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Publications
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(1,328)
- Faculty Publications (242)
- October 2001 (Revised November 2002)
- Case
Herman Miller (A): Innovation by Design
By: Sandra J. Sucher and Stacy McManus
Gary Van Spronsen, president of Miller SQA, has been asked to leave the thriving subsidiary he helped to reinvent to join Herman Miller's corporate initiative on innovation. Miller SQA has pioneered processes new to the Herman Miller organization, such as... View Details
- January 2001 (Revised January 2004)
- Case
Ninth House: e-Learning Software
By: Amy C. Edmondson, Frances X. Frei and Corey B. Hajim
Jeff Snipes, CEO of the Ninth House Network, a San Francisco-based E-Learning company, considers a strategy shift to address a recent slump in sales and to attract more customers. The revised strategy would require creating shorter, more directed content that could be... View Details
- November 2000 (Revised May 2002)
- Case
Oracle Corporation
By: Frances X. Frei and Hanna Rodriguez-Farrar
Oracle Corp., the world's second-largest independent software company (behind Microsoft) was the world's dominant supplier of database software. Oracle also sold application software, such as the popular enterprise resource planning and customer relationship management... View Details
- October 2000 (Revised July 2001)
- Case
Avon Products (A)
By: Lynn S. Paine and Greg Rogers
The general manager of Avon Mexico, Fernando Lezama, must decide whether to promote a woman to the position of vice president of sales. If appointed, the candidate would be the first female in all of Latin America to hold an executive position and one of the first... View Details
- March 2000 (Revised February 2005)
- Case
Hewlett Packard--Computer Systems Organization: Selling to Enterprise Customers
By: Das Narayandas and Robert C. Dudley
In late 1996, Manuel Diaz, head of Worldwide Sales for Hewlett-Packard's (HP) Computer Systems Organization (CSO), is reviewing the results of an audit of HP's enterprise customer management approach with the objective of identifying market and organizational... View Details
- March 2000 (Revised May 2000)
- Case
U.S. Gas Transportation, Inc.
By: John A. Davis, Myra M. Hart and Sharon Peyus
Presents a career dilemma for a husband/wife owner-manager team. Nanci and Len Mackenzie have received an offer for their highly successful entrepreneurial business, U.S. Gas Transportation, Inc. The Mackenzies are concerned about what the sale might do to their... View Details
- October 1999 (Revised March 2000)
- Case
HP Consumer Products Business Organization: Distributing Printers via the Internet
By: Rajiv Lal, Kirthi Kalyanam, Shelby Mc Intyre and Edie Prescott
In spring 1998, Pradeep Jotwani, vice president and general manager of the Consumer Products Business Organization of the Hewlett-Packard Co. (HP), was contemplating the increasing success of e-commerce and its implications for his division. The consumer products group... View Details
- July 1999
- Case
Restructuring General Motors North America (A): Pay-for-Performance
Presents the new pay-for-performance scheme adopted by General Motors (GM) in its 1999 reorganization of its sales and marketing organization. Once in operation, many administrative problems developed requiring a reconsideration of the scheme's basic architecture. View Details
- August 1998 (Revised October 1998)
- Case
Disney's "The Lion King" (A): The $2 Billion Movie
By: Jeffrey F. Rayport, Carin-Isabel Knoop and Cate Reavis
In 1994, just 10 years after its filmed entertainment division lost $33 million, Disney's animated creation "The Lion King" became the second highest grossing film ever. In addition to drawing $740 million in worldwide box office sales, its merchandise sales exceeded... View Details
- May 1998 (Revised October 2001)
- Case
Taco Bell Inc. (1983-1994)
By: Lynda M. Applegate, Leonard A. Schlesinger and Dave DeLong
Details the actions of John Martin, newly named CEO, as he leads Taco Bell through a decade of incremental and radical changes. By the end of the case, total system sales within Taco Bell, a Mexican style fast-food restaurant chain and a division of PepsiCo, have grown... View Details
- March 1998 (Revised July 2000)
- Case
InPart
By: Joseph B. Lassiter III, Michael J. Roberts and Jon Biotti
Stacey Lawson, HBS 1996, started a CAD parts representations database company to help designers and engineers with the design process. The company has completed its product and is starting to sell it. The case examines issues involving the organization of the sales... 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
- Case
Connecticut Spring and Stamping Corporation (B)
By: H. Kent Bowen, Massimo Russo and Steven J. Spear
Connecticut Spring and Stamping Corp. (CSSC), a 50-year-old spring manufacturing and metal stamping firm, is experiencing slow sales growth and feeling the impact of global competition. The company has over 800 customers but little understanding of those customers'... View Details
- August 1997
- Case
Orbital Sciences Corporation: ORBCOMM
By: Das Narayandas and John A. Quelch
In late 1993, Orbital Communications Corp. (OCC), a subsidiary of Orbital Sciences Corp., is developing a global two-way wireless data communications system, called "ORBCOMM," based on a 26-satellite constellation in low earth orbit. Service is scheduled to begin in... View Details
- May 1997 (Revised October 2005)
- Supplement
Ecolab, Inc. (G): Institutional Sales Conference
By: Ashish Nanda
Supplements the (A) case. Includes excerpts from speeches by Ecolab president Al Schuman, CEO Sandy Grieve, and three senior sales executives, and highlights the camaraderie and goodwill among senior executives of Ecolab's Institutional Division. May be used in place... View Details
- March 1997 (Revised December 1999)
- Case
Alden Products, Inc.--European Manufacturing
By: Robert H. Hayes
The European organization of Alden Products, Inc. is contemplating a doubling of unit sales over the next ten years. Their largest plant, located in Holland, was set up 25 years earlier to supply all demands of the EEC countries on the continent. It has since expanded... View Details
- December 1996 (Revised June 1998)
- Case
Midnight Networks, Inc.
By: H. Kent Bowen and Marilyn Matis
Midnight Networks, Inc., is a small computer network validation company. This case describes how the five founders built their business from operations earnings and how they established "best practices" operational processes to run their firm successfully. Operational... View Details
- July 1995 (Revised April 1996)
- Case
Cambridge Technology Partners (A)
By: Teresa M. Amabile, George P. Baker III and Michael Beer
Cambridge Technology Partners uses a highly innovative product strategy, supported by a human resources strategy, that has been very successful. However, high growth rates jeopardize product quality while tension about relative compensation levels between sales and... View Details
- November 1994 (Revised May 1998)
- Background Note
Strategic Sales Management: A Boardroom Issue
By: Benson P. Shapiro, Stephen X. Doyle and Adrian J. Slywotsky
Explains why sales management has become an increasingly important and complex topic for top managers. Demonstrates the financial impact of a superior salesforce and then describes a way to gain superiority. The focus is on a salesforce that is responsive to customer... View Details
- April 1994 (Revised October 2001)
- Case
Mrs. Fields, Inc. (1977 - 1987)
By: Lynda M. Applegate and Keri O. Pearlson
Describes a small company selling freshly baked goods through privately owned specialty stores (each store sells only Mrs. Fields products). The company has about 8,000 employees worldwide and less than 150 information systems people for a unique leverage of MIS... View Details