Publications

Earl Sasser is a Baker Foundation Professor at Harvard Business School and has been a member of the faculty there since 1969. He received a B.A. in Mathematics from Duke University in 1965, an MBA from the University of North Carolina in 1967, and a Ph.D. in... View Details

October 1994
Case

Allegheny Ludlum Steel Corporation (Abridged)

By: Steven C. Wheelwright

Describes a decision facing Allegheny Ludlum Steel Corp. in June 1985: whether to continue to compete in the silicon steel business in the face of stiff competition from imports. Includes a complete description of the company's productivity improvement systems and... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Business Strategy; Performance Improvement; Management Systems; Technology; Steel Industry

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December 2018
Supplement

The Global-Local Tension: Vodafone CEO Vittorio Colao Leading with 'International Values and Local Roots' (B)

By: Tsedal Neeley

Vittorio Colao, CEO of telecommunication giant Vodafone, must respond to reports of disturbing accounting practices at two of Vodafone’s operating companies. In one case, €60 million have been misreported due to a series of failures to check manual accounting... View Details

Keywords: GLOBAL-LOCAL; Global Identity; Local Identity; Accounting Discrepency; Globalization; Leadership; Trust; Organizational Culture; Organizational Design; Organizations; Identity; Local Range; Global Range; Values and Beliefs; Accounting Audits

August 2007 (Revised September 2008)
Case

Marketing the "$100 Laptop" (A)

By: John A. Quelch and Carin-Isabel Knoop

In 2002, Professor Nicholas Negroponte, a successful venture capitalist, author, and co-founder and chairman emeritus of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Media Lab, announced his intention to build a PC so cheap as to make it possible to provide... View Details

Keywords: Venture Capital; Internet and the Web; Information Technology; Product Development; Technological Innovation; Nonprofit Organizations; Marketing Strategy; Information Infrastructure; Developing Countries and Economies; Manufacturing Industry; Information Technology Industry; Computer Industry; Cambridge

May 1993
Case

Kaufmann Manufacturing Company (A)

By: Julie H. Hertenstein and William J. Bruns Jr.

A management team at Kaufmann is studying the latest year's operations and sales, which seem to have led to very confusing financial results. Sales exceeded forecast and production for the first six months, however Kaufmann reported a loss. Yet, when sales were below... View Details

Keywords: Budgets and Budgeting; Earnings Management; Cost Accounting; Financial Reporting; Cost vs Benefits; Capital Budgeting; Cost Management; Profit; Outcome or Result

Program

Senior Executive Leadership Program—India

greater leadership capacity, this intensive program empowers you to look critically at the business as a whole—and build and lead a high-performance organization. You will emerge better prepared to make the bold market moves that foster... View Details

February 1999
Case

Sports Agents: Is There a Firm Advantage?

By: Stephen A. Greyser and Brian R. Harris

Focuses on the decision of a young tennis player on what kind of agent to have as his representative. The choice is between someone in a large sports management/marketing firm and an independent agent representing a small number of individual athletes. Outlines the... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Knowledge Management; Marketing Communications; Marketing Strategy; Organizational Structure

Profile

Maria Brewer

Why was earning your MBA at HBS important to you? During my time in operations, the more I was able to work with multiple areas of the business and see how they interact, the more excited I was by my work. Observing how one decision in a... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Technology

Article

Bringing Probability Judgments into Policy Debates via Forecasting Tournaments

By: Philip E. Tetlock, Barbara A. Mellers and J. Peter Scoblic

Political debates often suffer from vague-verbiage predictions that make it difficult to assess accuracy and improve policy. A tournament sponsored by the U.S. intelligence community revealed ways in which forecasters can better use probability estimates to make... View Details

Keywords: Tournaments; Politics; Depolarization; Knowledge Creation; Forecasting and Prediction; Government and Politics

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03 Mar 2008
First Look

First Look: March 4, 2008

Information, and Financial Education Programs Author:Annamaria Lusardi Abstract Individuals are increasingly in charge of their own financial security after retirement. But how well-equipped are individuals to make saving decisions; do... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

23 Sep 2014
First Look

First Look: September 23

http://hbr.org/product/Opening-the-Valve--From-S/an/415015-PDF-ENG Harvard Business School Case 415-016 Opening the Valve: From Software to Hardware (B) The (B) case provides significant detail on Valve's initial decisions but keeps the... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

March 2024 (Revised August 2024)
Case

Darktrace: Scaling Cybersecurity and AI (A)

By: Jeffrey F. Rayport and Alexis Lefort

In 2023, Darktrace CEO Poppy Gustafsson was contemplating her growth strategy at a leading U.K.-based cybersecurity venture, launched in 2013 by a group of anti-terror cyber specialists, University of Cambridge mathematicians, and artificial intelligence (AI) experts.... View Details

Keywords: Technology; Talent; Scaling; Entrepreneurship; Cybersecurity; Leadership; Business Growth and Maturation; Recruitment; Resignation and Termination; AI and Machine Learning; Growth and Development Strategy; Organizational Culture; Going Public; Technology Industry; United Kingdom; Europe; United States

October 1987 (Revised October 1992)
Case

Black & Decker Corp.: Household Products Group, Brand Transition

This rewritten version differs from Black & Decker Corp.: Household Products Group (A1) in two ways: 1) It has an explicit decision focus. Homa must decide on a program to transfer the Black & Decker name to GE small appliances; and 2) The detailed information... View Details

Keywords: Decisions; Marketing Strategy; Brands and Branding; Consumer Products Industry

Teaching Interest

Management of Technology: Strategies for the Digital Economy

Companies make decisions daily to compete in the digital age; some are laying strategic building blocks for the future while others are toiling away on tactical distractions or leading their organizations headlong down the path to obsolescence. The advent of digital... View Details

Keywords: Strategy; Technology Industry

December 2018
Case

The Swedish Academy #MeToo Scandal and the Reputation of the Nobel Prize

By: Stephen A. Greyser and Mats Urde

This case focuses on the potential for “reputational contagion” to the Nobel Prize from a scandal affecting one of its independent network member entities, the Swedish Academy. The latter is responsible for selecting the Nobel Prize in Literature, by appointment of... View Details

Keywords: Nobel Prize; Swedish Academy; Scandal; Reputation; Brands and Branding; Crisis Management

15 Aug 2017
First Look

First Look at New Research and Ideas, August 15, 2017

Case 317-011 AEEC: Becoming an Innovation Catalyst No abstract available. Purchase this case:https://cb.hbsp.harvard.edu/cbmp/product/317011-PDF-ENG Harvard Business School Case 317-116 Helena Rubinstein: Making Up the Modern Woman This... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

01 Sep 2017
News

Putting lifelong learning on the CEO agenda

10 May 2010
Research & Ideas

What Top Scholars Say About Leadership

leadership. Due to the mission of the School ("We educate leaders who make a difference in the world"), our convening power, and the urgency of issues in leadership today, I think it was in the DNA of Harvard Business School to... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Education

2007
Working Paper

I'll Have the Ice Cream Soon and the Vegetables Later: A Study of Online Grocery Purchases and Order Lead Time

By: Katherine L. Milkman, Todd Rogers and Max H. Bazerman

How do decisions made for tomorrow or two days in the future differ from decisions made for several days in the future? We use data from an online grocer to address this question. In general, we find that as the delay between order completion and delivery increases,... View Details

Keywords: Internet and the Web; Food; Decision Choices and Conditions; Conflict and Resolution; Emotions; Cognition and Thinking; Retail Industry; Food and Beverage Industry