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(19,295)
- Faculty Publications (4,222)
- June 1998 (Revised April 2000)
- Case
GM Powertrain
By: Amy C. Edmondson and Mikelle Eastley
Discusses a young MBA plant manager who is improving the operations of a small General Motors components plant in Fredericksburg, Virginia. At 29 years old, Joe Hinrichs is the youngest plant manager at GM, and in his new assignment, he is faced with the daunting... View Details
- June 1998 (Revised January 2000)
- Case
Egghead.com
Egghead Software, an entrenched traditional chain retailer specializing in computer software and peripherals, had established a nationwide chain of mall and shopping center stores and a well-organized national brand. In early 1998, management made a highly unusual, and... View Details
- May 1998 (Revised October 1998)
- Case
Komatsu and Dresser: Putting Two Plus Two Together
By: Ashish Nanda
In 1987, Komatsu Ltd., looking to expand its presence in the U.S. earth-moving equipment (EME) industry, enters into a 50-50 joint venture with Dresser. The management of the Komatsu Dresser joint venture faces difficulty in bringing the two halves together. The rift... View Details
- May 1998 (Revised October 2001)
- Case
Taco Bell Inc. (1983-1994)
By: Lynda M. Applegate, Leonard A. Schlesinger and Dave DeLong
Details the actions of John Martin, newly named CEO, as he leads Taco Bell through a decade of incremental and radical changes. By the end of the case, total system sales within Taco Bell, a Mexican style fast-food restaurant chain and a division of PepsiCo, have grown... View Details
- April 1998
- Case
Jim Sharpe: Extrusion Technology, Inc. (C)
By: H. Kent Bowen and Barbara Feinberg
Jim Sharpe, president of Extrusion Technology, describes the first five years at the aluminum extrusion company he purchased. He begins with day one as he introduced himself to the employees in 1987 and assured them of the company's continuity. Over the next two years,... View Details
- April 1998 (Revised June 1999)
- Case
Bausch & Lomb, Inc.: Pressure to Perform
By: Robert L. Simons, Alex C. Sapir '97 and Indra Reinbergs
Bausch & Lomb is the subject of press attacks and experiences a sharp fall in stock price when management practices are exposed. Aggressive goal setting, supported by financial market expectations, is discussed as a precursor to a series of events that results in... View Details
- April 1998 (Revised January 2007)
- Case
Arrow Electronics, Inc.
By: Das Narayandas
Deals with the issue of cross-selling and managing a portfolio of products and services in business markets. Arrow/Schweber (A/S), a subsidiary of electronic parts distributor Arrow Electronics, has a portfolio of products that differ in the amount of value added by... View Details
- April 1998 (Revised November 1999)
- Case
Hambrecht & Quist
By: Thomas J. DeLong and Nicole Tempest
Hambrecht & Quist (H&Q), an investment bank headquartered in San Francisco, has a very unique culture relative to its Wall Street counterparts. Firm members and even competitors describe the culture as entrepreneurial, team-driven, non-bureaucratic, and... View Details
- April 1998
- Case
Cephalon, Inc.
By: Peter Tufano
In early 1997, Cephalon, awaited an FDA panel's decision on whether its drug, Myotrophin, would be approved. If the drug was approved, the firm might need substantial additional funds to commercialize as well as to buy back rights to it (which had been sold earlier to... View Details
- March 1998 (Revised July 1998)
- Case
United Way Community Services
Describes in detail the fund development and distribution system of United Way Community Services. A key question is how to measure the outcome/impact of the work done by the agencies that receive United Way funding. A follow-on question is how to reinvent the... View Details
- March 1998 (Revised May 1998)
- Case
Argentina's YPF Sociedad Anonima (Abridged)
By: Michael Y. Yoshino, Carin-Isabel Knoop and Cate Reavis
Describes the privatization of YPF Sociedad Anonima and the company's dilemma of whether to acquire a troubled U.S. oil company as a way of becoming a global oil company. View Details
- March 1998 (Revised March 1999)
- Case
Shepard Quraeshi Associates (A)
By: Lynn S. Paine and Harold F. Hogan Jr
Samina Quraeshi, principal of Boston-based Shepard Quraeshi Associates, must decide whether to take legal action against her key employees after they leave her firm to start their own, taking with them key clients and data. Quraeshi sees the situation as reflecting... View Details
- March 1998 (Revised August 1998)
- Case
BSkyB
By: Debora L. Spar
In 1983, Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. bought a floundering two-year-old British company called Satellite Television plc. and renamed it Sky. Without external financing, without having been allocated any space on Britain's existing satellites, and over the opposition of... View Details
- March 1998 (Revised June 1999)
- Case
DigitalThink: Building a Sales Force
By: Michael J. Roberts, Joseph B. Lassiter III and Christina L. Darwall
A broad set of issues faces a young company in the Internet-based training business as it begins to sell its product to corporate customers. Issues include: profile of attractive candidates, compensation, definition of territory, definition of quotas, and role of... View Details
- March 1998 (Revised July 1998)
- Case
Boston Duck Tours,1996: Has Boston Gone Quackers?
By: Myra M. Hart and Stephanie Dodson
While on vacation in Memphis, former investment manager Andy Wilson discovers a unique "tour bus" that travels over land and through water. He decides to transplant the concept to Boston and to add both historical and theatrical features to the amphibious tour. As he... View Details
- March 1998 (Revised November 1998)
- Case
Empresas CAP, 1994
By: Tarun Khanna and Danielle Melito Wu
Empresas CAP began as a private-sector steel company in 1946. Over the next 40 years, CAP's ownership structure moved from nationalization to reprivatization. Unrestricted by state ownership, CAP began to diversify its holdings. The case considers the viability of... View Details
- February 1998
- Case
Creating the International Trade Organization
By: David A. Moss, George R. Appling and Andrew D Archer
In the late 1940s, officials at the U.S. State Department began campaigning for the creation of an International Trade Organization (ITO). This new organization would oversee global negotiations on trade liberalization, foreign direct investment, cartels, and commodity... View Details
- February 1998 (Revised March 2000)
- Case
Burma Pipeline, The
By: Debora L. Spar and Lane LaMure
In 1996, Unocal Corp. joined forces with the French Total company to construct an ambitious natural gas pipeline from the Andaman Sea across the southern tip of Burma and into Thailand. At an estimated cost of $1.2 billion, the pipeline was designed to bring sorely... View Details
- February 1998 (Revised August 2006)
- Case
House of Tata, 1995: The Next Generation (A)
By: Tarun Khanna, Krishna G. Palepu and Danielle Melito Wu
The Tata Group began the 1990s as a confederation of loosely coupled firms. This case considers the rise to prominence of the new CEO of Tata Group, Ratan Tata, and his attempts to strengthen the inter-relationships among the group companies at a time when critics... View Details
- February 1998 (Revised November 1998)
- Case
Novartis (A): Being a Global Leader
By: Srikant M. Datar and Carin-Isabel Knoop
For the Novartis leaders, the decision to "use stretch budgets again next year" highlights the tension between candor and empowerment and command-and-control, between the new and the old, between high performance and business as usual, between Ciba and Sandoz.... View Details