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- All HBS Web (21)
- Faculty Publications (5)
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- All HBS Web (21)
- Faculty Publications (5)
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- January 2018 (Revised May 2018)
- Case
AT&T Managing Technological Change and the Future of Telephone Operators in the 20th Century
By: Daniel P. Gross and William R. Kerr
By the 1930s, AT&T dominated the American phone industry, serving 10 million telephones and employing over 100,000 switchboard operators. But beginning in the mid-1910s, the company began changing from manually operated switchboards to mechanical switching systems that... View Details
Keywords: AT＆T; Bell Telephone; Phone Lines; Phone Operators; Mechanical Switching; Layoffs; Technological Change; Transition; History; Innovation and Invention; Technological Innovation; Information Technology; Disruption; Change Management; Communications Industry; Telecommunications Industry; United States
Gross, Daniel P., and William R. Kerr. "AT&T: Managing Technological Change and the Future of Telephone Operators in the 20th Century." Harvard Business School Case 718-486, January 2018. (Revised May 2018.)
- May 2018
- Teaching Note
AT&T: Managing Technological Change and the Future of Telephone Operators in the 20th Century
By: Daniel P. Gross and William R. Kerr
Teaching Note for HBS No. 718-486. View Details
Keywords: AT＆T; Bell Telephone; Phone Lines; Phone Operators; Mechanical Switching; Layoffs; Technological Change; Transition; History; Innovation and Invention; Technological Innovation; Information Technology; Disruption; Change Management; Communications Industry; Telecommunications Industry; United States
- January 2020
- Case
The Origins of Bell Labs
By: Tom Nicholas and John Masko
In 1947, scientists at Bell Labs invented the transistor—a tiny signal amplifier that would go on to become the fundamental building block of the digital age. But, confounding most traditional economic assumptions, it was not a vigorous startup that made this momentous... View Details
Keywords: Business History; Innovation Leadership; Technological Innovation; Patents; Monopoly; Organizational Structure; Competitive Strategy; Telecommunications Industry; Boston; Massachusetts; New York (city, NY)
Nicholas, Tom, and John Masko. "The Origins of Bell Labs." Harvard Business School Case 820-081, January 2020.
- 2020
- Working Paper
Why Do Firms Automate Production, and How Do They Adjust? Evidence from the Bell Telephone System over the 20th Century
By: Daniel P. Gross and James J. Feigenbaum
Over the course of the 20th century, AT&T's operating companies replaced telephone operators with mechanical switching and dial telephones. Yet it took AT&T 30 years from the invention of the technology to begin using it, and another 60 years to finish installing it... View Details
- 16 Nov 2021
- HBS Case
How a Company Made Employees So Miserable, They Killed Themselves
have deeply downsized their staffs. “There’s a lot that happened in the situation that should sound alarm bells for others,” Montgomery says. “The cases point to risks that can arise when firms facing severe competitive threats adopt a... View Details
Keywords: by Michael Blanding
- 06 Sep 2004
- Research & Ideas
The Innovator’s Battle Plan
that market to the entrant. AT&T, for example, initially ceded the lowest end of the existing long-distance market to MCI. Western Union clearly ceded the new local communications market to the Bell companies. Remember, incumbents... View Details
- 23 May 2012
- Research & Ideas
Five Ways to Make Your Company More Innovative
consumer. So, even thinking about what features you put into a product affects how easy it will be to market. There's always this idea of feature creep that leads to adding bells and whistles. But every time you add View Details
- 30 Jun 2020
- Book
Capitalism Is More at Risk Than Ever
of a fire bell in the night—and provide a road map and additional examples for companies to follow. Lagace: Why do you think capitalism is at risk? Bower and Paine: In Chapter 4 we lay out the pre-conditions or foundations for a thriving... View Details
Keywords: by Martha Lagace