Publications

December 2000 (Revised November 2001)
Case

Rise and Fall of Iridium, The

By: Alan D. MacCormack and Kerry Herman

Examines the history of Iridium Communications, a provider of mobile satellite services. Discusses the genesis of Iridium's technical design, then follows the venture through various stages of development. Describes Iridium's attempts to build a subscriber base after... View Details

Keywords: Information Technology; Business Model; Business Growth and Maturation; Organizational Structure; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Telecommunications Industry

June 2000 (Revised June 2000)
Case

Microsoft Office 2000

By: Alan D. MacCormack and Kerry Herman

Describes the history of Microsoft's Office product suite. Discusses evolution of the Office 2000 project. Set at the end of the project when Steven Sinofsky, Office vice president, must decide upon the direction for the next version of Office, as well as make changes... View Details

Keywords: Applications and Software; Product Development; Risk and Uncertainty; Change; Innovation and Management; Information Technology Industry

September 1996
Case

Silicon Graphics, Inc. (B)

By: Marco Iansiti and Alan D. MacCormack

After the release of the "Challenge" computer in 1993, Silicon Graphics executives meet to discuss the follow-up project. Should they pursue an incremental improvement to the Challenge, or opt for a radically new design recently demonstrated at Stanford University? View Details

Keywords: Decisions; Technological Innovation; Management Practices and Processes; Product Development; Hardware; Computer Industry

2014
Working Paper

Visualizing and Measuring Software Portfolio Architectures: A Flexibility Analysis

By: Robert Lagerstrom, Carliss Y. Baldwin, Alan MacCormack and David Dreyfus

In this paper, we test a method for visualizing and measuring software portfolio architectures and use our measures to predict the costs of architectural change. Our data is drawn from a biopharmaceutical company, comprising 407 architectural components with 1,157... View Details

Keywords: Design Structure Matrices; Software Architecture; Flexibility; Software Application Portfolio; Complexity; Applications and Software; Forecasting and Prediction

Read Now

20 Mar 2019
News

Reimagining Capitalism in a World on Fire

From left: Alexa McCulloch (MBA 1999), president, HBSASC; Jennifer Nash, director, HBS Business and Environment Initiative; Professor Rebecca Henderson; Alan Horn (MBA 1971), chair, Walt Disney Studios; Roland Hwang, managing director,... View Details

Keywords: Allison Webster; Transit and Ground Passenger Transportation; Transportation

01 Apr 2002
News

"Rising to the Challenge" Program Addresses Post-9/11 Issues

participate in a panel discussion with seven leaders in the field of humanitarian relief and development was handed a packet of oral-rehydration salts. The January 15 panel, one of a series of presentations in the School's "Rising to the Challenge" program organized... View Details

Keywords: War on Terror; Ronald Levy; Health, Social Assistance

28 Aug 2012
First Look

First Look: August 28

the paper: http://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0042673 Mandatory IFRS Adoption and Financial Statement Comparability Authors: Francois Brochet, Alan Jagolinzer, and Edward J. Riedl Publication: Contemporary Accounting Research... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

Article

Visualizing and Measuring Software Portfolio Architecture: A Power Utility Case

By: Robert Lagerström, Carliss Y. Baldwin and Alan MacCormack

In this paper, we test a Design Structure Matrix (DSM) based method for visualizing and measuring software portfolio architectures. Our data is drawn from a power utility company, comprising 192 software applications with 614 dependencies between them. We show that the... View Details

Keywords: Applications and Software; Infrastructure; Utilities Industry

01 Mar 2004
News

Dynamic Group

We arrived over several days in early January, most of us flying into Arusha, Tanzania, although some chose to travel via Nairobi, Kenya. Coming from ten countries, we were met by Global Adrenaline’s local representatives, who escorted us... View Details

Keywords: Hospitality

21 Nov 2013
News

Case Study: BlackBerry and Thorsten Heins

effect from the Apple and then the Google Android ecosystems had overwhelmed them. Alan D. MacCormack, MBA Class of 1949 Adjunct Professor of Business Administration: Blackberry was in a jam well before Heins stepped in. View Details

Keywords: Telecommunications; Information; Management of Companies and Enterprises; Management

9 Jun 2019 - 11 Jun 2019
Conference Presentation

Disrupting the Disruptors or Enhancing Them? How Blockchain Re-Shapes Two-Sided Platforms

By: Daniel Trabucchi, Antonella Moretto, Tommaso Buganza and Alan MacCormack

2007
Working Paper

Evolution Analysis of Large-Scale Software Systems Using Design Structure Matrices and Design Rule Theory

By: Matthew J. LaMantia, Yuanfang Cai, Alan David MacCormack and John Rusnak

Read Now

01 Dec 2015
News

Serving with Purpose and Pride

Ashley Garrett and Alan K. Jones (both MBA 1987) As the School’s chief fundraising volunteers for the HBS Fund for Leadership and Innovation, Ashley Garrett and Alan Jones (both MBA 1987) are eager to share... View Details

28 Mar 2019
News

California Alumni Explore Role of Capitalism in Addressing Climate Change

by the HBS Business & Environment Initiative (BEI) , in partnership with the HBS Association of Southern California (HBSASC), the HBS Association of Orange County (HBSAOC), and the HBS Club of San Diego (HBSCSD), the event was the sixth... View Details

Keywords: Margie Kelley

01 Jun 1998
News

25 Years in Show Business

some one hundred HBS students, under the direction of Alan Priest (MBA '98), put on "HBTV," a spoof about HBS starting its own cable TV station. The event marked the 25th anniversary of the HBS Show, an annual musical-comedy extravaganza... View Details

2013
Working Paper

Visualizing and Measuring Enterprise Architecture: An Exploratory BioPharma Case

By: Robert Lagerstrom, Carliss Baldwin, Alan MacCormack and David Dreyfus

We test a method that was designed and used previously to reveal the hidden internal architectural structure of software systems. The focus of this paper is to test if it can also uncover new facts about the components and their relationships in an enterprise... View Details

Keywords: Complexity; Applications and Software; Product Design; Pharmaceutical Industry