Publications
Publications
Show Results For
- All HBS Web
(2,927)
- Faculty Publications (245)
- December 2003 (Revised April 2004)
- Case
Dragon's Teeth Vineyards
By: Alan D. MacCormack, Marius Leibold, Sven Voelpel and Kerry Herman
Dragon's Teeth Vineyards (DTV) is a South African wine producer that is considering whether to use genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in its wine-making process. GMOs promise to lower the costs of wine production significantly through increased yields and reduced... View Details
- September 2003 (Revised November 2005)
- Case
Best Buy Co., Inc. (A): An Innovator's Journey
By: Dorothy A. Leonard and Brian DeLacey
The CEO of Best Buy, a hugely successful retailing company, has hired consulting firm Strategos to imbue the company with an improved innovative capability. The six-month program of experimental learning yields new business ideas and also trains Best Buy employees as... View Details
- August 2003
- Case
Mercury Computer Systems: The Evolution from Integrated Technology to Open Standard
By: Rebecca Henderson and Nancy Confrey
For 20 years, Mercury Computer Systems has thrived, providing products and services that support ultrafast processing of real time data. Now Jay Bertelli, the CEO, faces a critical question: How can the firm compete once the standards on which its products are based... View Details
- February 2003 (Revised August 2004)
- Case
Flextronics: Deciding on a Shop Floor System for Producing the Microsoft Xbox
By: Jeffrey T. Polzer and Alison Berkley Wagonfeld
Jim McCusker must guide a group decision-making process aimed at getting input and buy-in from key people in California, Mexico, and Austria to choose a shop floor IT system for Flextronics. McCusker is Flextronics' account manager for the Microsoft Xbox project.... View Details
- September 2002
- Case
Align Technology, Inc.: Matching Manufacturing Capacity to Sales Demand
By: H. Kent Bowen and Jonathan P Groberg
Align Technology is a four-year-old medical products company that has invented a new product requiring new manufacturing processes. Demand for the new product has grown more slowly than initial forecasts predicted, and the cost structure is preventing the company from... View Details
- September 2002 (Revised March 2006)
- Case
Environmental Power Corporation: Changing Manure Into Gold?
By: Ray A. Goldberg and Laure Mougeot Stroock
In 2002, Environmental Power Corp. (EPC), a small company developing renewable energy projects, was attempting to commercialize its "digester," a facility that extracted methane from manure, reduced manure's environmental impact, and generated electricity. The company... View Details
- August 2002
- Article
Creativity Under the Gun
By: Teresa Amabile, Constance N. Hadley and Steven J. Kramer
If you're like most managers, you've worked with people who swear they do their most creative work under tight deadlines. You may use pressure as a management technique, believing it will spur people on to great leaps of insight. You may even manage yourself this way.... View Details
- February 2002 (Revised February 2006)
- Case
Volvo Trucks (A): Penetrating the U.S. Market
By: Michael E. Porter and Orjan Solvell
Volvo Trucks has worked on a global strategy for several decades. Beginning in the mid-1970s, the company decided to enter the largest market for trucks: the United States. Over time, the company has struggled to get a significant share of the U.S. market and at the... View Details
- December 2001
- Case
Cybersettle
By: Michael A. Wheeler and Gillian Morris
Cybersettle's management faced a dilemma: How could they turn their company, which provided confidential online settlement services for insurance claims, into a profitable enterprise? Having started during the heady days of Internet "dot-com fever," the company now had... View Details
- October 2001 (Revised March 2002)
- Case
Perlegen Sciences
By: Linda A. Hill and Nicole Tempest
As a biotech start-up company involved in studying human genomes, Perlegen needed to develop an organization that fostered innovation and teamwork among a group of highly trained professionals from both the science and technology fields. Perlegen's CEO, Brad Margus,... View Details
- October 2001
- Supplement
BMW AG: The Digital Auto Project-An Interview With Chris Bangle, Head of Global Design
By: Stefan H. Thomke
Chris Bangle describes how BMW is trying to reduce its development time by half with the aid of computer-aided technologies. To leverage these technologies in the very competitive automotive industry, he talks about how BMW is faced with the challenges of changing its... View Details
- August 2001
- Background Note
Work Methods Design: Note on Time Standards
By: H. Kent Bowen
Looks at production design. Helps students observe and work with procedures and consider cost reduction ideas using a view of methods improvement. View Details
- April 2001 (Revised November 2001)
- Case
Supply Chain Management at World Co., Ltd.
By: Ananth Raman, Marshall L. Fisher and Anna Sheen McClelland
Describes a supply chain with very quick (i.e., two week) response times and allows students to explore how such short response times are achieved. Allows students to explore why other supply chains, with much longer response times, might not be able to replicate this... View Details
- June 2000 (Revised October 2017)
- Case
IDEO
By: Stefan Thomke and Ashok Nimgade
Describes IDEO, the world's leading product design firm, and its innovation culture and process. Emphasis is placed on the important role of prototyping and experimentation in general, and in the design of the very successful Palm V handheld computer in particular. A... View Details
- August 1999 (Revised September 1999)
- Case
Double Dealmaking in the Browser Wars (A)
Recounts two complex negotiations in which Netscape and Microsoft compete to win a browser contract with AOL--then later with KPMG. After reviewing the web and browser sectors, this case recounts AOL's dramatic negotiations with Netscape and with Microsoft over which... View Details
- July 1999
- Background Note
Comments on Standard Times and the Division of Labor
By: Roy D. Shapiro
A brief note on the origins and uses of standard times in production process flow diagrams and on the benefits and drawbacks of division of labor. A rewritten version of two earlier notes. View Details
- November 1998 (Revised February 1999)
- Case
Microsoft Office: Finding the Suite Spot
By: Stefan H. Thomke and Steven Sinofsky
Describes a key decision-making process within Microsoft's Office products division. At a time when the PC software business has a great deal of uncertainty, Microsoft's management has to make a key decision regarding the future of software suites. A strengthening of... View Details
Keywords: Decisions; Applications and Software; Strategic Planning; Organizational Design; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Product Development; Managerial Roles; Growth and Development Strategy; Risk and Uncertainty; Goals and Objectives; Digital Platforms; Innovation and Management; Computer Industry; Information Technology Industry
- 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 1997 (Revised September 2003)
- Case
Eli Lilly and Company: Drug Development Strategy (A)
By: Stefan H. Thomke, Ashok Nimgade and Paul Pospisil
Describes how Eli Lilly and Co. tries to accelerate its new drug development process with the aid of "combinatorial chemistry"--a rapidly emerging and revolutionary approach to preclinical drug discovery. The product manager of a potential blockbuster migraine drug... View Details
- October 1996 (Revised April 1997)
- Case
Team New Zealand (A)
By: Marco Iansiti and Alan D. MacCormack
The case describes the development process used by Team New Zealand to design their two yachts for the 1995 America's Cup. During development, the team makes extensive use of simulation and physical prototyping to improve the initial design concept. As they approach... View Details