Publications

June 1997
Case

VeriFone: The Transaction Automation Company (A) Abridged

By: F. Warren McFarlan

Describes VeriFone's new organizational model and its role in catapulting VeriFone to a market leadership position. Examines the impact of information technology and information access on the ability to leverage global resources, market responsiveness, and... View Details

Keywords: Information Technology; Organizational Structure; Globalized Markets and Industries; Information Management; Strategic Planning; Resource Allocation; Leadership Development; Information Technology Industry

June 2002 (Revised October 2004)
Case

Entropia (A)

By: Joseph B. Lassiter III, Sameer Ahuja and Jason Tepperman

The Entropia management team and a Harvard Business School field study team look for applications for "grid computing" in the financial services industry, identifying a "go-to-market" plan for this new technology. View Details

Keywords: Information Technology; Business Strategy; Financial Services Industry

January 2002
Case

Teledesic

By: Thomas R. Eisenmann, Daniel J. Green and Douglas R Rogers

Management of a satellite-delivered broadband data communications company sets strategy in an uncertain environment, using Michael Porter's scenario planning tools to assess likely outcomes and determine which actions to take. This case draws a distinction between... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Business or Company Management; Infrastructure; Strategic Planning; Risk and Uncertainty; Strategy; Internet; Information Technology Industry

Keywords: information technology industry; information technology industry; information technology industry; information technology industry; information technology industry; information technology industry; information technology industry; information technology industry; information technology industry

Rosabeth Moss Kanter holds the Ernest L. Arbuckle Professorship at Harvard Business School, specializing in strategy, innovation, and leadership for change. Her strategic and practical insights guide leaders worldwide through teaching, writing, and direct... View Details

Program

General Management Program

organization, the program delivers the tools you need to capitalize on technological disruption and digital transformation and play a more strategic role in corporate success. This includes: Read More Considering global and industry... View Details

05 Nov 2024
Research & Ideas

AI Can Help Leaders Communicate, But Can't Make Employees Listen

If a chatbot can Slack convincingly in the boss’s voice, will employees follow orders once they realize the CEO is actually a machine? A novel two-part study finds that an artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot trained to write like a View Details

Keywords: by Ben Rand; Information Technology; Information Technology

02 Jan 2019
What Do You Think?

SUMMING UP: Do We Need an Artificial Intelligence Czar?

AI. It not only requires technological expertise but an even more complex challenge of creating standards and universal formats for organizing and coordinating data and its collection from various sources in a form from which machines can... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett; Technology

Regina E. Herzlinger

Regina E. Herzlinger is the Nancy R. McPherson Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School. She was the first woman to be tenured and chaired at Harvard Business School and serve on many established and start-up corporate health care/medical... View Details

Keywords: health care; insurance industry; medical devices; retailing; digital health

Michael E. Porter

Michael Porter is an economist, researcher, author, advisor, speaker and teacher. Throughout his career at Harvard Business School, he has brought economic theory and strategy concepts to bear on many of the most challenging problems facing corporations, economies... View Details

July–August 2021
Article

Why Do So Many Strategies Fail?

By: David J. Collis

THE PROBLEM: Seemingly successful new companies struggle to turn a healthy profit. Established firms get disrupted by upstarts. Companies that excel at serving their markets can’t adapt when customers’ tastes shift. THE ROOT CAUSE: All too often, business leaders focus... View Details

Keywords: Strategy; Strategic Planning; Business Model; Value; Value Creation; Opportunities

March 2018
Technical Note

Internet Data Capping Note (B)

By: Shane Greenstein and Christine Snively

The B note brings the reader up through early 2017 and addresses an informal review carried out by the Wireless Telecommunications Bureau (WTB) on sponsored data and zero-rating data plans in the mobile broadband market. View Details

Keywords: Telecommunications; Information Technology; Internet and the Web

January 2002
Case

Relational Data Models in Enterprise-Level Information Systems

Provides an overview of some important aspects of the relational data models that underlie today's enterprise-level information technologies, such as enterprise resource planning and customer relationship management. Key concepts covered include relational data and... View Details

Keywords: Information Technology

May 2019 (Revised June 2021)
Case

State of Charge: The Massachusetts Energy Storage Initiative

By: John R. Wells and Benjamin Weinstock

In early 2017, Judith Judson (Harvard Business School MBA, 2000), Commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources (DOER), was reflecting on the results of the initiative she had led to identify the contribution advanced electricity storage could make... View Details

Keywords: Energy Storage; Energy Generation; Programs; Policy; Strategy; Energy Industry; Utilities Industry; Massachusetts

December 1991 (Revised February 1992)
Case

Dayton Electric Corp.

By: Steven C. Wheelwright

Concerns a product redesign decision for one of the company's most successful motor products, its rectified power, medium D-C motor, the RPM. A one-year redesign program has proposed a design that comes close to meeting its stated cost and performance goals, but at the... View Details

Keywords: Product Design; Strategic Planning; Research and Development; Business Divisions; Decisions; Forecasting and Prediction; Product Development; Technological Innovation; Machinery and Machining; Manufacturing Industry; Ohio

08 Oct 2008
Research & Ideas

Book Excerpt: A Sense of Urgency

afraid that is they rushed into actions their decisions might accidentally create harm. So they held back just at a time when the CEO most needed their help to get the organization moving swiftly into a better future. [ ] Without needed View Details

Keywords: by John P. Kotter

09 Nov 2010
Working Paper Summaries

The Unbundling of Advertising Agency Services: An Economic Analysis

Keywords: by Mohammad Arzaghi, Ernst R. Berndt, James C. Davis & Alvin J. Silk; Advertising

September 2009 (Revised November 2021)
Case

OnStar: Not Your Father's General Motors

By: Clayton M. Christensen

After two years of less than stellar performance resulting in sales well below plan, senior management at General Motors (GM) mobile telecommunications service start-up, OnStar, recognized that without a substantial change in their strategy, support for the venture... View Details

Keywords: Change Management; Decision Choices and Conditions; Growth and Development Strategy; Corporate Strategy; Technology; Risk and Uncertainty; Joint Ventures; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Product Positioning; Risk Management; Auto Industry; Telecommunications Industry

February 2024
Supplement

Seeds of Innovation: GALY’s Quest to Cultivate the Future of Agriculture in the Lab

By: George Serafeim

In 2023, Luciano Bueno, CEO and founder of plant cell culture agriculture company GALY, was considering the best path forward for his company as he planned to pitch Series B investors. GALY, founded in 2019, aimed to produce cotton and other crops from cells grown in... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Green Technology; Goods and Commodities; Growth and Development Strategy; Science-Based Business; Entrepreneurship; Plant-Based Agribusiness; Business Startups; Decisions; Technological Innovation; Production; Entrepreneurial Finance; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Technology Industry; Boston; Sao Paulo