Publications

September 2019 (Revised August 2020)
Case

Engineering an Inclusive Bioeconomy

By: Tarun Khanna, Raffaella Sadun and Susie L. Ma

In 2019, entrepreneur Juan Carlos Castilla-Rubio was developing a project he hoped could generate and share wealth from the natural resources of the Amazon without destroying those resources. His idea, called Earth Bank of Codes (EBC), would create a library of the... View Details

02 Dec 2010
What Do You Think?

Making Right Choices: Art or Science?

work. We can trust some decisions to our educated mental "reflexes," as Gladwell suggests. Iyengar adds that, as individuals, we can relax our need for control over choice processes and make more and more choices automatically or out of habit. As View Details

Keywords: by Jim Heskett

June 2017
Article

Is Operating Flexibility Harmful under Debt?

By: Nikolaos Trichakis, Dan A. Iancu and Gerry Tsoukalas

We study the inefficiencies stemming from a firm's operating flexibility under debt. We find that flexibility in replenishing or liquidating inventory, by providing risk-shifting incentives, could lead to borrowing costs that erase more than a third of the firm's... View Details

Keywords: Covenants; Risk-shifting; Inventory; Agency Costs; Debt Financing; Risk Management; Borrowing and Debt

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January 2009 (Revised May 2011)
Case

China Mobile's Rural Communications Strategy

By: William C. Kirby, F. Warren McFarlan, G.A. Donovan and Tracy Manty

China Mobile was the world's leading mobile communications service provider with over 400 million customers. In some cities, its penetration rate was over 100%. With such huge successes, Chairman Wang Jianzhou was exploring ways to expand its customer base. Nearly... View Details

Keywords: Communication Technology; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Investment; Rural Scope; Strategy; Growth and Development Strategy; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Business and Government Relations; Telecommunications Industry; China

October 2016
Case

La-Z-Boy (A)

By: Joseph B. Fuller and Natalie Kindred

Kurt Darrow, CEO of La-Z-Boy furniture, must decide whether to continue an overhaul of the company's strategy in the face of a collapse in demand during the great recession. Having pared back La-Z-Boy's portfolio of brands and manufacturing network, he intends to... View Details

Keywords: Retail; Manufacturing; Organizational Transformations; Reorganization; Furniture Industry; Corporate Strategy; Home Fashion; Turnaround; Portfolio Rationalization; Globalization Of Supply Chain; Brand Repositioning; Business Growth and Maturation; Brands and Branding; Competitive Strategy; Vertical Integration; Consumer Products Industry; Consumer Products Industry; Consumer Products Industry; United States

02 Mar 2010
First Look

First Look: March 2

several innovative actions to make its anti-viral products available to over 100 low- and middle-income countries. Having reached nearly 680,000 patients by the middle of 2009, the company's senior managers... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

12 Sep 2023
Blog Post

Harvard Climate Entrepreneurs Circle: Taking Climate Solutions from Idea to Action, Faster

Sustainability Manager at HBS, and Leah Ricci, Associate Director of Sustainability and Energy Management at HBS–who were members of Harvard’s Environmental and Sustainability Professionals Network,... View Details

July 2011 (Revised January 2013)
Case

Digital Microscopy Is Making Me Crazy!

By: Willy Shih

For Carl Zeiss Microimaging, modular hardware and software enabled customers to tailor Zeiss's broad range of microscopy systems hardware and software to meet a wide range of needs from basic scientific research in the biological and medical sciences to clinical... View Details

Keywords: Information Infrastructure; Applications and Software; Corporate Strategy; Disruptive Innovation; Science-Based Business; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Business Conglomerates; Digital Platforms; Opportunities; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry; Computer Industry

12 Nov 2021
News

Alumni Business Leaders on Confronting the Climate Change Challenge

increase the productivity of our land and raw materials, what’s ahead of us is a fourth industrial revolution—a “resource revolution” that creates more alignment, stability and resiliency in our world. Elizabeth Lewis (MBA 2006) View Details

07 Dec 2022
Blog Post

2022 Climate Symposium: Tackling Climate Together

production is incredibly resource intensive and that even a small shift in consumption and production can have a massive impact on greenhouse gas emissions. From there, Karen Skelton, Senior Advisor to the... View Details

01 Oct 1998
News

Dinh Thi Hoa: Up from the Ashes of War

Today, 25 years later, Hoa is still living in Hanoi and doing her part to help her impoverished country establish a modern, productive economy. As managing director of Galaxy Company, a successful consulting... View Details

Keywords: Dun Gifford, Jr. (MBA 1992)

01 Jan 2011
News

Karen Gordon Mills, MBA 1977

financing that ranges from micro loans to help home-based businesses buy delivery trucks to sophisticated loans to build factories, she believes the SBA can stimulate "not just initial product creation, but View Details

01 May 2020
What Do You Think?

Does Remote Work Mix with Organizational Culture?

SUMMING UP Is Management the Missing Ingredient in Melding Organization Culture and Remote Work? Those who have experienced remote work are largely vocal supporters of the notion. Its success is dependent, on the one hand, on an effective... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

March 2012
Article

Fixing What's Wrong with U. S. Politics

By: David A. Moss

In America today there's a growing sense that the political system is broken and that its ineffectiveness is a major threat to U.S. competitiveness. Why do so many think the political system is not working? Research shows that in Congress, Republicans and Democrats are... View Details

Keywords: Government and Politics; System; Conflict Management; Performance Productivity; Policy; Public Administration Industry; United States

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