Publications

January 2018 (Revised May 2018)
Case

AT&T Managing Technological Change and the Future of Telephone Operators in the 20th Century

By: Daniel P. Gross and William R. Kerr

By the 1930s, AT&T dominated the American phone industry, serving 10 million telephones and employing over 100,000 switchboard operators. But beginning in the mid-1910s, the company began changing from manually operated switchboards to mechanical switching systems that... View Details

Keywords: AT＆T; Bell Telephone; Phone Lines; Phone Operators; Mechanical Switching; Layoffs; Technological Change; Transition; History; Innovation and Invention; Technological Innovation; Information Technology; Disruption; Change Management; Communications Industry; Telecommunications Industry; United States

American Fair Trade explores the contested political and legal meanings of the term fair trade from the late nineteenth century through the New Deal era. This history of American capitalism argues that business associations partnered with... View Details

July 2012
Case

Droga5: Launching Jay-Z's Decoded

By: Anita Elberse and Kwame Owusu-Kesse

In 2010, David Droga and Andrew Essex, co-founders of advertising agency Droga5, hope to convince both John Meneilly, manager of hip-hop star Shawn Carter—better known as Jay-Z—and a partner in Carter's company Roc Nation and Yusuf Mehdi, senior vice president of... View Details

Keywords: Advertising; Advertising Campaigns; Marketing; Brands and Branding; Entertainment; Advertising Industry; Entertainment and Recreation Industry

March 1993 (Revised December 1993)
Case

Johnson Controls, Automotive Systems Group: The Georgetown, Kentucky Plant

Prior to the 1980s, automakers purchased individual seat components and built the seats alongside their auto assembly lines. This case describes how Johnson Controls, Automotive Systems Group, blossomed when automakers turned to outsourcing the complete seat set. The... View Details

Keywords: Production; Manufacturing Industry; Auto Industry; Kentucky

09 Sep 2013
Working Paper Summaries

The Disintermediation of Financial Markets: Direct Investing in Private Equity

Keywords: by Lily Fang, Victoria Ivashina & Josh Lerner

April 2006 (Revised May 2009)
Case

Inverness Medical Innovations - Born Global (A)

Ron Zwanziger has just started his third company, having just sold the last one for $1.3 billion to Johnson & Johnson. As part of the deal with J&J, certain assets were transferred to the new company, Inverness Medical Innovations, which, at the time of its creation,... View Details

Keywords: Globalized Firms and Management; Mergers and Acquisitions; Entrepreneurship; Health Care and Treatment; Corporate Finance; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry; Health Industry; Waltham

May 2010 (Revised May 2011)
Case

Kent Thiry: "Mayor" of DaVita

By: William W. George and Natalie Kindred

Kent Thiry, CEO of dialysis provider DaVita, is considering how to integrate employees from recently acquired Gambro Healthcare without damaging DaVita's robust, unconventional internal culture. When Thiry joined DaVita in 1999, breaking an important promise to his... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Experience and Expertise; Employee Relationship Management; Leadership Style; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Culture; Personal Development and Career; Integration; Health Industry

February 2011 (Revised July 2013)
Case

A123 Systems: Power. Safety. Life.

By: Richard H.K. Vietor

A123 Systems, the largest manufacturer of lithium ion batteries in North America, is producing and selling batteries for electric vehicles in China and electric buses in Europe and America. It just opened two plants in Michigan, partially funded by a grant from... View Details

Keywords: Business or Company Management; Diversification; Machinery and Machining; Renewable Energy; Transportation; Management Skills; Corporate Finance; Auto Industry; Battery Industry

26 Apr 2017
News

Merge, Bail, and Make Out Like a Bandit

28 Apr 2008
HBS Case

Negotiating with Wal-Mart

encounter someone with a great deal of power, like Wal-Mart, who is also the ultimate non-negotiable partner?" The case details how P&G executive Tom Muccio pioneers a new supplier-retailer... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Retail

30 Jul 2008
Op-Ed

Why the U.S. Should Encourage FDI

Last year, foreign investors set new records for their acquisition activity in the United States. And 2008 began with nearly daily stories of American financial executives courting foreign direct investors, particularly sovereign wealth... View Details

Keywords: by Mihir A. Desai

March 24, 2014
Article

Like a Boss: How Corporate Negotiators Would Handle Nuclear Talks With Iran

By: James K. Sebenius

While the Obama team deserves high marks for launching the interim talks, its approach doesn't sell the upside of a comprehensive deal persuasively enough to transform more Iranian skeptics into active supporters—a necessary condition for success if there is an... View Details

Read Now

03 Oct 2023
Research Event

Build the Life You Want: Arthur Brooks and Oprah Winfrey Share Happiness Tips

coauthor of the new book Build the Life You Want: The Art and Science of Getting Happier, for an intimate, powerful conversation that touches on: the mistake people make in thinking that money, power, and fame will bring them happiness;... View Details

Keywords: by HBS Staff

June 2019 (Revised February 2020)
Case

Eric Hawkins Leading Agile Teams @ Digitally-Born AppFolio (A)

By: Tsedal Neeley, Paul Leonardi and Michael Norris

Eric Hawkins, director of engineering at AppFolio—a digital technology firm that offered cloud-based business software to small and medium sized companies—was shocked by an unusual request from his senior leadership team. Could Hawkins and one of his agile teams build... View Details

Keywords: Values; Agile; Vision; Corporate Culture; Leadership; Values and Beliefs; Organizational Culture; Decision Choices and Conditions; Digital Transformation; Technology Industry; United States; California

27 Jun 2016
News

Net Neutrality Rules Will Make Winners and Losers Out of Businesses

19 Mar 2013
First Look

First Look: March 19

Are Daily Deals Good for Merchants? Gupta, Sunil, Ray Weaver, Timothy Keiningham, and Luke WilliamsHarvard Business School Case 513-059 In the relatively short time since Groupon was founded, the response to "daily... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

October 2003 (Revised November 2003)
Case

Foremostco, Inc. (A)

Describes the rocky transition from an outdated, nonintegrated information system to a new customized system built by programmers in a small, IT-dependent foliage company that distributes plant material. The old system has increasingly become a "burning platform," but... View Details

Keywords: Transition; Plant-Based Agribusiness; Information Technology; Crisis Management; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry