Publications
Publications
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- All HBS Web
(2,036)
- Faculty Publications (327)
- March 2000
- Case
Heartport, Inc.
By: Gary P. Pisano and Shoshana Dobrow
Heartport, an entrepreneurial medical device maker, has introduced several innovative systems for conducting less-invasive cardiac surgery. Despite initially high expectations, the company has struggled to get its technology adopted by cardiac surgeons. The company's... View Details
- November 1999 (Revised March 2002)
- Case
Red Hat and the Linux Revolution
By: Alan D. MacCormack and Kerry Herman
The case describes the history of the Linux operating system and the open-source movement in general. Focuses on a critical decision being made by Red Hat, the largest distributor of Linux, about its future development efforts. The decision allows students to explore... View Details
- September 1999
- Case
Trisha Wilson of Wilson & Associates
By: Teresa M. Amabile and Sarah S. Khetani
Texan entrepreneur Trisha Wilson has founded an interior design firm and watched it grow into one of the most successful firms in the hospitality design services industry. After 20 years of building a company that is truly a reflection of her own personality, Wilson... View Details
- August 1999 (Revised February 2000)
- Case
Cisco Systems, Inc.: Acquisition Integration for Manufacturing (A)
By: Steven C. Wheelwright, Charles A. Holloway, Nicole Tempest and Christian G. Kasper
Describes the procedures and processes used by Cisco Systems in its acquisition of high-technology firms. Its goal is to retain key engineering talent and to leverage existing product development efforts, but to quickly merge acquired companies its own systems and... View Details
Keywords: Information Technology; Leveraged Buyouts; Acquisition; Integration; Mergers and Acquisitions; Production; Activity Based Costing and Management; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Innovation and Management; Technological Innovation; Talent and Talent Management; Human Resources; Manufacturing Industry; Technology Industry; England
- May 1999 (Revised March 2001)
- Case
Marshall Industries
Confounding predictions that the Internet would "disintermediate" commerce, making "middle man" companies all but obsolete, Marshall Industries, a leading electronics distributor, used the Internet and digital technologies to reinvent itself. Marshall continued to sell... View Details
- February 1999
- Case
Volant Skis
By: Steven C. Wheelwright and Matt Verlinden
Volant brought innovation to the ski equipment industry in 1989 by developing a stainless steel ski. He claimed the skis could turn more easily, could hold an edge in icy conditions, and were more stable than aluminum or fiberglass skis. The company's "soft-flex"... View Details
- April 1998 (Revised May 2000)
- Case
Guidant Corporation: Shaping Culture Through Systems
By: Robert L. Simons and Antonio Davila
Guidant is a successful IPO start-up selling pacemakers and defibrillators. The case describes how managers install systems to balance innovation and control. Three parts of a shareholder value strategy are described. Controls include incentive systems, beliefs... View Details
- January 1998 (Revised May 1999)
- Case
General Scanning, Inc. (A)
By: H. Kent Bowen, Sean McClenaghan and Charles Tillen
General Scanning, Inc. was founded by Jean Montagu and Pierre Brosens, two MIT mechanical engineers with an interest in developing innovative products based on the early application of lasers. They invented proprietary technology for laser beam positioning and scanning... View Details
- December 1997 (Revised April 1998)
- Case
www.springs.com
By: F. Warren McFarlan and Melissa Dailey
Business Week's June 1997 "Rising Star" profile of Springs Industries' president and COO, Crandall Bowles, reported that she was poised to become one of the top two or three women executives in the country. In November 1997, the company announced Bowles' appointment to... View Details
- August 1997 (Revised March 1999)
- Case
VeriFone (1997)
By: Richard L. Nolan, Anne Donnellon and Donna B. Stoddard
VeriFone, a leading manufacturer of payment systems technology, was acquired by Hewlett-Packard in June 1997. The case describes the strategic challenges that VeriFone faces as it positions itself to compete in the Internet payment systems marketplace. View Details
- February 1997 (Revised April 1998)
- Case
first direct (A)
Describes the operations and strategy of the world's largest, fastest growing branchless bank. Using a person-to-person interface over conventional phone lines, First Direct provides standard banking and related financial products to nearly 700,000 customers throughout... View Details
- June 1996 (Revised January 1999)
- Case
XcelleNet, Inc. (A)
By: Stephen P. Bradley, Richard L. Nolan and James Leonard
XcelleNet, a $35 million system software company based in Atlanta, was founded in 1986 to address the computing needs of a class of remote and mobile users and data that were rarely connected to a network. Though the clear first mover and leader in the remote... View Details
- February 1995 (Revised October 1995)
- Case
Doing Business in a Distributed World: Clients, Servers, and the Stuff in Between
By: Lynda M. Applegate and Geoffrey Bock
Examines business computing as it is evolving in the 1990s. Compares the highly centralized and tightly controlled systems of the past with today's flexible, networked, client/server technology. Serves as an introduction to client/server terminology and technology. View Details
- September 1994
- Case
American Airlines: Object Oriented Flight Dispatching Systems
By: F. Warren McFarlan and Espen Andersen
American Airlines Describes has organized and developed their Systems Operation Control (SOC) center in Dallas, from which the day-to-day running of the airline takes place. This case details the decision support system used by the flight dispatchers, and the... View Details
- August 1994 (Revised May 2001)
- Case
ITT Automotive: Global Manufacturing Strategy (1994)
By: Gary P. Pisano and Sharon L. Rossi
ITT Automotive is in the process of developing a new-generation antilock brake system (ABS), designated the MK-20. The case focuses on the level of automation to be used in the production of this new system, and whether all plants should use the same process... View Details
- May 1994
- Background Note
Managing Market Complexity: A Three-Ring Circus
Proposes models of organization that address the various product-market environments posed by the product life cycle. Frames these changes along the two dimensions of uncertainty and diversity. Offers three sets of organizational characteristics to reflect the three... View Details
- March 1994 (Revised September 1995)
- Case
Enron Gas Services
By: Peter Tufano
The CEO of Enron Gas Services (EGS), a subsidiary of the largest U.S. integrated natural gas firm, considers the risks and opportunities of selling a variety of natural gas derivatives, both embedded in gas delivery contracts and as free-standing financial contracts.... View Details