Publications

09 Mar 2003
Research & Ideas

Six Keys to Building New Markets by Unleashing Disruptive Innovation

can't seem to get innovation right. When companies keep improving their existing products and services to meet their best customers' needs, they eventually run into the "innovator's dilemma." By doing everything right, they... View Details

Keywords: by Clayton M. Christensen, Michael E. Raynor & Scott D. Anthony

18 Apr 2023
Research & Ideas

What Happens When Banks Ditch Coal: The Impact Is 'More Than Anyone Thought'

Consumers who are eager to mitigate climate change can take many actions, such as reducing the number of airline flights they take or installing solar panels on their homes. But the planet is in a race against time, and individual action alone won’t help most countries... View Details

Keywords: by Barbara DeLollis; Financial Services; Mining

September 2011
Supplement

TopCoder (B)

By: Karim R. Lakhani, Eric Lonstein and Stephanie Pokrywa

Metrology plays a key role in the manufacture of mechanical components. Traditionally it is used extensively in a pre-process stage where a manufacturer does process planning, design, and ramp-up, and in post-process off-line inspection to establish proof of quality.... View Details

Keywords: Industry Growth; Forecasting and Prediction; Change Management; Production; Machinery and Machining; Planning; Quality; Competition; Diversification; Technology Adoption; Measurement and Metrics; Product Design; Manufacturing Industry

18 Jun 2013
First Look

First Look: June 18

Second, pay disparity between managers located in different states decreases relative to that of co-located managers. Third, division productivity falls in dispersed firms, with the effect driven by managers at the low end of the wage... View Details

Keywords: Anna Secino

November 2014
Case

Napalm: From Soldiers Field to Trang Bang

By: Tom Nicholas and Jonas Peter Akins

Napalm is one of the most destructive weapons ever to be invented. Yet, at its original inception it was nothing more than a technical challenge, and it was never intended to be used in indiscriminate antipersonnel warfare. The pathway of its development by a Harvard... View Details

Keywords: Moral Sensibility; War; Chemicals; Research and Development; Chemical Industry; Viet Nam; Cambridge; United States

22 Feb 2018
Book

The New History of American Capitalism

the rise (and fall?) of progressive taxation to the revisionary engineering of the New Deal. They consider how deeply finance has penetrated into daily life, including the ideological and political forces that made citizens into investors... View Details

Keywords: Manufacturing

March 2017
Case

Cantel Medical

By: John R. Wells and Gabriel Ellsworth

Cantel Medical Corporation provided infection prevention and control products and services for patients, caregivers, and other healthcare providers. In 2016, Cantel generated sales of $665 million and net profits of $60 million, double the levels of five years earlier.... View Details

Keywords: Cantel; Charles Diker; Furniture Industry; Matrix Organization; Acquisition; Mergers and Acquisitions; Business Conglomerates; Business Units; Business Growth and Maturation; Business Organization; For-Profit Firms; Chemicals; Profit; Revenue; Geographic Scope; Multinational Firms and Management; Health; Health Care and Treatment; Business History; Business or Company Management; Goals and Objectives; Growth and Development Strategy; Organizational Structure; Problems and Challenges; Research and Development; Opportunities; Strategy; Adaptation; Business Strategy; Competitive Strategy; Corporate Strategy; Diversification; Expansion; Information Technology; Biotechnology Industry; Chemical Industry; Health Industry; Manufacturing Industry; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry; Pharmaceutical Industry; United States; New Jersey

30 May 2023
Research & Ideas

Can AI Predict Whether Shoppers Would Pick Crest or Colgate?

of randomness. They then crafted prompts—the questions users ask an AI tool—about specific products like toothpaste and laptops, seeking hundreds of responses about whether the “customer” would choose to purchase View Details

Keywords: by Kristen Senz

09 Dec 2019
Research & Ideas

Identify Great Customers from Their First Purchase

customers, and with richer data, companies could learn even more. For example, companies that use cookies to collect browsing data could incorporate the type of device and search engine a person used to shop online, or the number of View Details

Keywords: by Kristen Senz; Retail; Service

26 Nov 2007
Research & Ideas

Best Practices of Global Innovators

In the not-too-distant past, many companies secured competitive advantage by investing heavily in internal R&D. Company engineers and scientists built value from the ground up, and protected their intellectual property like lions... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

October 2013 (Revised December 2015)
Case

Alcoa's Bid for Alcan (A)

By: Paul Healy and Penelope Rossano

In spring 2007, Alcoa CEO Alain Belda was concerned about the company's market position in light of increased competition from developing markets. China's recent entry into the aluminum market was affecting both supply and demand. Furthermore, downstream and upstream... View Details

Keywords: Acquisitions; Strategy; Aluminum; Accounting; Financials; Alcoa; Rio Tinto; Alcan; Metals and Minerals; Competition; Consolidation; Emerging Markets; Acquisition; Financial Statements; Manufacturing Industry; Canada; China; Russia

20 Dec 2011
First Look

First Look: December 20

innovation in open systems is an important trend in the modern global economy. In general, distributed innovation is made possible by the modularity of the underlying product or process. But despite the documented technical benefits of... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

October 2013
Supplement

Alcoa's Bid for Alcan (B)

By: Paul Healy and Penelope Rossano

In spring 2007, Alcoa CEO Alain Belda was concerned about the company's market position in light of increased competition from developing markets. China's recent entry into the aluminum market was affecting both supply and demand. Furthermore, downstream and upstream... View Details

Keywords: Strategy; Acquisitions; Alcoa; Alcan; Rio Tinto; Aluminum Industry; Accounting; Financial Analysis; Consolidation; Market Participation; Financial Statements; Acquisition; Mining; Mining Industry; Canada; United States

11 Feb 2020
Sharpening Your Skills

10 Rules Entrepreneurs Need to Know Before Adopting AI

software engineers and UX designers. AI can be magical, but sales still win. Fred Wilson, venture capitalist and popular blogger, holds the view that “marketing is for companies who have sucky products.” Similarly, many AI founders... View Details

Keywords: by Rocio Wu

March 2015
Case

BOLT: Seed Venture Capital Firm

By: William A. Sahlman and Robert F. White

BOLT is a different kind of seed venture capital firm built to serve the needs of early-stage startups at the intersection of hardware and software.

In the past decade, the cost of entrepreneurial experimentation has dropped dramatically, particularly in web... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurial Finance; Accelerator; Entrepreneurship; Finance; Venture Capital; Applications and Software; Information Infrastructure; Strategy

06 Aug 2021
Book

Steve Jobs and the Rise of the Celebrity CEO

In the 1950s, most Americans probably couldn’t name the CEOs of the largest companies in the United States, including General Motors, United States Steel, and Standard Oil. But these days, some of the most successful businesses have shifted from being faceless... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

September 2004 (Revised December 2004)
Case

Metso Paper: Globalization of Finnish Metal Workshops

By: Lynda M. Applegate, Marikka Heikkila and Kalle Lyytinen

Metso Paper, the world's largest producer of paper machines, aims to transform itself into a knowledge- and information-based service and solution provider for the paper industry by aggressively exploiting information technologies. In the fall of 2002, Jorma Hujala, a... View Details

Keywords: Production; Customer Value and Value Chain; Information Technology; Corporate Strategy; Knowledge Management; Machinery and Machining; Expansion; Service Delivery; Manufacturing Industry; Pulp and Paper Industry; Finland

Find at Harvard

April 2009 (Revised August 2009)
Case

Petrobras in Ecuador (A)

By: Aldo Musacchio, Lena G. Goldberg and Ricardo Reisen de Pinho

On October 18, 2007, Ecuador's President Rafael Correa announced his intention to migrate Petrobras' existing participation contracts to exploit oil reserves in Ecuador's Blocks 18 and 31 to servicing agreements under which Petrobras would be paid a production fee and... View Details

Keywords: Metals and Minerals; Globalized Firms and Management; Corporate Governance; Government Administration; Taxation; Contracts; Negotiation Process; Negotiation Tactics; Public Ownership; Business and Government Relations; Business and Shareholder Relations; Brazil; Ecuador

January 2017
Teaching Note

SOHO China: Transformation in Progress

By: Charles F. Wu and Alexander W. Schultz

In 2016 against the backdrop of a challenging Chinese macroeconomic environment, SOHO China, the largest owner and developer of Class-A real estate in Beijing and Shanghai, was struggling to convince analysts of the merits of their new “build-to-hold” strategy. Founded... View Details

Keywords: Merchant Builder; Real Estate Development; Public Markets; China; Shared Office Space; Growth and Development Strategy; Property; Construction; Stocks; Financial Markets; Marketing Strategy; Real Estate Industry; Construction Industry; China