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- Faculty Publications (4,347)
- December 1987 (Revised May 1991)
- Case
One Leather Street
By: William J. Poorvu and Jeffrey A. Libert
Presents a problem involving rehabilitating a small office building in Boston. Describes an investment decision which is knowingly underfunded. As construction proceeds, the developer realizes that it is not up to building code and faces difficult business and ethical... View Details
- November 1987 (Revised June 1988)
- Case
ServiceMaster Industries, Inc.
By: James L. Heskett
The CEO of ServiceMaster Industries has convened an internal task force to come up with ideas for reorganizing the company to accommodate unusually fast growth. In developing both alternatives and criteria for appraising them, the task force has to keep in mind the... View Details
- October 1987 (Revised July 1991)
- Case
Tiffany & Co.
This premier retail jewelry company was bought from its parent, Avon, by a group of investors led by its own management in 1984. The company was highly leveraged, financially, and had to scramble to meet the cash flow and earnings requirements laid down by its lenders.... View Details
- September 1987 (Revised October 1987)
- Background Note
The Job of the General Manager
By: James L. Heskett
Describes elements of the job of the general manager that are addressed in the Management Policy and Practice course at the Harvard Business School. These include: 1) establishing strategic direction, 2) setting goals and managing standards of performance, 3)... View Details
- July 1987 (Revised October 1995)
- Case
Phillips 66: Controlling a Company Through Crisis
The downstream operations subsidiary of a major U.S. petroleum company is faced with major restructuring decisions and responds by developing an Executive Information System (EIS) which allows for increased responsiveness, wider span of control, and higher levels of... View Details
- June 1987 (Revised September 1997)
- Case
Mebel, Doran & Co.
Puts the student in the position of a senior official of a major New York investment bank who discovers that information has leaked to the market on a confidential takeover plan that was being developed by a corporate client. The official has to decide how to deal with... View Details
- June 1987 (Revised August 1988)
- Case
American Bank
By: Robert S. Kaplan
American Bank is developing a new system to compute product costs. The deregulated, more competitive environment for commercial banks has created both problems and opportunities for banking operations. In order to price existing products and assess the desirability of... View Details
- May 1987 (Revised November 1998)
- Case
John Deere Component Works (A)
By: Robert S. Kaplan
The division has recognized the inadequacies of its existing, traditional cost system for estimating product costs. Describes the innovative activity-based system that was developed to more accurately trace overhead costs to individual products. Provides students with... View Details
- April 1987 (Revised January 1988)
- Background Note
Managing Information Technology: System Development Project Management
- January 1987 (Revised January 2002)
- Case
Baker Precision Instruments, Inc.
By: Ramchandran Jaikumar, Roy Shapiro, Donald Rosenfield and Kathryn E. Stecke
A rapidly growing machine parts manufacturer is trying to decide whether to acquire an advanced Flexible Manufacturing System or Systems. The selection decisions must address the impact of new technology, the effect of setup times on production planning and capacity,... View Details
- December 1986 (Revised November 1989)
- Case
Hewlett-Packard: Manufacturing Productivity Division (A)
By: Benson P. Shapiro and Lawrence B. Levine
In late summer 1986, the management of the Manufacturing Productivity Division (MPD) of Hewlett-Packard (HP) was in the process of making major market selection and product policy decisions. MPD is a small division which develops and markets manufacturing productivity... View Details
- October 1986 (Revised July 2010)
- Case
Karen Leary (A)
By: Linda A. Hill
Describes the evolution of the working relationship of Karen Leary, a new manager of a Merrill Lynch retail branch, and Ted Chung, a new financial consultant in the branch. Leary has some concerns about her working relationship with Chung and with his performance.... View Details
- October 1986 (Revised February 2008)
- Case
Congoleum Corp. (Abridged)
Describes the development and terms of the largest leveraged buyout up to the date of the case. The main problem is to value the positions of the various participants: lenders, equity holders, investment bankers, and management. This is an abridged version of an... View Details
- September 1986 (Revised February 2007)
- Case
Solagen: Process Improvement in the Manufacture of Gelatin at Kodak
By: Dorothy A. Leonard and Brian DeLacey
Kodak must decide whether to make a major investment in a production facility designed around a new technique for producing the gelatin critical to so many film and paper products. Currently, gelatin making is an arcane art, unchanged in 150 years and heavily dependent... View Details
- August 1986 (Revised June 1987)
- Case
Lotus Development Corporation: Entering International Markets
By: David B. Yoffie and John J. Coleman
Lotus 1-2-3 exploded on the American market in the spring of 1983. Nine months later Jim Manzi, vice president of marketing, hired Chuck Digate to develop an international strategy for Lotus. Case explores Lotus' rapid rise to the top of the software market in the... View Details
- April 1986 (Revised May 1989)
- Case
Alloy Rods Corp.
In July of 1985 the managers of Alloy Rods (who recently purchased the company through a leveraged buyout arrangement) find that their chief competitor (a company more than 6 times as large as Alloy Rods) has introduced a new product clearly aimed at Alloy's most... View Details
- April 1986 (Revised May 1988)
- Case
Sun Microsystems, Inc. (B)
By: Kim B. Clark
Dissects the manufacturing process and procedures of a high-end computer manufacturer. The main issue is how to introduce new products and ramp them up quickly in a competitive environment where time-to-market is crucial. Focuses on engineering change orders--how they... View Details
- April 1986 (Revised September 1993)
- Case
Sun Microsystems, Inc. (A)
Sun Microsystems managers must decide whether to launch a new product into manufacturing. Teaching objectives include: 1) an analysis of the competitive environment, 2) examination of technological choices, 3) understanding of the new product development process, and... View Details
- January 1986 (Revised March 1997)
- Case
Horizon Group
Contains a description of a situation confronting the co-founder of a company planning to produce software for microcomputers. The company has just completed raising money from some wealthy investors by forming an R&D Limited Partnership. Development of the program (an... View Details
- January 1986 (Revised November 2006)
- Case
Peripheral Products Company: The 'Gray Market' for Disk Drives
In mid-1985, the vice president of marketing for a large manufacturer of disk drives is considering how to deal with a growing "gray market" for his company's products. The case provides good background material on the evolution of gray markets throughout the disk... View Details