Publications
Publications
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- All HBS Web
(5,470)
- Faculty Publications (1,066)
- November 1998 (Revised November 2001)
- Case
BMW AG: The Digital Car Project (A)
By: Stefan H. Thomke and Ashok Nimgade
Describes how the German automotive firm BMW is trying to reduce its development time by half with the aid of computer-aided technologies. To leverage these technologies fully in the very competitive automotive industry, BMW is faced with the challenge of changing its... View Details
- October 1998 (Revised August 1999)
- Case
Amazon.com--Going Public
By: William A. Sahlman and Laurence E. Katz
Amazon.com, an early pioneer in electronic commerce, prepares its initial public offering in the face of turbulent market conditions. Joy Covey, Amazon.com's CFO and the case protagonist, discusses the risks and opportunities of going public and the nature of... View Details
- October 1998 (Revised December 1999)
- Case
Gene Research, the Mapping of Life and the Global Economy
By: Ray A. Goldberg and Juan Enriquez-Cabot
A new firm is being created to speed up the process of mapping humans, animals, and plants by combining gene technology with rapid gene identification to improve the health and well being of the human population and the productivity of crops and animals. How does one... View Details
- September 1998 (Revised February 1999)
- Case
Interactive Insurance Services: Redefining Insurance Distribution
By: Lynda M. Applegate and Marla Malcom-Nagler
Founded in July 1995, Interactive Insurance Services provided personal lines of insurance over the World Wide Web. In June 1996, the company was acquired by Intuit for $7.5 million. The case details the competitive and organizational issues faced by this rapidly... View Details
- September 1998 (Revised May 1999)
- Case
Arnold Communications
By: Teresa M. Amabile and Jeremiah Weinstock
The new owner and CEO of Arnold Advertising, a relatively small regional agency, aims to build it into Arnold Communications--a much larger, stronger firm competing successfully for national accounts. As part of this growth strategy, the agency develops a process for... View Details
- September–October 1998
- Article
How to Kill Creativity
By: T. M. Amabile
The article addresses the topic of business creativity, its benefits, and how managers can inspire it. The author's research shows that it is possible to develop the best of both worlds: organizations in which business imperatives are attended to and creativity... View Details
- August 1998 (Revised October 2002)
- Case
Harbus Foundation, The
By: James E. Austin and Linda Carrigan
Describes the challenges faced by a group of HBS students as they create a foundation. Given surplus funds generated by the student-run newspaper, The Harbus leadership decides to find a meaningful use for the excess cash. Profiles both the entrepreneurial process used... View Details
- August 1998
- Case
HIMSCORP, Inc.
By: William A. Sahlman, Michael J. Roberts and Laurence E. Katz
Himscorp is an industry consolidation of records storage companies providing management and retrieval services of active medical records to healthcare institutions. Kent Dauten, a former general partner at Madison Dearborn Partners with 15 years of venture capital and... View Details
- August 1998 (Revised February 1999)
- Case
Product Development at Dell Computer Corporation
By: Stefan H. Thomke, Vish V. Krishnan and Ashok Nimgade
Describes how Dell redesigned its new product development process after experiencing a major product setback and a significant decline in firm profits in 1993. Dell's new process is challenged during the development of a new line of portable computers when the incoming... View Details
- July 1998 (Revised April 2002)
- Case
Tobacco Negotiations
By: Michael A. Wheeler and Georgia Levenson
Chronicles the negotiation of the proposed national settlement between the states and the five major U.S. tobacco companies. View Details
- April 1998 (Revised June 1999)
- Case
Bausch & Lomb, Inc.: Pressure to Perform
By: Robert L. Simons, Alex C. Sapir '97 and Indra Reinbergs
Bausch & Lomb is the subject of press attacks and experiences a sharp fall in stock price when management practices are exposed. Aggressive goal setting, supported by financial market expectations, is discussed as a precursor to a series of events that results in... View Details
- March 1998 (Revised November 2004)
- Case
FAG Kugelfischer-A German Restructuring
By: Stuart C. Gilson
A large German manufacturer of ball bearings and precision machinery experiences severe financial difficulty brought on by poor management practices, an ill-conceived acquisition of a former East German ball-bearings company, and an industry recession. The company... View Details
Keywords: Accounting; Acquisition; Restructuring; Economic Slowdown and Stagnation; Machinery and Machining; Policy; Resignation and Termination; Management Practices and Processes; Performance Evaluation; Business and Shareholder Relations; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Europe; Germany; United States
- March 1998 (Revised December 1998)
- Case
BCI Growth III: May 1993
By: Josh Lerner
A Vermont solid-waste company seeks mezzanine financing to finance its strategy of acquiring and consolidating local competitors. The mezzanine private equity group must decide whether this investment offers an attractive risk-return tradeoff. View Details
- March 1998 (Revised June 1998)
- Case
BCI Growth III: November 1993
By: Josh Lerner
Supplements BCI Growth III: May 1993. View Details
- March 1998
- Case
Bumper Acquisition (A1), A: Confidential Information for Thermo-Impact, Inc.
By: James K. Sebenius and David T. Kotchen
Located in Mundelein, IL, Thermo-Impact, Inc. is a rapidly growing, private firm that manufactures automotive bumpers. In 1995, a number of large automotive supply companies and a private equity investment firm offer to buy Thermo-Impact. The cases in this series focus... View Details
- March 1998
- Case
Bumper Acquisition (A2), A: Confidential Information for Medallion Capital, Inc.
By: James K. Sebenius and David T. Kotchen
Located in Mundelein, IL, Thermo-Impact, Inc. is a rapidly growing, private firm that manufactures automotive bumpers. In 1995, a number of large automotive supply companies and a private equity investment firm offer to buy Thermo-Impact. The cases in this series focus... View Details
- March 1998 (Revised August 2000)
- Case
Bumper Acquisition (C), A
By: James K. Sebenius and David T. Kotchen
Carries the negotiation between Thermo-Impact and Medallion Capital through October 1996. The companies began talks in 1995 when Medallion offered to buy Thermo-Impact. Students view developments from the perspective of Thermo-Impact's owners and must make decisions... View Details
- March 1998 (Revised March 1999)
- Case
Dell Online
By: V. Kasturi Rangan and Marie Bell
Dell started online commerce for its PCs in 1996, and by 1997 had achieved a sales rate of $3 million a day. The case describes the internal process that led to these dramatic results and poses the question of how the firm should leverage this activity to meet Michael... View Details
- January 1998 (Revised February 1998)
- Case
Timberjack Parts: Packaged Software Selection Project
By: F. Warren McFarlan, Mark Keil and Darryl S. Romanow
This case provides a realistic, current, and detailed view of software procurement in an international business environment where the competition in enterprise-wide software solutions is growing. Focuses on the selection of packaged software to serve multiple sites... View Details
- January 1998 (Revised February 2006)
- Background Note
Creating Competitive Advantage
By: Pankaj Ghemawat and Jan W. Rivkin
A firm such as Schering-Plough that earns superior, long-run financial returns within its industry is said to enjoy a competitive advantage over its rivals. This note examines the logic of how firms create competitive advantage. It emphasizes two themes: First, to... View Details