Publications

May 1997 (Revised July 1997)
Case

Vermeer Technologies (F): FrontPage 97

By: Ashish Nanda

Vermeer engineers work at the breakneck pace of "Internet time" to develop the next version of their software product, winning accolades from Microsoft management. Even before this version ships, however, they are faced with another punishing development schedule for... View Details

Keywords: Business Growth and Maturation; Applications and Software; Business Startups; Product Development; Information Technology Industry

May 1997 (Revised July 1997)
Case

Vermeer Technologies (D): Making Transitions

By: Ashish Nanda

Microsoft has acquired Vermeer, and Vermeer executives are both excited and concerned as they prepare to move to Redmond. Even though the acquisition has been financially rewarding, the Vermeer engineers worry how well they will adapt to their new home. Meanwhile,... View Details

Keywords: Horizontal Integration; Value Creation; Applications and Software; Acquisition; Product Development; Information Technology Industry

01 Sep 2012
News

Alumni Books

the Economy Is Wrong by Edward Conard (MBA 1982) (Portfolio/Penguin) To explain the causes of the US financial crisis, conventional wisdom blames Wall Street and the mortgage industry for using predatory tactics to seduce homeowners into... View Details

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

01 Jun 2010
News

Letters to the Editor

University engineering professor Andrew Schultz Jr. who had published an article on the experience curve (or learning curve) based on his research in the aircraft industry years before BCG’s founding. Henderson’s insight was not of the... View Details

Keywords: Information; Information

01 Dec 2008
News

There’s a New Class in Town

Members of the MBA Class of 2010 (900 in all) reported for duty in September. Selected from a pool of 8,661 applicants, the group is 38 percent women and 33 percent international. Just over 200 of the incoming students have an industry... View Details

Keywords: Finance; Management, Scientific, and Technical Consulting Services; Professional Services

01 Dec 2015
News

Multimedia Simulation Provides Real-World Reality Check

and ways in which the brewery compares to the competition. Team members then have an hour to digest the information and formulate a new strategy. At the end of eight rounds, industry winners are selected... View Details

01 Mar 2003
News

Service with a Smile

In an effort to understand the role that suppressing or exaggerating emotions has on employees, HBS assistant professor Laura Morgan Roberts and a colleague from the University of Toronto, Stéphane Côté, set about to measure the relationship between emotion regulation... View Details

Keywords: Laura Morgan Roberts; Stephane Cote; Publishing Industries (except Internet); Publishing Industries (except Internet)

01 Jun 2001
News

Q&A: Donna Dubinsky

in the hearts of consumers more quickly than camcorders, personal computers, or cell phones. In the Palm, Dubinsky and her colleagues created a sleek, portable tool that can be “synced” with a desktop computer to store information such as... View Details

Keywords: Julia Hanna; PalmPilot; Apple; Information; Information

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

17 Mar 2014
News

Dropbox VP Explores Potential Indian Parters

Keywords: Dropbox; telecom; deveping markets; Information; Information; Information; Information

January 1998 (Revised December 1998)
Case

NSK Software Technologies Ltd.

By: Paul A. Gompers and Jeffrey M. Anapolsky

Discusses the efforts of three Israeli software engineers' efforts to bring a network security software product to market. The firm needs an investment to complete programming and start marketing. View Details

Keywords: Applications and Software; Financing and Loans; Product Development; Information Technology Industry; Israel

May 1995 (Revised November 2001)
Case

Microsoft/Intuit

By: William E. Fruhan Jr.

Microsoft Corp. proposes to acquire Intuit Corp. Examines the strategic fit and the price proposed to complete the transaction. View Details

Keywords: Valuation; Applications and Software; Acquisition; Business Strategy; Information Technology Industry; United States

September 1991 (Revised May 1994)
Case

Microsoft's Networking Strategy

By: David B. Yoffie

Keywords: Network Effects; Networks; Business Strategy; Information Technology; Information Technology Industry

Find at Harvard

September 2006 (Revised March 2007)
Case

QuickBase

By: Clayton M. Christensen and Mark Szigety

Describes the challenge that engineers and marketing executives at Intuit Corp. faced when finding markets and applications for their QuickBase product. The breakthrough occurred when they abandoned their conventional modes of market segmentation, and instead strove to... View Details

Keywords: Applications and Software; Engineering; Product Marketing; Segmentation; Jobs and Positions; Consumer Behavior; Information Technology Industry

September 2004 (Revised August 2007)
Case

Enterprise IT at Cisco (2004)

By: Andrew P. McAfee, F. Warren McFarlan and Alison Berkley Wagonfeld

Illustrates the challenges associated with centralizing IT decisions at Cisco after a decade of decentralized planning and project funding. When Brad Boston became Cisco's new CIO in 2001, he found that managers were starting to get frustrated with the results of their... View Details

Keywords: Management; Resource Allocation; Information Technology; Problems and Challenges; Business Ventures; Change Management; Entrepreneurship; Projects; Planning; Corporate Finance; Information Technology Industry

2009
Other Unpublished Work

The Kindle: Igniting the Book Business

By: Peter Olson and Bharat Anand

Keywords: Technological Innovation; Information Technology; Publishing Industry; Publishing Industry

April 2011 (Revised April 2014)
Case

ASAHI Net: Bringing Innovation to Education

By: Hirotaka Takeuchi

ASAHI Net developed a cloud-based platform for higher education institutions to use in Japan and was wondering if that platform could be accepted in the U.S. as well. View Details

Keywords: Higher Education; Information Management; Innovation and Invention; Knowledge Sharing; Knowledge Use and Leverage; Technology Platform; Education Industry; Education Industry; Japan; United States

September 2008
Teaching Note

Chi Mei Optoelectronics (TN)

By: Willy C. Shih

Teaching Note for [608-123]. View Details

Keywords: Diversification; Information Technology; Market Entry and Exit; Standards; Industry Clusters; Supply Chain; Production; Experience and Expertise; Biotechnology Industry; Biotechnology Industry; Taiwan; Asia; Korean Peninsula; China