Publications

August 2009 (Revised August 2010)
Case

Slanket: Responding to Snuggie's Market Entry

By: John A. Deighton and Leora Kornfeld

How does a pioneer in a new product category deal with the runaway success of a follower? Can search engine marketing and social media help? In 2008 Slanket CEO, Gary Clegg, found that his product, a blanket with sleeves, had been eclipsed by The Snuggie, another... View Details

Keywords: Digital Marketing; Brands and Branding; Product Launch; Market Entry and Exit; Social and Collaborative Networks; Internet and the Web

23 May 2016
News

The Biggest Challenges of Data-Driven Manufacturing

2016
Working Paper

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Modern Administrative State, 1912–1925: Trade Associations, Codes of Fair Competition, and State Building

By: Laura Phillips Sawyer

From its founding in 1912 through the interwar years, the Chamber's history shows a persistent preoccupation with progressive economics and policy-making. Rather than flouting the new ideas of institutional economics, which favored federal regulators overseeing data... View Details

Keywords: Organizations; Trade; Business and Government Relations; Competition; United States

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October 2023
Case

Shredder Setups or Straightlining into Risk?: Investing in What You Love

By: Lauren Cohen and Grace Headinger

Bob Hall, President of Green Gables Partners, evaluated whether to angel invest into an up-and-coming ski brand. As the son-in-law of the founder of Vera Bradley and having retired from a lengthy career on Wall Street, Hall was well-versed in both direct investing and... View Details

Keywords: Family Office; Angel Investors; Direct Investment; Family Business; Business Growth and Maturation; Small Business; Financial Strategy; Personal Finance; Investment Portfolio; Private Equity; Decision Choices and Conditions; Risk and Uncertainty; Consumer Products Industry; Montana; United States

March 2021 (Revised December 2021)
Case

Cedar Environmental: Innovation vs. Corruption in Lebanon?

By: Nien-hê Hsieh and Youssef Abdel Aal

The case follows Ziad Abi Chaker, founder and CEO of Cedar Environmental, as he weighs options for how to grow the company in the face of growing economic and political instability in Lebanon in 2019.

Founded after the Lebanese civil war, Cedar... View Details

Teaching Interest

Overview

Globalization and Emerging Markets (Elective Course) The world order has changed significantly in the last two decades. The influence of western-style varieties of capitalism has been challenged by new forms of capitalism that rely less on private enterprise and on the... View Details

20 Dec 2010
Research & Ideas

Panama Canal: Troubled History, Astounding Turnaround

from Colombia) and against the new Panamanian government (to get a better deal for the Panama Canal). The Colombians wanted to hold out until 1904 to make a deal with the... View Details

Keywords: by Sarah Jane Gilbert; Transportation

28 Sep 2011
Research & Ideas

The Profit Power of Corporate Culture

arises because little research has been targeted at trying to quantify its importance on performance. In his new book, The Culture Cycle: How to Shape the Unseen Force that Transforms Performance, HBS Professor Emeritus James L. Heskett... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

July 1990
Case

Ceramics Process Systems Corp. (B)

By: Kim B. Clark and Brent D. Barnett

Ceramics Process Systems (CPS) is an advanced ceramics company facing problems with lead time in product/process development, and late delivery of prototype parts to its customers. Engineering is confronted with difficult technical problems and multiple objectives... View Details

Keywords: Product Development; Business Processes; Management Practices and Processes; Supply Chain Management; Machinery and Machining; Goals and Objectives; Resource Allocation; Customer Satisfaction; Customer Value and Value Chain; Manufacturing Industry

28 Jan 2020
Book

Advanced Leadership Requires More Than Outside-The-Box Thinking

Sometimes, thinking outside the box isn’t ambitious enough to get real innovation flowing. In her new book, Rosabeth Moss Kanter encourages organization leaders to think much more broadly at what restricts creativity and how to overcome... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

26 Oct 2010
First Look

First Look: October 26, 2010

campaign" in which a number of individual deals must be put together, often on multiple "fronts," to realize a larger result, typically an ultimate target agreement with sufficient support to make it sustainable. When the... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

04 Jun 2020
Book

It’s Not About You: Why Leaders Need to Look Outward

that justice will be served if something goes wrong, but we have enough faith in the system to make deals with relative strangers. It’s not coincidental that trust ultimately found its way into the official US motto, “In God We Trust.”... View Details

Keywords: by Kristen Senz

18 May 2011
Working Paper Summaries

Embracing Paradox

Keywords: Re: Michael L. Tushman

Fall 2013
Article

Shifts in U.S. Federal Reserve Goals and Tactics for Monetary Policy: A Role for Penitence?

By: Julio J. Rotemberg

This paper considers some of the large changes in the Federal Reserve's approach to monetary policy. It shows that, in some important cases, critics who were successful in arguing that past Fed approaches were responsible for mistakes that caused harm succeeded in... View Details

Keywords: Central Banking; Policy; United States

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24 Jul 2007
First Look

First Look: July 24, 2007

generated by the primary product to improve the process efficiency of the by-product. We also examine the market structure where two firms practice by-product synergy, as well as conditions under which the by-product becomes the primary product. Innovation through... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

18 Oct 2022
Research & Ideas

When Bias Creeps into AI, Managers Can Stop It by Asking the Right Questions

compare algorithmic bias to human bias—with algorithmic bias, you can at least offer ways to solve it, and our solution is one of them. Because it's a machine, when you're learning about an issue, you can fix it. Whereas with human bias, we've been trying to View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne

14 Sep 2010
First Look

First Look: September 14, 2010

There is an overall expansion of industrial activity after reform, and highly disaggregated trade data indicate higher exports of new goods. These results suggest that the expansion of multinational activity more than offsets any decline... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

March 2021 (Revised August 2021)
Case

Apax Partners and Duck Creek Technologies

By: Josh Lerner, Terrence Shu and Alys Ferragamo

This case follows Jason Wright and Umang Kajaria at Apax Partners as they consider an investment in Duck Creek Technologies, a technology provider for property & casualty insurance companies. The deal required a complex carve-out from Accenture, Duck Creek’s parent... View Details

Keywords: Carve-out; Private Equity; Insurance; Investment; Operations; Valuation; Financial Strategy; New York (city, NY)

October 2023
Case

Kevin O'Leary: Building a Brand in Shark-infested Waters

By: Reza Satchu and Patrick Sanguineti

For more than fifteen years, successful Canadian entrepreneur and investor Kevin O’Leary had developed his brand into a global powerhouse. Since his first appearance on the Canadian television program Dragons’ Den in 2006 and his meteoric rise to stardom through the... View Details

Keywords: Personal Brand; Crisis; Brands and Branding; Entrepreneurship; Crisis Management; Social Media; Public Opinion; Power and Influence; Financial Services Industry