Publications

September 1998 (Revised August 1999)
Case

IBM's Lotus Development in 1999

By: Stephen P. Bradley and Kelley Porter

Describes Lotus' acquisition by IBM, its movement from proprietary standards to open standards, and its current market position. Microsoft is gaining ground with its Exchange Server, and Lotus has received unfavorable press. View Details

Keywords: Acquisition; Technological Innovation; Growth and Development Strategy; Growth Management; Product Marketing; Competition; Competitive Strategy; Information Technology Industry; Information Technology Industry

August 1986 (Revised June 1987)
Case

Lotus Development Corporation: Entering International Markets

By: David B. Yoffie and John J. Coleman

Lotus 1-2-3 exploded on the American market in the spring of 1983. Nine months later Jim Manzi, vice president of marketing, hired Chuck Digate to develop an international strategy for Lotus. Case explores Lotus' rapid rise to the top of the software market in the... View Details

Keywords: Market Entry and Exit; Applications and Software; Global Strategy; Management Teams; Information Technology Industry; United States

November 1989
Case

NYNEX: An Executive Development Process

By: D. Quinn Mills and G. Bruce Friesen

Keywords: Executive Education; Leadership Development; Telecommunications Industry

October 1988 (Revised December 1994)
Supplement

Major Home Appliance Industry in 1988

By: David J. Collis and Nancy Donohue

Updates developments in the industry. Included among these are GE's reinvestment program, GE and Whirlpool's bidding war for Roper, Sears' expansion into selling brand names, Whirlpool's expansion into the European markets, and a number of other examples of this kind... View Details

Keywords: Development Economics; Investment; Globalization; Brands and Branding; Bids and Bidding; Expansion; Europe

October 2011
Case

Gene Sequencing: Staking a Position in an Expanding Industry

By: Richard G. Hamermesh, Mara Aspinall and Phillip Andrews

Towards the end of 2010, companies in the gene sequencing industry were pushing aggressive R&D programs to develop technologies and products in the race to sequence the entire human genome at a cost of $1,000. It remained to be seen when the "$1,000 genome" would... View Details

Keywords: Genetics; Business Growth and Maturation; Business Plan; Competition; Venture Capital; Biotechnology Industry

February 2007 (Revised May 2007)
Case

Bancaja: Developing Customer Intelligence (A)

In 1996, CEO Fernando Garcia Checa wanted to make customer analytics a part of Bancaja's new strategy. Bancaja, a savings bank based in Valencia, Spain, was expanding and wanted to exploit customer information to increase commercial effectiveness. At the same time, it... View Details

Keywords: Customer Relationship Management; Banking Industry; Spain

January 2001 (Revised July 2003)
Case

Pharmacyclics: Financing Research & Development

By: Malcolm P. Baker, Richard S. Ruback and Aldo Sesia

Pharmacyclics (NASDAQ: PCYC), a pharmaceutical company that manufactures products that will improve existing therapeutic treatments for cancer, arteriosclerosis, and retinal disease, was considering a $60 million private placement in February 2000. The company had more... View Details

Keywords: Valuation; Cash Flow; Financing and Loans; Business Startups; Financial Strategy; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry

November 2003 (Revised May 2016)
Case

Weetman Pearson and the Mexican Oil Industry (A)

By: Geoffrey Jones and Lisa Bud-Freirman

Taught in the MBA Evolution of Global Business course, a business history course on the growth of multinationals. Explores the role of the British entrepreneur Weetman Pearson in developing the Mexican oil industry before 1914. Shows this entrepreneur's evolution from... View Details

Keywords: History; Risk and Uncertainty; Non-Renewable Energy; Growth Management; Multinational Firms and Management; Entrepreneurship; Investment; Developing Countries and Economies; Energy Industry; Mexico

September 2007 (Revised August 2008)
Case

Suncor in the Oil Sands Industry

By: Forest L. Reinhardt and Nazli Uludere

Describes the economics, technology, and politics of the oil sands industry, focusing on one of the industry's leading firms. Oil sands deposits in Alberta represent a potentially vast reserve of hydrocarbons, but the extraction, refining, and transportation challenges... View Details

Keywords: Economics; Non-Renewable Energy; Government and Politics; Supply and Industry; Natural Environment; Competitive Strategy; Environmental Sustainability; Energy Industry; Alberta

November 2011
Case

WrapItUp: Developing a New Compensation Plan

By: W. Earl Sasser Jr. and Rachel Shelton

A restaurant chain based in California offers made-to-order sandwich wraps using fresh, healthy ingredients. The founders of the company take a very active role in day-to-day business and tightly control every aspect of the restaurant operation from hiring store... View Details

Keywords: Empowerment; Middle Management; Human Resource Management; Compensation; Incentives; Motivation; Motivation and Incentives; Change Management; Business Growth and Maturation; Service Delivery; Entrepreneurship; Employees; Compensation and Benefits; Service Industry; Service Industry; Service Industry; California

August 2008
Article

From Clusters to Cluster-Based Economic Development

By: Christian H.M. Ketels and Olga Memedovic

Over the last decades, changes in the global economy and the emergence of Global Value Chains (GVCs) have raised the interest in understanding the specific conditions and cross-company interactions within and across locations. For companies, the need to choose the... View Details

Keywords: Development Economics; Economy; Value; Business Strategy; Competition; Performance Productivity; Cost; Natural Environment; Policy; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Framework; Industry Clusters

September–October 1997
Article

Developing Products on Internet Time

By: A. D. MacCormack and M. Iansiti

Keywords: Product; Internet and the Web; Manufacturing Industry

June 1997
Teaching Note

BancZero New Product Development TN

By: Marco Iansiti

Teaching Note for (9-697-044). View Details

Keywords: Banking Industry; Mexico City; United States

March 1994 (Revised July 1995)
Case

Lotus Development Corp. in 1994

Jim Manzi, president and CEO of Lotus, must decide whether to position the firm as a provider of network applications or of the architectural programs required to support network applications. The decision will have lasting implications for Lotus's position in both... View Details

Keywords: Information Infrastructure; Competitive Advantage; Applications and Software; Industry Structures; Information Technology Industry

January 2011
Article

Does Intellectual Property Rights Reform Spur Industrial Development?

By: Lee G. Branstetter, Ray Fisman, C. Fritz Foley and Kamal Saggi

An extensive theoretical literature generates ambiguous predictions concerning the effects of intellectual property rights (IPR) reform on industrial development. The impact depends on whether multinational enterprises (MNEs) expand production in reforming countries... View Details

Keywords: Development Economics; Foreign Direct Investment; Multinational Firms and Management; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Intellectual Property; Rights; Production; Expansion; United States

Read Now

September 2017
Case

Dr. William Carson— Intrapreneurial Innovation in the Pharmaceutical Industry

By: Steven Rogers and Alyssa Haywoode

Dr. William Carson, an African-American alum of Harvard University became the President and CEO of a multi billion dollar division of Otsuka, a Japan based pharmaceutical company. His ascension to this leadership position followed a thriving career in academic medicine... View Details

Keywords: Dr. Williams Carson; Otsuka America Pharmaceutical; Harvard; Abilify; Aripiprazole; Health Testing and Trials; Globalized Firms and Management; Globalized Markets and Industries; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Decision Choices and Conditions; Pharmaceutical Industry; Japan

August 2018
Teaching Note

Magpie: Developing and Using Buyer Personas

By: Frank V. Cespedes

Teaching Note for HBS No. 818-013. Magpie is a startup with a platform that allows publishers to natively tag the products discussed in their content and thus allows consumers to purchase those products without needing to leave that publisher’s web page. A key aspect... View Details

Keywords: Buying Process; Marketing; Sales; Distribution Channels; Segmentation; Entrepreneurship; Social Media; Consumer Products Industry; Consumer Products Industry; United States

March 2011
Case

Uganda: The Constitution of Development

By: Catherine S. M. Duggan and Alexander Roehrkasse

Keywords: Developing Countries and Economies; Public Administration Industry; Uganda

January 2011 (Revised March 2011)
Case

Development and Promotion at North Atlantic Hospital

By: Boris Groysberg, Lisa Leffert, Kerry Herman and Libby Williams

Dr. Elizabeth Harris, Chair of the Department of Anesthesiology (DA) at North Atlantic Hospital (NAH), faces several significant challenges. Staff satisfaction surveys confirmed her assessment that department faculty morale was low, the tenure and promotion system was... View Details

Keywords: Training; Employees; Retention; Performance Evaluation; Personal Development and Career; Motivation and Incentives; Health Industry