Publications

August 2019
Case

Huawei and the U.S.-China Trade War

By: Elie Ofek and John Masko

In 2019, Chinese smartphone maker and telecommunications empire Huawei was preparing to launch its new flagship smartphone series, the Mate 30. After years of explosive growth, the previous 18 months had been a challenge for the company. In early 2018, Huawei’s planned... View Details

Keywords: Trade; Global Strategy; International Relations; National Security; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Information Infrastructure; Volatility; Adaptation; Telecommunications Industry; China; United States; European Union

Article

How to Shift from Selling Products to Selling Services

By: Doug J. Chung

Only a few years ago, most software companies sold seat licenses for their products, charging customers on the basis of head count. But today, software is typically provided using cloud-based software-as-a-service (SaaS) models that charge customers fees for... View Details

Keywords: SaaS Business Models; Sales; Management; Business Model; Salesforce Management; Applications and Software; Customer Relationship Management

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June 2020
Case

Breakthroughs at Blueprint Medicines

By: Richard G. Hamermesh, Kathy Giusti and Susie L. Ma

Precision medicine company Blueprint Medicines was building a successful track record for bringing drug therapies to market 40% faster than average. The company had spent $40 million dollars and two years building a compound library that became its drug development... View Details

Keywords: Precision Medicine; Cancer; Biotechnology; Drug Development; Strategy; Expansion; Science; Genetics; Information Technology; Entrepreneurship; Organizational Culture; Management; Growth and Development; Pharmaceutical Industry; United States; Cambridge; Massachusetts

July 1996
Case

Trans National Group

By: Christopher A. Bartlett and Takia Mahmood

Starting as a classic entrepreneur,Steve Belkin, CEO of Trans National (TN), drives the company through two businesses--one in group travel and another in financial services--before deciding to step back and act as a general manager whose focus and attention is on... View Details

Keywords: Business or Company Management; Management; Growth Management

18 Apr 2011
Research & Ideas

It’s Not Nagging: Why Persistent, Redundant Communication Works

information daily, the repeated communications seemed puzzling to Neeley, at least at first. The researchers moved forward to investigate what sort of events triggered managers to deploy multiple messages. They studied the communication... View Details

Keywords: by Kim Girard

18 Sep 2016
News

Rush to Take Advantage of a Dull iPhone Started Samsung's Battery Crisis

16 Jun 2016
News

How Shareholders Jumped to First in Line for Profits

20 Nov 2019
Video

Shinta Widjaja Kamdani

Shinta Kamdani, owner of Indonesian-based consumer products and energy company Sintesa Group, describes the logic of the Group’s diversification strategies which seek to balance consumer industries which... View Details

February 2002 (Revised December 2003)
Exercise

Incentives Game, The

By: Jason R. Barro, Brian J. Hall and Jonathan Lim

This exercise provides an opportunity to gain insight about designing, negotiating, and responding to incentives. The setting is investment management. A class is divided into a certain number of investment firms. Each company has one CEO and begins with four portfolio... View Details

Keywords: Motivation and Incentives; Compensation and Benefits; Investment; Management

November 2009 (Revised October 2010)
Case

AME Learning Inc.

By: Thomas R. Eisenmann and Ann Leamon

Justin Joffe is about to graduate from HBS in Spring 2009. He must decide whether to join his father's company, Toronto-based AME Learning, as president working alongside his father who will be CEO. AME has been in business for 12 years, mostly as a small consulting... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Family Business; Age; Private Equity; Financing and Loans; Growth and Development Strategy; Family and Family Relationships

2014
Case

Meizhou Dongpo Restaurant: Entrepreneurship, Leadership and Culture

By: F. Warren McFarlan, Weiku Wu and Jia Guo

Meizhou Dongpo is a large catering group in China. On June 6, 1996, the first Meizhou Dongpo Restaurant was opened in Beijing. The enterprise entered the stage of rapid development in 2000, and set up Beijing Meizhou Restaurant Management Co., Ltd. In June 2003 the... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Leadership; National Culture; China; Restaurants; China

February 2001 (Revised October 2006)
Case

McDuffy, Arms & Ginsberg

By: Jay W. Lorsch

Describes the musings of the managing partner of a law firm as he returns from an executive education program. He thinks about the many issues confronting him and his firm. Teaching Purpose: To prepare executive education participants to return to their companies and... View Details

Keywords: Executive Education; Leadership; Management; Legal Services Industry

19 Jul 2019
News

What Useful Roles Can Aspiring Entrepreneurs Take On?

March 29, 2021
Editorial

Research: A Little Recognition Can Provide a Big Morale Boost

By: Shibeal O'Flaherty, Michael Sanders and A.V. Whillans

As organizations large and small face the twin challenges of increasingly strained budgets and burned out workforces, what can managers do to keep employees engaged—without breaking the bank? In this piece, the authors share new research on the power of symbolic awards... View Details

Keywords: Motivation; Psychology; Work; Employees; Motivation and Incentives; Social Psychology

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May 2017
Case

Four Products: Predicting Diffusion (2017)

By: John Gourville

One job of product managers, marketers, strategic planners, and other corporate executives is to predict what the demand will be for a new product. This task is easier for certain classes of new products than for others. For new consumer package goods, for instance,... View Details

Keywords: Diffusion Processes; Product Adoption; Forecasting and Prediction; Product; Product Launch; Marketing

April 2001 (Revised March 2002)
Case

Seagate Technology Buyout

By: Gregor M. Andrade, Stuart C. Gilson and Todd C. Pulvino

In March 2000, a group of private investors and senior managers were negotiating a deal to acquire the disk drive operations of Seagate Technology. The motivating factor for the buyout was the apparently anomalous market value of Seagate's equity: Seagate's equity... View Details

Keywords: Valuation; Leveraged Buyouts; Financial Strategy; Computer Industry

March 1999
Case

Merck & Co., Inc.: Corporate Strategy, Organization and Culture (A)

By: Michael Beer and Perry Fagan

In the early 1990s, Merck faced a series of challenges because of significant changes in its competitive and regulatory environment (e.g., growth in power of pharmaceutical buyers like managed care organizations led to price pressures and President Clinton's review of... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Business or Company Management; Organizational Culture; Problems and Challenges; Management Practices and Processes; Competitive Strategy; Management Teams; Health Care and Treatment; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Situation or Environment; Alignment; Pharmaceutical Industry; United States