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

March 2016 (Revised May 2018)
Case

Reinventing Best Buy

By: John R. Wells and Gabriel Ellsworth

On March 1, 2017, Best Buy Company, Inc., North America’s largest retailer of consumer electronics and appliances, announced a third year of comparable-store sales increases and a 20.8% increase in domestic comparable online sales. These results were in marked contrast... View Details

01 Dec 2023
News

A More Accommodating Approach

Shelly Nooner (GMP 33, 2022) had already proven herself to be visionary and execution-focused during her two decades at Trimble, an industrial technology company that provides hardware, software, and services across agriculture, construction, geospatial, and... View Details

Keywords: Jennifer Gillespie

June 2021
Case

Akira Fukabori and Kevin Kajitani at avatarin (A) (Abridged)

By: Linda A. Hill and Emily Tedards

In 2016, Akira Fukabori and Kevin Kajitani, aeronautical engineers at All Nippon Airways Co., Ltd., began to wonder why, in a world of accelerating globalization and digital connectivity, those who lived in far-remote villages or impoverished urban areas could not... View Details

Keywords: Agility; Ecosystem; Innovation Ecosystems; Innovation; Crowdsourcing; XPRIZE; Open Innovation; Partnership; Government; Collaboration; Co-creation; Purpose; Impact; Social Impact; Movement; Organizational Behavior; Organizational Ambidexterity; Ambidexterity; Culture; Culture Change; Global Teams; Experimentation; Space; Space Industry; Airline Industry; Start-up; Platform Business; Platform Strategy; Platform; Digital; Robotics; Robots; Avatar; Telepresence; Innovation Lab; Mobility; COVID-19; Intrapreneurship; Public-private Partnership; Innovation and Invention; Technological Innovation; Partners and Partnerships; Collaborative Innovation and Invention; Alignment; Leadership; Leading Change; Diversity; Organizational Culture; Change Management; Strategy; Entrepreneurship; Digital Platforms; Transportation Industry; Aerospace Industry; Japan

Web

Business History - Faculty & Research

Ultimately, the Godcharles ruling enshrined the specialness of workingmen's labor contracts and rejected the use of equity principles to justify contract regulations, but the controversy also informed future labor strategies, especially... View Details

12 May 2023
Blog Post

Independent Project: The Rise of Electric Heat Pumps

certain U.S. regions are more likely to have the electrical infrastructure required for installation. According to the Energy Information Administration (EIA), 25% of U.S. homes were all-electric as of 2015.... View Details

Web

Advisory Board - Entrepreneurship

informing and connecting the buyers, users and sellers of technology. One of CNET Networks' first employees and senior executives, with past responsibilities including COO, CFO and Vice Chairman, Bonnie assumed his current role in 2000.... View Details

04 May 2015
Research & Ideas

Need to Solve a Problem? Take a Break From Collaborating

Structure and Performance in Information and Solution Spaces, with Jesse Shore, an assistant professor at Boston University's Questrom School of Business, and David Lazer, a political science professor at Northeastern University. The... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Video Game; Web Services

April 2015 (Revised June 2016)
Case

The Transformation of NCR

By: David Collis, Raffaella Sadun and Matthew Shaffer

During his tenure as CEO since 2005, Bill Nuti had moved NCR Corporation (originally National Cash Register) from its historical competence in hardware to become a provider of hardware and software for managing transactions across a range of industries and payments... View Details

Keywords: NCR; Hardware; Software; Acquisitions; Financial Services; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Expansion; Information Infrastructure; Applications and Software; Transformation; Acquisition; Financial Services Industry; Technology Industry

24 May 2017
News

Adebayo O. Ogunlesi, JD/MBA 1979

Head of Global Energy Group, Credit Suisse First Boston (CSFB) 2002 Named Global Head, CSFB Investment Banking Division 2004 Named CSFB Chief Client Officer 2006 Launches Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP) 2009 GIP acquires Gatwick... View Details

Keywords: Susan Young

06 Jul 2023
News

Lessons from Major League Baseball's Game-Changing Innovations

other services—ultimately I think HBO used our service, Disney and a bunch of others. And so we basically built a business, not too dissimilar from what Amazon did with Amazon Web Services, where they built this massive infrastructure to... View Details

April 2021
Case

Transforming BlackBerry: From Smartphones to Software

By: Ranjay Gulati and Nicole Tempest Keller

On the verge of failure, BlackBerry brought in John Chen as CEO in 2013 to orchestrate a bold turnaround of the company. Once an iconic leader in the smartphone market, BlackBerry was best known for its tactile QWERTY keyboard, strong security, and a focus on business... View Details

Keywords: Pivot; Managing Change; Turnaround; Smartphone; Change Management; Leading Change; Transformation; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Digital Platforms; Change; Information Infrastructure; Applications and Software; Competitive Strategy; Cybersecurity; Technology Industry; Transportation Industry; Canada

14 Jun 2007
Working Paper Summaries

Evolution Analysis of Large-Scale Software Systems Using Design Structure Matrices and Design Rule Theory

Keywords: by Matthew J. LaMantia, Yuanfang Cai, Alan D. MacCormack & John Rusnak; Video Game; Web Services

01 Jun 2023
News

Curb Appeal

density, the Byzantine nature of its bureaucracy, and the number of entrenched interests at play can frustrate even modest efforts to alter the status quo. Yet none of that appears to faze Tisch any more than did her first snow day. In her previous roles as New York’s... View Details

Keywords: Alexander Gelfand; photography by Vance Jacobs; Justice, Public Order, and Safety Activities; Government

May 2011
Case

The Morrison Company

By: Steven C. Wheelwright and Paul Meyers

The Morrison Company develops and manufactures radio frequency identification tags (RFID) known as smart labels for the retail and pharmaceutical industries. RFID technology is a fast-growing and increasingly competitive industry. Sales have risen dramatically over the... View Details

Keywords: Quantitative Analysis; Technology; Operations Management; Product Lines; Manufacturing; Capacity Planning; Production Planning; Information Technology; Strategy; Production; Organizational Structure; Infrastructure; Product Development; Information Infrastructure; Manufacturing Industry; Retail Industry; Pharmaceutical Industry; Electronics Industry

February 2008 (Revised September 2008)
Case

Apple Inc., 2008

By: David B. Yoffie and Michael Slind

In January 2007, three decades after its incorporation, Apple Computer shed the second word in its name and became Apple Inc. With that move, the company signaled a fundamental shift away from its historic status as a vendor of the Macintosh personal computer (PC)... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Leadership; Industry Growth; Corporate Strategy; Information Infrastructure; Internet and the Web; Consumer Products Industry; Electronics Industry; Technology Industry