Publications

March 1991 (Revised May 1995)
Case

Kraft General Foods: The Merger (A)

By: David J. Collis

Describes Philip Morris' acquisitions of General Foods in 1985 and Kraft, Inc. in 1989, focusing on the integration of Kraft and General Foods that forms a $30 billion food subsidiary. Details the steps required to merge these two large companies, emphasizing the... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Business Subsidiaries; Business or Company Management; Managerial Roles; Business Processes; Cooperation; Integration; Food and Beverage Industry

September 2000 (Revised October 2006)
Teaching Note

Wildfire Communications, Inc. (A) and (B) (TN)

By: Joseph B. Lassiter III and John T. Gourville

Teaching Note for (9-396-305) and (9-396-306). View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Performance Effectiveness; Business Processes; Digital Platforms; Business Strategy; Markets

Article

Entrepreneurship in the Large Corporation: A Longitudinal Study of How Established Firms Create Breakthrough Inventions

By: Gautam Ahuja and Curba Morris Lampert

We present a model that explains how established firms create breakthrough inventions. We identify three organizational pathologies that inhibit breakthrough inventions: the familiarity trap—favoring the familiar; the maturity trap—favoring the mature;... View Details

Keywords: Radical Innovation; Organizational Learning; Technology; Strategy; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Business Processes; Innovation and Invention; Chemical Industry

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01 Jun 2023
News

Action Plan: Net Proceeds

“I’m a root-cause kind of guy,” says Robert Goodwin (GMP 3, 2007), reflecting on a military, government, and civilian career that has taken him from counterdrug operations in Colombia to assisting with the peace process in Sudan to rebuilding the health care system in... View Details

Keywords: April White; recycling; corporate social responsibility; waste management; water; Waste Management and Remediation Services; Corporate Services

01 Sep 2015
News

Research Brief: Bankruptcy as a Better—Not Bitter—End

some have suggested. “For one out of five of these sales, the process is really just about transferring ownership of an ongoing, operating enterprise to another owner,” says Gilson. “That’s exactly what happens in the market for mergers... View Details

Keywords: Erin Peterson

October 2000 (Revised November 2000)
Case

Handspring

By: Myra M. Hart and Mary Rotelli

Donna Dubinsky and Jeff Hawkins, founders of Palm Computing, have launched a new venture--Handspring. They are preparing for an IPO in the spring of 2000. When the markets begin to collapse and their investment bankers suggest a significantly lower price, they must... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Business Startups; Investment Banking; Initial Public Offering; Valuation; Business Processes; Computer Industry; Technology Industry

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September 2000
Background Note

Professional Services Module Two: External Strategy for Sustained Competitive Advantage

By: Thomas J. DeLong, Ashish Nanda and Scot H. Landry

Concerns itself with the strategic dynamics which influence organizations externally. View Details

Keywords: Competitive Advantage; Competitive Strategy; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Business Startups; Business Plan; Service Operations; For-Profit Firms; Power and Influence; Measurement and Metrics; Business Processes; Management Practices and Processes; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques

Find at Harvard

June 2010 (Revised September 2012)
Teaching Note

Patient Flow at Brigham and Women's Hospital (TN) (A) and (B)

By: Anita L. Tucker

Teaching Note for 608171 and 608172. View Details

Keywords: Business Processes; Change; Employees; Emotions; Health Care and Treatment; Health Industry

01 Sep 2006
News

Light Years Ahead

Photos by Webb Chappell Forty years ago, in September 1966, a young mission analyst named Jay Light left the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in California and headed east to Harvard Business School. At JPL, Light used his undergraduate... View Details

Keywords: Roger Thompson; Business Schools & Computer & Management Training; Business Schools & Computer & Management Training

01 Oct 2001
News

Calling the Tune: Negotiation as an Improvisational Dance

Before you make that next big deal — to buy a car, hire new staff, or acquire a company — you'd better brush up on your ballroom skills. In business today, negotiating is more like an intricate dance than a cold transaction, according to... View Details

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

24 Apr 2014
News

Leading a battle against corruption, a force that slows economic development

“Business leaders must remember that, left unchecked, corruption will eventually undermine the very legitimacy of capitalism,” says Paul Healy, James R. Williston Professor of Business Administration and Senior Associate Dean for Faculty... View Details

09 Apr 2008
Conference Presentation

Entrepreneurial Processes, Political Institutions, and New-venture Survival

By: Shon R. Hiatt and Wesley Sine

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Management Practices and Processes; Government and Politics; Business Ventures

September 1992
Case

ACCOR (A)

ACCOR, a French-based lodging and restaurant company, is described from its founding in 1967 to its 1990 acquisition of Motel 6. Particular attention is devoted to ACCOR's co-chairmen, Paul Dubrule and Gerard Pelisson, and the management policies they have put in... View Details

Keywords: Management Practices and Processes; Acquisition; Management Teams; Accommodations Industry; France; North America

Summer 2014
Article

Designed for Workarounds: A Qualitative Study of the Causes of Operational Failures in Hospitals

By: Anita L. Tucker, W. Scott Heisler and Laura D. Janisse

Frontline care providers in hospitals spend at least 10% of their time working around operational failures, which are situations where information, supplies, or equipment needed for patient care are insufficient. However, little is known about underlying causes of... View Details

Keywords: Supply Chain; Health Care and Treatment; Failure; Business Processes; Health Industry

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November 1990 (Revised June 1991)
Case

Final Voyage of the Challenger

Provides a summary of technical and organizational details that led to the decision to launch the Challenger Space Shuttle, and to the ensuing accident. Details of design and testing milestones of the Space Shuttle, with a focus on the Solid Rocket Booster, offer... View Details

Keywords: Information Technology; Risk Management; Ethics; Decision Choices and Conditions; Business Processes; Aerospace Industry; United States

28 May 2019
News

Planting the Seeds of Positive Growth

Rufer, who offered her some advice: “Start with the farmer.” Rufer knew from experience that a tomato processing business can’t be successful if the farmers don’t have the tools to produce consistent tomato... View Details

Keywords: April White; Crop Production; Agriculture

01 Mar 2008
News

Faculty Books

How Good Marketing Makes for Better Democracy by John A. Quelch and Katherine E. Jocz (HBS Press) Professor Quelch and Research Associate Jocz demonstrate marketing's critical role in the growth and governance of societies and how good marketing improves the political... View Details

Keywords: Business Schools & Computer & Management Training; Business Schools & Computer & Management Training

July 1998 (Revised April 2002)
Case

Tobacco Negotiations

By: Michael A. Wheeler and Georgia Levenson

Chronicles the negotiation of the proposed national settlement between the states and the five major U.S. tobacco companies. View Details

Keywords: Negotiation Types; Negotiation Process; Business and Government Relations; Consumer Products Industry; United States

August 1995 (Revised December 2006)
Case

Stonehaven, Inc.

By: H. Kent Bowen and Ramchandran Jaikumar

Stonehaven is a disguised version of a shoe factory located in Central Europe that must respond quickly to mix and volume changes for the U.S.-based company. Shoemaking involves several distinctly different processes, which must be designed and managed in a way to give... View Details

Keywords: Operations; Business Processes; Performance Capacity; Change Management; Design; Consumer Products Industry; Europe; United States