Publications
Publications
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- All HBS Web
(522)
- Faculty Publications (72)
- April 2014
- Case
Ford Motor Company: Blueprint for Mobility
By: Karim R. Lakhani, Marco Iansiti and Noah Fisher
Mark Fields, Ford Motor Company's COO, had to ensure the company's current business model of building cars and trucks remained strong, while concurrently navigating the company into the rapidly expanding industry of personal mobility. Personal mobility required new... View Details
- March 2014
- Teaching Note
Tesla Motors
In mid-2013, Tesla Motors was riding a wave of success: It had launched its first really mass-produced car—the model S—to rave reviews, had recently raised first-year production targets, and had started taking orders for its next car, the Model X. Tesla seemed to be on... View Details
- August 2013 (Revised November 2015)
- Case
Prudential Financial - General Motors Pension Risk Transfer: Back to the Future?
By: Luis M. Viceira and Emily A. Chien
In November 2012, Prudential Financial and General Motors closed on a $25.1B pension risk transfer (PRT) transaction, the largest of its kind to date by an order of magnitude both in the U.S. market and globally. In exchange for an in-kind transfer of $25.1B in... View Details
- August 2013 (Revised November 2020)
- Case
Tesla Motors
In mid-2013, Tesla Motors was riding a wave of success: It had launched its first really mass-produced car—the model S—to rave reviews; had recently raised first-year production targets; and had started taking orders for its next car, the Model X. Tesla seemed to be on... View Details
Keywords: Barriers To Entry; Economic Analysis; Learning Curve; Economies Of Scale; Innovation; Market Entry; Sustainable Competitive Advantage; Vision; Strategy And Leadership; Strategy; Competitive Strategy; Market Entry and Exit; Competitive Advantage; Technological Innovation; Leadership; Learning; Economics; Analysis; Auto Industry
- August 2013 (Revised November 2013)
- Case
Ford vs. GM: The Evolution of Mass Production (A)
By: Willy Shih
This case explores the very different paths taken by the Ford Motor Company and the General Motors Corporation in the first three decades of the twentieth century. Henry Ford's Model T was a car for the masses. After considerable experimentation, Ford Motor... View Details
Keywords: Innovation; Exploration; Dominant Design; Business Growth and Maturation; Business History; Innovation and Management; Innovation Strategy; Technological Innovation; Leading Change; Growth and Development Strategy; Product Positioning; Product Design; Product Development; Business Strategy; Corporate Strategy; Vertical Integration; Auto Industry; Manufacturing Industry; Michigan
- August 2013 (Revised November 2013)
- Supplement
Ford vs. GM: The Evolution of Mass Production (B)
By: Willy Shih
This case explores the very different paths taken by the Ford Motor Company and the General Motors Corporation in the first three decades of the twentieth century. Henry Ford's Model T was a car for the masses. After considerable experimentation, Ford Motor... View Details
Keywords: Innovation; Exploration; Dominant Design; Business Growth and Maturation; Business History; Innovation and Management; Innovation Strategy; Technological Innovation; Leading Change; Growth and Development Strategy; Product Positioning; Product Design; Product Development; Business Strategy; Corporate Strategy; Vertical Integration; Auto Industry; Manufacturing Industry; Michigan
- July 2013
- Case
Novozymes: Establishing the Cellulosic Ethanol Value Chain
By: Willy Shih and Sen Chai
As the world's largest producer of industrial enzymes, Novozymes had invested heavily for many years to bio-engineer enzymes that could break down cellulose into fermentable sugar. In 2010, the company had launched what it thought would become a breakthrough product... View Details
Keywords: System Complexity; Industrial Enzymes; Ethanol; Collulosic Ethanol; Fermentation; Genomics; Genetic Engineering; Value Chain; Assembling Value Chain; Energy Sources; Renewable Energy; Collaborative Innovation and Invention; Innovation and Management; Innovation Strategy; Technological Innovation; Management; Growth and Development Strategy; Industry Growth; Production; Research; Research and Development; Science; Genetics; Natural Environment; Environmental Sustainability; Science-Based Business; Business Strategy; Commercialization; Vertical Integration; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Biotechnology Industry; Energy Industry; Denmark; United States
- December 2012 (Revised November 2014)
- Case
Lit Motors
By: Thomas R. Eisenmann and Alex Godden
In mid-2012 Lit Motors had created both engineering and design prototypes and conducted initial customer tests on less than $750,000 of investment. Lit Motors' founder, Daniel Kim, had started the company to design and manufacture an efficient electric 2-wheeled... View Details
- April 1, 2012
- Article
The Driver in Ford's Amazing Race
By: Nancy F. Koehn
In "American Icon: Alan Mulally and the Fight to Save Ford Motor Company" (Crown Business: $26), Bryce G. Hoffman recounts the turnaround in careful, often gripping detail. Make no mistake, this is a story, not a structured analysis of Ford's transformation. Those... View Details
- May 2011 (Revised July 2015)
- Case
Ford Motor Company: Strengthening the Dealer Network
By: V. Kasturi Rangan, Katharine Lee and Marie Bell
The case describes a five-year effort (2006-2011) of distribution rationalization and consolidation at Ford. The financial crisis in the second-half of 2008 forced GM and Chrysler into bankruptcy. Having completed the distribution overhaul work by 2011, its senior... View Details
- March 2011 (Revised April 2021)
- Case
The Whiz Kids
By: Tom Nicholas and David Chen
In October 1945, Henry Ford II received a telegram in his office at the Ford Motor Company in Dearborn, Michigan written by Charles "Tex" Thornton, a U.S. Air Force colonel. The telegram presented an opportunity for Ford to deploy a system of statistical control which... View Details
- February 2011 (Revised December 2012)
- Case
The Ford Fiesta
By: John Deighton and Leora Kornfeld
Executives at Ford wondered if social media could be the marketing solution for the launch of the youth-oriented 2010 Fiesta. But with social media came a ceding of control. Some at the company believed that if Ford was going to move beyond its conservative brand image... View Details
- February 2010 (Revised September 2011)
- Case
Local Motors: Designed by the Crowd, Built by the Customer
By: Michael I. Norton and Jeremy Dann
In the wake of the meltdown among U.S. auto manufacturers in 2009, Jay Rogers, CEO of Local Motors, has a new approach for the automotive industry: decide which models are produced through online design competitions, and then allow customers to "build their own cars"... View Details
- November 2009
- Case
The HLB Turnaround
By: Lynda M. Applegate, Bhaskar Chakravorti and Laura Winig
Ford Pearson has recently taken over as CEO of HLB, a Chicago-based product design and development firm (and once one of the largest in the business), to help turn it around after a series of crises that had seriously threatened its survival. Pearson has personally... View Details
- February 2009 (Revised October 2012)
- Case
Tata Motors in Singur: Public Purpose and Private Property (B)
By: Laura Alfaro, Lakshmi Iyer and Namrata Arora
In October 2008, Tata Motors canceled their car manufacturing plant in West Bengal state, in the face of widespread farmer protests over land acquisition issues. This meant abandoning a project in which the company had invested $300 million and delaying the launch of... View Details
- January 2009 (Revised February 2010)
- Case
Gucci Group in 2009
By: David B. Yoffie and Renee Kim
The Gucci Group had transformed itself into the world's third largest luxury retailer with multiple brands. The company had performed well even after the departure of star designer Tom Ford and former CEO Domenico De Sole. However, the challenging global economic times... View Details
- 2008
- Working Paper
Wellsprings of Creation: How Perturbation Sustains Exploration in Mature Organizations
By: David James Brunner, Bradley R. Staats, Michael L. Tushman and David M. Upton
Organizations struggle to balance simultaneous imperatives to exploit and explore, yet theorists differ as to whether exploitation undermines or enhances exploration. The debate reflects a gap: the missing mechanism by which organizations break free of old routines and... View Details
- May 2008 (Revised June 2009)
- Case
House of Tata: Acquiring a Global Footprint
By: Tarun Khanna, Krishna G. Palepu and Richard Bullock
Chronicles the globalization of the Tata Group, one of India's largest business groups. Since 2000, many Tata Group operating companies have aggressively built international businesses, particularly through overseas acquisitions. After describing the globalization... View Details
- January 2008 (Revised May 2009)
- Case
Restructuring at Delphi Corporation (A)
By: Stuart C. Gilson and Sarah L. Abbott
Delphi Corporation, operating under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, has filed a plan of reorganization with the court, under which a consortium of hedge funds led by Appaloosa Management will invest up to $2.6 billion in new equity. Also participating in the plan is... View Details
- September 2007 (Revised January 2008)
- Case
Tata Motors: The Tata Ace
By: Krishna G. Palepu and Vishnu Srinivasan
Considers the strategy and experience of Tata Motors, India's leading commercial truck maker, as it developed a new small commercial vehicle, the Tata Ace. Positioned as a replacement for the three-wheelers that predominated as small commercial vehicles in India, the... View Details