Publications

October 2012 (Revised April 2017)
Case

Brazil's Enigma: Sustaining Long-Term Growth

By: Laura Alfaro, Hilary White and Haviland Sheldahl-Thomason

Over the past decade, Brazil's future as a leading world economic power appeared certain. An expanding middle class and commodity boom had fueled economic growth, with GDP growth hitting a peak of 7.5% in 2010. However, the high cost of conducting business in Brazil,... View Details

Keywords: Capital Controls; Inflation; Exchange Rates; Stimulus; Competitiveness; Productivity Growth; Foreign Investment; Infrastructure; Inflation and Deflation; Currency Exchange Rate; Brazil

August 2012 (Revised February 2017)
Case

Porto Adriatico

By: Arthur I Segel

In March 2012, Jack Dawkins is in the early stages of leading the development of an old navy yard in Croatia into a mixed-use waterfront community of residences, hotel rooms, shops and dining. Catering to those arriving by superyachts and other leisure boats, and set... View Details

Keywords: Real Estate; Project Finance; Projects; Planning; Real Estate Industry; Croatia

March 2011 (Revised April 2011)
Exercise

The Future of BioPasteur

By: Giovanni Gavetti and Francesca Gino

The purpose of this exercise is to let students experience a few biases that can be deleterious to strategic decision-making. In particular, students are induced to fall into a confirmatory trap, and to experience other biases such as anchoring and sampling bias.... View Details

Keywords: Interpersonal Communication; Decision Choices and Conditions; Outcome or Result; Groups and Teams; Prejudice and Bias; Strategy

February 2011 (Revised December 2022)
Supplement

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

By: Stuart C. Gilson and Sarah Abbott

One of the leading publishers of textbooks and other educational materials for the U.S. K-12 educational instruction market has suffered a dramatic decline in sales and profits in the wake of the 2008-2009 financial market crisis and economic recession, and it now... View Details

Keywords: Restructuring; Decisions; Economic Slowdown and Stagnation; Borrowing and Debt; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Profit; Crisis Management; Goals and Objectives; Sales; Competition; Publishing Industry; United States

April 2010 (Revised May 2011)
Case

Emerging Nokia?

By: Juan Alcacer, Tarun Khanna, Mary Furey and Rakeen Mabud

By late 2009, Nokia was grappling with the decision of whether to recover its leading position in the high-profit developed markets, where they were losing market share to the likes of Apple and Samsung, or defend its market leadership in the low-margin, high-volume... View Details

Keywords: Innovation and Invention; Emerging Markets; Industry Structures; Competitive Advantage; Corporate Strategy; Telecommunications Industry; Finland

April 2005 (Revised March 2006)
Case

Change at Whirlpool Corporation (A)

By: Jan W. Rivkin, Dorothy A. Leonard and Gary Hamel

In 1998, the CEO of Whirlpool Corp. decides to change the company's strategy significantly to escape an increasingly unattractive "stalemate" in the appliance industry. The change he proposes involves a fundamental shift in the company's focus--from manufacturing to... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Change Management; Competitive Advantage; Strategic Planning; Production; Brands and Branding; Management Teams; Consumer Products Industry; United States

August 2003 (Revised December 2004)
Case

Peninsula Community Foundation

By: James E. Austin, Jane Wei-Skillern and Alison Berkley Wagonfeld

After leading the Peninsula Community Foundation (PCF) through a period of tremendous growth, its president, Sterling Speirn, is facing the prospect of a decline in the foundation's asset base for the first time in the foundation's history. In addition, the fact that... View Details

Keywords: Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Product Positioning; Planning; Alliances; Opportunities; Nonprofit Organizations; Valuation; Financial Services Industry

March 2001 (Revised February 2009)
Case

HDFC (A)

By: Lynn S. Paine, Carin-Isabel Knoop and Suma Raju

The top management team at India's leading home finance company must decide how to deal with the emergence of intense competition at the end of the 1990s. Having founded the industry and dominated it for nearly 20 years, the well-respected company faces a bevy of new... View Details

Keywords: Values and Beliefs; Management Style; Management Teams; Competition; Financial Services Industry; India

April 1999 (Revised August 1999)
Case

R&B Falcon

R&B Falcon is the world's leading offshore drilling contractor. Amid surging exploration budgets and increasing deepwater drilling activity, the company makes huge investments in several new state-of-the art $300 million ultra-deep-water drilling rigs. As day rates and... View Details

Keywords: Technology; Change Management; Industry Growth; Mining; Product Marketing; Mining Industry

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May 1992
Case

Sunday River Ski Resort

By: Leonard A. Schlesinger and Martha Epstein

Sunday River is a ski area in Bethel, ME which has been run by entrepreneur Les Otten since 1980. The year before Otten purchased the area, it posted a loss of $235,000 on revenues of $541,000. Under Otten's leadership, however, Sunday River posted year after year of... View Details

Keywords: Service Delivery; Competitive Advantage; Entrepreneurship; Success; Transformation; Tourism Industry; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; Maine

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June 1989 (Revised May 1993)
Case

Rossin Greenberg Seronick & Hill, Inc. (A)

By: John A. Quelch

Rossin Greenberg Seronick & Hill (RGSH), a New England advertising agency, was keen to secure the account of Microsoft Corp. The case describes the bid for the account, which included the submission of a "flier" referring to knowledge of a competitor's plans, as a... View Details

Keywords: Ethics; Marketing; Advertising; Advertising Industry; New England