Publications

June 1973 (Revised July 1982)
Case

Textron, Inc.

By: Norman A. Berg

Covers the historical development, current business, management philosophies, corporate strategy, and the nature and role of the corporate headquarters in managing the highly diversified operations. Based on Textron, Inc. (A). View Details

Keywords: History; Management Style; Business or Company Management; Corporate Strategy; Business Headquarters; Operations

March 2004 (Revised May 2004)
Case

Governance Reform at MCI

By: Lynn S. Paine and Bridget Gurtler

Richard Breeden proposed corporate governance reforms for MCI. Breeden is a former chairman of the SEC who was a court-appointed "corporate monitor" for the troubled company (formerly WorldCom). The company must adhere to the proposals unless excused by a court order. View Details

Keywords: Corporate Governance; Restructuring; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Business or Company Management; Management Teams

February 2021 (Revised April 2024)
Case

Shopify: The Conquest for Chinese E-Commerce

By: Jeffrey F. Rayport, Avani Patel, Samantha Lin and Ariel Yang

In mid-2020, Tobias Lütke, CEO of Shopify, faced a critical decision on how to time potential expansion into the China market. Over the prior 15 years, his Canadian software-as-a-service company had grown from a small e-commerce solutions provider to a full service... View Details

December 1992 (Revised November 1994)
Case

Becton Dickinson Division: Marketing Organization

By: Frank V. Cespedes

The marketing director for the largest division of a health care products company is reviewing the structure and staffing of the division's marketing organization. The division has authorization to hire an additional marketing manager. Hence, the immediate case... View Details

Keywords: Business Conglomerates; Health Care and Treatment; Human Resources; Recruitment; Selection and Staffing; Managerial Roles; Product Marketing; Measurement and Metrics; Organizational Structure; Strategy; Consumer Products Industry; Health Industry

04 Apr 2005
What Do You Think?

Can an Organization’s “Deep Smarts” Be Preserved?

that "those companies that are in the hands of accountants will shrink from ... [preserving deep smarts] because they will not be able to quantify the benefits in business terms." C. J. Cullinane elaborates on this in commenting... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

Article

How Real Sales Learning Happens: In the Flow of Work

By: Yuchun Lee, Mark Magnacca and Frank V. Cespedes

Most learning in sales is through peer learning in task-specific contexts, and the effects are cumulative because modeling behavior is a big driver of how salespeople develop. This is very different from the experience in most training seminars, especially if the... View Details

Keywords: Sales; Learning; Training; Performance

Read Now

06 Dec 2021
News

Truth Be Told

Image by John Ritter In 2018, HBS associate professors Aiyesha Dey and Jonas Heese wrote a case about a whistleblower at a multi-national gambling company who exposed financial misstatements, first to his manager and later to the US Securities and Exchange Commission.... View Details

Keywords: April White; Corporate, Subsidiary, and Regional Managing Offices; Management

31 Aug 2021
News

Trust: How To Earn It, Keep It, And Assess It In Others

22 Jun 2018
News

Harvard Business School Welcomes Dwyane Wade As Executive Fellow

29 Oct 2014
Research & Ideas

Inventing Products is Less Valuable Than Inventing Ideas

origins of one of the most successful companies on the planet, but are also a commentary on the origins of any invention. "Anytime you invent something, you have really invented two things—the thing itself, and an idea," says... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Technology

October 2017 (Revised October 2022)
Case

Jumia Nigeria: from Retail to Marketplace (A)

By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell and Namrata Arora

Founded in 2012, Jumia Nigeria, a startup effort by Germany-based Rocket Internet, aimed to become an African Amazon. The company entered the nascent market and immediately enjoyed an uptick in consumer spending fueled by the strength of Nigeria’s oil-based economy. By... View Details

Keywords: Retail; Marketplace; Inventory; Ecommerce; Funding; Business Ecosystem; Business Ecosystems; Competition; Business Model; Globalization; Emerging Markets; Expansion; Logistics; Competitive Strategy; E-commerce; Retail Industry; India; Nigeria; Africa

October 1990 (Revised November 1992)
Case

Ceramics Process Systems Corp. (A)

By: Clayton M. Christensen

A small ceramics company started by a group of MIT professors struggles with some basic technology strategy issues. A plan to take "one commercializable step" at a time in order to get a foothold in the market goes awry because of incompatibility between the company's... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Technology; Problems and Challenges; Market Entry and Exit; Innovation Strategy; Technological Innovation; Research and Development; Production; Manufacturing Industry; Cambridge

Find at Harvard

14 Apr 2020
News

Begin with Trust

December 2014 (Revised July 2021)
Case

Discovery Limited

By: Michael E. Porter, Mark R. Kramer and Aldo Sesia

Discovery Ltd. is a South Africa-based insurance company. Started in the early 1990s, Discovery used behavioral economics and data collection to innovate in the health care insurance industry. Its founder Adrian Gore believed that the company's products needed to not... View Details

Keywords: Shared Value; Health Care; Financial Services; Strategy; Value Creation; Health Care and Treatment; Insurance; Growth and Development Strategy; Financial Services Industry; Health Industry; Insurance Industry; South Africa

June 2015
Case

Ethiopia: An Emerging Market Opportunity?

By: John A. Quelch and Sunru Yong

This case centers on the potential and challenges of entering an emerging market. It provides a brief overview of the Ethiopian market, market reforms and policies, and the business environment faced by foreign companies. Three multinational businesses, CareCo, ShoeCo,... View Details

Keywords: Multinational Firms and Management; Emerging Markets; Foreign Direct Investment; Ethiopia

September 2023
Technical Note

Note on Family Constitutions

By: Christina R. Wing

Less than half of family businesses will survive generational transfer. While sometimes this is due to operating company issues, in many cases it is because of conflict within the family. Many families create and adopt a family constitution to proactively mitigate... View Details

Keywords: Family Business; Policy; Organizational Structure; Family Ownership; Conflict Management; Agreements and Arrangements

December 2014
Case

Louis Dreyfus Commodities

By: David E. Bell

Louis Dreyfus Commodities (LDC or Dreyfus) is the D of the ABCD grain-trading giants. The case describes how their business works and details the strategy by which management turned the company around in recent years. The case presents a number of issues facing the... View Details

Keywords: Commodities; Commodity Trading; Agriculture; Agribusiness; Plant-Based Agribusiness; Goods and Commodities; Financial Markets; Business Strategy; Product Marketing