Publications

October 2011
Case

Patricia Gottesman at Crimson Hexagon

By: Lena G. Goldberg and Mary Beth Findlay

After successful capital raises and significant progress in gaining market acceptance of its tools for analyzing public opinion, Crimson Hexagon's CEO prepares to address the company's investors on the question of exit strategy. View Details

Keywords: Corporate Strategy; Strategic Planning; Business and Shareholder Relations; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Policy; Information Industry; Web Services Industry

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August 2011
Teaching Note

Exeter Group, Inc. (TN)

By: Robert G. Eccles and Penelope Rossano

Teaching Note for 409001. View Details

Keywords: Markets; Projects; Resource Allocation; Corporate Strategy; Goals and Objectives; Performance Capacity; Service Delivery; Information Technology Industry; Consulting Industry

September 2000 (Revised March 2006)
Case

ZOOTS--The Cleaner Cleaner

By: Myra M. Hart and Sharon Peyus

A successful entrepreneur (retailing) starts a new venture in dry cleaning. The case focuses on transferable models, skills, and knowledge from one venture to the next. Areas of emphasis are: managing growth, challenges of operations, financing, and competitive moves. View Details

Keywords: Growth Management; Competitive Strategy; Operations; Knowledge Dissemination; Business Startups; Corporate Finance; Service Industry; Retail Industry

15 Nov 2013
News

Helping Bright Ideas Shine Again

valuable IP," he says. "That IP tends to be lost, or picked up for little money by companies that don't contribute to the competitiveness of the technology industry. I like salvaging them, then selling them to big corporate buyers. The... View Details

Keywords: Robert S. Benchley

September 2001 (Revised October 2001)
Case

Coca-Cola Company: The Quaker Oats Acquisition (A), The

By: Jay W. Lorsch and Sonya Sanchez

Discusses how CEOs should think about bringing strategic issues to the board, what issues to bring, how to position them, and which information to provide. View Details

Keywords: Managerial Roles; Corporate Governance; Strategy; Governing and Advisory Boards; Mergers and Acquisitions; Food and Beverage Industry

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February 1994 (Revised July 2005)
Case

Competitive Information Policy at Pratt & Whitney

By: Lynn S. Paine

Officials at United Technologies Corp. (UTC) must decide on an ethics policy to govern competitive intelligence gathering. The flow of competitor information into the Pratt & Whitney division has declined sharply since adoption of UTC's code of ethics. A rewritten... View Details

Keywords: Policy; Corporate Governance; Ethics; Competition; Information Management; Business or Company Management; Law

22 Feb 2022
News

March 2022 Alumni and Faculty Books

of corporate purpose, and for good reason. Too many companies deploy purpose as a promotional vehicle to make themselves feel virtuous and to look good to the outside world. Some have only foggy ideas about what purpose is and conflate it... View Details

03 Aug 2020
News

A Clean Start

Scientists, world leaders, and corporations have spent billions trying to harness carbon-dioxide output in order to combat climate change. So far, they’ve figured out how to capture it, but not what to do with it. Todd Brix (MBA 1997)... View Details

Keywords: Maureen Harmon

October 2014
Supplement

Financial Policy at Apple, 2013 Excel Supplement

By: Mihir Desai and Elizabeth A. Meyer

This is the Excel Supplement to Teaching Note 215-022: Financial Policy at Apple, 2013 (A) - (B). View Details

Keywords: Apple; Steve Jobs; Forecast; Forecasting; Forecasting And Prediction; Shareholder Activism; Share Repurchase; Dividends; Financial Ratios; Preferred Shares; Cash Distribution; Corporate Finance; Borrowing and Debt; Financial Management; Financial Strategy; United States; Republic of Ireland

13 Jun 2017
News

Finding Common Ground

and his partners created SharedXpertise Media and took over Corporate Responsibility Magazine, a publication modeled on CFO and Workforce magazines. “We were betting there would be a corporate responsibility... View Details

Keywords: Ralph Ranalli

November 1990 (Revised September 1991)
Case

The Transformation of IBM

By: Andrall E. Pearson and David B. Yoffie

John Akers, IBM's chairman, must confront how to transform a $60 billion, full line, global computer company that is the leader in every market it serves, yet losing share across the board. The case explores senior management's perspective on the process of... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Transformation; Corporate Strategy; Adoption; Management Teams; Information Infrastructure; Information Technology; Multinational Firms and Management; Computer Industry

04 May 2010
First Look

First Look: May 4

We propose that firms' corporate governance and firms' strategic business activities within an industry are interlinked. By conducting a simultaneous economic analysis of business strategy and View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

01 Mar 2016
News

Reinventing the Wheel

the air or clogging landfills appealed to Cardozo. He’d worked extensively in startups and spent some time in the corporate world, but now he wanted more than commercial success—he wanted to lead a company that had what he calls a “strong... View Details

Keywords: Maureen Harmon

02 Sep 2008
First Look

First Look: September 3, 2008

the paper: http://www.hbs.edu/research/facpubs/workingpapers/papers0809.html#wp09-018 Responding to Public and Private Politics: Corporate Disclosure of Climate Change Strategies Authors:Erin M.Reid, Michael... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

01 Feb 1997
News

OPM Celebrates 21st Anniversary at Gala Florida Reunion

Discussing examples of how service-oriented organizations deliver breakthrough service, Sasser urged his audience to take a "quantum leap" in their customer satisfaction efforts and to develop strategies to prevent customers from... View Details

March 2019
Teaching Note

KITEA (A)—(F)

By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell and Karen Elterman

This Teaching Note accompanies the KITEA series of cases, which details how the Moroccan furniture company KITEA prepared for the entry of IKEA into the Moroccan market and describes the outcome of that entry. View Details

Keywords: Private Sector; For-Profit Firms; Business Strategy; Strategic Planning; Competitive Strategy; Competitive Advantage; Adaptation; Corporate Strategy; Market Entry and Exit; Retail Industry; Africa; North Africa; Morocco

July 2008 (Revised December 2011)
Case

ghSMART & Co., 2006: Pioneering in Professional Services

By: Noam T. Wasserman and Ashraf Haque

Geoff Smart, founder and CEO of ghSMART & Co., wanted to build ghSMART into the #1 management-assessment firm for CEOs and investors. However, he had just received two pieces of very bad news: the demise of an existing project and the loss of a $1 million engagement he... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Decision Choices and Conditions; Entrepreneurship; Corporate Governance; Growth and Development Strategy; Organizational Structure; Service Industry

November 1990 (Revised June 2004)
Case

McDonald's and the Environment

McDonald's decides to withdraw its polystyrene plastic packaging for sandwiches and hamburgers after years of defending itself against environmental critics. The decision occurs in the midst of a six-month Joint Task Force study, with the nonprofit Environmental... View Details

Keywords: Announcements; Change Management; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Environmental Sustainability; Retail Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; United States

July 2012
Case

Owen's Precision Machining

By: Ramana Nanda and James McQuade

For the second time in fourteen months, Christopher Owen, the second-generation owner of Owen's Precision Machining (OPM), found himself running out of cash. Owen wondered what he was doing wrong. How much additional money would he need to raise to get OPM through the... View Details

Keywords: Family Business; Cash Flow; Mergers and Acquisitions; Decision Making; Problems and Challenges; Business Strategy; Corporate Finance; Manufacturing Industry; Massachusetts