Publications

August 1976
Case

Norman Machinery Products, Inc. (C)

Presents the estate plan worked out by the son to deal with an estate planning issue. The plan involves the use of deferred compensation employment contract with the family business, a key-man life insurance policy, and a split-dollar life insurance policy. View Details

Keywords: Machinery and Machining; Family Business; Personal Finance; Corporate Finance; Manufacturing Industry

15 Sep 2003
Research & Ideas

The Lessons of New-Market Disruption

machines that took up more than twenty square feet of scarce factory floor space at the semiconductor facility. Teradyne engineers knew that CMOS technology could enable tighter integration of the test system architecture. With this... View Details

Keywords: by Clark Gilbert; Technology

May 1997 (Revised May 2004)
Case

Reto S.A.

By: William J. Bruns Jr.

A company must decide whether to acquire new equipment to offer a new product line. The question is whether equipment will meet return on investment targets considering depreciation and taxation of profits. The equipment is acquired, but one year later better equipment... View Details

Keywords: Machinery and Machining; Cost; Investment Return; Manufacturing Industry

28 Oct 2014
First Look

First Look: October 28

chainsaws with four-stroke engines the leaders in cars, boats, and generators. Should the company be an invention company licensing its technology; an engine designer and View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

02 Dec 2019
What Do You Think?

How Does a Company like Boeing Respond to Intense Competitive Pressure?

inevitable; it will never be eliminated. This is an oversimplication of a complex phenomenon, with nuances in every large organization that has grown beyond the “one for all and all for one” startup spirit. But when it rises to a level that affects marketing plans,... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett; Air Transportation

10 Apr 2006
Research & Ideas

American Auto’s Troubled Road

a dealer's back lot, it will nonetheless embody a defining moment in a global race for supremacy. Manufactured by Toyota, this is the car that will propel the Japanese company ahead of General Motors as the world's largest automaker, a... View Details

Keywords: by Garry Emmons; Manufacturing; Manufacturing; Manufacturing

September 2014 (Revised March 2022)
Case

Samuel Colt: An American Gun Maker

By: Tom Nicholas and Casey Verkamp

Samuel Colt not only perfected and patented the technology for a gun that could fire multiple times without reloading, but he also developed and applied early principles of mass production more completely than anyone had done before. Until the nineteenth century,... View Details

Keywords: Technological Innovation; Product Positioning; Machinery and Machining; Production; Independent Innovation and Invention; Manufacturing Industry; United States

19 Nov 2001
Research & Ideas

Alfred Chandler on the Electronic Century

IBM was concentrating on developing the System 360, Kenneth Olsen's Digital Equipment Corporation created a second path of computer learning by commercializing an inexpensive, stripped-down "minicomputer" for more specialized and smaller View Details

Keywords: by Alfred D. Chandler, Takashi Hikino & Andrew Von Nordenflycht; Manufacturing; Manufacturing; Manufacturing; Manufacturing; Manufacturing

October 1997 (Revised March 1998)
Case

Komatsu Ltd.: Project G's Globalization

By: Christopher A. Bartlett

This case describes the major strategic and organizational transformation at Komatsu aimed at changing it from a Japan-based producer of construction equipment to a truly global company with the ability to leverage its groupwide portfolio of resources and capabilities... View Details

Keywords: Change Management; Construction; Asset Pricing; Investment Portfolio; Global Strategy; Leadership; Resource Allocation; Risk Management; Expansion; Manufacturing Industry; Japan

30 May 2019
What Do You Think?

Is There a Distinctive West Coast Style of Management?

Peter Drucker, and others who studied and managed large manufacturing companies influenced management thought in the 20th century. Today the West Coast is where a great deal of company market value is centered. In the meantime, similar... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett; Education

December 1999 (Revised March 2001)
Case

Machinery International (A)

By: David F. Hawkins

A U.S. company must decide how to translate its German subsidiary's DM financial statements into U.S. dollars for public and internal reporting purposes. A rewritten version of an earlier case. View Details

Keywords: Machinery and Machining; Financial Statements; Financial Reporting; Currency; Money; Accounting; Valuation; Manufacturing Industry; Manufacturing Industry; United States

23 Aug 2004
Research & Ideas

Strategy for Small Fish

The art of business today seems to be the ability to influence resources your company doesn't own—resources such as the production scheduling of manufacturing partners, the packaging requirements of distribution partners, and the... View Details

Keywords: by Marco Iansiti & Roy Levien

12 Oct 1999
Research & Ideas

Building Competitive Advantage Through Operations

At the HBS Executive Education program Building Competitive Advantage Through Operations (BCAO), executives charged with leading and building operations and manufacturing strategies enhance their understanding of operations performance... View Details

Keywords: by Staff

01 May 2000
What Do You Think?

Can You Hard-Wire Performance?

payment ... over and above the "normal" selling price?" Berglund answers his own question in suggesting that it depends on the extent to which the new (GE aircraft) engine (used in the hard-wiring example) differs from past... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

11 Sep 2012
First Look

First Look: September 11

acquire after spending the early part of their career in manufacturing at GE's Aircraft Engine division in Lynn, MA. Their offer of $1.1 million, or 6.9x times 2011 EBITDA of $159,292, was a pleasant... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

October 2013 (Revised December 2015)
Case

Alcoa's Bid for Alcan (A)

By: Paul Healy and Penelope Rossano

In spring 2007, Alcoa CEO Alain Belda was concerned about the company's market position in light of increased competition from developing markets. China's recent entry into the aluminum market was affecting both supply and demand. Furthermore, downstream and upstream... View Details

Keywords: Acquisitions; Strategy; Aluminum; Accounting; Financials; Alcoa; Rio Tinto; Alcan; Metals and Minerals; Competition; Consolidation; Emerging Markets; Acquisition; Financial Statements; Manufacturing Industry; Canada; China; Russia

August 1997 (Revised June 2023)
Case

Fabritek, 1992

By: Janice H. Hammond

Describes a large-volume automotive parts contract in a high-quality machine work company. Quality and delivery problems arise when one of the four men on the job is replaced with a high producer who cannot earn a substantial bonus because of machine interference. View Details

Keywords: Machinery and Machining; Compensation and Benefits; Selection and Staffing; Production; Quality; Manufacturing Industry