Publications
Publications
Show Results For
- All HBS Web
(2,656)
- Faculty Publications (483)
- September 2006 (Revised November 2007)
- Case
Board of Directors of Medtronic, Inc.
By: Jay W. Lorsch and Alexis Chernak
The board of directors of Medtronic, Inc., a company known for its commitment to effective corporate governance, must prepare for the departure of Chairman and CEO Bill George and the retirement of four long-time directors. The company had experienced rapid growth in... View Details
- May 2006 (Revised November 2006)
- Case
IKEA's Global Sourcing Challenge: Indian Rugs and Child Labor (A)
By: Christopher A. Bartlett, Vincent Marie Dessain and Anders Sjoman
Traces the history of IKEA's response to a TV report that its Indian carpet suppliers were using child labor. Describes IKEA's growth, including the importance of a sourcing strategy based on its close relationships with suppliers in developing countries. Details the... View Details
- April 2006 (Revised November 2021)
- Case
Endesa Chile: Raising the Ralco Dam (A)
By: Kathleen L. McGinn, Paula J. Laschober and Dina Pradel
Endesa Chile, the largest electricity generation company in Chile, is building a major power plant on the Biobio River in Southern Chile. A historic conflict involving the indigenous people of the Biobio River, the Chilean government, and international conservation... View Details
- March 2006 (Revised August 2006)
- Case
Putnam Investments: Rebuilding the Culture
By: Nitin Nohria and Charles Nichols
Charles "Ed" Haldeman Jr. is promoted CEO of Putnam Investments after the firm was badly damaged by a series of improper trading practices. He is charged with the task of managing the crisis, repairing the company culture, and putting the firm back into a pattern of... View Details
- February 2006
- Case
Bumble and bumble: Building a Successful Business in Beauty and Fashion
By: Nancy F. Koehn and Erica Helms
Explores the creation and subsequent rise of Bumble and bumble, a trend-setting hair-care company. Analyzes the vision and achievements of the founding entrepreneur, Michael Gordon, and charts the evolution of the company within the $230 billion global beauty industry.... View Details
- February 2006 (Revised November 2006)
- Case
GE's Growth Strategy: The Immelt Initiative
Follows the actions of GE CEO, Jeff Immelt, as he implements a growth strategy for the $150 billion company in a tough business environment. In four years, he reinvigorates GE's technology, expands its services, develops a commercial focus, pushes developing countries,... View Details
- December 2005 (Revised May 2014)
- Case
Walt Disney and the 1941 Animators' Strike
By: Nitin Nohria, Anthony Mayo and Bridget Gurtler
Focuses on the leadership lessons drawn from the events precipitating the Animator's Strike of 1941, depicting the growing pains of a company that was as much formed and changed by American culture as American culture was formed and changed by it. The tale of Walt... View Details
- November 2005
- Case
Michael Ovitz and The Walt Disney Company (A)
By: Jay W. Lorsch and Alexis Chernak
Faced with the need to hire a new president, The Walt Disney Co. pursued Michael Ovitz, a founder of the Creative Artist Agency. Although initially disinterested, Ovitz engaged in negotiations with Michael Eisner, CEO of The Walt Disney Co., in the summer of 1995... View Details
- September 2005
- Case
Whitbread PLC (A)
By: Michael Beer and James Weber
Describes the change process Whitbread employed in transforming its organization and culture from a single underperforming business operating in a relatively stable environment to a multibusiness, high-commitment, and high-performance corporation operating in more... View Details
- July 2005 (Revised October 2006)
- Case
Recall 2000: Bridgestone Corp. (A) (Abridged)
By: Lynn S. Paine
In September 2000, the president of Bridgestone-Firestone, the U.S. subsidiary of Japan's Bridgestone Corp., was invited to appear before a U.S. congressional subcommittee investigating the August 2000 recall of more than 6.5 million tires made by the subsidiary. The... View Details
- June 2005
- Case
Transformation of Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. 2005 (A)
By: Michael Y. Yoshino and Yukihiko Endo
The company, once an outstanding Japan-based global leader in electronics and major appliances, suffered poor performance during the 1990s. Kunio Nakamura became CEO in 2001 and sought to transform the company in a fundamental way. Examines the company's history,... View Details
- April 2005 (Revised January 2007)
- Case
Furman Selz LLC (A): A Tale of Two Acquisitions
By: Nancy D. Beaulieu, Boris Groysberg and Kyle Doherty
Profiles a firm that was reacquired by two companies with different degrees of success. Highlights integration challenges present in acquisition deals when the primary assets of the target are human capital. Focuses on Furman Selz's acquisition by Xerox in 1987; its... View Details
- March 2005 (Revised March 2006)
- Case
Sealed Air Corporation: Globalization and Corporate Culture (A) (Abridged)
By: Lynn S. Paine and Karen Wruck
Sealed Air Corp.'s CEO and COO are considering what approach they should take to building a seamless corporate culture worldwide. Anticipating continuing growth and expansion, especially outside the United States, they are concerned with preserving and promoting the... View Details
- January 2005 (Revised April 2006)
- Case
Stonewall Kitchen
By: Myra M. Hart, Victoria Winston, Kristin Lieb, Kenna Wyllie Baudin, Alison Bell and Leslie Simmons
Jonathan King and Jim Stott, the founders of Stonewall Kitchen, started out in 1992 with a simple business selling jams and jellies at local farmers' markets. By 2004, they had grown the company into a $25 million organization with 250 employees. They expanded their... View Details
- November 2004
- Case
IBM's Diversity Strategy: Bridging the Workplace and the Marketplace
By: David A. Thomas and Ayesha Kanji
Explores how IBM incorporated diversity into its business strategy, making the case that workforce diversity is critical to marketing its products and services to its customers. In the early 1990s, Ted Childs, vice-president of Workforce Diversity, proposed to CEO Lou... View Details
- October 2004 (Revised November 2004)
- Case
Mavens & Moguls: Creating a New Business Model
By: Myra M. Hart, Victoria Winston and Kristin Lieb
Mavens & Moguls is a "virtual" marketing-consulting firm of approximately 40 professionals. Examines the processes by which its founder, Paige Arnof-Fenn, learns the business, builds a power network of industry experts and potential customers, and uses this expertise... View Details
- October 2004 (Revised July 2013)
- Case
Making China Beautiful: Shiseido and the China Market
By: Geoffrey G. Jones, Akiko Kanno and Masako Egawa
Describes the multinational growth of Shiseido, the world's fourth-largest cosmetics company, with a focus on its strategy in China since 1981. Explores the challenges facing firms in the globalization of a culturally specific industry such as cosmetics. The Japanese... View Details
- September 2004 (Revised February 2007)
- Case
Hedging Currency Risks at AIFS
By: Mihir A. Desai, Vincent Dessain and Anders Sjoman
The American Institute for Foreign Studies (AIFS) organizes study abroad programs and cultural exchanges for American students. The firm's revenues are mainly in U.S. dollars, but most of its costs are in eurodollars and British pounds. The company's controllers review... View Details
- July 2004 (Revised May 2005)
- Case
Pfizer's Virtual CIO (Abridged)
By: F. Warren McFarlan and Brian DeLacey
Discusses the IT organization and IT strategy issues facing Pfizer, one of the world's largest pharmaceutical companies. Managing over $1 billion of IT expense, the company has a committee approach for handling all critical IT decisions, an approach that is consistent... View Details
- July 2004 (Revised October 2018)
- Case
Opium and Entrepreneurship in the Nineteenth Century
By: Geoffrey Jones, Elisabeth Koll and Alexis Gendron
This case examines the role of Jardine Matheson, a trading company founded by two Scottish merchants, in the opium trade between India and China during the nineteenth century. The two Opium Wars fought between Western powers and China, which sought to stop opium... View Details