Publications

March 1992 (Revised April 2000)
Case

Adam Opel AG (A)

By: Hugo Uyterhoeven

Focuses on the strategic issue of how to approach the East German market after the Berlin wall came down in late 1989. Within an unusually rich economic-political and organizational-personal context, the chairman of GM's German subsidiary has to respond to Volkswagen's... View Details

Keywords: Transformation; Government and Politics; Organizations; Business and Government Relations; Strategy; Competitive Strategy; Germany

23 Oct 2014
News

Pocket change

November 2012 (Revised May 2013)
Case

Naina Lal Kidwai: Investing in Her Country

By: Boris Groysberg and Anjali Raina

This case showcases the 30-year career of Naina Lal Kidwai, Chairman of HSBC India, a leading woman business leader globally. It demonstrates how Kidwai spent a lifetime overcoming barriers as a woman in a male-dominated profession and as an Indian in the global... View Details

Keywords: Leadership; Financial Services Industry; Insurance Industry; India

July 1996
Case

Williams-Sonoma, Inc.--1990

By: Nancy F. Koehn and Michael Dearing

Howard Lester, chairman and CEO, has just completed a second offering of common stock in Williams-Sonoma, Inc. ($218.2 million 1989 sales). Having targeted $500 million in retail sales, Lester's challenge is to: 1) prioritize growth investments in five existing catalog... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Strategy; Alignment; Customer Value and Value Chain; Competitive Strategy; Retail Industry

April 2025 (Revised June 2025)
Case

Paul Weiss: Fighting or Negotiating with POTUS

By: Eugene Soltes and Anthea Brady

In early 2025, Paul Weiss Chairman Brad Karp weighed how to respond to an Executive Order from President Trump that could threaten the financial livelihood of his law firm. Paul Weiss and Karp had to decide to mount a legal fight or negotiate with the White House. The... View Details

Keywords: Federal Government; Decision Making; Law; Mission and Purpose; Negotiation; Business and Government Relations; Legal Services Industry; United States

June 2002 (Revised January 2010)
Case

Delphi Corporation (A)

By: Jay W. Lorsch, Rakesh Khurana and Sonya Sanchez

The Delphi Corp.'s board of directors faces a transition as lead director Thomas Wyman approaches mandatory retirement. Chairman and CEO J.T. Battenberg reflects on Delphi's history and its successful reinvention by Wyman and Battenberg when it separated from its... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Governance; Governing and Advisory Boards; Leadership; Management Succession; Management Teams; Relationships; Corporate Strategy

April 1989 (Revised September 1989)
Case

CIBA-GEIGY AG: Impact of Inflation and Currency Fluctuations

By: Hugo Uyterhoeven

The chairman of the second-largest Swiss multinational company is preparing for a board discussion on the impact of a constantly strengthening Swiss franc. The case raises strategic issues in terms of international competitiveness, financial reporting issues of how to... View Details

Keywords: Inflation and Deflation; Currency; Financial Management; Multinational Firms and Management; Problems and Challenges; Risk and Uncertainty; Competitive Strategy; Switzerland

09 May 2021
News

#245 Hubert Joly- Skyrocketing Best Buy’s Success and Unleashing Human Magic

March 2008 (Revised May 2008)
Case

The Blackstone Group's IPO

By: Felda Hardymon, Josh Lerner and Ann Leamon

Steven Schwarzman, Chairman of the Blackstone Group, has just learned that an investment group associated with the government of China wants to buy the majority of Blackstone's leveraged IPO. As he considers how to respond to this offer, Schwarzman reviews the firm's... View Details

Keywords: Private Equity; Financial Liquidity; Initial Public Offering; Investment; Ownership Stake; Business and Stakeholder Relations

February 2005 (Revised March 2005)
Case

The Trustees of Reservations

By: Michael Chu

The executive director and chairman of the board of The Trustees of Reservations, one of the nation's oldest land conservation institutions, undertake a major governance restructuring. Reviews the forces leading to the change, the process by which its undertaken, and... View Details

Keywords: Restructuring; Governance Controls; Performance Effectiveness; Problems and Challenges; Social Enterprise

11 Mar 2014
News

HBS Associate Professor Amy Cuddy Named Young Global Leader by World Economic Forum

April 2020 (Revised June 2020)
Case

Oriental Land Co., Ltd.—Tokyo Disney Resort

By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell and Akiko Kanno

This case describes the history of Oriental Land Co. Ltd.’s (OLC's) Tokyo Disney Resort (TDR), its operations, the extent of vertical integration, and the challenges it faced in 2018 as OLC's chairman and CEO, Toshio Kagami, contemplated how best to deal with... View Details

Keywords: Strategy For Multi-business Firm; Business Models; Growth; Theme Parks; Disney; Disney Parks; Licensing; Royalties; Two-part Tariffs; Oriental Land Co.; Tokyo Disneyland; Tokyo DisneySea; Tokyo Disney Resort; Tokyo Disney; Growth Strategy; Hotels; Hotel Industry; Partnership; Development; Attractions; Rides; Urayasu; Kagami; Congestion; Pricing; Amusement Parks; Amusement Park Industry; Brand; Branding; History; OLC; Corporate Strategy; Competitive Strategy; Business History; Price; Retention; Growth and Development; Growth and Development Strategy; Brands and Branding; Agreements and Arrangements; Contracts; Operations; Vertical Integration; Problems and Challenges; Partners and Partnerships; Business Strategy; Expansion; Rail Transportation; Transportation Networks; Accommodations Industry; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; Tourism Industry; Asia; Japan; Tokyo; United States

April 2008
Supplement

Chunghwa Telecom Co., Ltd. (B)

By: Paul W. Marshall, Michael Shih-ta Chen and Keith Chi-ho Wong

In late November 2000, Chung Telecom Co., Ltd., the once-monopolized telecom operator owned by the Taiwanese government, was on its way to privatization. Mr. C.K. Mao, Chairman of the company, was headed the job only three months earlier, after its prior chairman... View Details

Keywords: State Ownership; Jobs and Positions; Monopoly; Privatization; Competition; Decisions; Motivation and Incentives; Labor and Management Relations; Resignation and Termination; Compensation and Benefits; Price; Status and Position; Telecommunications Industry; Public Administration Industry; Taiwan

June 2004 (Revised July 2005)
Case

Procter & Gamble: Global Business Services

By: Thomas J. DeLong, Warren Brackin, Alex Cabanas, Phil Shellhammer and David L. Ager

Dave Walker, vice-president of business service opportunities and chairman of the governance team at Procter & Gamble, must decide what to do with P&G's 5,700 employee Global Business Services (GBS) group. GBS brought together internal services such as finance,... View Details

Keywords: Business Units; Change Management; Decision Making; Globalized Firms and Management; Job Cuts and Outsourcing; Organizational Design

Malcolm Salter has been a member of the Harvard Business School faculty since 1967. His teaching and research focus on issues of corporate strategy, organization, and governance.

In addition to teaching at HBS, he has held faculty positions at the Harvard... View Details

Keywords: arts; automobiles; energy; investment banking industry; retailing; venture capital industry

September 2023 (Revised October 2023)
Case

Ghassan Nuqul and the Nuqul Group: Preserving a Father's Legacy

By: Christina R. Wing, Lauren Cohen and Alpana Thapar

The Nuqul Group was established in 1952 by Elia Nuqul, a Palestinian refugee who fled his hometown in 1948 with his family to Jordan. He overcame many hardships in his initial years there, but subsequently started a trading business that grew to become one of Jordan’s... View Details

Keywords: Family Business; Family Ownership; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Management Succession; Jordan

Earl Sasser is a Baker Foundation Professor at Harvard Business School and has been a member of the faculty there since 1969. He received a B.A. in Mathematics from Duke University in 1965, an MBA from the University of North Carolina in 1967, and a Ph.D. in... View Details

March 2014
Case

MediaTek: From Feature Phones to Smartphones

By: Willy Shih

MediaTek was the third largest fabless semiconductor company in the world, and was the second largest supplier of the silicon microchips that powered mobile phones. Yet as the company's chairman reflected on his R&D strategy, he wondered why it hadn't moved faster on... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Decisions; Business Strategy; Corporate Strategy; Technology Adoption; Telecommunications Industry; Semiconductor Industry; China; Taiwan