, he and his team must continue to develop...
Amazon in Seattle: The Role of Business in Causing and Solving a Housing Crisis
In 2020, Amazon built a shelter for women and families experiencing houselessness on its campus in Seattle, Washington. The shelter was operated in pa...
Sustaining a Legacy of Giving in Turkey
Özyeğin Social Investments was founded by Hüsnü Özyeğin, one of Turkey's most successful entrepreneurs, with a focus on education, health, gender equa...
How One Leader Overcame Career-Ending Adversity
In the spring of 2021, Raymond Jefferson (MBA 2000) applied for a job in President Joseph Biden’s administration. Ten years earlier, false allegations...