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- Faculty Publications (5,037)
- October 1991 (Revised January 2000)
- Case
Workplace Safety at Alcoa (A)
By: Kim B. Clark and Joshua D. Margolis
Examines the challenge facing the managers of a large aluminum manufacturing plant in its drive to improve workplace safety. The CEO of the company has made safety a top priority. The plant has made good progress in reducing the injury rate, but now confronts the need... View Details
- October 1991 (Revised September 1998)
- Case
Maxwell Appliance Controls
By: Robert S. Kaplan
A profitable manufacturing division of a large company is looking for new ways to identify sources of productivity improvements. Led by its senior finance officer, an activity-based cost system is developed to identify activities performed for its highly varied product... View Details
- October 1991 (Revised August 1993)
- Case
Acid Rain: Burlington Northern, Inc. (A)
Burlington Northern (BN) hauls low-sulfur coal from the northern Great Plains to electric utilities in the Midwest. Acid rain legislation may affect the geographic scope of BN's markets. Railroad managers need to assess the economic effects of acid rain controls and... View Details
- October 1991 (Revised August 2000)
- Case
Becton Dickinson & Company: VACUTAINER Systems Division (Condensed)
By: V. Kasturi Rangan and Frank V. Cespedes
Becton Dickinson, a phenomenally successful company with an 80% market share in the blood collection needles and syringes market faces a change in the customer buying environment (cost containment pressures at hospitals). This forces a reevaluation of the company's... View Details
- September 1991 (Revised January 1992)
- Case
Allegheny Ludlum: Research and Engineering Resource Allocation
By: Dorothy Leonard-Barton and Geoffrey K. Gill
Allegheny Ludlum's (AL) technical vice president, Jack Shilling faces the task of determining how to allocate engineering resources among five areas of technology. AL's technology organization has great strategic importance and has therefore been untouched by the... View Details
- 1991
- Article
Job Satisfaction, Service Capability and Customer Satisfaction: An Examination of Linkages and Management Implications
By: Leonard A. Schlesinger and Jeffrey Zornitsky
Survey data from 1,277 employees and 4,269 customers of a personal lines insurance organization were analyzed with the following results: (a) employee perceptions of service quality are positively related to both job satisfaction and self-perceived service capability;... View Details
- July 1991 (Revised September 1995)
- Case
Eastman Kodak Co.: Managing Information Systems Through Strategic Alliances
In January 1988, Colby Chandler, Kodak CEO, created the Corporate Information Systems (CIS) and appointed Katherine Hudson head. She at once became the first head of IT and first woman corporate vice president in the company. Throughout 1989, Hudson inaugurated a... View Details
- July 1991 (Revised March 1992)
- Background Note
Integrity and Management
Describes the role that issues of personal integrity play in managers' decisions. Defines personal integrity, the factors that influence it, the situations in which it becomes particularly relevant to company decisions, and ways of overcoming the blind spots that can... View Details
- July 1991
- Case
Managing the U.S. Dollar in the 1980s
By: W. Carl Kester and Richard P. Melnick
Provides numerical data and alternative explanations concerning the U.S. dollar's rise and subsequent fall in value from 1981 through 1987. Students are challenged to study the evidence and make their own inferences concerning the dollar's movements and the degree of... View Details
- June 1991 (Revised October 1991)
- Case
General Electric: Reg Jones and Jack Welch
By: Francis Aguilar and Christopher A. Bartlett
When GE's retiring Reginald Jones turned the job of CEO over to Jack Welch on April 1, 1981, the Wall Street Journal reported that GE had "decided to replace a legend with a live wire." Some wondered if the young dynamo could fill the elder statesman's very large... View Details
- June 1991 (Revised December 1997)
- Case
Takeover of the Norton Co., The
By: Thomas R. Piper
After a decade of mediocre performance, the Norton Co. enters 1990 with the prospect of increased sales in the next few years. Yet Norton is pursuing slow growth industries, and a lower than expected earnings announcement at the beginning of 1990 has depressed earnings... View Details
- June 1991 (Revised March 1995)
- Case
Becton Dickinson (D): Strategic Human Resource Management Profiling
By: Michael Beer
Describes a strategic human resource management process applied at the business unit and corporate level. The purpose of the process is to provide a means for aligning human resource management policies and practices with strategy and to hold managers accountable for... View Details
- June 1991 (Revised February 1999)
- Case
Willow Creek Community Church (A)
Describes the historic evolution and current positioning of a Christian church which focuses on the attraction of "unchurched" individuals. Describes the church's strategic service vision and its current growth and leadership problems. View Details
- June 1991 (Revised April 1993)
- Case
Acer, Inc.
By: Robert H. Hayes
Acer is undergoing two major transitions at the time of this case: from a small, entrepreneurially-run company to a large professionally-run one; and from a largely domestic company to a multinational one. After a decade of phenomenal growth, it is now facing a major... View Details
- June 1991 (Revised April 1997)
- Background Note
Managing the Multibusiness Corporation
By: David J. Collis
Lays out some ideas on how to restructure a multibusiness corporation. Identifies sixteen elements of organization design, and then applies contingency theory to argue that these elements need to be aligned with the tasks the corporation uses to create value across its... View Details
- March 1991 (Revised January 1996)
- Case
The General Mills Board and Strategic Planning
By: Jay W. Lorsch
Examines the General Mills Board of Directors' role in the General Mills joint venture with Nestle S.A. to sell cereals outside of North America. It raises the more general question of the appropriate role for the board of directors in strategy formulation. View Details
- March 1991 (Revised June 1993)
- Case
Chevron Corp.: Corporate Image Advertising
By: John A. Quelch
Describes a series of advertising research studies conducted by Chevron to monitor the effectiveness of its corporate advertising. Specific research approaches covered include the McCollum-Spielman and Communications Techniques. The Vals Typology developed by Stanford... View Details
- March 1991
- Supplement
Zenith and High-Definition Television--1990, Video
By: Benjamin Gomes-Casseres and David B. Yoffie
Records a visit by Jerry Pearlman, Zenith CEO, to an MBA classroom. He is shown commenting on Zenith strategy and industrial policy issues and fielding student questions. View Details
- March 1991 (Revised April 1995)
- Case
IBP and the U.S. Meat Industry
By: David J. Collis and Nancy Donohue
IBP, the largest U.S. beef and pork processor, is facing deteriorating earnings and undertakes a fundamental strategic review in 1990. Having grown from its founding in 1961 to its current position as a low cost, innovative producer of boxed beef, and more recently... View Details
- March 1991 (Revised May 1991)
- Case
TBIRD: The Thai Business Initiative in Rural Development
During the period of 1987 to 1990, while Thailand had one of the fastest growing economies in the world (average growth rate of 12%), the income disparity between its rural and urban population (especially Bangkok City) was growing increasingly worse. Mechai... View Details