Publications

June 2003 (Revised September 2004)
Exercise

The Pacific Sentinel: Role for Chris Coleman

By: Kathleen L. McGinn and Dina R. Pradel

A new publishing company has just purchased the Pacific Sentinel, a fictional West Coast newspaper. The new publisher is willing to invest $1 million in the future success of the paper and has asked the executive editor and advertising manager to develop a joint plan... View Details

Keywords: Negotiation; Conflict of Interests; Decision Making; Publishing Industry

August 2017
Case

RoboTech: Storming into the U.S. Market

By: Christopher A. Bartlett, Rachel Gordon and John J. Lafkas

This case describes the challenges facing the CEO of a small, Singapore-based industrial robotics company that decides to diversify away from its core industrial robot business by leveraging its expertise into the medical-devices industry. It launches an innovative... View Details

Keywords: Market Entry and Exit; Diversification; Product Launch; Competitive Strategy; Globalized Firms and Management; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry; Technology Industry; Singapore; United States

Article

Space, the Final Economic Frontier

By: Matthew C. Weinzierl

After decades of centralized control of economic activity in space, NASA and U.S. policymakers have begun to cede the direction of human activities in space to commercial companies. NASA garnered more than 0.7% of GDP in the mid-1960s but is only around 0.1% of GDP... View Details

Keywords: Emerging Markets; Economics; Private Sector; Aerospace Industry

Read Now

October 1991 (Revised January 2000)
Case

Workplace Safety at Alcoa (A)

By: Kim B. Clark and Joshua D. Margolis

Examines the challenge facing the managers of a large aluminum manufacturing plant in its drive to improve workplace safety. The CEO of the company has made safety a top priority. The plant has made good progress in reducing the injury rate, but now confronts the need... View Details

Keywords: Working Conditions; Safety; Problems and Challenges; Change Management; Operations; Resignation and Termination; Factories, Labs, and Plants; Manufacturing Industry; United States

07 Sep 2010
News

U.S. tech firms shop abroad to avoid taxes

19 May 2011
News

The Catalan kings

November 2003 (Revised July 2007)
Case

Ottawa Devices, Inc. (A)

By: Henry B. Reiling and Harry Clegg Midgley IV

A master plan accommodating two retiring brothers, the brother who will remain as president, third-generation family members, employees, philanthropic interests, and company imperatives must be developed by second-generation brothers who are controlling shareholders... View Details

Keywords: Family Business; Change Management; Transition; Management Succession; Management Teams; Retirement; Conflict of Interests

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

July 2001 (Revised August 2005)
Case

Medicines Company, The

By: John T. Gourville

It is early 2001 and the Medicines Co. just received FDA approval to market Angiomax, a blood thinner to be used during angioplasties and heart procedures. It is intended to be a better alternative to Heparin, an 80-year-old drug that costs less then $10 per dose. The... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Change Management; Decision Choices and Conditions; Cost Management; Price; Product Marketing; Product Launch; Product Development; Risk and Uncertainty; Health Industry; Pharmaceutical Industry

February 2004 (Revised August 2004)
Case

National Semiconductor's India Design Center

By: Jeffrey T. Polzer and Elizabeth Kind

The senior managers of the India Design Center used 360-degree feedback to develop their team competencies. Now, three new managers are about to join their management team, and Ashok Kumar, director of the center, must decide how to integrate the new managers in a way... View Details

Keywords: Groups and Teams; Information Technology Industry; India

September 1996 (Revised September 1999)
Case

Mobil USM&R (A): Linking the Balanced Scorecard

By: Robert S. Kaplan

The CEO of the marketing and refining division of a major oil company is in the midst of implementing a profit turnaround. He transforms the strongly centralized, functionally-organized division into 17 independent business units and 14 internal service companies. The... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Measurement and Metrics; Management Practices and Processes; Organizational Design; Balanced Scorecard; Corporate Strategy; Mining Industry; Energy Industry

August 2014 (Revised October 2014)
Case

Beyoncé

By: Anita Elberse and Stacie Smith

In December 2013, music superstar Beyoncé is about to surprise her fans with the release of her self-titled album. The team at her company Parkwood Entertainment, which general manager Lee Anne Callahan-Longo described as "a management, music, and production company... View Details

Keywords: Marketing; Beyoncé; Internet and the Web; Music Entertainment; Distribution Channels; Product Launch; Music Industry

January 2006 (Revised October 2006)
Case

Hewlett-Packard: The Flight of the Kittyhawk (A)

By: Clayton M. Christensen

Hewlett-Packard decided that, to grow more rapidly, it needed to design a revolutionary disk drive product that would create an entirely new market or application for magnetic recording technology. The company followed most of the "rules" good managers follow in such... View Details

Keywords: Management; Information Infrastructure; Innovation and Management; Product Development; Computer Industry; United States

Web

Progressing to a Better Future

Throughout the Advanced Management Program (AMP), participants develop a personal case that involves building a comprehensive strategy and implementation plan to address a personal leadership challenge or... View Details

January 2001
Case

Merck Global Health Initiatives (B): Botswana

By: James E. Austin, Diana Barrett and James Weber

The case series focuses on Merck's drug donation program and then raises new issues facing management about what to do about HIV/AIDS in Africa given the company's development of a new therapy. Describes collaboration among many parties including the Gates Foundation,... View Details

Keywords: Health Disorders; Health Care and Treatment; Private Sector; Public Sector; Alliances; Problems and Challenges; Africa; Botswana

01 Nov 2020
News

The Risks You Can’t Foresee

December 2020 (Revised April 2021)
Case

IBM Watson at MD Anderson Cancer Center

By: Shane Greenstein, Mel Martin and Sarkis Agaian

After discovering that their cancer diagnostic tool, designed to leverage the cloud computing power of IBM Watson, needed greater integration into the clinical processes at the MD Anderson Cancer Center, the development team had difficult choices to make. The Oncology... View Details

Keywords: Decision Making; Innovation Strategy; Knowledge Management; Knowledge Use and Leverage; Operations; Failure; Information Technology; Applications and Software; Health Care and Treatment; Product Development; Health Industry; Information Technology Industry; Technology Industry; United States; Houston; Texas

03 Jul 2018
First Look

New Research and Ideas, July 3, 2018

link: https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=54665 forthcoming R&D Management An Exploratory Study of Product Development in Emerging Economies: Evidence from Medical Device Testing in India By:... View Details

Keywords: Dina Gerdeman

2003
Casebook

Professional Services: Text and Cases

By: Thomas J. DeLong and Ashish Nanda

DeLong and Nanda's Professional Services: Text and Cases is the first casebook to be published on the management of professional service firms (law firms, architecture, financial services, consulting). It includes a comprehensive selection of case studies that... View Details

Keywords: Professional Service Firms; Management; Cases