Publications

Teaching Interest

Strategy Execution

By: Dennis Campbell

This course takes strategy as given and teaches what students need to know to execute and win in highly competitive markets. Using fundamental building blocks based on accountability systems and structures, this course is divided into seven modules:

1.... View Details

April 2011 (Revised July 2014)
Case

Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd.: Driving Change Through Internal Communication

By: Boris Groysberg and Michael Slind

Hindustan Petroleum (HPCL), confronted in 2003 with an urgent need to change how it operated externally, adopted a highly innovative approach to communicating internally. This case, set in 2010, presents an overview of the new, more interactive model of employee... View Details

Keywords: Communication Strategy; Interpersonal Communication; Employee Relationship Management; Innovation and Management; Leading Change; Management Practices and Processes; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Culture; Corporate Strategy; India

January 1999
Case

State Street Corporation: Leading with Information Technology (B)

By: Stephen P. Bradley and Kelley Porter

With Multi-currency HORIZON, a real-time multi-currency accounting system that replaced the traditional batch-oriented single-currency accounting system, successfully launched, State Street Corp. (State Street) began to focus on growing the scope of its business... View Details

Keywords: Accounting; Trends; Global Strategy; Growth and Development Strategy; Competitive Strategy; Information Technology; Value Creation; Financial Services Industry

December 2003 (Revised May 2004)
Case

Grove Street Advisors

By: G. Felda Hardymon, Josh Lerner, Ann Leamon and Frank Angella

Grove Street Advisors, a manager of customized private equity investment products, has been very successful in its first five years. To grow, the group must decide whether to target smaller organizations, revive its coinvestment efforts, or enter the highly competitive... View Details

Keywords: Business Organization; Decision Choices and Conditions; Private Equity; Investment; Market Entry and Exit; Competitive Strategy

June 2005 (Revised January 2006)
Case

Microsoft in 2005

By: David B. Yoffie, Darmesh M Mehta and Rudina I Seseri

Focuses on Microsoft's strategy for sustaining competitive advantage in the global software industry. Also, explores Microsoft's history and its current position, as it tries to diversify its product and service revenue streams. View Details

Keywords: Diversification; Business History; Marketing Strategy; Competitive Advantage; Applications and Software; Globalized Markets and Industries; Information Technology Industry

2013
Teaching Note

Innovation and Development of China Machine Press in the New Century (TN)

By: F. Warren McFarlan, Ning Jia and Guo Jia

China Machine Press (CMP), founded in 1952, is a leading multi-field, multi-discipline and multimedia publishing group in China with large scale, comprehensive and specialized business that integrates paper media, audiovisual media and online media, and combines... View Details

Keywords: General Management; Organizational Structure; Strategy; China; China

2019
Working Paper

Soul and Machine (Learning)

By: Davide Proserpio, John R. Hauser, Xiao Liu, Tomomichi Amano, Alex Burnap, Tong Guo, Dokyun Lee, Randall Lewis, Kanishka Misra, Eric Schwarz, Artem Timoshenko, Lilei Xu and Hema Yoganarasimhan

Machine learning is bringing us self-driving cars, improved medical diagnostics, and machine translation, but can it improve marketing decisions? It can. Machine learning models predict extremely well, are scalable to “big data,” and are a natural fit to rich media... View Details

Keywords: Machine Learning; Technological Innovation; Marketing; AI and Machine Learning

SSRN

Read Now

September–October 2024
Article

How AI Can Power Brand Management

By: Julian De Freitas and Elie Ofek

Marketers have begun experimenting with AI to improve their brand-management efforts. But unlike other marketing tasks, brand management involves more than just repeatedly executing one specialized function. Long considered the exclusive domain of creative talent, it... View Details

Keywords: Creativity; AI and Machine Learning; Brands and Branding; Product Positioning; Customer Focus and Relationships

October 2006 (Revised February 2010)
Case

Linux vs. Windows

By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell and Jordan Mitchell

As of 2006, Microsoft is finding that its dominant position in client and server operating systems is under attack from Linux. While Linux has only 3% of the worldwide installed base of PC operating systems, it had captured 20% of the server market by the end of 2005... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; For-Profit Firms; Open Source Distribution; Competitive Strategy; Applications and Software; Value; Technology Industry

February 2005 (Revised July 2005)
Case

Aluminium Bahrain (Alba): The Pot Line 5 Expansion Project

By: Benjamin C. Esty and Aldo Sesia

In September 2002, Aluminium Bahrain (Alba) needed to decide how to finance its proposed $1.7 billion pot line. The company's financial adviser, Taylor De-Jongh (TDJ), had recommended Alba employ a multisourced financing strategy using as many as five sources of debt... View Details

Keywords: Project Finance; Emerging Markets; Financing and Loans; Investment; Capital; Financial Strategy; Manufacturing Industry; Bahrain

February 2010 (Revised June 2022)
Case

Dollarama Inc.

By: Andre F. Perold

Dollarama is the leading operator of dollar stores in Canada. The firm performed extraordinarily well after a leveraged buyout in 2004 and recently executed a highly successful IPO. The company sources its goods primarily from Asia. It has strong brand recognition and... View Details

Keywords: Price; Growth and Development Strategy; Product Positioning; Supply Chain; Competitive Advantage; Valuation; Consumer Products Industry; Retail Industry; Canada

02 Sep 2015
Research & Ideas

Explaining China's Crash

After more than a decade of nearly can’t-miss growth, China’s stock market began a precipitous summer slide that has spooked investors worldwide. In July, the Shanghai composite index dropped 15 percent from June, prompting the People’s... View Details

Keywords: by Christina Pazzanese; Financial Services

October 1995 (Revised June 1996)
Case

Li & Fung (Trading) Ltd.

Li & Fung, one of the largest export trading companies in Asia, works primarily as an agent to connect U.S. and European manufacturers and retailers of nondurable, mass-market consumer goods with suppliers located all over East Asia who manufacture products according... View Details

Keywords: Networks; Marketplace Matching; Supply Chain Management; Trade; Manufacturing Industry; Retail Industry; Asia; United States; Europe

November–December 2016
Article

The Impact of Patent Wars on Firm Strategy: Evidence from the Global Smartphone Industry

By: Yongwook Paik and Feng Zhu

Strategy scholars have documented in various empirical settings that firms seek and leverage stronger institutions to mitigate hazards and gain competitive advantage. In this paper, we argue that such “institution-seeking” behavior may not be confined to the pursuit of... View Details

Keywords: Patent Wars; Patent Litigation; Intellectual Property (IP) Enforcement; Institutions; Patent Thicket; Smartphone; Patents; Corporate Strategy; Mobile Technology

Find at Harvard

31 Jan 2017
First Look

First Look at New Research: January 31, 2017

Cellular Market (B) The case complements “Moshe Kahlon: Telecommunications Reform and Competition in Israel’s Cellular Market (A).” This (B) case describes the successful... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

18 Dec 2006
Lessons from the Classroom

Grooming Next-Generation Leaders

as foundational skills, critical business functions, strategy formulation and implementation, and personal leadership. For the organization, according to Sasser and Narayandas, talent is key to competitive advantage. And for the talented... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

May 1999 (Revised April 2003)
Case

Executive Health Group

Executive Health Group provides in-depth physical exams. Facing stagnant revenues, CEO William Flatley has to reposition his firm, strengthen the brand franchise, and grow share in an increasingly competitive health care environment. View Details

Keywords: Product Positioning; Competition; Health Care and Treatment; Brands and Branding; Health Industry