Publications

January 2023 (Revised January 2023)
Case

Belden and Digital Transformation: From Product Sales to Solutions Sales

By: Frank V. Cespedes and Amy Klopfenstein

This case concerns the industrial automation division at Belden, a hardware manufacturer. While Belden historically sold products such as cables, wires, and other networking devices, EVP of Industrial Automation Ashish Chand recognized that IT vendors were entering the... View Details

Keywords: Implementation; Sales Cycle; Digital Transformation; Sales; Product Positioning; Business Model; Market Entry and Exit; Customer Focus and Relationships; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Supply and Industry; Technology Industry; North America; United States

September 1991
Case

General Foods Corp.: Product Management--1991

By: Stephen A. Greyser

Keywords: Product; Management; Food and Beverage Industry

2023
Working Paper

Cost-Efficient Decarbonization of Portland Cement Production

By: Gunther Glenk, Anton Kelnhofer, Rebecca Meier and Stefan Reichelstein

Accounting for nearly 8% of global annual carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, the cement industry is considered difficult to decarbonize. While a sizeable number of abatement levers for Portland cement production is becoming technologically ready for deployment, many are... View Details

SSRN

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January 2005 (Revised March 2005)
Case

Parisian: productivity and selling cost

By: Rajiv Lal and Arar Han

Presents the dilemma facing George Jones with respect to the high selling cost at Parisian Department Stores. The challenges to be considered reflect issues at different levels of the organization, including individual salespeople, the store itself, and the merchandise... View Details

Keywords: Cost; Executive Compensation; Production; Sales; Salesforce Management; Motivation and Incentives; Retail Industry

Program

Managing Innovation

companies across the globe. With new insight into innovation processes, you will be ready to take action and lead a highly creative, innovation-focused culture that can consistently deliver results. This program is eligible for the Certificate of View Details

05 Mar 2015
Video

EiR Sam Clemens, Founder and Chief Product Officer, InsightSquared

2003
Article

Closing the Loop: Product Take-back Requirements and their Strategic Implications

By: Michael W. Toffel

In Asia, Europe, and North America, regulators are seeking to reduce waste disposal and develop recycling markets by requiring manufacturers to manage the end-of-life disposition of products they produce. Such policies attempt to "close the loop" for products ranging... View Details

Keywords: Wastes and Waste Processing; Energy Conservation; Product Development; Strategy; Policy; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Manufacturing Industry; Asia; Europe; North and Central America

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November 2012 (Revised July 2013)
Case

Gerry Pasciucco at AIG Financial Products

By: Gautam Mukunda and Thomas J. DeLong

Gerry Pasciucco was appointed to lead American International Group's Financial Products (AIGFP) group after the government bailout of AIG in 2008 and charged with the task of shutting down the division while minimizing the government's losses. AIGFP's failed trades had... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Accountability; Ethics; Crisis Management; Financial Crisis; Management Teams; Business and Government Relations; Financial Services Industry; United States

May 2000 (Revised December 2018)
Supplement

SMA: Micro-Electronic Products Division (B)

By: Michael Beer and Michael Tushman

Focuses on the recommendations and implementation strategy suggested by the organizational development group for the division's problems. A rewritten version of an earlier case. View Details

Keywords: Change Management; Organizational Culture; Conflict Management; Corporate Strategy

March 2011
Case

Cash Flow Productivity at PepsiCo: Communicating Value to Retailers

PepsiCo developed a new metric that better measured the value added by Pepsi products than did gross margin, the traditional metric used by retailers to determine shelf space and promotional activity. The new metric, cash flow productivity, captured the value of... View Details

Keywords: Customer Relationship Management; Cash Flow; Measurement and Metrics; Distribution; Performance Productivity; Value Creation; Food and Beverage Industry; Retail Industry

August 1986 (Revised May 1993)
Case

Rohm and Haas (A): New Product Marketing Strategy

By: V. Kasturi Rangan and Lesley Susan

Joan Macey, Rohm and Haas' market manager for Metalworking Fluid Biocides, found that sales of a new biocide, Kathon MWX, was utterly disappointing. This was all the more puzzling since sales of her other product--Kathon 886 MW, a liquid biocide used only in... View Details

Keywords: Communication Strategy; Marketing Strategy; Product Launch; Distribution; Performance; Sales

January 1997 (Revised September 1997)
Case

Improving the Product Development Process at Kirkham Instruments Corp.

By: Clayton M. Christensen

Describes the efforts of a manufacturer of scientific instruments to implement new methods of managing new product development, which its executives had learned in a Harvard Business School seminar. The executives left the seminar excited to implement a new way of... View Details

Keywords: Change Management; Product Launch; Innovation and Invention; Product Development; Manufacturing Industry; Technology Industry; United States

May 2011
Article

The Best Way to Name Your Product 2.0

By: Marco Bertini, John Gourville and Elie Ofek

Although there's ample research to guide marketers in naming new products, little of it has addressed follow-on offerings, even though these make up the bulk of new products in many industries. Companies have two basic strategies to choose from. They can stick with a... View Details

Keywords: Product Development; Management; Brands and Branding; Strategy

Register to Read

05 Nov 2018
News

Using Experiments to Launch New Products

04 May 2023
News

How Generative AI Changes Productivity

April 1988 (Revised March 1991)
Supplement

Boeing 767: From Concept to Production (B)

By: David A. Garvin

Updates the (A) case to the present day. The issue facing students is whether Boeing's approach to managing new airplane programs must be modified to fit with this new environment. View Details

Keywords: Production; Change Management; Product Development; Product Marketing; Situation or Environment; Air Transportation Industry; Manufacturing Industry

19 Dec 2012
Research & Ideas

How to be Extremely Productive

project flopped, don't attack the person"). Deborah Blagg: Classic productivity books often focus on time management, but Extreme Productivity takes a much broader look. It reads more like a... View Details

Keywords: by Deborah Blagg

Research Summary

Managing Networked Businesses

By: Thomas R. Eisenmann

Platform-based businesses that leverage network effects face a distinctive set of management challenges. A platform encompasses components and rules that facilitate interactions between the platform's users. A platform-based product or service exhibits a network... View Details

October 1999 (Revised March 2000)
Case

HP Consumer Products Business Organization: Distributing Printers via the Internet

By: Rajiv Lal, Kirthi Kalyanam, Shelby Mc Intyre and Edie Prescott

In spring 1998, Pradeep Jotwani, vice president and general manager of the Consumer Products Business Organization of the Hewlett-Packard Co. (HP), was contemplating the increasing success of e-commerce and its implications for his division. The consumer products group... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Marketing Channels; Business Processes; Problems and Challenges; Partners and Partnerships; Sales; Business Strategy; Information Technology; Consumer Products Industry