Publications

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25 Feb 2013
Research & Ideas

Lean Strategy Not Just for Start-Ups

grew. That meant that as more features were added or tweaked, there were more farmers to provide useful feedback from the field. "The more farmers you have, the better data you have," Cook said. Experimentation can be hard for product View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Financial Services

December 2008 (Revised February 2011)
Supplement

Evan Williams: From Blogger to Odeo (B)

By: Noam T. Wasserman and Louis-Philippe Maurice

For several months, founder-CEO Evan Williams has felt trapped, unable to control Odeo and its strategic direction. He longs for the “simple” days of Blogger, the previous venture he had co-founded. Although his Blogger experiences had included a major blow-up with his... View Details

Keywords: Management Teams; Entrepreneurship; Internet and the Web; Business Strategy

December 1989
Supplement

People Express Decline: Interview with Don Burr, Video

By: Michael Beer

Presents an interview with Don Burr, CEO, as he reviews his account of how and why People Express failed as a corporation and was ultimately sold to Continental Airlines. View Details

Keywords: Management Teams; Failure; Business Exit or Shutdown; Air Transportation Industry

April 1994 (Revised October 2002)
Case

Frito-Lay, Inc.: A Strategic Transition 1980-1986

By: Lynda M. Applegate

Describes the environmental, organizational, and information technology context in the late 1970s that led to the development of the initial vision for change and the actions taken to implement that vision. The case ends with the abrupt departure of the CEO as profits... View Details

Keywords: Transition; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Information Technology; Management Succession; Management Teams; Business Strategy; Food and Beverage Industry

October 1997 (Revised January 2008)
Case

Asda (A)

By: Michael Beer and James Weber

In the mid-1980s, Asda was one of the most successful retail companies in the United Kingdom. By 1991, the chain of 200 grocery stores had a lack of direction, a demoralized workforce, declining profits, rising debt, collapsing stock price, and was facing bankruptcy.... View Details

Keywords: Restructuring; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Crisis Management; Management Teams; Business Strategy; Retail Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; United Kingdom

October 1984
Teaching Note

NIKE (D): Leisure Shoes, Teaching Note

Teaching Note for (9-385-031). View Details

Keywords: Luxury; Decisions; Performance Effectiveness; Management Practices and Processes; Management Teams; Apparel and Accessories Industry

March 2004 (Revised May 2004)
Case

Governance Reform at MCI

By: Lynn S. Paine and Bridget Gurtler

Richard Breeden proposed corporate governance reforms for MCI. Breeden is a former chairman of the SEC who was a court-appointed "corporate monitor" for the troubled company (formerly WorldCom). The company must adhere to the proposals unless excused by a court order. View Details

Keywords: Corporate Governance; Restructuring; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Business or Company Management; Management Teams

26 Jan 2004
Research & Ideas

What Developing-World Companies Teach Us About Innovation

ideas. This isn't traditional benchmarking, since managers don't simply copy something they see elsewhere. Rather, they take pieces of practice or technology that they find and recombine them in novel ways to solve customer problems. The... View Details

Keywords: by Donald N. Sull, Alejandro Ruelas-Gossi & Martin Escobari

21 Jan 2022
News

How Leaders Can Build Connection in a Disconnected Workplace

06 Feb 2023
Blog Post

Meet the Black Investment Club

aerospace industry where she led highly technical teams at The Boeing Company developing disruptive technologies to usher in the future of mobility and responsible innovation. The major focus of her work was on space exploration, product... View Details

Keywords: Investment Management / Hedge Fund; Investment Management / Hedge Fund; Investment Management / Hedge Fund

June 2013 (Revised March 2014)
Case

Hennes & Mauritz, 2000

By: John R. Wells and Galen Danskin

In 2000, Hennes & Mauritz (H&M) was the second-largest and most global player in the fashion retail business. It operated 682 stores, 80% of them outside its home country of Sweden, and achieved revenues of $3.0 billion and operating profits of $375 million. In 1999,... View Details

Keywords: Strategy; Strategy Alignment; Strategic Planning; Fashion; Risk Management; Competition; Problems and Challenges; Management Teams; Globalized Firms and Management; Expansion; Distribution Channels; Retail Industry; Fashion Industry; Sweden

October 1991 (Revised September 1998)
Case

Maxwell Appliance Controls

By: Robert S. Kaplan

A profitable manufacturing division of a large company is looking for new ways to identify sources of productivity improvements. Led by its senior finance officer, an activity-based cost system is developed to identify activities performed for its highly varied product... View Details

Keywords: Activity Based Costing and Management; Management Teams; Quality; Performance Improvement; Organizational Culture; Problems and Challenges; Production; Manufacturing Industry

Find at Harvard

March 2011
Supplement

Padraig O'Ceidigh and Aer Arann: Building a Business in the Context of a Life - What Happened

By: Janet J. Kraus and Shirley Spence

Provides an epilogue to the problem posed in the companion case: what to do in the face of potential liquidation? View Details

Keywords: Natural Disasters; Crisis Management; Air Transportation; Entrepreneurship; Management Teams; Business or Company Management; Success; Decision Making; Air Transportation Industry; Republic of Ireland

26 Jul 2021
News

When Do We Actually Need to Meet in Person?

01 Dec 2015
News

Complements to the Case Method

productive,” says former student Nami Singhal (MBA 2013), now an associate at asset management firm AQR Capital Management. Singhal’s team made a bet that Argentina would default during its debt crisis; they... View Details

2007
Working Paper

Incompatible Assumptions: Barriers to Producing Multidisciplinary Knowledge in Communities of Scholarship

By: Corinne Bendersky and Kathleen L. McGinn

Co-locating knowledge workers from different disciplines may be a necessary but insufficient step to generating multidisciplinary knowledge. We explore the role of assumptions underlying knowledge creation within the field of organizational studies, and investigate how... View Details

Keywords: Knowledge Management; Knowledge Sharing; Business Processes; Groups and Teams

Read Now

January 2000 (Revised November 2000)
Case

Lucent Technologies New Ventures Group

By: Rosabeth M. Kanter and Michelle Heskett

Lucent Technologies' successful New Ventures Group must present company executives with a strong case for continuing corporate venturing activities despite a troubled financial performance in difficult market conditions. View Details

Keywords: Corporate Entrepreneurship; Business or Company Management; Management Teams; Business Ventures; Venture Capital; Financial Condition; Change Management; Wireless Technology; Financial Services Industry; Computer Industry; New Jersey

January 2001 (Revised September 2002)
Case

First Marblehead Corporation (A)

By: D. Quinn Mills and Matt Salloway

Daniel Meyers, chairman and CEO of First Marblehead Corp., provides financial engineering services to educational institutions. This case deals with the market for student loans. View Details

Keywords: Financing and Loans; Education; Markets; Microfinance; Management Teams; Financial Services Industry; Education Industry

September 2000 (Revised October 2006)
Case

Atherton Clothing Company (A)

By: John A. Davis and Andrew Z. Tubman

Zachary Cohen, who will graduate soon from business school, wants to enter his family's business under certain conditions--he wants shares in the company and wants to change a buy-sell agreement. His father and his uncle seem to want to explore his entering the family... View Details

Keywords: Family Ownership; Family Business; Management Teams; Contracts; Apparel and Accessories Industry