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Spring 2012
Article

Sustainability at Dow Chemical

By: Robert G. Eccles, Kathleen M. Perkins and Mark Weick

Dow Chemical Company, which was founded in 1894, is now the second-largest chemical company in the world. From the outset, the company has been committed to high-technology research and commercial innovation in chemistry, advanced materials, and agro-sciences. But if... View Details

Keywords: Value Creation; Corporate Strategy; Chemicals; Environmental Sustainability; Innovation and Invention; Chemical Industry

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November 1994 (Revised June 1996)
Case

Dennis Hightower: Walt Disney's Transnational Manager

By: Ashish Nanda

Describes the actions taken by Dennis Hightower as president of Disney Consumer Products in Europe and the Middle East from 1988 to 1994. Focuses on how he has established a regional office and knit local operations closer together, the benefits that the process has... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Leadership; Change Management; Corporate Strategy; Personal Development and Career; Consumer Products Industry; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; Europe

February 2013 (Revised March 2015)
Case

The LEGO Group: Publish or Protect?

By: Willy C. Shih and Sen Chai

Senior managers at the LEGO Group are faced with a quandary: Should they patent inventions coming out of their manufacturing process development work, should they keep them as trade secrets, or should they publish them so that they would go into the public domain and... View Details

31 Dec 2012
Research & Ideas

Most Popular Stories of 2012

Strategist? Published: July 16, 2012 Corporate strategy has become the bailiwick of consultants and business analysts, so much so that it is no longer a top-of-mind responsibility for many senior executives.... View Details

Keywords: by Staff

01 Jun 2007
News

HBS Faculty Member Honored

Between Competitive Advantage and Corporate Social Responsibility,” the coauthors propose a way for firms to contribute to social welfare without sacrificing corporate success. Porter was also honored (with... View Details

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

01 Dec 2002
News

Books

might easily convince anyone that the old adage is true: “Business ethics” is a contradiction in terms. But ironically, says HBS professor Lynn Sharp Paine, it may well be the steady rise in expectations for corporate behavior that has... View Details

01 Mar 2009
News

Honoring HBS’s Organization Men

Our Choices. Lorsch, who began his work as a doctoral student under the guidance of Lawrence, explained how his research had led him to think about the connection between corporate boards and organization design. Lorsch noted that Fritz... View Details

Keywords: Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools; Educational Services; Publishing Industries (except Internet); Information

March 1989 (Revised August 1994)
Case

Avon Products

Avon Products announced both a change in its business focus and a reduction of its dividend in June 1988. To offset the likely stock price effect of the dividend reduction, Avon announced at the same time an unusual exchange offer, under which it would take up to 25%... View Details

Keywords: Diversification; Capital Markets; Corporate Finance; Consumer Products Industry

June 2001 (Revised November 2001)
Case

Lucent Technologies: The Future of the New Ventures Group

Lucent Technologies' New Ventures Group has created innovative ways to commercialize Bell Labs research. The success of this approach now forces the group to evaluate whether to stay inside Bell Labs or become an external venture capitalist group. View Details

Keywords: Communication Technology; Commercialization; Research; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Telecommunications Industry

06 Jun 2005
Research & Ideas

Microsoft vs. Open Source: Who Will Win?

in a special issue of Management Science. Ultimately, the authors believe, neither side is likely to be forced from the battlefield—Microsoft has too much market share and OSS offers too many benefits for users. But there are strategies... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Technology

March 2019
Supplement

KITEA (E): IKEA's Opening Day

By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell and Gamze Yucaoglu

The case opens in 2016 as Amine Benkirane, CEO of the furniture retailer KITEA, observes KITEA’s dormant sales on the day IKEA opens its first store in Morocco. It then provides information on IKEA’s Morocco store, as well as a detailed pricing comparison between IKEA... View Details

Keywords: Private Sector; For-Profit Firms; Business Strategy; Strategic Planning; Competitive Strategy; Competitive Advantage; Adaptation; Corporate Strategy; Retail Industry; Africa; North Africa; Morocco

04 Jan 2012
First Look

First Look: January 4

firm has a cost structure that requires significant cost adjustment, the quality of governance can only be elucidated accurately by means of simultaneous analysis of firms' business strategy and their View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

28 Nov 2007
Research & Ideas

B2B Branding: Does it Work?

company's stakeholders. Efforts are focused on a single, global corporate brand rather than individual product brands. The payback on marketing expenditures is measured rigorously to the satisfaction of the hard-nosed engineers and... View Details

Keywords: by John Quelch; Consumer Products

23 Jun 2003
Research & Ideas

Psychology, Pathology, and the CEO

without informing other departments, leading to waste and duplication. Respect among peers declined. Employees regularly went to the press to air grievances, reinforcing the BBC's culture of blame.— Rosabeth Moss Kanter BBC: In 1999, the British Broadcasting View Details

Keywords: by Rosabeth Moss Kanter

January 2009
Case

Supersonic Business Jets

By: Dennis A. Yao and Julia Rozovsky

In the fall of 2002, Brian Barents, ex-CEO of Galaxy Aerospace, faced an important decision: whether or not to enter the supersonic business jet (SSBJ) industry. Supersonic flight-flight faster than the speed of sound-had long tantalized leaders of commercial aerospace... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Entrepreneurship; Governance Compliance; Market Entry and Exit; Business Strategy; Cooperation; Aerospace Industry

29 Jun 2009
Sharpening Your Skills

Sharpening Your Skills: Leading Change

there is a danger that commitment to an organization can undermine work-life balance. Successful CEOs are good role models. In addition to open and honest communication and continued investment in HCHP management practices, corporations... View Details

Keywords: by Staff

December 1995
Supplement

EnClean: Malcolm Waddell, CEO, Video

By: David J. Collis

Presents Malcolm Waddell in a question-and-answer session (the actual questions do not appear on the tape) with HBS MBA students following a class in which the case is discussed. View Details

Keywords: Diversification; Restructuring; Corporate Strategy; Going Public; Decision Making; Acquisition; Interactive Communication