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March 1996 (Revised January 1997)
Case

Scott Cook and Intuit

By: James L. Heskett

Scott Cook has just learned that Microsoft has withdrawn its $2 billion offer for his company Intuit. Because of his company's prospects, he is elated. But he now must decide the direction in which to take his company while continuing to focus on the formula of... View Details

Keywords: Customer Relationship Management; Entrepreneurship; Business or Company Management; Marketing Strategy; Product Development

17 Feb 2020
Sharpening Your Skills

How Entrepreneurs Can Find the Right Problem to Solve

art as science. It is incredibly easy to lead a witness, bias answers, and hear what we want to hear in an interview. The best guide for conducting a proper discovery interview is Rob Fitzpatrick’s book The Mom Test, which I encourage every entrepreneur and View Details

Keywords: by Julia Austin

September 2012
Case

Castronics, LLC

By: Richard S. Ruback and Royce Yudkoff

Patrick Dickinson (HBS '09) and Michael Weiner (MIT's Sloan '07) acquired Castronics, a firm that specialized in threading pipe used in the oil and natural gas industry, at the end of 2009. The partners overcame significant hurdles during the first two years of... View Details

Keywords: Small Business; Search Funds; Corporate Finance; Entrepreneurship; Financial Management; Energy Industry; Western United States

29 Sep 2003
Research & Ideas

Pride Goeth Before a Profit

At General Motors' Car Assembly Plant in Wilmington, DE, there is a film that managers like to show when times get tough. Dating to 1991, the film opens with a GM executive saying that the plant will be closed in three years. There is no... View Details

Keywords: by Theodore Kinni

23 Jul 2014
Lessons from the Classroom

Innovation Is Magic. Really

authors also teamed to write The Magic of Innovation, published in the European Business Review earlier this year. A Magical Process Thomke maintains that innovative managers looking to create successful new View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Consumer Products

2006
Article

The End of Nationality? Global Firms and 'Borderless Worlds'

By: G. Jones

This article provides a historical perspective to current debates whether large global firms are becoming "stateless" and whether this is a historically new phenomenon. It shows that a great deal of international business in the nineteenth century was not easily fitted... View Details

Keywords: Business Subsidiaries; Multinational Firms and Management; Trade; Ownership; International Finance; Economic Systems; International Accounting; Globalized Economies and Regions; Geographic Location; Nationality; Boundaries; Global Strategy

06 Dec 2016
First Look

December 6, 2016

Leisure Time Become a Status Symbol By: Bellezza, Silvia, Neeru Paharia, and Anat Keinan Abstract—While research on conspicuous consumption has typically analyzed how people spend money on products that signal status, we investigate... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

December 2018 (Revised September 2019)
Case

Brand Activism: Nike and Colin Kaepernick

By: Jill Avery and Koen Pauwels

Nike's selection of politically polarizing Colin Kaepernick as the spokesperson for the 30th anniversary of its iconic "Just Do It" campaign catapulted the brand into the media spotlight and made it a political flashpoint for consumers across America. Would the choice... View Details

Keywords: Digital Marketing; Entertainment; Politics; Activism; Brand Equity; Marketing; Marketing Strategy; Brands and Branding; Marketing Communications; Sports; Advertising; Social Media; Consumer Products Industry; Consumer Products Industry; Consumer Products Industry; United States; North America

December 1992 (Revised October 1993)
Case

BMW: The Ultimate Driving Machine Seeks to De-Yuppify Itself

By: Stephen A. Greyser and Wendy Smith Schille

Tracks changes in the luxury auto market during the 1980s and early 1990s. Shifts in target consumer behavior--particularly the yuppie lifestyle--serve as the basis for manufacturer modifications of product line, positioning, and advertising. The climax of the case is... View Details

Keywords: Advertising; Change Management; Transformation; Brands and Branding; Product Positioning; Production; Luxury; Segmentation; Auto Industry

March 2010 (Revised May 2012)
Case

Bank of America: Mobile Banking

By: Sunil Gupta and Kerry Herman

In January 2010, Jen McDonald, head of Bank of America Corporation's (BAC) Digital Marketing group, was discussing the bank's mobile strategy with Douglas Brown, senior vice president, Mobile Product Development. BAC launched mobile banking in 2007 and within three... View Details

Keywords: Marketing; Digital Marketing; Financial Services; Mobile Banking; Channels; Strategy; Banks and Banking; Marketing Strategy; Service Delivery; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Banking Industry; United States

May 2007 (Revised September 2008)
Case

Biocon Limited

By: Krishna G. Palepu and Ananth Chepuri

Biocon Limited was facing significant pricing pressure in their cash cow business, that primarily consisted of manufacturing Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs). To combat this commoditization, Biocon's leadership had chosen an innovation-led strategy. This new... View Details

Keywords: Globalized Firms and Management; Innovation and Management; Leading Change; Growth and Development Strategy; Risk Management; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Biotechnology Industry; India

18 Feb 2009
First Look

First Look: February 18, 2009

the firm to shift from a "product and waste" mentality to a "product and product" mentality, and thereby actively manage the quantities of both products to maximize profit. Conditions in... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

16 Oct 2008
Working Paper Summaries

Opening Platforms: How, When and Why?

Keywords: by Thomas R. Eisenmann, Geoffrey Parker & Marshall Van Alstyne

January 2013
Article

Level Two Negotiations: Helping the Other Side Meet Its 'Behind-the-Table' Challenges

By: James K. Sebenius

A long analytic tradition has explored the challenge of productively synchronizing "internal" with "external" negotiations, with a special focus on how each side can best manage internal opposition to agreements negotiated "at the table." Implicit in much of this work... View Details

Keywords: James Baker; Internal Negotiation; Dispute Resolution; Bargaining; Two-level Games; Negotiation; Germany; United States

03 Feb 2015
First Look

First Look: February 3

our discussions and suggests directions for research to investigate its validity. Publisher's link: http://pps.sagepub.com.ezp-prod1.hul.harvard.edu/content/10/1/3.full.pdf+html February 2015 Antitrust Bulletin The Influence of Strategic View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

April 1988 (Revised March 1991)
Case

Tektronix: Portable Instruments Division (A)

Tektronix's Portable Instruments Division has recently converted to a JIT production process. The existing cost system was designed for conventional manufacturing and is obsolete. The case describes the new material-burdening system the firm implemented. This system... View Details

Keywords: Cost Accounting; Production; Management Systems; Manufacturing Industry

05 Dec 2006
First Look

First Look: December 5, 2006

Bowman, Steve LaValle, Vikas Mittal, Das Narayandas, Girish Ramani, and Rajan Varadarajan Periodical:Journal of Service Research 9, no. 2 (November 2006): 184-194 Abstract Conceptually, customer relationship management (CRM) has been... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

2020
Working Paper

Scientific Production: An Exploration into Organization, Resource Allocation, and Funding

By: Jerry Thursby, Marie Thursby, Karim R. Lakhani, Kyle R. Myers, Nina Cohodes, Sarah Bratt, Dennis Byrski, Hannah Cohoon and Maria Roche

Production of scientific knowledge is core to civilizational advancement in economic and material wellbeing of societies. Despite its fundamental importance, however, a systematic effort to quantitatively study the factors underlying scientific production, particularly... View Details

Keywords: Funding; Science; Knowledge; Research; Information Management; Resource Allocation