Publications

March 1999 (Revised July 1999)
Case

Entrepreneur Doug Levine runs a fitness company with an incredibly powerful brand. His company leverages the brand to expand, both in terms of facilities and lines of business. But he may need to make significant organizational changes in order to continue the growth. View Details

Keywords: Buildings and Facilities; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Expansion; Business Growth and Maturation; Business Startups; Brands and Branding; Service Industry; Health Industry

February 1999 (Revised March 2001)
Case

Egghead to Egghead.com (A)

By: V. Kasturi Rangan and Marie Bell

Over the course of 12 months in 1997 and 1998, Egghead senior management decided to shut down its 180 brick-and-mortar retail stores and move to an electronic store. The case describes the evolution of that process, and the role of its CEO George Orban, and poses... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Internet and the Web; Transformation; Decisions; Corporate Strategy; Marketing Strategy; Market Transactions; Buildings and Facilities; Retail Industry

February 1999
Case

Volant Skis

By: Steven C. Wheelwright and Matt Verlinden

Volant brought innovation to the ski equipment industry in 1989 by developing a stainless steel ski. He claimed the skis could turn more easily, could hold an edge in icy conditions, and were more stable than aluminum or fiberglass skis. The company's "soft-flex"... View Details

Keywords: Change Management; Technological Innovation; Growth and Development Strategy; Operations; Product Development; Performance Improvement; Quality; Corporate Strategy; Value Creation

January 1999 (Revised July 2003)
Case

Shady Trail

By: Arthur I Segel

Holt Lunsford was intrigued by the packet of papers that lay in front of him. The papers comprised a brochure that Lonestar Bank had put together in an effort to sell the Shady Trail Distribution Center in Dallas, Texas. Shady Hill was a five-year-old,... View Details

Keywords: Investment; Acquisition; Buildings and Facilities; Property; Partners and Partnerships; Decision Choices and Conditions; Distribution Industry; Real Estate Industry; Texas

December 1998
Background Note

Note on Dedicated Sports Stadium Revenues

By: Stephen A. Greyser and Kirk A. Goldman

An overview of the rapid growth of stadium development in professional sports in the 1990s. The range of special stadium revenue streams is described along with specific examples of stadiums for the Washington Redskins and Carolina Panthers. View Details

Keywords: Budgets and Budgeting; Development Economics; Decisions; Growth and Development; Revenue; Sports; Buildings and Facilities; Sports Industry; District of Columbia; North Carolina

1998
Simulation

The Situation at Warehouse 7

By: Dutch Leonard

Keywords: Crisis Management; Buildings and Facilities

October 1997 (Revised March 2000)
Case

Oxford Health Plans: Specialty Management (A)

By: James L. Heskett, Jody H. Gittell and James Slayton

Describes an innovative approach to organizing health care proposed by Oxford CEO Steve Wiggins. Wiggins contends that the primary care physician "gatekeeper" model typically used by health maintenance organizations to control access to and coordinate specialist care... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Groups and Teams; Innovation and Management; Medical Specialties; Health Care and Treatment; Cooperation; Management Teams; Health Industry; United States

July 1996 (Revised January 1997)
Case

Northwest Airlines: Financing Maintenance Facilities in Minnesota--1991 (A)

By: Leonard A. Schlesinger and Davis Dyer

July 1996 (Revised January 1997)
Case

Northwest Airlines: Financing Maintenance Facilities in Minnesota--1991 (B)

By: Leonard A. Schlesinger and Davis Dyer

April 1996 (Revised April 1996)
Case

Activity-Based Management at Stream International

By: Robert S. Kaplan and Norman Klein

Stream International's Crawfordsville, Indiana facilities undertake the design and implementation of an activity-based costing project. After analyzing the costs assigned to 161 work activities, Crawfordsville managers present five proposals for change based on ABM... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Change Management; Activity Based Costing and Management; Indiana

August 1995 (Revised December 2003)
Case

Cricket Road, 503

By: William J. Poorvu and Donald A. Brown

In September 2003, Mason Sexton, a young, inexperienced developer, was making plans to replace a rooming house he had inherited next to the University of Virginia campus in Charlottesville with a new 14-unit, 5-story apartment house. His attempts to assemble the... View Details

Keywords: Property; Entrepreneurship; Housing; Buildings and Facilities; Construction; Risk and Uncertainty; Management Practices and Processes; Real Estate Industry; United States

August 1995 (Revised January 2007)
Case

The Schneider Building

By: William J. Poorvu and John H. Vogel Jr.

In May 1995, Jonathan Schneider, the president of the Schneider Co., is faced with several related problems. First, he needs to find a new facility that can accommodate his expanding business. Second, he needs to decide whether to lease or purchase this new facility.... View Details

Keywords: Family Business; Property; Leasing; Expansion; Real Estate Industry

August 1995
Teaching Note

Eli Lilly and Company: The Flexible Facility Decision (1993) TN

By: Gary P. Pisano

Teaching Note for (9-694-074). View Details

Keywords: Pharmaceutical Industry

March 1995 (Revised July 1996)
Case

Mattson Foods, Inc. (Revised): The Bardolini Division

By: Steven C. Wheelwright

The Bardolini Division of Mattson Foods, with plants in the northeast and midwest, wants to open up the western market for its pizza. Management must decide whether to build a new plant on the West Coast, and what type of technology to put in the plant if they decide... View Details

Keywords: Logistics; Emerging Markets; Business Startups; Decision Choices and Conditions; Business Plan; Capital Budgeting; Expansion; Buildings and Facilities; Strategic Planning; Marketing Strategy; Technology; Economic Systems; Food and Beverage Industry

1995
Simulation

The Situation at Research Lab 26X

By: Dutch Leonard

Keywords: Crisis Management; Buildings and Facilities

November 1994 (Revised December 1995)
Case

The Domik Project

By: William J. Poorvu and John H. Vogel Jr.

Cameron Sawyer, CEO of Sawyer and Co., seeks financing for an office building he is developing in Moscow. The case describes the opportunities and challenges of development in Russia. Also highlights entrepreneurial opportunities in a changing world. View Details

Keywords: Buildings and Facilities; Opportunities; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Financing and Loans; Problems and Challenges; Growth and Development Strategy; Moscow

May 1994 (Revised November 2001)
Case

Concord Center

By: William J. Poorvu and John H. Vogel Jr.

A major shopping center developer and an insurance company form a joint venture to develop a 900,000 square foot super-regional shopping center. Describes the nine-year struggle to deal with market, regulatory, and financial issues to get the project ready for... View Details

Keywords: Buildings and Facilities; Design; Joint Ventures; Construction; Partners and Partnerships; Governance Controls; Market Entry and Exit; Projects; Equity; Corporate Finance; Retail Industry

March 1994 (Revised April 1994)
Case

Eli Lilly and Co.: The Flexible Facility Decision--1993

By: Gary P. Pisano

In 1993, Eli Lilly is preparing to build manufacturing capacity for three new pharmaceutical products that it expects to launch in 1996. Management wrestles with a decision of whether to add specialized manufacturing capacity or flexible capacity. This question touches... View Details

Keywords: Debates; Cost vs Benefits; Decisions; Investment; Goals and Objectives; Product Launch; Production; Corporate Strategy; Pharmaceutical Industry

March 1994 (Revised October 1994)
Case

Reading Energy

By: Forest L. Reinhardt

Reading Energy builds facilities that produce energy from nontraditional fuels. A privately held, entrepreneurial organization, it has spent six years developing a plan to build a waste-to-energy plant in the town of Robbins, Illinois. The plant would burn municipal... View Details

Keywords: Energy Generation; Wastes and Waste Processing; Business and Community Relations; Business Plan; Agreements and Arrangements; Contracts; Risk and Uncertainty; Government and Politics; Environmental Sustainability; Business Strategy; Energy Industry; Utilities Industry; Illinois