Publications

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July–August 2015
Article

Engineering Reverse Innovations: Principles for Creating Successful Products for Emerging Markets

By: Amos Winter and Vijay Govindarajan

Multinationals are starting to catch on to the logic of reverse innovation, in which products are designed first for consumers in low-income countries and then adapted into disruptive offerings for developed economies. But only a handful of companies have managed to do... View Details

Keywords: Innovation Strategy; Emerging Markets

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25 Feb 2020
Research & Ideas

For Migrant Workers, Homesickness Can Reduce Productivity

production centers spread across the country. They learned that first-year workers were usually permitted to travel home for the festivals of Diwali, while the more experienced third-year workers had to stay behind to View Details

Keywords: by Kristen Senz

June 1997
Teaching Note

Innovation in Action: Product Development Projects and Action-Based Learning, Instructor's Note

By: Marco Iansiti

As a project-based course, Managing Product Development has been carefully designed so that classroom discussion and students' project team activities infuse each other: learning from course materials enhances project activities, which in turn enrich subsequent... View Details

Keywords: Management Practices and Processes; Management Style; Product Development; Projects; Groups and Teams

March 1993 (Revised July 2008)
Case

Liability Management at General Motors

By: Peter Tufano

An analyst at General Motors charged with managing the structure of the automaker's debt must decide whether and how to modify the interest rate exposure of the firm's most recent debt offering. The analyst must take into consideration GM's liability management policy... View Details

Keywords: Borrowing and Debt; Capital Structure; Financial Management; Interest Rates; Risk Management; Auto Industry; North America

Educators

December 2007 (Revised April 2008)
Exercise

The Elcer Products Transaction: Confidential Information for Pearl Equity Partners

By: James K. Sebenius

In a six-party negotiation exercise, the TNDA Corp. plans to sell the Elcer Products Division to one of four potential buyers (industrial, financial, U.S., German). This case contains confidential information for the Pearl Equity Partners management role. Challenges... View Details

Keywords: Negotiation

December 1994 (Revised May 1999)
Case

3M Optical Systems: Managing Corporate Entrepreneurship

By: Christopher A. Bartlett and Afroze A Mohammed

A middle-level division manager must decide whether he should support an investment request for a third attempt at launching a new product developed by a struggling business unit. Describes the long, difficult process by which the unit has developed the product--a... View Details

Keywords: Managerial Roles; Decision Choices and Conditions; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Product Launch; Problems and Challenges; Product Development; Consumer Products Industry

Educators

September–October 2024
Article

How AI Can Power Brand Management

By: Julian De Freitas and Elie Ofek

Marketers have begun experimenting with AI to improve their brand-management efforts. But unlike other marketing tasks, brand management involves more than just repeatedly executing one specialized function. Long considered the exclusive domain of creative talent, it... View Details

Keywords: Creativity; AI and Machine Learning; Brands and Branding; Product Positioning; Customer Focus and Relationships

2017
Working Paper

Business and Green Knowledge Production in Sweden 1960s–1980s

By: Ann-Kristin Bergquist and Kristina Söderholm

This working paper contributes to the burgeoning historical literature that has transformed our understanding about the relationship between big business and the environmental regulation. Previously, it was believed that corporate managers resisted the extra costs... View Details

Keywords: Environmental Sustainability; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Business and Government Relations; Research and Development; History; Sweden

SSRN

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July 2023
Teaching Note

Belden and Digital Transformation: From Product Sales to Solutions Sales

By: Frank V. Cespedes

Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 823-002. Belden manufactures devices such as switches, cables, adapters, and connectors. Faced with market changes, the firm initiated a new Enhanced Solutions Delivery (ESD) initiative. In November 2022 executives are evaluating the... View Details

Keywords: Change Management; Digital Transformation; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Sales; Marketing Channels; Manufacturing Industry

30 May 2005
Research & Ideas

Germany’s Pioneering Corporate Managers

messier, more haphazard, less decentralized than many American corporations. By the 1920s, American corporations began to diversify heavily but immediately ran into the problem of how to manage diversified View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

July 1989 (Revised October 1992)
Case

Air Products and Chemicals, Inc.: MIS Reorganization (A)

As a part of the Management Information Services (MIS) Division's evolution, it was planned to distribute all systems development and applications (SD&S) activities and resources (assets and personnel) from the central MIS Division to the operating areas by October... View Details

Keywords: Restructuring; Decision Making

10 Aug 2009
Research & Ideas

High Commitment, High Performance Management

high commitment, high performance company. Martha Lagace: What differentiates HCHP firms and their leaders? Michael Beer: The leaders manage with a multiple stakeholder perspective. Contrary to many CEOs, HCHP leaders—with support from... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

summer 1992
Article

Production and Operations Management's New 'Requisite Variety'

By: Robert H. Hayes

Keywords: Operations; Management

2008
Book

Becoming a New Manager

By: Linda A. Hill

You've just been promoted to a managerial position for the first time—congratulations! But beware: the managerial role differs markedly from the individual contributor role. Go into the job with mistaken assumptions about what to expect, and you just may be blindsided... View Details

Keywords: Leadership; Management Skills; Management Style; Managerial Roles; Performance Improvement; Groups and Teams

February 2012
Article

Management Practices across Firms and Countries

By: Nicholas Bloom, Christos Genakos, Raffaella Sadun and John Van Reenen

For the last decade we have been using double-blind survey techniques and randomized sampling to construct management data on over 10,000 organizations across 20 countries. On average, we find that in manufacturing American, Japanese, and German firms are the best... View Details

Keywords: Management Practices and Processes; Competency and Skills; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Organizations; Developing Countries and Economies; Economic Sectors; Performance; Business and Shareholder Relations; Private Equity; Multinational Firms and Management; United States; Germany; Japan; China; India