Publications

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December 2014 (Revised February 2017)
Case

Simplot Plant Sciences: Designing a Better Potato

By: Jose B. Alvarez and Mary Shelman

Privately held Simplot has developed a new genetically engineered potato that substantially reduces waste and does not turn brown after cutting. Unlike other GMOs, it does not contain foreign genes. The case describes the company's commercialization plans in light of... View Details

Keywords: GMO; Sustainability; Agribusiness; Biotechnology; Food And Environment; Plant-Based Agribusiness; Food; Disruptive Innovation; Technological Innovation; Marketing; Product Positioning; Genetics; Value Creation; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; United States

Scott Duke Kominers is a Professor of Business Administration in the Entrepreneurial Management Unit; as well as a Faculty Affiliate of the View Details

June 1992 (Revised August 1992)
Case

Parker-Spencer: The Legal Form of Joint Ventures

Parker Co., a U.S. based agricultural chemical company with $4 billion in sales, has agreed to a joint venture with Spencer, Inc., a smaller U.S. based company, to develop and market a new herbicide for corn. The two companies must consider marketing, tax, and... View Details

Keywords: Business Organization; Joint Ventures; Taxation; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Chemical Industry; United States

November 2008
Case

Malaysia Airlines (A)

In the first six weeks on the job, the new CEO of Malaysia Airlines (MAS) has developed an ambitious turnaround plan, including aggressive job cuts and route eliminations, but MAS's largest shareholder, Khazanah Nacional, the sovereign wealth fund, is tasked with... View Details

Keywords: Restructuring; Economic Growth; Investment Funds; Sovereign Finance; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Business and Government Relations; Business and Shareholder Relations; Air Transportation Industry; Malaysia

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November 1994 (Revised November 1995)
Case

SweetWater

By: H. Kent Bowen and Thomas D. Everett

Focuses on developing a promising idea into a viable product design by considering customer needs early in the design process. Following an Alaskan fishing trip, Sandy Platter, a computer peripherals engineer, has a new idea for a portable water-filter device for use... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Independent Innovation and Invention; Product Design; Customers; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; Consumer Products Industry; Colorado

10 Jan 2023
Op-Ed

Time to Move On? Career Advice for Entrepreneurs Preparing for the Next Stage

book Transitions, by William and Susan Bridges, outlines three stages of transition—the ending, the neutral zone, and the new beginning—and encourages the reader to pause and understand each of these phases during their own transitions.... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Austin

01 Feb 2022
Book

Innovation Isn’t Just for Startups: How Big Companies Can Succeed

runs), and scaling (the development of a full-fledged new product or service). "Becoming a corporate explorer is not a route to a safe or easy career." The authors share the stories of influential explorers,... View Details

Keywords: by Lane Lambert

December 2002 (Revised May 2003)
Case

Fonterra: Taking on the Dairy World

By: Ray A. Goldberg and Jose M. M. Porraz

Fonterra was a cooperatively owned dairy company--New Zealand's largest company and the world's largest exporter of dairy products. To maintain its leadership, Fonterra had to respond to increased competition, new consumer tastes, consolidation of its customers, and... View Details

Keywords: Cooperative Ownership; Animal-Based Agribusiness; Trade; Global Strategy; Food; Business Model; Developing Countries and Economies; Competitive Strategy; Demand and Consumers; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; New Zealand

March 1998 (Revised October 2001)
Case

Teradyne: Corporate Management of Disruptive Change

By: Joseph L. Bower

Two cases deal with the introduction of a new product to Teradyne's line of semiconductor test equipment. This case deals with the problems facing the head of a start-up division responsible for developing and bringing to market a new product based on technology deemed... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Disruption; Management; Market Entry and Exit; Product; Problems and Challenges; Competitive Strategy; Corporate Strategy; Technology

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30 Dec 2011
News

Five Resolutions for Aspiring Leaders

May 1997 (Revised March 1998)
Case

Teradyne: Managing Disruptive Change

By: Joseph L. Bower

Three cases deal with the introduction of a new product to Teradyne's line of semiconductor test equipment. Teradyne: Managing Strategic Change provides historic and administrative background for the other two cases. Teradyne: The Aurora Project deals with the problems... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Disruption; Management; Market Entry and Exit; Product; Product Development; Problems and Challenges; Competitive Strategy; Corporate Strategy; Technology

Paul Gompers, Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School, specializes in research on financial issues related to start-up, high growth, and newly public companies. Professor Gompers has an appointment in both the View Details

Keywords: electronics; health care; high technology; information technology industry; investment banking industry; pharmaceuticals; semiconductor; venture capital industry

W. Earl Sasser

Earl Sasser is a Baker Foundation Professor at Harvard Business School and has been a member of the faculty there since 1969. He received a B.A. in Mathematics from Duke University in 1965, an MBA from the University of North Carolina in 1967, and a Ph.D. in... View Details

November 2021 (Revised January 2024)
Case

The Global Great Depression, 1929-1939

By: Alberto Cavallo, Sophus A. Reinert and Federica Gabrieli

The Great Depression was, by far, the worst economic contraction of the twentieth century, and some of the most important ideas about both fiscal and monetary policy in the second half of the century were developed in response to it. The economic collapse, which... View Details

Keywords: Great Depression; Economic Conditions; Unemployment; Homelessness; Financial Crisis; History; Economy; Policy; Poverty; Social Issues; Economic Slowdown and Stagnation

April 2022
Supplement

Mastercard Labs (B)

By: Linda A. Hill, Sunil Gupta, Emily Tedards and Julia Kelley

When Ajaypal (Ajay) Banga became the CEO of Mastercard in 2010, digital technologies were on the rise, and innovation needed to become a strategic imperative at the company. Banga tasked Garry Lyons, who had joined Mastercard through the 2009 acquisition of Orbiscom,... View Details

August 1989 (Revised October 1989)
Case

Avon Co.

Avon engineers developed a new type of electric adjustable speed drive. Executives began to make long-range plans for production and marketing. Members of the sales department wondered what pricing recommendations they should make to management on the basis of... View Details

Keywords: Technological Innovation; Price; Product Development; Technology Industry

24 Nov 2015
Blog Post

What is an HBS MyTake?

While it’s true that students come to HBS to develop their leadership skills and learn the fundamentals of general management, what they take away tends to be so much more. When we interview students and alums for this blog, we hear time... View Details

2021
Working Paper

Which Markets (Don't) Drive Pharmaceutical Innovation? Evidence From U.S. Medicaid Expansions

By: Craig Garthwaite, Rebecca Sachs and Ariel Dora Stern

Pharmaceutical innovation policy involves managing a tradeoff between high prices for new products in the short-term and stronger incentives to develop products for the future. Prior research has documented a causal relationship between market size and pharmaceutical... View Details

Keywords: Pharmaceuticals; Medicaid; Innovation and Invention; Policy; Markets; Research and Development; Pharmaceutical Industry