Cold Call

Making voting more accessible through technology could allow more people to take part in elections. But it also poses critical downsides, if the product fails (as in the 2020 Iowa Caucuses) or if there are security failures. Harvard Business School professor Mitchell Weiss, an expert in public entrepreneurship, debates the risks, rewards, and business models for mobile voting in his case study on “Voatz.” The mobile voting app, created by entrepreneur Nimit Sawhney, turns mobile phones into voting booths, using blockchain technology.

As we celebrate the five-year anniversary of Cold Call, we welcome a special guest, Harvard Business School Dean Nitin Nohria to discuss the classic case, “Rob Parson at Morgan Stanley.” The case poses a complex dilemma: should Morgan Stanley promote a high performer who lacks interpersonal skills and brushes off company values? More subtly, the case also encourages reflection about the accountability of managers in an employee’s performance.

Simón Cohen, founder of Henco Logistics, transformed a small Mexican logistics company into a major player within the industry. Cohen credits the firm’s focus on employee happiness as the key ingredient to its success — an approach he developed following a personal crisis. Cohen and Harvard Business School professor Francesca Gino, author of the case about Henco, discuss whether or not that approach can endure through Henco’s rapid growth, leadership transition, and changing employee expectations.

C16 Biosciences wants to replace palm oil, a major contributor to deforestation and climate change, with a lab-grown substitute. But CEO Shara Ticku faces a tough decision in bringing the product to market. Should she start small, with the lower volume personal care market? Or should she dive right into the booming lab-grown food market, with an interested investor? Harvard Business School Senior Lecturer Jeff Bussgang discusses his case, “C16 Biosciences: Lab-Grown Palm Oil.”

Singapore officials added a nationwide, Bluetooth-based contact tracing program called TraceTogether to their suite of Covid-19-fighting strategies, which already included human-led tracing. The new digital program’s success would rely on mitigating privacy issues. Would Singaporeans adopt TraceTogether? As Singapore’s government opened up the technology to the world, would you? Harvard Business School professor Mitch Weiss discusses his new case, “TraceTogether.”

The digital-first, direct-to-consumer beauty brand Glossier considers marketing strategies that move away from organic community support and toward influencer marketing and paid media. But what does that mean for its loyal digital community? Harvard Business School professor Jill Avery discusses the debate in her case, “Glossier: Co-Creating a Cult Brand with a Digital Community.”

After a highly publicized act of racial discrimination by a Starbucks employee against two African American men in one of its stores in 2018, the company closed its 8,000 U.S. coffee shops for a day of unconscious bias training. The company also revised store policies and employee training practices. Harvard Business School professors Francesca Gino and Katherine Coffman discuss what we can learn about unconscious bias in corporate culture from Starbucks’ reaction to that incident in their case, “Starbucks: Reaffirming Commitment to the Third Place Ideal.”

Harvard Business School professor Len Schlesinger and RSE Ventures Co-founder Matt Higgins discuss why direct-to-consumer channel businesses, like teledentistry company SmileDirectClub, must implement a strategy that moves them beyond DTC in order to thrive – and how to make that change. This episode is based on the Harvard Business School case, “SmileDirectClub: Better is Better.”

By 2016, the Big Apple Circus had weathered many storms in its 38 seasons as one of the most well-known New York City nonprofits. But with ticket sales and charitable giving in steep decline, the future for this beloved circus and its Clown Care program is uncertain. Harvard Business School professor David Fubini discusses his case, “Big Apple Circus: Time to Fold the Tent?”

How should the vaccine alliance, Gavi, respond to the worldwide need for a vaccine for the Covid-19 pandemic? Harvard Business School professor Tarun Khanna discusses how experimentation, judicious risk taking, and entrepreneurship in finance and capital markets could enable the way forward and unlock the science in his case, “Gavi and Covid-19: Pandemic of the Century.”