Publications

April 1991 (Revised July 1994)
Case

Southland Corp. (B)

By: Richard S. Ruback

Examines Southland's financial difficulties following the LBO in 1987 up to the first restructuring plan in July 1990. The teaching objectives are: to explore the complexities of a failed leverage buyout and the operating restrictions that result from financial... View Details

Keywords: Leveraged Buyouts; Restructuring; Equity; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Financing and Loans; Crisis Management

February 2024
Case

Innovation Strategy at Stanley Black & Decker: Setting the Direction for Growth

By: David L. Ager and Antonio Manuel Oftelie

On July 1, 2022, Don Allan was appointed Chief Executive Officer of Stanley Black & Decker (SBD). Although Allan had been with the firm for 23 years, most recently serving as President and Chief Financial Officer, he recognized that he was stepping into his new role as... View Details

Keywords: Health Pandemics; Collaborative Innovation and Invention; Innovation Leadership; Growth Management; Business and Stakeholder Relations

September 1972 (Revised February 1984)
Case

Blanchard Importing and Distribution Co., Inc.

By: Paul W. Marshall

Illustration of the two main types of errors resulting from use of the economic order quantity (EOQ) as a tool in production scheduling. Designed to permit class discussion to begin with a consideration of one common type of mistake, errors in calculation of the EOQ... View Details

Keywords: Mathematical Methods; Production; Debates; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques

14 Oct 2014
First Look

First Look: October 14

fans with the release of her self-titled album. The team at her company, Parkwood Entertainment, which general manager Lee Anne Callahan-Longo described as "a management, music, and production company that is owned and at the highest... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

November 2013
Case

IdentiGEN

By: Ray A. Goldberg and Matthew Preble

Ciaran Meghen and Ronan Loftus, co-founders of IdentiGEN (an Irish company that had created a unique service called DNA TraceBack to help customers identify and trace meat products), were discussing the company's future. The recent crisis over beef products being... View Details

Keywords: Animal-Based Agribusiness; Agribusiness; Supply Chain Management; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Canada; United Kingdom; United States; Republic of Ireland

August 2014
Article

Incentives in a Stage-Gate Process

By: Raul O. Chao, Kenneth C. Lichtendahl and Yael Grushka-Cockayne

Many large organizations use a stage‐gate process to manage new product development projects. In a typical stage‐gate process project managers learn about potential ideas from research and exert effort in development while senior executives make intervening go/no‐go... View Details

Keywords: Stage-Gate Process; Production; Operations; Product Development; Innovation and Invention

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17 May 2010
Research & Ideas

What Brazil Teaches About Investor Protection

supposed to be bad, and there was little debate about what companies or managers could do about it. For me this just sounded too simplistic. Moreover, the focus on national laws led to policy recommendations that were sometimes too... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Banking; Financial Services

Web

Faculty & Research - Business & Environment

commitments will require firms to transform their business models and organizational architectures. A few pioneers are leading the way, demonstrating that companies can make... Load More Initiative Leadership Michael W. Toffel Technology and View Details

06 Mar 2006
What Do You Think?

The China Dilemma for U.S. Firms: Comply, Resist, or Leave?

Summing Up The jury is in. Nearly all respondents to this month's column would advise U.S. firms such as Yahoo, Google, Cisco, and Microsoft to continue to operate in China despite the government's possible use of their content or... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett; Technology

24 Oct 2024
Blog Post

Trailblazing Success with Global Reach and Impact: Scott Wallinger (AMP 82, 1979)

moving up to Staff Assistant for Technical Forestry to the Wood Procurement Manager. The job involved a variety of tasks, including managing a wood barging operation and transitioning from buying wood... View Details

12 Apr 2007
Working Paper Summaries

From Manufacturing to Design: An Essay on the Work of Kim B. Clark

Keywords: by Sylvain Lenfle & Carliss Y. Baldwin; Manufacturing

September 2015
Teaching Note

Unidentified Industries: Australia 2014

By: Benjamin C. Esty and William E. Fruhan, Jr.

Helps students to understand how the characteristics of a business are reflected in the firm's financial statements. In this exercise, students are given balance sheet data in percentage form (common-size balance sheets) and other selected financial ratios for a set of... View Details

Keywords: Accounting; Finance; Financial Management; Australia

October 1999
Case

Intel Labs (A): Photolithography Strategy in Crisis

Intel has evolved a new approach to managing its industrial research, the distributed labs model. The benefits and limits of this model are explored. View Details

Keywords: Operations; Research and Development

September 2006 (Revised September 2007)
Case

VMware, Inc. (A)

By: David B. Yoffie, Ward Bullard, Nikhil Raj and Suja Vaidyanathan

VMware, Inc., the first company to crack the software virtualization market, faces new challenges from competitors' plans to bundle free virtualization solutions in operating systems. VMware, acquired by data storage giant EMC Corp. in 2003, has delivered top-line... View Details

Keywords: Technological Innovation; Growth and Development Strategy; Market Entry and Exit; Open Source Distribution; Competition

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August 2014
Case

Rent the Runway (Abridged)

By: Thomas R. Eisenmann, Brent Goldfarb and David A. Kirsch

Two months after a successful launch In November 2009, the cofounders of Rent the Runway (RTR), a website that rented designer dresses, are debating whether to grow their startup at a measured pace and focus on improving operational effectiveness, or raise a new round... View Details

Keywords: Lean Startup; Electronic Commerce; Fashion; Expansion; Business Startups; Growth and Development Strategy; E-commerce; Fashion Industry

21 Apr 2020
Research & Ideas

7 Successful Battle Strategies to Beat COVID-19

toward gunfire, where they certainly would be needed. Southwest Airlines famously provides structure to staff built on culture and an aligned operating model. In the field, staff members know what levers they can pull to respond to... View Details

Keywords: by Euvin Naidoo

October 2003 (Revised January 2005)
Case

Microsoft: Launching the Smart Watch

By: John T. Gourville and Christina L. Darwall

Microsoft is on the verge of launching its Smart Watch technology, which will allow specially designed watches to receive up-to-date information on sports, business, traffic, news, etc. After several years of effort and millions of dollars spent, the questions now... View Details

Keywords: Customer Focus and Relationships; Information Management; Marketing Strategy; Product Launch; Product Positioning; Product Design; Product Development; Performance Effectiveness; Partners and Partnerships; Information Technology Industry

March 2008 (Revised March 2009)
Case

Microsoft's Unlimited Potential (A)

By: V. Kasturi Rangan and Marie Bell

In April 2007, Bill Gates announced Microsoft Unlimited Potential. Its mission was to enable social and economic opportunity for the next five billion people. To deliver against this mission, Microsoft sought to focus its citizenship efforts and its product development... View Details

Keywords: Developing Countries and Economies; Emerging Markets; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Growth and Development Strategy