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Failure
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- February 1999 (Revised June 1999)
- Case
Transformation of Pratt & Whitney North Haven (Abridged)
By: H. Kent Bowen, Jeffrey L. Bradach, Linda A. Hill and Kristin Doughty
Business unit manager Tom Hutton has empowered a group of hourly workers to purchase grit blast equipment for two cells. The capital purchase decision runs into some problems when the two cells fail to reach an agreement on which equipment to purchase. A rewritten... View Details
- August 1998 (Revised October 1998)
- Case
Disney's "The Lion King" (C): Repeat Performance?
By: Jeffrey F. Rayport, Carin-Isabel Knoop and Cate Reavis
Three of Disney's animated films that followed "The Lion King"—"Pocahontas," "Toy Story," and "The Hunchback of Notre Dame"—were significantly less successful at the box office and in retail sales. Meanwhile, Disney was focusing on developing live-action blockbusters. View Details
- April 1998 (Revised May 2001)
- Supplement
Acquisition of Consolidated Rail Corporation (B), The
By: Benjamin C. Esty, Lori A. Flees and Mathew M Millett
Eight days after CSX announced it was going to buy Consolidated Rail (Conrail) for $88.65 per share, Norfolk Southern made a hostile $100 per share bid for Conrail. Over the next several months, the potential acquirers upped their bids while exchanging criticism in the... View Details
- January 1998 (Revised April 2001)
- Case
Acer America: Development of the Aspire
By: Christopher A. Bartlett and Anthony St. George
Follows the development, national launch, and global rollout of the Aspire, Acer's first new product developed outside of Taiwan. Implementing a very promising new PC concept proves challenging to Mike Culver and his U.S. team, who are plagued by coordination problems... View Details
- December 1996 (Revised October 1999)
- Case
Kidder, Peabody & Co.: Creating Elusive Profits
By: Robert L. Simons and Antonio Davila
On April 17, 1994, Kidder, Peabody & Co. announced a $350 million charge against earnings resulting from the discovery of false trading profits. That same day, the termination of Joseph Jett's employment with the company was made public. By illustrating the mechanics... View Details
- 1996
- Book
Broken Promises: An Unconventional View of What Went Wrong at IBM
By: D. Q. Mills and G. B. Friesen
- March 1996
- Article
Customer Power, Strategic Investment, and the Failure of Leading Firms
By: J. L. Bower and C. M. Christensen
- December 1994
- Case
Intel's Pentium: When the Chips Are Down (A)
By: Stephen A. Greyser and Norman Klein
Intel, the largest-selling manufacturer of microprocessor computer chips, finds itself in a brand-threatening situation when a flaw is revealed in its top-of-the-line Pentium chip. The story is front-page news for weeks. The company invested tens of millions of dollars... View Details
- November 1994
- Background Note
Why Bad Things Happen to Good Companies
By: Benson P. Shapiro, Adrian J. Slywotsky and Richard S. Tedlow
Describes the Darwinian internal and external processes that lead to poor performance from a previously well performing company. Demonstrates why any business design eventually fails and the role of organizational calcification and poor leadership in the failure. Also... View Details
- winter 1994
- Article
Negotiating NIMBYs: Learning from the Failure of the Massachusetts Siting Law
By: M. A. Wheeler
- April 1993 (Revised November 1994)
- Case
Chiron Corp.
Pablo Valenzuela, vice president of R&D at Chiron Corp., faces several choices for how to allocate scarce resources across several promising projects. These choices will determine Chiron's position in several emerging biotechnology and diagnostic markets, including... View Details
- February 1993 (Revised March 2003)
- Case
India (A)
By: Richard H.K. Vietor, Waleed J. Iskandar and Max L. Weston
Outlines India's import substitution strategy and its planned development process. The effects of the difficult political and social context on economic development are analyzed. The failure of the system to achieve sustainable growth and improvement leads to attempts... View Details
Keywords: Strategy; Ethnicity; Development Economics; Trade; Economic Growth; Policy; Government and Politics; India
- 1993
- Comment
What Does a Theory of Creativity Require?
By: T. M. Amabile
Comments on Hans J. Eysenck's claims about the close alliance between creativity and psychosis in an article published in the periodical 'Psychological Inquiry.' Distinct senses of Eysenck's use of the term creativity; Failure of Eysenck to present an actual theory of... View Details
- April 1992 (Revised July 1993)
- Case
Conoco's: "Green" Oil Strategy (A)
Conoco faces challenges in formulating a proactive environmental strategy for its proposed oil development in Ecuador's pristine tropical rain forest region. The case outlines the innovative process in which Conoco collaborated with a wide range of often conflicting... View Details
- October 1991 (Revised November 1993)
- Case
Dynashears, Inc.
By: Thomas R. Piper
A senior loan officer is reviewing the recent performance of a company that has failed to repay its loan as scheduled. The failure results from a cyclical downturn in sales, coupled with a lag in cutting back production. Inventory risk is minimal. Teaching objective:... View Details
- September 1991 (Revised December 1991)
- Case
G. Heileman Brewing Co. (A): Power Failure At PowerMaster
In June 1991, Heileman announced plans to introduce a high-alcohol malt liquor under the name PowerMaster (PM). Although the company claimed PM would be positioned as an upscale product and marketed on the basis of its superior taste, minority advocates and alcohol... 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