Publications

Career Coach

Matt Spielman

Matt (Columbia ’94, HBS ’99) is the Founder and Managing Partner of Inflection Point Partners, an executive coaching and leadership development firm dedicated to igniting careers and energizing lives. Matt and his team at Inflection... View Details

Keywords: Consumer Products; Consumer Products; Consumer Products; Consumer Products; Consumer Products; Consumer Products; Consumer Products; Consumer Products; Consumer Products; Consumer Products; Consumer Products; Consumer Products

January 2016 (Revised May 2016)
Supplement

IKEA in Saudi Arabia (C)

By: Karthik Ramanna, Jerome Lenhardt and Marc Homsy

Supplements the (A) Case. View Details

Keywords: Corporate Values; Islam; Multinationals; Globalization; Leadership; Equality and Inequality; Multinational Firms and Management; Religion; Organizational Culture; Gender; Consumer Products Industry; Saudi Arabia; Sweden

2010
Working Paper

When Open Architecture Beats Closed: The Entrepreneurial Use of Architectural Knowledge

By: Carliss Y. Baldwin

This paper describes how entrepreneurial firms can use superior architectural knowledge to open up a technical system to gain strategic advantage. The strategy involves, first, identifying "bottlenecks" in the existing system, and then creating a new open architecture... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Investment Return; Growth and Development Strategy; Product Design; Organizational Design; Competitive Advantage; Technology Industry

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19 Sep 2018
Sharpening Your Skills

Say Again? Uncommon Advice for Common Business Problems

when their employees are naturally proactive. When a Competitor Abandons the Market, Should You Advance or Retreat? Companies pay close attention when a competitor drops out of the market. Too often, though, they come to the wrong conclusion. Hiding From View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

Article

Control, Performance, and Knowledge Transfers in Large Multinationals: Unilever in the United States, 1945-1980

By: G. Jones

This article considers key issues relating to the organization and performance of large multinational firms in the post-Second World War period. Although foreign direct investment is defined by ownership and control, in practice the nature of that "control" is far from... View Details

Keywords: Multinational Firms and Management; Governance Controls; Performance; Business or Company Management; Ownership; Consumer Products Industry; Consumer Products Industry; United States

Find at Harvard

October 1995
Teaching Note

Procter & Gamble: Improving Consumer Value Through Process Design TN

By: F. Warren McFarlan

Teaching Note for (9-195-126). View Details

Keywords: Customer Value and Value Chain; Customer Focus and Relationships; Distribution Channels; Information Technology; Value Creation; Logistics; Management Practices and Processes; Consumer Products Industry

May 1989
Teaching Note

Tektronix: Portable Instruments Division (B), Teaching Note

By: Robert S. Kaplan

Teaching Note for (9-188-143). View Details

Keywords: Production; Cost Management; System; Product; Resource Allocation; Management Practices and Processes; Electronics Industry

31 Mar 2002
What Do You Think?

Is This the Decade of the Investor?

analysis is substantially valid, it raises some interesting questions about productivity, growth, and investment in the information economy. The first, of course, is whether unusually high rates of productivity increases can be sustained... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

April 1988 (Revised September 1989)
Case

Tektronix: Portable Instruments Division (C)

Provides the rationale behind the design of the new cost system. View Details

Keywords: Cost Accounting; Production; Management Systems; Manufacturing Industry

February 2005 (Revised August 2008)
Case

Arcelik Home Appliances: International Expansion Strategy

The Turkish home appliances firm Arcelik is revisiting its growth strategy. Options for growth include continuing to promote currently owned brands in international markets, acquiring new brands, expanding OEM or private-label contracts, and/or diversifying into other... View Details

Keywords: Global Strategy; Growth and Development Strategy; Diversification; Expansion; Consumer Products Industry; Turkey

01 Mar 2015
News

A Boomtown's Echo

is the Bakken formation, a 25,000-square-mile underground deposit that—thanks to a rise in fracking and new oil extraction technologies—has produced as much as 1 million barrels of oil and gas a day, or about the production equivalent of... View Details

Keywords: Oil and Gas Extraction; Mining

01 Sep 2012
News

What’s the Big Idea?

confronted with setbacks. Yet in a survey of 669 managers around the world, “progress” ranked dead last as a perceived source of employee motivation, falling behind more expected (but less effective) carrots such as bonuses and... View Details

Keywords: Garry Emmons;Julia Hanna;Roger Thompson; Management; Management; Management; Management

Profile

Monica Dodi

As a cofounder and managing director of the Women’s Venture Capital Fund (WVCF), Monica Dodi (MBA 1984) backs female-led, early-stage ventures in digital media and sustainable products and services. Dodi... View Details

Keywords: Venture Capital / Private Equity; Financial Services; Entertainment / Media

December 1997 (Revised April 2000)
Case

John Trani's First Year

By: Hugo Uyterhoeven

John Trani is Stanley Works' new CEO. This case describes his philosophy, communications, and actions during his first seven months in office, aiming at a major transformation of strategic postures, organizational structure, and company culture. View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Strategic Planning; Communication; Personal Development and Career; Organizational Culture; Leadership Style; Management Skills; Consumer Products Industry

September 2011 (Revised July 2012)
Case

Khosla Ventures: Biofuels Gain Liquidity

By: Joseph B. Lassiter III, William A. Sahlman, Alison Berkley Wagonfeld and Evan Richardson

Samir Kaul, a Partner at Khosla Ventures, looked out his office window. It was late June, 2011, and like almost every day in Menlo Park, the sun was shining. Kaul was reflecting on what had been a very positive 10 months in the venture capital business. Over that span,... View Details

Keywords: Venture Capital; Financial Strategy; Business or Company Management; Partners and Partnerships; Product Development; Investment Portfolio; Financial Services Industry