Publications

24 Apr 2014
News

Cash flow struggles can take down a company or spark ideas that transform an industry

hospitals, and patients were hurting athenahealth’s bottom line. Bush shifted the company’s focus from clinical care to Internet billing and information processing, and... View Details

12 Nov 2018
Research & Ideas

'Always On' Isn't Always Best for Team Decision-Making

Improve Collective Intelligence, written by Ethan Bernstein, the Edward W. Conard Associate Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School; Jesse Shore, assistant professor at Boston University’s Questrom School of Business; View Details

Keywords: by Roberta Holland

Edmund D. Libbey

Using Mike Owens’ invention for blowing glass bottles, Libbey revolutionized the glass industry. Libbey’s adept commercialization of this invention was the most innovative... View Details

Keywords: Fabricated Goods

September 2018
Case

Sealed Air Corporation: Deciding the Fate of VTID (Abridged)

By: Elie Ofek

In mid-2010 the Sealed Air Corporation has to decide on next steps for its novel video tracking technology (called VTID) after unsuccessful attempts to market it in three different industry settings. The company must determine whether its most recent target market, the... View Details

Keywords: Budgets and Budgeting; Customer Focus and Relationships; Decision Choices and Conditions; Technological Innovation; Marketing Strategy; Problems and Challenges; Commercialization; Service Industry

August 2011 (Revised July 2012)
Case

Sealed Air Corporation: Deciding the Fate of VTID

By: Elie Ofek

In mid 2010 the Sealed Air Corporation has to decide on next steps for its novel video tracking technology (called VTID) after unsuccessful attempts to market it in three different industry settings. The company must determine whether its most recent target market, the... View Details

Keywords: Budgets and Budgeting; Customer Focus and Relationships; Decision Choices and Conditions; Technological Innovation; Marketing Strategy; Problems and Challenges; Commercialization; Service Industry

October 2022
Case

Volt Lines: Leading a B2B Service Provider through a Crisis (A)

By: Navid Mojir and Gamze Yucaoglu

Volt Lines was a next-generation transportation service in Istanbul, Turkey. The company was trying to disrupt the traditional corporate transportation market by developing software that allowed it to offer subscription-based transportation. Under the subscription... View Details

Keywords: Business To Business Marketing; B2B Marketing; B2B Pricing; Subscription Model; Crisis Marketing; Startup; Service Management; Information Technology; Transportation; COVID-19 Pandemic; Disruptive Innovation; Digital Platforms; Business Model; Price; Crisis Management; Opportunities; Transportation Industry; Technology Industry; Turkey

February 2003 (Revised March 2006)
Case

Centre Suisse d'Electronique et de Microtechnique (CSEM)

By: Michael E. Porter, Willis M. Emmons III and Christian Fenner

Le Centre Suisse d'Electronique et de Microtechnique S.A. (CSEM)--the Swiss Center for Electronics and Microtechnology--was a major nonprofit research institution located in Neuchatel, Switzerland, with roots in the Swiss watch industry. CSEM maintained close links to... View Details

Keywords: Cooperation; Information Technology; Alliances; Research and Development; Performance Productivity; Innovation and Invention; Nonprofit Organizations; Electronics Industry; Switzerland

24 Sep 2007
Research & Ideas

The FDA: What Will the Next 100 Years Bring?

they hear the words "national health insurance," but it is disturbing that we fail to provide health care to so many of our citizens. At the same time, firms in the United States are global leaders in inventing View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Biotechnology; Consumer Products; Food & Beverage; Health

April 1989 (Revised March 1990)
Case

Burlington Northern (B)

By: Janice H. Hammond

Describes the experiences of a seasoned Burlington Northern (BN) sales representative after the introduction of ShipSmart, a decision support system developed by the BN to help its employees and customers analyze logistics problems. After a brief description of a... View Details

Keywords: Change Management; Expansion; Rail Transportation; Logistics; Distribution Channels; Truck Transportation; Innovation and Invention; Sales; Rail Industry; United States

November 2015 (Revised February 2017)
Case

Cisco Systems: In Search of the Next CEO

By: Boris Groysberg, Sarah L. Abbott, Olivia Hull and J. Yo-Jud Cheng

It’s August 2014 and John Chambers is expected to announce his retirement after 17 years as CEO of global technology giant Cisco Systems. Under Chambers’s leadership, Cisco has grown from $2.2 billion in annual revenues and under 4,000 employees to revenues of $46... View Details

Keywords: Leadership; Succession Planning; CEO Succession; Managing Change; Person-organization Fit; Management Succession; Transition; Talent and Talent Management; Change Management; Retirement; Innovation Leadership; Recruitment; Corporate Governance; Experience and Expertise; Technology Industry; Information Technology Industry; United States; San Jose; California

31 Jan 2017
Research & Ideas

Why These Business School Professors Oppose Trump's Executive Order on Immigration

that mercantilism of invention should be the goal of the United States, as great good can come from ideas and innovation elsewhere that diffuse View Details

Keywords: by Staff

July 2022
Case

Metaverse Seoul

By: Mitchell Weiss and Samantha Markowitz

In May 2022, the Seoul Metropolitan Government (SMG) launched the pilot of Metaverse Seoul, a government-run metaverse. SMG had delivered a virtual version of Seoul’s mayor’s office. The team aimed to gain insights as they worked towards building a broad, immersive,... View Details

Keywords: Metaverse; Entrepreneurship; Innovation and Invention; Digital Platforms; Internet and the Web; Government Administration; Public Administration Industry; South Korea; Asia

2001
Chapter

Creating Breakthroughs at 3M

By: E. von Hippel, S. Thomke and M. Sonnack

Keywords: Innovation and Invention; Innovation and Management

29 Jan 2013
First Look

First Look: Jan. 29

there are important implications for firm boundaries, design, and identity. The Consequences of Financial Innovation: A Counterfactual Research Agenda Authors:Lerner, Josh, and Peter Tufano Publication:The... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

19 Jan 2022
In Practice

7 Trends to Watch in 2022

As 2022 gets underway we asked our faculty to highlight some trends worth watching in the coming year. Ariel Stern: A new future for digital health care While 2020 and 2021 were years of rapid innovation and deployment of new health care technologies and delivery... View Details

Keywords: by HBS News

June 1998 (Revised January 2001)
Case

Browser Wars, 1994-1998, The

By: David B. Yoffie and Mary Kwak

Analyzes the competition between Netscape and Microsoft in the market for Web browsers and related products. Despite its first mover advantage, Netscape sees its market share fall once Microsoft becomes "hard-core" about the Internet. By the spring of 1998, the future... View Details

Keywords: Applications and Software; Internet and the Web; Innovation and Management; Growth and Development Strategy; Competition; Supply and Industry; Information Technology Industry

February 2000 (Revised April 2000)
Case

Microsoft, 2000

By: Michael G. Rukstad, David B. Yoffie and Carl Johnston

Surveys five threats to the sustainability of Microsoft's strategy (imitation, substitution, hold-up, slack, and saturation) and examines Microsoft's response to these threats. Teaching purpose: To evaluate the sustainability of Microsoft's competitive advantage. View Details

Keywords: Technological Innovation; Business or Company Management; Growth and Development Strategy; Growth Management; Planning; Competitive Strategy; Competitive Advantage; Corporate Strategy; Information Technology; Information Technology Industry

Find at Harvard

March 2010 (Revised August 2010)
Supplement

Systems Infrastructure at Google (B)

By: Linda A. Hill and Emily Stecker

This case is a thick description of how a Senior Vice President of Engineering at Google, Bill Coughran, leads a high-performing engineering organization. The case focuses specifically on Coughran's use of encouraging two teams of engineers to develop competing... View Details

Keywords: Innovation Leadership; Infrastructure; Management Teams; Leadership Development; Information Technology Industry

June 2004 (Revised January 2005)
Case

Rambus Inc., 2004

By: David B. Yoffie and Deborah Freier

Examines the role of technology licensing in strategies for high-technology companies. In the 1990s, Rambus developed a revolutionary memory technology that would improve the ability of DRAMs to keep pace with ever-faster microprocessors. To commercialize the... View Details

Keywords: Innovation Strategy; Lawsuits and Litigation; Strategic Planning; Relationships; Commercialization; Competition; Technology Adoption; Value; Semiconductor Industry