Publications

June 1998 (Revised January 2000)
Case

Egghead.com

By: Jeffrey F. Rayport

Egghead Software, an entrenched traditional chain retailer specializing in computer software and peripherals, had established a nationwide chain of mall and shopping center stores and a well-organized national brand. In early 1998, management made a highly unusual, and... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Digital Platforms; Internet and the Web; Applications and Software; Information Technology Industry; Information Technology Industry

01 Jun 2007
News

Power Trip

Singleton (MBA ’88). The trio look at what can be learned by stepping back and taking a longer term view of how some of the greatest business leaders of the last century built successful careers. The book draws on information from the... View Details

Keywords: Deborah Blagg; Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools; Educational Services

01 Jun 1998
News

Wanted: Leaders for the New Millennium

Top MBA Program seeks applicants from all industries and backgrounds. Minimum requirements: demonstrated leadership potential, high standard of academic achievement. Must be able to lead through others and guide an organization through... View Details

Keywords: Cindy Olnick

March 1998 (Revised November 1999)
Case

USA TODAY Online

By: John A. Deighton and Anthony St. George

How should USA TODAY use its brand franchise to build a publishing business on the World Wide Web? Advertising Age described the first steps as "a case study in how not to do it," but by the end of 1997 USA TODAY Online is the most visited news site on the Web. Now the... View Details

Keywords: Digital Marketing; Design; Profit; Revenue; Brands and Branding; Marketing Strategy; Internet and the Web; Information Industry

Find at Harvard

March 2000 (Revised June 2000)
Case

Microsoft Office 2000: Multimedia

By: Alan D. MacCormack and Kerry Herman

Describes the history of Microsoft's Office product suite. Discusses evolution of the Office 2000 project. Set at the end of the project when Steven Sinofsky, Office vice president, must decide upon the direction for the next version of Office, as well as make changes... View Details

Keywords: Applications and Software; Product Development; Innovation and Invention; Change; Information Technology Industry; Washington (state, US)

March 1993 (Revised March 1994)
Case

Sierra On-Line, Inc. (A)

Sierra On-Line, a fast growing software developer, is criticized by a Forbes journalist for excessively capitalizing software development costs. In contrast to most other software developers that typically capitalize about 20% of R&D costs, Sierra capitalizes 80%.... View Details

Keywords: Applications and Software; Financial Statements; Corporate Finance; Information Technology Industry

01 Mar 2018
News

Democratizing Data to Favor Farmers

fragmented and on their own. “I cannot think of another industry as large or as fundamental as agriculture that is structured that way,” says Baron. “It’s as if every oil well was owned by a different family, while the View Details

Keywords: Sasha Issenberg

01 Dec 2005
News

A Matter of Opinion

Victor Navasky of The Nation magazine has spent his life taking on the Establishment. So what did he hope to accomplish at Harvard Business School? Call it what you will — the conventional wisdom, the status quo, the official line — and chances are you’ll find Victor... View Details

Keywords: Publishing Industries (except Internet); Publishing Industries (except Internet)

01 Jun 2007
News

A Classics Enterprise

Robert Strassler (MBA ’61), a self-described “scholar without credentials,” worked for seven years on his own dime to produce an unlikely 1996 bestseller: The Landmark Thucydides, a reader-friendly version of the Greek philosopher’s famously dense and convoluted... View Details

Keywords: ancient Greece; Publishing Industries (except Internet); Publishing Industries (except Internet)

Fast Answer

FIELD Global Immersion Resources: Brazil

Where can I find country, industry and market information and news about Brazil? Industry and market research Passport Click on Search on the upper left side of the main screen... View Details

08 Apr 2015
What Do You Think?

Are Technology Companies Ripe for Disruption?

why high tech industries find themselves vulnerable to disruption today reflect thoughts of those who have studied the phenomenon. Philippe Gouamba said, "It is more important for Apple to out-do Samsung (and vice-versa) than it is... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett; Computer; Technology

04 Sep 2019
News

Alumni and Faculty Books for September 2019

College, the authors argue that rankings, metrics, analytics, college visits, and advice that we use today to help make college decisions are out of step with the progress individual students are trying to make. They don't give students and families the View Details

July 2020
Technical Note

Digital Natives Growing Without a Sales Force

By: Das Narayandas, Michael Norris and Amram Migdal

This brief case describes the rise of so-called digital natives (also called born-in-digital) in the 2000s and 2010s that successfully grew without a sales force. The case highlights the emergence of business-to-business Internet and cloud-based companies and their... View Details

2010
Working Paper

Performance Tradeoffs in Team Knowledge Sourcing

By: Bradley R. Staats, Melissa Valentine and Amy C. Edmondson

This research examines how teams organize knowledge sourcing (obtaining access to others' knowledge or expertise) and investigates the performance trade-offs involved in two approaches to knowledge sourcing in teams. One approach a team can take is to specialize, such... View Details

Keywords: Information Management; Knowledge Sharing; Knowledge Use and Leverage; Performance Efficiency; Performance Productivity; Quality; Groups and Teams; Information Technology Industry; India

Read Now

01 Dec 2004
News

Exotic Travel

Nichols Photo courtesy Bill Nichols Want to show your kids a real rainforest instead of the Rainforest Cafe? Marketing consultant Bill Nichols (MBA ’78) and his wife, Jennifer, did just that, taking their two children to locales such as Ecuador, Thailand, and Tanzania.... View Details

Keywords: Laura Singleton; Publishing Industries (except Internet); Publishing Industries (except Internet); Publishing Industries (except Internet)

01 Mar 2018
News

March 2018 Alumni and Faculty Books

industrial wage workers; and the production of knowledge, including the idea of the economy, among other topics. Together, they suggest emerging themes in the field: a fascination with capitalism as it is made by political authority, how... View Details

22 Aug 2019
News

Catalyzing Africa’s Tech Sector

other talent in the world, is an exciting business to build. Skydeck is produced by the External Relations department at Harvard Business School and edited by Craig McDonald. It is available at iTunes or wherever you get your favorite podcasts. For more View Details

September 1996 (Revised April 1997)
Case

GO Corporation

By: Josh Lerner, Thomas J. Kosnik, Tarek AbuZayyad and Paul C. Yang

GO faces a crisis in March 1991 when Microsoft announces the introduction of a competing operating system for pen-based computers. GO's managers must work with its venture financers, Kleiner Perkins, to redesign its financing, alliance, and product development... View Details

Keywords: Value Creation; Digital Platforms; Competition; Private Equity; Adaptation; Crisis Management; Information Technology Industry; Information Technology Industry