Publications

13 Feb 2018
First Look

New Research and Ideas, February 13, 2018

improve the care of patients with diabetes by contracting an app. They go through a rigorous evaluation of the FDA regulations, the existing market, and potential commercial competitors to try and identify a... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

15 Nov 2021
News

As Supply Lines Strain, Some Corporations Rewrite Production Playbook

02 Apr 2019
First Look

New Research and Ideas, April 2, 2019

strategies in response to Google’s entry threat and actual entry into their markets. We find that, after Google’s entry threat increases, affected developers reduce innovation and raise the prices for the... View Details

Keywords: Dina Gerdeman

19 Oct 2016
Book

Three Critical Mistakes Digital Businesses Make With Content

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Retail; Music

September 1981 (Revised August 1987)
Case

CIBA-GEIGY Agricultural Division

By: Benson P. Shapiro and Roy H. Schoeman

In 1979 Leo Bontempo, marketing vice president of Ciba-Geigy Agricultural Division was deciding whether to purchase an $840,000 program for TeleSession. This was a marketing service designed to accelerate the adoption of new products among large innovative growers by... View Details

Keywords: Marketing Strategy; Innovation Strategy; Communication; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry

Find at Harvard

January 1993 (Revised November 1995)
Case

AXA: The Global Insurance Company

Claude Bebear, the CEO of AXA, the tenth-largest insurer in Europe, has just completed an acquisition of the Equitable, the seventh-largest insurer in the United States. As part of his strategy to make AXA the first truly global insurance company, Bebear is considering... View Details

Keywords: Market Entry and Exit; Insurance; Global Strategy; Acquisition; Insurance Industry; Asia; North America; Europe

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June 2004 (Revised September 2005)
Case

Cox Communications, Inc.

By: Thomas R. Eisenmann and Jonathan Gibbons

Cox Communications, the third largest U.S. cable television system operator, is confronting strategy decisions in mid-2004. Cox managers must decide whether to speed its deployment of Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), which offers capital and operating costs savings... View Details

Keywords: Customers; Information Technology; Competition; Product Development; Media and Broadcasting Industry; Telecommunications Industry; United States

January 2005 (Revised August 2005)
Case

Apple Computer, 2005

By: David B. Yoffie and Barbara Mack

Apple has reaped the benefits of its innovative music player, the iPod. However, its PC and server business continue to hold small market share relative to the worldwide computer market over the past few years. Will the iPod lure new users to the Mac? Will Apple be... View Details

Keywords: Technological Innovation; Innovation Strategy; Information Infrastructure; Brands and Branding; Computer Industry; Entertainment and Recreation Industry

10 Apr 2012
First Look

First Look: April 10

market's growth that is the primary driver of profit margins and sales growth. A few retailers have succeeded in going global by developing strategies that apply four retail-specific rules for globalization.... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

February 2000
Case

E2M Health Services

By: Richard M.J. Bohmer and Naomi Atkins

Outlines the growth of an innovative diabetes disease management organization from 1994-99. Having demonstrated the success of their model in managing diabetes populations in Texas and New York State, the CEO and president must decide the future strategy of the company... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Customer Focus and Relationships; Decision Choices and Conditions; Financial Markets; Revenue; Innovation and Invention; Business or Company Management; Marketing Strategy; Internet; Health Industry

July 2020 (Revised January 2021)
Case

Vineet Nayar and Sampark Foundation: Frugal Innovation at Scale (A)

By: Linda A. Hill and Emily Tedards

In 2005, Vineet Nayar, the former CEO and Vice Chairman of HCL Technologies, and his wife, Anupama Nayar, committed $100 million of their personal wealth to found Sampark Foundation — a grant-making philanthropy with a mission to transform learning outcomes for 20... View Details

November 2005 (Revised December 2016)
Case

Bally Total Fitness (A): The Rise, 1962–2004

By: John R. Wells, Elizabeth A. Raabe and Gabriel Ellsworth

From a single, modest club in 1962, Bally Total Fitness had grown to become—in management’s words—the “largest and only nationwide commercial operator of fitness centers” in the United States in 2004. Bally had faced its share of challenges, but the last couple of... View Details

Keywords: Bally Total Fitness; Fitness; Gyms; Health Clubs; Chain; Securities And Exchange Commission; Paul Toback; Weight Loss; Exercise; Contracts; Personal Training; Retention; Accounting; Accounting Audits; Accrual Accounting; Finance; Advertising; Business Growth and Maturation; Business Model; For-Profit Firms; Customers; Customer Satisfaction; Public Equity; Financing and Loans; Revenue; Revenue Recognition; Geographic Scope; Multinational Firms and Management; Health; Nutrition; Business History; Lawsuits and Litigation; Management; Business or Company Management; Goals and Objectives; Growth and Development Strategy; Marketing; Operations; Service Delivery; Service Operations; Public Ownership; Problems and Challenges; Business and Shareholder Relations; Business Strategy; Competition; Corporate Strategy; Expansion; Segmentation; Trends; Cost Management; Profit; Growth and Development; Leadership Style; Five Forces Framework; Private Ownership; Opportunities; Motivation and Incentives; Competitive Strategy; Health Industry; United States; Illinois; Chicago

11 Oct 2006
Research & Ideas

The Success of Reverse Leveraged Buyouts

the market. But when Lerner and Cao started analyzing the actual performance numbers, they saw that conventional wisdom had it wrong. "Reverse LBOs appear to consistently outperform other IPOs and the stock View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Banking; Financial Services

August 1995 (Revised September 1995)
Background Note

Designing and Managing the Information Age IT Architecture

By: Lynda M. Applegate

The co-evolution of technology, work, and the workforce over the past 30 years has dramatically influenced our concept of organizations and the industries within which they compete. No longer simply a tool to support "back-office" transactions, IT has become a... View Details

Keywords: Design; Management; Organizations; Information Technology

22 Nov 2011
First Look

First Look: November 22

Sephora's traditional marketing programs. Importantly, Bornstein needs to begin thinking about a cohesive long-term strategy that clearly identifies the role digital platforms... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

April 2007 (Revised June 2008)
Background Note

AmorePacific

By: Elie Ofek and Kerry Herman

Describes the dominant firm in the Korean cosmetics market up to the mid-2000s. Gives background on AmorePacific's historical evolution, its current brands, and the competition it faces from local and international players. Also provides information on the market... View Details

Keywords: History; Competition; Distribution Channels; Brands and Branding; Beauty and Cosmetics Industry; South Korea

January 2007 (Revised October 2007)
Case

Procter & Gamble: Organization 2005 (A)

By: Mikolaj Jan Piskorski and Alessandro L. Spadini

In response to a huge crisis in 2000, the new CEO of Procter & Gamble has to decide whether to continue with an unusual organizational design or to revert to the old matrix organization. Describes all the organizational designs used by Procter & Gamble from the 1920s... View Details

Keywords: Global Strategy; Globalized Firms and Management; Organizational Design; Organizational Structure