Publications

01 Dec 2017
News

2017 in Retail: Voice-Activated, One-Hour-Delivery Shopping

Walmart and Amazon are in the middle of an epic competition that is going to be thrilling to watch. The startups that have been most successful have targeted a specific category—Peloton in exercise, Casper in mattresses, Warby Parker in eyeglasses—and focused on View Details

Keywords: Ron Johnson (MBA 1984), founder and CEO, Enjoy

November 2006 (Revised February 2007)
Case

Microsoft Xbox: Changing the Game?

By: Andrei Hagiu

In September 1999, the Microsoft Xbox team was wondering which strategic choices would give it the best chance against the upcoming Sony PlayStation 2. Initially called "Project Midway" within Microsoft, the console project was intended to counter the perceived threat... View Details

Keywords: Customers; Recruitment; Leadership; Management Teams; Multi-Sided Platforms; Two-Sided Platforms; Production; Strategy; Competition; Expansion; Video Game Industry; Texas

29 Jan 2025
Blog Post

Finding Professional Purpose: Building an Impactful Career that Reflects your Values with Lisa Tanzer (MBA 1993)

undergraduate background with limited exposure to business, I began my career as an Associate Consultant at one of the Big Four accounting firms (PwC), focusing on strategic planning in financial services, business services, telecommunications, and consumer products.... View Details

April 2006 (Revised May 2007)
Case

Apple Computer, 2006

By: David B. Yoffie and Michael Slind

Apple has reaped the benefits of its innovative music player, the iPod. However, its PC and server business continue to hold small market share relative to the worldwide computer over the past few years. Will the iPod lure new users to the Mac? Will Apple be able to... View Details

Keywords: Technological Innovation; Product Positioning; Performance Evaluation; Information Infrastructure; Music Entertainment; Time Management; Information Technology Industry

April 1993 (Revised June 1993)
Case

Bayerische Motoren Werke AG (BMW)

By: Robert J. Dolan

In 1992, BMW attempts to revive its position in the United States market. In 1991, unit sales had fallen to 53,000 from 88,000 in 1987. The new CEO of North America considers a multifaceted plan to turn around the situation. View Details

Keywords: Product Positioning; Marketing Strategy; Multinational Firms and Management; Market Entry and Exit; Sales; Manufacturing Industry; Auto Industry; Germany; North America

31 May 2013
News

Meg Whitman Jolts HP as Its Reluctant Savior

Keywords: HP, Hewlett-Packard, Microsoft, Dell, eBay; Computer and Electronic Product Manufacturing; Computer and Electronic Product Manufacturing

01 Jun 1996
News

Reinventing Marketing

Professor V. Kasturi Rangan, the required Marketing course has been revamped to include new initiatives such as a marketing-strategy computer simulation (called "Pharmasim") and a module on new product development, developed and taught... View Details

Keywords: Mary Jane Higgins; Illustration by Peter Hoey

17 Sep 2001
Research & Ideas

Why E-commerce Didn’t Die With the Fall of Webvan

induced about 12 percent of the pharmaceutical market to buy that way. Once that was done, it was comparatively straightforward to use the same inducements to persuade people who had Web access to do that over the Internet, saving the cost of telemarketing centers. Q:... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Consumer Products; Consumer Products

25 Jan 2000
Research & Ideas

Strategic Alliances

States, and Georgia-Pacific, one of the world's biggest forest products companies. Encountering mounting difficulties for their respective agendas, the two longtime foes decided to join forces in 1994 to create a landmark agreement... View Details

Keywords: by Nancy O. Perry

09 Apr 2024
Blog Post

IFC India: JSW Steel

to be so close to the steel production process, and it provided valuable insight about what makes the process so challenging and yet high priority to decarbonize. Perhaps most interesting was the role that policy played in the outlook of... View Details

February 2003
Teaching Note

Bush Boake Allen (TN)

By: Stefan H. Thomke

Teaching Note for (9-601-061). View Details

Keywords: Integration; Marketing Reference Programs; Disruptive Innovation; Management Teams; Internet and the Web; Business Model; Customer Relationship Management; Management Practices and Processes; Consumer Products Industry

November 2012 (Revised July 2012)
Supplement

Andrew Sullivan and Faraway Ltd (C): Anthony Pierce of John Lewis

By: Frank V. Cespedes and Alex Godden

The "Andrew Sullivan and Faraway Ltd" case series focuses on entrepreneurial selling, and is based on an older case study, "Deaver Brown and Cross River Inc." (9-394-042). It concerns two entrepreneurs, Andrew Sullivan and Hope Abasi, who have designed an innovative... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Management; Sales; Marketing; Consumer Products Industry; United Kingdom

Web

Labor Practices | Baker Library | Bloomberg Center | Harvard Business School

presented photographs of women in a variety of production positions, the absence of any reference to women in text or photographs in Paths of Opportunity in U.S. Steel only a year later reveals how quickly the role of women and their... View Details

November 2009
Case

Finance Myopia in a Systems Business

By: J. Bruce Harreld

This short case describes the tensions that often arise between finance executives attempting to curtail unproductive activities and strategy executives trying to optimize overall firm performance. View Details

Keywords: Finance; Managerial Roles; Performance Improvement; Performance Productivity; Conflict and Resolution; Strategy; Competition

08 Sep 2020
Sharpening Your Skills

Capitalism Works Better When I Can See What You're Doing

good place to start The Upside of Highlighting a Product's DownsidesResearchers discover what happens when companies embrace product transparency, accentuating the positive—and the negative. Deconstructing the Price TagExplaining what it... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

April 1985
Supplement

Cleveland Twist Drill: Jim Bartlett, Video

By: Richard G. Hamermesh and Daniel F. Muzyka

Presents a question and answer session with Jim Bartlett, president of Cleveland Twist Drill. Edited into three parts. Bartlett provides additional insights into the case situation and also describes subsequent events at the company. View Details

Keywords: Management Teams; Corporate Strategy; Policy; Consumer Products Industry; Consumer Products Industry

Profile

Stephanie Atiase

dreams that are the first step to actualizing goals. We then turn their stories into live theater productions where kids can see their own words on stage. It’s all about teaching kids the about the strength of words; the power of acting... View Details

September 2023
Teaching Note

Roche: ESG and Access to Healthcare

By: George Serafeim

Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 123-075. In May 2022, Roche Group, one of the largest healthcare companies in the world, hosted its first ESG investor event focused exclusively on its efforts to impact access to healthcare. While Roche had recently set an ambitious goal... View Details

Keywords: ESG; Access To Care; Healthcare; Healthcare Access; Innovation; Social Impact; Affordable; Health Care and Treatment; Innovation and Invention; Product Development; Resource Allocation; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Health Industry