Publications
Publications
Show Results For
- All HBS Web
(1,504)
- Faculty Publications (343)
- June 1991 (Revised December 1997)
- Case
Takeover of the Norton Co., The
By: Thomas R. Piper
After a decade of mediocre performance, the Norton Co. enters 1990 with the prospect of increased sales in the next few years. Yet Norton is pursuing slow growth industries, and a lower than expected earnings announcement at the beginning of 1990 has depressed earnings... View Details
- spring 1991
- Article
Breaking the Cycle of Failure in Services
By: Leonard A. Schlesinger and James Heskett
Most managers recognize that good service is a direct result of having effective, productive people in customer contact positions. However, most service companies perpetuate a cycle of failure by tolerating high turnover and expecting employee dissatisfaction. This... View Details
- September 1990 (Revised January 1992)
- Case
Procter & Gamble Japan (A)
Ten years after entering Japan, P&G had accumulated over $250 million in operating losses on declining annual sales of $120 million by 1983. The decision facing the president of P&G International: exit, retrench or rebuild the operation? Ironically, the initial entry... View Details
- April 1990 (Revised November 1992)
- Case
Population Services International: The Social Marketing Project in Bangladesh (Abridged)
By: James E. Austin
Population Services International (PSI) was a not-for-profit agency founded to disseminate family planning information and to market birth control products, primarily in less developed countries seeking to curb their population explosions. In 1976, PSI concluded an... View Details
- March 1990 (Revised October 1999)
- Case
Mary Kay Cosmetics: Sales Force Incentives (A)
By: Robert L. Simons and Hilary Weston
Describes the incentive system by which Mary Kay Cosmetics motivates the sales force of 200,000 independent agents who comprise the firm's only distribution channel. Illustrates the powerful effect on sales-force behavior that results when creative types of employee... View Details
- January 1990 (Revised February 1990)
- Case
MSA: The Software Company--Planning the AMAPs Product Line
By: Robert J. Dolan
MSA has commissioned a major market research study to assess demand potential for a computer software system designed for aerospace and defense contractors. Students must evaluate the results of the study (including a conjoint analysis) to assess whether MSA should... View Details
- November 1989 (Revised February 1992)
- Case
Ford Motor Co.: Dealer Sales and Service
Since Henry Ford founded Ford Motor Co., Ford vehicles have been sold and serviced the same way. By the late 1980s Ford began to consider making changes in its sales and service process. Two developments forced Ford to reconsider these processes. First, Ford found... View Details
- April 1989 (Revised March 1990)
- Case
Burlington Northern (B)
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
- September 1988 (Revised September 1993)
- Case
Mrs. Fields Cookies
Mrs. Fields Cookies is a small company selling freshly baked goods through privately owned specialty stores (each store sells only Mrs. Fields products). The company has about 8,000 employees worldwide and less than 150 information systems people for a unique leverage... View Details
- April 1988 (Revised September 1992)
- Case
Frito-Lay, Inc.: The Backhaul Decision
Prior to the Motor Carrier Act of 1980, companies with private trucking fleets were generally prohibited from selling transportation services to other companies. The deregulation of the trucking industry in 1980 allowed private carriers to offer for-hire transportation... View Details
- January 1988 (Revised May 1992)
- Case
Howard Head and Prince Manufacturing, Inc.
Deals with the issue of an entrepreneur in a very successful company deciding whether to stay through a period of great growth or to sell. What are the entrepreneur's responsibilities to the organization, to his employees, to the public? As subtopics, the issues of... View Details
Keywords: Business Growth and Maturation; Decisions; Entrepreneurship; Patents; Law; Markets; Production; Sales
- December 1986 (Revised December 1987)
- Case
Hewlett-Packard: Manufacturing Productivity Division (B)
By: Benson P. Shapiro and Lawrence B. Levine
Asks where in the Hewlett-Packard (HP) network of groups and sectors the Manufacturing Productivity Division should be placed. Provides a great deal of background regarding marketing, sales, and engineering at HP. It is thus possible to expand and broaden the... View Details
Keywords: Business Divisions; Marketing; Production; Networks; Sales; Expansion; Manufacturing Industry
- December 1986 (Revised January 1988)
- Case
Hewlett-Packard: Manufacturing Productivity Division (C)
By: Benson P. Shapiro and Lawrence B. Levine
Focuses on the development of a "market driven" culture at Hewlett-Packard (HP); the conflict between autonomous, well integrated divisions making products responsive to their own markets and a greater degree of systems integration at the corporate level; and the... View Details
- October 1986 (Revised November 1989)
- Case
Becton Dickinson & Co.: VACUTAINER Systems Division
Concerns negotiations between managers of Becton Dickinson's (BD) VACUTAINER division (which manufactures and sells blood collection products) and managers of a large hospital buying group. Recent changes in the health care industry are the background for the... View Details
- September 1986 (Revised November 1994)
- Case
Lotus Development Corp. Channel Choice: Direct vs. Distribution
Lotus Development Corp., the number one microsoftware firm has traditionally sold to its customers through a distributor-retail dealer network. In early 1986, the company is considering the option of selling direct to large corporate customers. Students are expected to... View Details
- August 1986 (Revised May 1993)
- Case
Rohm and Haas (A): New Product Marketing Strategy
By: V. Kasturi Rangan and Lesley Susan
Joan Macey, Rohm and Haas' market manager for Metalworking Fluid Biocides, found that sales of a new biocide, Kathon MWX, was utterly disappointing. This was all the more puzzling since sales of her other product--Kathon 886 MW, a liquid biocide used only in... View Details
- June 1986 (Revised July 1990)
- Case
OTISLINE (A)
By: F. Warren McFarlan and Donna B. Stoddard
Describes the company's use of information technology to strengthen its position in the elevator sales and service market. Also demonstrates how information technology can be used to better manage and control a large geographically dispersed service organization. View Details
- January 1986 (Revised November 2006)
- Case
Peripheral Products Company: The 'Gray Market' for Disk Drives
In mid-1985, the vice president of marketing for a large manufacturer of disk drives is considering how to deal with a growing "gray market" for his company's products. The case provides good background material on the evolution of gray markets throughout the disk... View Details
- March 1985 (Revised November 1985)
- Case
Wilmington Tap and Die
By: Robert S. Kaplan
The general manager of a division manufacturing taps and dies must decide whether to continue a major capital investment program. The program was designed to replace aging mechanical machines with modern, electronically controlled equipment. A post-audit, after an... View Details
- January 1985 (Revised June 1993)
- Case
Turner Construction Co.
In June, 1984, a vice president at Turner Construction Co. must decide whether to approve a construction project being considered by one of Turner's territorial offices and how to manage that territory general manager's apparent reluctance to pursue another account... View Details