Publications
Publications
Show Results For
- All HBS Web
(1,488)
- Faculty Publications (61)
- January 2004
- Background Note
Beyond the IT Monolith
By: Marco Iansiti and Gregg Rotenberg
Leading companies are employing a radical new approach to IT--an approach that points the way to a new model of software architecture and deployment. These companies' successes seem to indicate that the problems IT critics have correctly identified are not, in fact,... View Details
- October 2003 (Revised January 2004)
- Case
The 2001 Crisis in Argentina: An IMF-Sponsored Default? (A)
By: Rafael M. Di Tella and Ingrid Vogel
At the end of 2001, Argentina's economy and society both appeared on the verge of collapse. Furious about controls imposed on the convertibility of their bank deposits into cash (the "corralito") and huge proposed government spending cuts amidst high unemployment and... View Details
- March 2002 (Revised January 2010)
- Case
BP and the Consolidation of the Oil Industry, 1998-2002
By: Forest L. Reinhardt, Ramon Casadesus-Masanell and David J Hanson
Examines the economics of the oil and gas industry with a focus on 1998 through 2001. Discusses the rationale behind using a growth in scale as a means to increase profitability and to gain competitive advantage. Also examines the classic strategic implications of... View Details
- December 2001
- Case
Alibaba.com (B)
By: F. Warren McFarlan and Fred Young
The challenges the largest Chinese electronic commerce company faces many challenges at the end of 2001. This case describes how it has completely reoriented its strategy in the past 12 months to become a B-to-B company. The key question is: Will it work and what... View Details
- October 2001
- Exercise
Liability Problems
By: Robert S. Kaplan
This case provides three examples of the recognition and measurement of liabilities. The first focuses on recognizing when employees have rendered services for which future period benefits have been earned, that is, whether unused vacation, sick, and personal days at... View Details
Keywords: Cash; Annuities; Interest Rates; Compensation and Benefits; Employees; Wages; Problems and Challenges; Value
- May 2001 (Revised December 2003)
- Case
Mexico: The Unfinished Agenda
By: Richard H.K. Vietor and Rebecca Evans
President Vincente Fox takes over in Mexico on December 1, 2000--a political revolution ending 71 years of PRI rule. In the past five years, Mexico has solved a number of macroeconomic problems and had a good run of economic growth. But a host of microeconomic problems... View Details
- January 2001 (Revised May 2001)
- Case
Russia: The End of a Time of Troubles?
By: Rawi E. Abdelal
Describes Russia's troubled economic transition since 1991, highlights the problem of institutional development, and surveys the challenges President Vladimir Putin faced in 2000. The first section provides a brief synopsis of liberalization, stabilization, and... View Details
- January 2000
- Case
Talbots - A Classic
By: V. Kasturi Rangan and Marie Bell
This case traces why the $1 billion women's clothing retailer decided to attract younger customers, what went wrong, and the actions taken to recover. By the end of 1999, the company has reestablished itself and faces several growth opportunities and must decide on the... View Details
- September 1999 (Revised April 2000)
- Case
drugstore.com
By: Richard L. Nolan
On a clear day in August 1999 in the new headquarters of drugstore.com, against a backdrop of the Blue Angels flying in formation over Lake Washington practicing for their hydroplane Seafare Cup performance, Peter Neupert was pleased with his company's IPO performance.... View Details
- March 1999 (Revised August 2005)
- Case
Pandesic: The Challenges of a New Business Venture (A)
By: Joseph L. Bower and Clark Gilbert
Pandesic is a joint venture of SAP and Intel designed to develop turnkey information architectures for marketspace companies. The case explores the problems of developing the joint venture from the perspective of its general management. Describes the development of its... View Details
- December 1998 (Revised June 1999)
- Case
STT Aerospace
By: Richard G. Hamermesh and Jeremy Dann
Experienced entrepreneur Charles Damon conducted a "roll-up" from 1987-1994 within the commercial airliner interior products industry. Damon's company, STT Aerospace, took advantage of an industry-wide recession in the early 1990s by buying when asset prices were low.... View Details
- June 1998 (Revised April 2000)
- Case
GM Powertrain
By: Amy C. Edmondson and Mikelle Eastley
Discusses a young MBA plant manager who is improving the operations of a small General Motors components plant in Fredericksburg, Virginia. At 29 years old, Joe Hinrichs is the youngest plant manager at GM, and in his new assignment, he is faced with the daunting... View Details
- April 1998
- Case
Jim Sharpe: Extrusion Technology, Inc. (C)
By: H. Kent Bowen and Barbara Feinberg
Jim Sharpe, president of Extrusion Technology, describes the first five years at the aluminum extrusion company he purchased. He begins with day one as he introduced himself to the employees in 1987 and assured them of the company's continuity. Over the next two years,... View Details
- January 1998 (Revised May 1999)
- Case
General Scanning, Inc. (B)
By: H. Kent Bowen, Sean McClenaghan and Charles Tillen
After meeting with a mediator, Montagu and Davis decided their goals were not in accordance, and Davis left General Scanning. Montagu and Brosens wrote three-year objectives for the company and proceeded to search for a new professional manager. Chuck Winston took on... View Details
- September 1997 (Revised October 1997)
- Case
French Pension System, The: On the Verge of Retirement?
By: David A. Moss, Anne Dias and Bertrand O. Stephann
Surveys the French pension system, its particular institutional characteristics, and some of the critical challenges and opportunities facing French reformers. Like almost every other industrialized country, France has a large pay-as-you-go public pension system that... View Details
- August 1997 (Revised September 2004)
- Case
South Africa: Getting in GEAR
In 1997, Thabo Mbeki is contemplating South Africa's performance since the end of Apartheid in 1994. The economy has done fairly well, but the government's macroeconomic strategy calls for higher growth and employment creation. The case describes the country's history,... View Details
- January 1997 (Revised November 1997)
- Case
IBM and Siemens: Revitalizing the Rolm Division (A)
By: Ashish Nanda, Antonio Davila and Georgia Levenson
The case opens with a discussion of the evolution of the private branch exchange industry in the 1970s and 1980s. It follows the path of Rolm from an independent company to an IBM acquisition and its problem as an IBM division. Then describes Siemens' growing interest... View Details
- May 1996
- Background Note
The GM's Operational Challenge: Managing Through People
By: Christopher A. Bartlett and Ashish Nanda
Highlights and explores how a general manager adds value to the firm at the operational level by managing through people. Discusses how assumptions about human motivation influence the employment contract that the general manager implicitly enters into with the workers... View Details
- April 1996 (Revised December 1998)
- Case
Australia in the 1990s: Lucky or Broke?
By: George C. Lodge
In 1996, Australia had a new prime minister, John Howard, ending 13 years of Labor Party rule. This case allows an analysis of the challenges that the new government faces and invites thought about the choices that the government has in meeting those challenges. Large... View Details
- 1987
- Book
Banking and Oil
By: Geoffrey Jones
This is the second of two volumes of a business history of a major British bank in the Middle East. Volume 1 traces the history of the bank from its foundation in 1889 as The Imperial Bank of Persia, through the years it was the state bank of Iran, and its... View Details