Publications

October 1998
Supplement

Timberjack Parts: Packaged Software Selection Project, Video

By: F. Warren McFarlan and Mark Keil

Keywords: Software

July 2004 (Revised May 2005)
Case

Pfizer's Virtual CIO (Abridged)

By: F. Warren McFarlan and Brian DeLacey

Discusses the IT organization and IT strategy issues facing Pfizer, one of the world's largest pharmaceutical companies. Managing over $1 billion of IT expense, the company has a committee approach for handling all critical IT decisions, an approach that is consistent... View Details

Keywords: Decision Making; Cost Management; Organizational Culture; Strategy; Information Technology; Pharmaceutical Industry

December 2001
Case

Alibaba.com (B)

By: F. Warren McFarlan and Fred Young

The challenges the largest Chinese electronic commerce company faces many challenges at the end of 2001. This case describes how it has completely reoriented its strategy in the past 12 months to become a B-to-B company. The key question is: Will it work and what... View Details

Keywords: Business or Company Management; Business Strategy; Internet and the Web; Problems and Challenges; Information Technology Industry; China; United States

December 2001 (Revised January 2002)
Case

COSCO

By: F. Warren McFarlan and David Lane

Focuses on the IT challenges facing COSCO, one of the largest shipping companies in the world, as it deals with the Internet and modern information technology. The challenge is to understand what they are trying to do and understand the complexity of the task. View Details

Keywords: Internet and the Web; Information Technology; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Technological Innovation; Complexity; Problems and Challenges; Shipping Industry; China

April 2001
Supplement

Merrill Lynch: Integrated Choice (Supplement)

By: F. Warren McFarlan and Christina Ruth

Supplements the case. Designed as an in-class handout. View Details

Keywords: Financial Services Industry

2003
Book

Connecting the Dots: Aligning Projects with Objectives in Unpredictable Times

By: Cathleen Benko and F. Warren McFarlan

Keywords: Projects; Goals and Objectives

December 1996 (Revised June 1997)
Case

Trinity College (A)

By: F. Warren McFarlan and Jaan Elias

Trinity College was an elite, private, liberal-arts college of some 1,800 students located in Hartford, CT. When Tom Gerety was chosen as Trinity's 17th president in 1989, he pledged to stay for ten years. Now less than five years at the job, Gerety announced he was... View Details

Keywords: Higher Education; Crisis Management; Management Succession; Planning; Social Enterprise; Education Industry; Connecticut

May 1978 (Revised February 1979)
Supplement

B.F. Goodrich (C)

By: F. Warren McFarlan and Ashis Gupta

Keywords: Manufacturing Industry

January 2014
Supplement

Dana Hall: Funding a Mission (D)

By: F. Warren McFarlan and Kaitlyn Szydlowski

This case is a sequel to Dana Hall: Funding a Mission (A), (B) and (C) cases. It focuses on the causes of recent fund-raising success and the complex resource allocation problems the School faces as it tries to deliver on its mission. In conjunction with the (A), (B) &... View Details

Keywords: Philanthropy; Mission and Purpose; Social Enterprise; Finance; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving

October 2012
Supplement

Nippon Steel Corporation (B): Significance of the Usiminas Project

By: F. Warren McFarlan and Akiko Kanno

Supplements the (A) case, 109-038. View Details

May 1991
Case

N.V. Philips' Gloeilampenfabrieken (D)

By: F. Warren McFarlan and Krista McQuade

Keywords: Factories, Labs, and Plants; Electronics Industry; Netherlands

July 2004 (Revised March 2006)
Case

RosettaNet and ebXML: Betting on the Right eBusiness Standard

By: F. Warren McFarlan and Veronika Belokhvostova

A major enterprise software company must select which technologies to support, based on their long-term and short-term viability and benefits. The protagonist is involved in the release of the B2B integration component of major enterprise software whose purpose is to... View Details

Keywords: Communication Technology; Customer Focus and Relationships; Markets; Standards; Science-Based Business; Situation or Environment; Applications and Software; Technology Adoption; Information Technology Industry

April 2003 (Revised September 2003)
Case

Harold Morton and the Rivendell Board (B)

By: F. Warren McFarlan and Ingrid Vargas

Describes what happens as the trustee reflects on his first several years' experience. View Details

Keywords: Governance; Nonprofit Organizations; Governing and Advisory Boards

February 2003 (Revised August 2005)
Case

UCB: Growth Strategy (B)

By: F. Warren McFarlan and Brian DeLacey

Supplements the (A) case. View Details

June 2001 (Revised October 2001)
Case

Trinity College (D)

By: F. Warren McFarlan and Nancy Bartlett

Supplements the (A) case. View Details

Keywords: Higher Education; Education Industry; Connecticut

February 2001 (Revised April 2001)
Case

Merrill Lynch: Integrated Choice (Abridged)

By: F. Warren McFarlan and James Weber

Merrill Lynch, a full-service brokerage firm with $1.5 trillion in client assets, is under attack from both discount and electronic brokerage firms. It responds with Integrated Choice, a suite of products designed to capture clients, from the do-it-yourself investor... View Details

Keywords: Investment Banking; Marketing Strategy; Distribution Channels; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Risk and Uncertainty; Financial Services Industry

October 2000 (Revised November 2005)
Case

Li & Fung (A): Internet Issues

By: F. Warren McFarlan and Fred Young

This case looks at the issues facing a Hong Kong-based trading company, which links hundreds of factories in India and Asia with major customers like Gap and the Limited in Europe and in the United States. The company has recently launched a dot-com operation to allow... View Details

Keywords: Information Technology; Internet and the Web; Multinational Firms and Management; Distribution Channels; Logistics; Networks; Markets; Supply Chain; Retail Industry; Hong Kong; India; Europe; United States

December 1997 (Revised April 1998)
Case

www.springs.com

By: F. Warren McFarlan and Melissa Dailey

Business Week's June 1997 "Rising Star" profile of Springs Industries' president and COO, Crandall Bowles, reported that she was poised to become one of the top two or three women executives in the country. In November 1997, the company announced Bowles' appointment to... View Details

Keywords: Information Technology; Operations; Product Marketing; Management; Strategy; Consumer Products Industry; South Carolina