Publications

June 2012
Case

Microsoft IT India

By: Willy C. Shih, Margaret Pierson, Alexander Down, William Gustave Jair-Shemuel Jurist, Diego Medicina and Helen Wang

Raj Biyani faced tough challenges managing Microsoft IT India: leading a remote development organization in which key decisions were made in Redmond, and managing an organization that was perceived as less strategic than its sister Microsoft India Development Center... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Development; Cross-functional Management; Foreign Subsidiaries; Strategy Alignment; Organizational Behavior; Indian Software Development; Global Distributed R＆D; Software Industry; Organizational Structure; Research and Development; Operations; Leadership; Globalized Firms and Management; Business Subsidiaries; Information Technology; Applications and Software; Technology Industry; India

October 1993 (Revised September 1996)
Case

BANC ONE - 1993

By: Hugo Uyterhoeven and Myra M. Hart

From a small local bank, Banc One has grown to one of the largest and most profitable banks in the United States under the leadership of its CEO, John B. McCoy. It has an impressive track record of improving the performance of its acquisitions while retaining the... View Details

Keywords: Leadership; Acquisition; Organizational Culture; Policy; Adaptation; Business Growth and Maturation; Strategy; Performance Improvement; Industry Structures; Banking Industry; United States

January 2001 (Revised August 2003)
Case

Diageo plc

A major U.K.-based multinational is reevaluating its leverage policy as it restructures its business. The treasury team models the tradeoffs between the benefits and costs of debt financing, using Monte Carlo simulation to estimate the savings from the interest tax... View Details

Keywords: Cost vs Benefits; Multinational Firms and Management; Capital Structure; Restructuring; United Kingdom

May 1994
Background Note

Managing Market Complexity: A Three-Ring Circus

By: V. Kasturi Rangan

Proposes models of organization that address the various product-market environments posed by the product life cycle. Frames these changes along the two dimensions of uncertainty and diversity. Offers three sets of organizational characteristics to reflect the three... View Details

Keywords: Business Processes; Growth and Development Strategy; Complexity; Organizational Structure; Organizational Culture; Product Marketing; Markets; Product

Find at Harvard

Web

2021 Symposium - Race, Gender & Equity

few—all stemming from structural features and systemic pressures related to race, capitalism and democracy, our themes for today. And of course, we are also seeing how these themes are intertwined this year, with the interdependence... View Details

30 Nov 2018
What Do You Think?

What’s the Best Administrative Approach to Climate Change?

Summing Up: Should a 'Montreal Protocol' for Administering Global Warming Be Pursued? Climate change and how to manage it is a daunting subject. Nevertheless, several readers of this month’s column were willing to venture a model or two for administering a system... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett; Energy

May 1991 (Revised April 2008)
Case

The Japanese Facsimile Industry in 1990

Japanese firms dominate the facsimile machine industry, accounting for more than 90% of worldwide sales. This case explores the reasons for this dominance. View Details

Keywords: Globalized Markets and Industries; Industry Structures; Business and Government Relations; Competition; Telecommunications Industry; Japan

06 Dec 2021
News

Truth Be Told

effective in terms of getting the right information in a financially sound way. The problem is that the current structure incentivizes employees to report issues where the penalty is high. For a workplace safety violation, the penalty can... View Details

Keywords: April White; Corporate, Subsidiary, and Regional Managing Offices; Management

01 Mar 2025
News

Alumni and Faculty Books

Edited by Margie Kelley Borders and the Self By Chinwe Ajena-Sagna (MBA 2003) Masobe Books “Who are you?” Every border tells a story. Every story has its origins. Tracing a cultural lineage from the beginnings of Igbo history in the ninth century by delineating... View Details

Samuel Insull

Insull centralized utility delivery and created a new business model called customer ownership, or people’s capitalism. This utility delivery approach rapidly spread throughout the country during the 1920s and had a profound impact on the... View Details

Keywords: Utilities & Energy

28 Jun 2011
News

Bold Ascent

flags with the SlingFin logo), Baka reflects on how his HBS experience plays into the nontraditional world of outdoor gear design. “It’s a framework of thought and analytics that is deeply ingrained as part of classroom discussion,” he says. “It’s a broad View Details

Keywords: hiking; Sporting Goods, Hobby, Musical Instrument, and Book Stores; Retail Trade

02 Aug 2004
What Do You Think?

For Greater Transparency, Is Section 404 an Effective Response?

intense exposure to news of business leaders' alleged (and in some cases proven) acts to deliberately mislead investors, employees, and others, we are naturally interested in greater transparency. And it applies equally importantly to... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

January 2001 (Revised March 2002)
Case

Ford Motor Company's Value Enhancement Plan

By: Andre F. Perold

In April 2000, Ford Motor Co. announced a shareholder Value Enhancement Plan (VEP) to significantly recapitalize the firm's ownership structure. Ford had accumulated $23 billion in cash reserves and under the VEP would return as much as $10 billion of this cash to... View Details

Keywords: Restructuring; Forecasting and Prediction; Capital Structure; Cash; Financial Liquidity; Policy; Business and Shareholder Relations; Value; Auto Industry

Profile

Alika Phipps

Ratings and Capital Structure Advisory Group, “advising clients on the optimal capital structure to maintain a favorable credit rating. JP Morgan was a great experience. But although I gained a lot of... View Details

June 2010
Teaching Note

Ebro Puleva (TN)

By: David E. Bell and Mary Louise Shelman

Teaching Note for 510026. View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Transformation; Decision Choices and Conditions; Business or Company Management; Strategy; Brands and Branding; Financial Crisis; Business Exit or Shutdown; Organizational Structure; Globalization; Food and Beverage Industry; Spain