Publications

July 2018
Case

LIXIL Group Corporation: Building a New Company in an Old Industry

By: Boris Groysberg and Akiko Kanno

In the spring of 2018, Kinya Seto, president and CEO of LIXIL Group Corporation, a major housing and building products and services company, called a meeting at the company’s head office in central Tokyo to discuss how to implement the new three-year strategic plan.... View Details

Keywords: Turnaround; Leadership And Change Management; Consolidation; Change Management; Leadership; Global Strategy; Business Model; Manufacturing Industry; Manufacturing Industry; Japan

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

Anita Elberse is the Lincoln Filene Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School.

Professor Elberse develops and teaches an MBA course covering the "Businesses of Entertainment, Media, and Sports," which ranks among the most sought-after... View Details

Keywords: electronics; electronics; electronics; electronics; electronics; electronics; electronics; electronics; electronics; electronics; electronics; electronics; electronics; electronics; electronics; electronics; electronics; electronics

February 2011
Case

Chegg: Textbook Rental Takes Flight

By: Thomas R. Eisenmann, William A. Sahlman and Evan W. Richardson

In late 2010, Silicon Valley-based Chegg, the leading online college textbook rental company, is scaling rapidly. The case recounts Chegg's history from its origins as a distant competitor to Craigslist in college classified listings through a pivot into textbook... View Details

Keywords: Change Management; Higher Education; Entrepreneurship; Books; Growth and Development Strategy; Growth Management; Service Operations; Renting or Rental; Online Technology; Service Industry; Service Industry; California

26 May 2015
First Look

First Look: May 26

By: Buciuni, Giulio, and Gary P. Pisano Abstract— It is widely presumed that in today's globalized economy, the value of geographic clustering of manufacturing industries is no longer valuable. Manufacturing... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

September 2010 (Revised April 2013)
Case

Gazelle in 2012

By: Andrei Hagiu and James Weber

Gazelle has pioneered a reCommerce intermediation model: it buys used electronics from consumers and resells them on eBay or to wholesalers. Going forward, its two main strategic challenges are 1) deciding how much to rely on partnerships with large retailers for... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Growth and Development Strategy; Markets; Two-Sided Platforms; Partners and Partnerships; Business Strategy; Service Industry; Service Industry

July 1998 (Revised January 2009)
Case

Display Technologies, Inc. (Abridged)

By: H. Kent Bowen and Jonathan West

Display Technologies, Inc. (DTI) is a new joint venture between Toshiba and IBM Japan that is manufacturing the most advanced form of flat panel displays. With success in achieving significant production volumes, DTI has been asked to double its output as quickly as... View Details

Keywords: Joint Ventures; Decision Choices and Conditions; Leadership Style; Production; Outcome or Result; Performance Capacity; Strategy; Hardware; Electronics Industry; Electronics Industry; Japan

Teaching Interest

Overview

By: Jeffrey F. Rayport

Technology Entrepreneurship, Marketing Strategy, Service Management View Details

Keywords: Technological Innovation; Strategy Formulation; ＂Marketing Analytics＂; Advertising Technology; Media Content; Media And Broadcasting Industry; Media Businesses; Electronics Industry; Electronics Industry; Electronics Industry; Electronics Industry

April 2009 (Revised May 2017)
Case

Skyhook Wireless

By: Shikhar Ghosh and Thomas R. Eisenmann

Ted Morgan, the founder of Skyhook Wireless just received a call from Steve Jobs of Apple asking for a meeting. Ted must decide how to prepare for a meeting that could finally give Skyhook an anchor customer. Ted and his team have worked for three years to build a new... View Details

Keywords: Mobile and Wireless Technology; Information Technology; Business Ventures; Business Startups; Technology Industry

October 1996 (Revised December 1996)
Case

United Electric Controls

By: H. Kent Bowen, Jody H. Gittell and Sylvie Ryckebusch

United Electric Controls (UE) was a small, traditional family-owned manufacturing company when Dave Reis, the youngest member of the Reis family, took over the business. This case describes Reis's efforts to change UE's traditional work practices in order to make the... View Details

Keywords: Change Management; Family Business; Production; Business Strategy; Human Resources; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Decisions; Growth and Development Strategy; Information Technology; Electronics Industry; Electronics Industry; United States

Find at Harvard

September 2024 (Revised March 2025)
Case

Epic: The Future of Health Information Technology

By: Regina E. Herzlinger and Brian L. Walker

How should the founder and leadership team of a health IT company with more than 45 years of market leadership prepare for the future, while navigating founder transitions and industry changes? Founded by Judy Faulkner in the late 1970s, Epic pioneered electronic... View Details

Keywords: Technological Innovation; Entrepreneurship; Health Care and Treatment; Private Ownership; Customer Focus and Relationships; Electronics Industry; Electronics Industry

June 2012 (Revised March 2014)
Case

Best Buy in Crisis

By: John R. Wells and Galen Danskin

In June 2012, Best Buy was in crisis. In 1996, Best Buy overtook Circuit City as the world's leader in consumer electronics retailing; however, 18 years later, Best Buy now found this position threatened. With $51 billion in revenues, it was still the biggest CE... View Details

Keywords: Change Management; Decision Choices and Conditions; Forecasting and Prediction; Competitive Strategy; Ethics; Management Teams; Electronics Industry; Electronics Industry; Electronics Industry

Research Summary

Globalization of Human Capital

By: Nitin Nohria

One of the most significant dimensions of the current wave of globalization is the globalization of human capital. Whether it is low cost, skilled manufacturing workers in China, software and customer service professionals in India, or highly skilled employees in... View Details

February 2018 (Revised August 2018)
Case

OpenInvest

By: Shawn Cole, Boris Vallée and Nicole Tempest Keller

Founded by a team of hedge fund and NGO alumni, OpenInvest launched its platform in 2015 to enable retail investors to tailor their portfolios to their personal values in an automated way, for instance by screening out weapons manufacturers stocks or overweighting... View Details

Keywords: Fintech; Impact Investing; Investment Portfolio; Customization and Personalization; Technological Innovation; Social Issues; Growth and Development Strategy; Business Model; Financial Services Industry

January 2018
Case

Environmental Technology Fund Partners and E-Leather

By: Vikram S. Gandhi and Aldo Sesia

It is 2014 and Environmental Technologies Fund (ETF) Partners, a UK-based venture capital firm, has an opportunity to invest in a privately held UK company that manufactured engineered composition leather extracted from waste leather using an environmentally friendly... View Details

Keywords: Sustainability; Venture Capital; Investment Strategy; Investment; Strategy; Ownership; Valuation; Energy Conservation; Equity; Technological Innovation; Environmental Sustainability; Performance Efficiency; Manufacturing Industry; Manufacturing Industry; United Kingdom

Suraj Srinivasan is the Philip J. Stomberg Professor of Business Administration, a member of the Accounting and Management faculty unit, and chair of the View Details

Keywords: financial services; financial services

Rohit Deshpande

Rohit Deshpandé is a Baker Foundation Professor and Sebastian S. Kresge Professor of Marketing, Emeritus at Harvard Business School, where he has been teaching in the Advanced Management Program,... View Details

Keywords: financial services; financial services; financial services; financial services; financial services; financial services; financial services; financial services; financial services; financial services; financial services; financial services; financial services

July 2000 (Revised May 2002)
Case

Gateway: Moving Beyond the Box

By: Frances X. Frei, Youngme E. Moon and Hanna Rodriguez-Farrar

Gateway has opened retail stores to differentiate itself from its competitors (e.g., Dell). Describes how the company has created an excellent service experience, but has struggled financially as a result. View Details

Keywords: Transition; Change Management; Valuation; Service Operations; Service Delivery; Distribution Channels; Electronics Industry; Electronics Industry; United States