Product Engineering - Publications - Faculty & Research

15 Nov 2016
First Look

November 15, 2016

Case 517-021 Brand Portfolio Strategy and Brand Architecture While companies choose to brand their products and services in many different ways, there are some central tenets that help define an optimal brand portfolio and associated... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

08 Sep 2008
HBS Case

The Value of Environmental Activists

There are many methods, most financial, to measure the success of companies in meeting goals. But the question becomes a lot harder at Harvard Business School when MBAs are challenged to measure the efforts of environmental organizations like Greenpeace and the World... View Details

Keywords: by Sarah Jane Gilbert; Energy; Utilities

22 Jul 2019
Book

How to Be a Digital Platform Leader

switching costs, multihoming is hard, which makes it complicated for firms or individual users to switch from one platform to another. The next criterion we identify is relatively homogenous products and a lack of identifiable niches. The... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

May 2017
Teaching Note

Hilti Fleet Management (A) and (B)

By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell, Oliver Gassmann and Roman Sauer

These notes are meant to accompany Hilti Fleet Management (A): Turning a Successful Business Model on Its Head (717-427) and Hilti Fleet Management (B): Towards a New Business Model (717-465).
This case explores the introduction of fleet management in the... View Details

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19 Sep 2016
Research & Ideas

Why Isn't Business Research More Relevant to Business Practitioners?

the Practical Relevance of Research, forthcoming in Production and Operations Management. “This is my soapbox message to academics: be more relevant,” says Toffel, the Senator John Heinz Professor of Environmental Management and faculty... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Education

June 1994
Case

Green Marketing at Rank Xerox

By: Jeffrey F. Rayport

Xerox Corp. is on the verge of launching a new line of photocopiers made largely from refurbished or recycled parts. In spite of this reclaimed content, the company intends to position the machines as "new." The move is a response to growing environmental pressures in... View Details

Keywords: Product Positioning; Machinery and Machining; Environmental Sustainability; Consumer Products Industry; Consumer Products Industry; Europe

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November 1973
Article

Men and Machines in Indonesia's Light Manufacturing Industry

By: Louis T Wells Jr

Keywords: Production; Machinery and Machining; Manufacturing Industry; Indonesia

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June 2009
Supplement

Sun Hydraulics: Leading in Tough Times (C) - Video

By: Linda A. Hill

Video of Tricia Fulton, Sun Hydraulic's CFO, visiting Linda hill's executive education class in March of 2009 View Details

Keywords: Leadership; Machinery and Machining; Consumer Products Industry; Florida

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October 2019 (Revised January 2020)
Background Note

Evolution of the Drone Industry

By: Rory McDonald, Andy Wu, Emilie Billaud and Ryan Bayer

This note focuses on the development of the drone industry in recent years and provides insights on the drone technology, regulations, applications, market size, top players, and ecosystem. This note was written in conjunction with the case study “Parrot: Navigating... View Details

Keywords: Drones; Information Technology; Disruption; Strategy; Entrepreneurship; Engineering; Product Development; Technology Industry; Asia; Europe; North America; United States

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February 2013 (Revised March 2015)
Case

The LEGO Group: Publish or Protect?

By: Willy C. Shih and Sen Chai

Senior managers at the LEGO Group are faced with a quandary: Should they patent inventions coming out of their manufacturing process development work, should they keep them as trade secrets, or should they publish them so that they would go into the public domain and... View Details

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May 1988 (Revised October 1989)
Teaching Note

Alloy Rods Corp., Teaching Note

By: Frank V. Cespedes

Teaching Note for (9-586-046). View Details

Keywords: Metals and Minerals; Industrial Products Industry

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February 1963
Case

Markham Instrument Co. (A)

By: Jay W. Lorsch

Keywords: Machinery and Machining; Industrial Products Industry

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April 1970 (Revised December 1983)
Case

Norton Co. (A)

Introduces the "Norton Plan" designed to halt Norton's declining share of the grinding wheel market. View Details

Keywords: Machinery and Machining; Competitive Strategy; Sales; Industrial Products Industry; Industrial Products Industry

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13 Feb 2006
Research & Ideas

Turning High Potential into Real Reward

breakthroughs, and overcoming setbacks. New Business publisher Mike Roberts recently met with Professor Lassiter to discuss his work. New Business: As one thinks about a new venture moving from product development to actually marketing... View Details

Keywords: Re: Joseph B. Lassiter; Consumer Products

April 1999 (Revised March 2002)
Case

Aluminum Smelting in South Africa: Alusaf's Hillside Project

With prices at all-time lows at the beginning of 1994, South Africa's sole primary aluminum producer--Alusaf--is considering building the world's largest greenfield smelter. Using cost estimates in this case, students can evaluate the relative cost position of this... View Details

Keywords: Metals and Minerals; Analysis; Markets; Profit; Capital; Industrial Products Industry; South Africa

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September 1986 (Revised August 1987)
Case

Pressco, Inc.--1984

By: William E. Fruhan Jr.

A marketing representative of heavy industrial equipment needs to evaluate the net present value of his equipment from the perspective of the buyer under changing tax regulations. View Details

Keywords: Machinery and Machining; Valuation; Product Positioning; Performance Evaluation; Taxation; Price; United States

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26 Aug 2024
Research & Ideas

Can AI Match Human Ingenuity in Creative Problem-Solving?

for end users, and can generate an infinite number of ideas quickly, Lane says. But are the ideas any good? To find out, Lane and her fellow researchers asked people to come up with business ideas for the sustainable circular economy, in which View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Information Technology; Information; Technology

19 Nov 2001
Research & Ideas

Alfred Chandler on the Electronic Century

operating system and application software. At the same time, the producers of minicomputers used the microprocessor to develop the workstation for its engineering and scientific customers. The new array of View Details

Keywords: by Alfred D. Chandler, Takashi Hikino & Andrew Von Nordenflycht; Consumer Products; Consumer Products; Consumer Products; Consumer Products; Consumer Products

06 Aug 2018
Research & Ideas

Supersmart Manufacturing Tools are Lowering Prices on TVs, Bulbs, and Solar Panels

Management Practice in Business Administration at Harvard Business School, who recently published a paper on the topic of technology commoditization in MIT Sloan Management Review. According to Shih, manufacturers are able to duplicate the latest technology used in... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Manufacturing; Electronics

December 2016 (Revised April 2017)
Case

BASF: Co-Creating Innovation (A)

By: V. Kasturi Rangan, Emilie Billaud and Vincent Dessain

In 2016, BASF's chief executive officer and chief technology officer reflected on the co-creation innovation program started almost 18 months ago as part of BASF's 150th anniversary celebration. Five hundred project ideas had been created, of which 100 had already... View Details