Publications

December 2002 (Revised February 2005)
Case

Cap Gemini Ernst & Young (A): A Global Merger

By: Ashish Nanda

French IT consulting giant Cap Gemini is poised to purchase the consulting arm of Ernst & Young, a U.S.-based Big 5 accounting firm. In doing so, many differences need to be resolved, including negotiating with Ernst & Young entities all over the world as well as... View Details

Keywords: Negotiation; Multinational Firms and Management; Mergers and Acquisitions; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Information Technology Industry; Consulting Industry; France

May 2025
Case

stc Group: DARE to Transform

By: Sunil Gupta and Sadika El Hariri

Established as a government-owned entity in 1998, stc Group was the sole telecommunications operator in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). Soon after it was privatized in 2003, regional players started entering the Saudi market. To deal with the competition and to... View Details

Keywords: Expansion; Diversification; Digital Transformation; Customer Focus and Relationships; Telecommunications Industry; Saudi Arabia

03 Oct 2006
Working Paper Summaries

Cartels and Competition: Neither Markets nor Hierarchies

Keywords: by Jeffrey Fear

November 2007 (Revised December 2008)
Background Note

China Rising: An Economic Snapshot

"China Rising: An Economic Snapshot" provides readers with an overview of China's economic transformation, relying on economic data from a variety of sources. It is organized into three sections: (1) "The Big Picture" explores macroeconomic indicators, as well as those... View Details

Keywords: Developing Countries and Economies; Macroeconomics; Microeconomics; Local Range; Globalized Economies and Regions; Business and Government Relations; China

26 Apr 2024
HBS Case

Deion Sanders' Prime Lessons for Leading a Team to Victory

CU would move to the Big 12 conference, where it would earn $30 million a year in media rights, drawing even more visibility to Colorado. Coach Prime’s playbook for executives Business leaders can learn 10... View Details

Keywords: by Avery Forman; Sports

28 Mar 2017
First Look

First Look at New Research, March 28

that permits away-from-the-table moves to favorably alter the underlying setup, and a “final no.” Download working paper: https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=52030 Harvard Business School Case 717-028 Brexit No abstract... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

19 Dec 2022
Research & Ideas

The 10 Most Popular Articles of 2022

Two intense years of pandemic distancing and disruption gave way to another sort of distress in 2022—a year of soul searching, burnout, and quiet quitting. The 10 most-read articles on Harvard Business School Working Knowledge showed a... View Details

Keywords: by Danielle Kost

Article

Know Your Customers' 'Jobs to Be Done'

By: Clayton M. Christensen, Taddy Hall, Karen Dillon and David S. Duncan

Firms have never known more about their customers, but their innovation processes remain hit-or-miss. Why? According to Christensen and his coauthors, product developers focus too much on building customer profiles and looking for correlations in data. To create... View Details

Keywords: Customer Relationship Management

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07 Jul 2022
HBS Case

How a Multimillion-Dollar Ice Cream Startup Melted Down (and Bounced Back)

frosting, and lemon-ginger ice cream. When the Brooklyn-based screenwriter first met his future wife and business partner, he wooed her by hosting ice cream socials with homemade concoctions that guests raved about. Flying high on these... View Details

Keywords: by Pamela Reynolds

November 2019
Supplement

United Technologies Corp.: Are the Parts Worth More Than the Whole?

By: Benjamin C. Esty and Daniel Fisher

After spending more than 50 years creating a diversified industrial conglomerate that Fortune Magazine described as “arguably the most profitable conglomerate in America” in 2014, UTC’s CEO Greg Hayes was under pressure from activist investors (Dan Loeb and Bill... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Strategy; Business Conglomerates; Financial Management; Corporate Governance; Organizational Structure; Diversification; Valuation; Investment Activism; Financial Strategy; Investment Funds; Value Creation; Aerospace Industry; Electronics Industry; Industrial Products Industry; United States

October 2012
Article

Target the Right Market

By: Jill Avery and Thomas Steenburgh

SparkPlace is a two-year-old business with a hot new product: software that manages and measures the effectiveness of permission-based marketing campaigns for social media. The company is in the process of deciding on which of two customer segments to focus its... View Details

Keywords: Marketing; Market Segmentation; Customer Defection; Customer Lifetime Value; Customer Relationship Management; CRM; Market Segmentation And Target Market Selection; Marketing Strategy; Product Marketing; Customer Focus and Relationships; Customer Value and Value Chain; Technology Industry; United States

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September 2019 (Revised January 2021)
Case

Vispera: Visual Intelligence for Retail

By: Yael Grushka-Cockayne and Gamze Yucaoglu

The case opens in 2019 as Aytul Ercil, co-founder and CEO of Vispera, computer vision technology provider for retail, is contemplating the company’s agenda trying to decide how to prioritize the impeding options. The case chronicles the founding of Vispera, the... View Details

Keywords: Computer Vision Technology; Visual Analysis; Retail; Information Technology; Business Model; Operations; Performance Efficiency; Competitive Strategy; Decision Choices and Conditions; Global Strategy; Technology Industry; Retail Industry; Turkey

October 2016
Case

Moshe Kahlon: Telecommunications Reform and Competition in Israel's Cellular Market (A)

By: Joshua Margolis, Amram Migdal and Kerry Herman

The case addresses reforms to regulations in Israel’s telecommunications industry initiated and implemented under the leadership of Minister of Communications Moshe Kahlon in 2009-2010. The case highlights the challenges faced by a politician attempting to institute... View Details

November 2019 (Revised April 2021)
Case

United Technologies: Are the Parts Worth More Than the Whole?

By: Benjamin C. Esty and Daniel Fisher

After spending more than 50 years creating a diversified industrial conglomerate that Fortune magazine described as “arguably the most profitable conglomerate in America” in 2014, UTC’s CEO Greg Hayes was under pressure from activist investors (Dan Loeb and Bill... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Strategy; Business Conglomerates; Financial Management; Corporate Governance; Organizational Structure; Investment Funds; Value Creation; Aerospace Industry; Electronics Industry; Industrial Products Industry; United States

07 Dec 2010
Working Paper Summaries

Towards an Understanding of the Role of Standard Setters in Standard Setting

Keywords: by Abigail Allen & Karthik Ramanna; Accounting

31 Oct 2023
Research & Ideas

Beyond the 'Business Case' in DEI: 6 Steps Toward Meaningful Change

More than three in four Fortune 500 companies justify their workforce diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) efforts by making the business case. It sounds like this: By making our workforce more diverse, we’re building a more innovative... View Details

Keywords: by Katherine Hutt Scott and Barbara DeLollis

March 2010 (Revised May 2010)
Case

Disruptive IPOs? WR Hambrecht & Co.

By: Clayton M. Christensen and Tara Donovan

Bill Hambrecht faces a dilemma: should he accept a high profile client for his online Dutch auction IPO? Though it would be viewed as a real coup, what would accepting the business mean to WR Hambrecht? Should he seek other high profile clients like this, or should he... View Details

Keywords: Capital Markets; Initial Public Offering; Disruptive Innovation; Auctions; Online Technology; Financial Services Industry; San Francisco

January 2017 (Revised August 2017)
Case

Weathernews

By: Karim R. Lakhani and Akiko Kanno

Tomohiro Ishibashi (Bashi), chief executive officer for B to S, and Julia Foote LeStage, chief innovation officer of Weathernews Inc., were addressing a panel at the HBS Digital Summit on creative uses of big data. They told the summit attendees about how the Sakura... View Details

Keywords: Crowdsourcing; Operations; Globalization; Weather; Forecasting and Prediction; Global Strategy