Publications

Research Summary

The Design of Mechanisms and Institutions

Professor Coughlan's research also investigates the design of public policy and collective choice institutions. His research publications have applied game theory, mechanism design, and laboratory experiments to explore incentives and outcomes under alternative legal,... View Details

June 2007 (Revised June 2008)
Case

GE's Imagination Breakthroughs: The Evo Project

By: Christopher A. Bartlett, Brian J. Hall and Nicole Bennett

In September 2003, Jeff Immelt challenged the business leaders at GE to come up with "Imagination Breakthroughs," innovative new projects that would serve as the centerpiece of GE's organic growth initiative. Follows the company as these changes are driven through the... View Details

Keywords: Innovation and Management; Leading Change; Growth and Development Strategy; Business Processes; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Culture; Environmental Sustainability; Green Technology Industry

November 2003 (Revised August 2005)
Case

First Commonwealth Financial Corporation

By: Robert S. Kaplan

First Commonwealth Financial Corp., a financial institution in central and southwestern Pennsylvania, implemented the Balanced Scorecard for describing and implementing its new customer-focused strategy. Its founder and chairman decided that the Balanced Scorecard also... View Details

Keywords: Balanced Scorecard; Corporate Strategy; Customers; Corporate Governance; Governing and Advisory Boards; Customer Relationship Management; Executive Compensation; Financial Services Industry; Banking Industry; Pennsylvania

April 2010 (Revised June 2011)
Background Note

Television Competes for a Digital Audience

By: Stephen P. Bradley and Nancy Bartlett

In the face of major disruption in the industry television networks have sought new revenue sources, implemented cost-cutting measures and strategized on ways to monetize online access to content. Programming changes, new advertising strategies, and deals via online... View Details

Keywords: Television Entertainment; Marketing Strategy; Media and Broadcasting Industry

09 Feb 2004
Research & Ideas

Got a New Strategy? Now Make it Happen

about its problems—is common. This lack of openness lies behind many failures to implement strategy. We've become convinced that the most powerful way for leaders to realign their organization is to publicly confront the unvarnished truth... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Beer & Russell A. Eisenstat

The New Rules for Bringing Innovations to Market, Harvard Business Review, March 2004

It's tough to get consumers to adopt innovations--and it's getting tougher all the time. That's because more and more markets are taking on the characteristics of networks. The interconnections among today's companies are so plentiful that often a... View Details

07 Sep 2006
Working Paper Summaries

Optimal Value and Growth Tilts in Long-Horizon Portfolios

Keywords: by Jakub W. Jurek & Luis M. Viceira

February 2008 (Revised February 2008)
Case

Stanford Graduate School of Business

By: Srikant M. Datar, David A. Garvin and Carin-Isabel Knoop

In fall 2007, Stanford Graduate School of Business (GSB) adopted a new curriculum that it heralded as a "revolutionary change in management education." The new approach aimed at increasing the level and quality of student academic engagement. This case describes the... View Details

Keywords: Experience and Expertise; Higher Education; Curriculum and Courses; Globalization; Leadership Development; Cognition and Thinking; Adaptation; Education Industry; California

16 Jul 2012
Research & Ideas

Book Excerpt: ‘The Strategist’

the next steps specified, the job of the strategist is finished. All that remains to be done is to implement the plan and defend the sustainable competitive advantage it has wrought. Or at least that's the positive take on the story. But,... View Details

Keywords: by Cynthia A. Montgomery

June 2013 (Revised June 2016)
Case

Ensina!

By: John J-H Kim, Alejandra Meraz Velasco and Christine An

In 2011, a group of passionate social entrepreneurs in Rio de Janeiro, with the support and encouragement of several prominent philanthropists and members of government, launch Ensina!, seizing Brazil's unprecedented economic growth and national commitment to... View Details

Keywords: Social Entrepreneurship; Teaching; Business and Government Relations; Education Industry; Brazil

August 2011 (Revised May 2012)
Case

Haier: Taking a Chinese Company Global in 2011

By: Tarun Khanna, Krishna G. Palepu and Phillip Andrews

In 2011, Haier, China's leading appliance manufacturer, had over $20 billion in worldwide sales and had just been named the leading refrigerator manufacturer worldwide. Describes Haier's rise over three decades from a defunct refrigerator factory in China's Qingdao... View Details

Keywords: Business Growth and Maturation; Global Strategy; Expansion; Diversification; Emerging Markets; Consumer Products Industry; Manufacturing Industry; China

February 2013 (Revised December 2015)
Case

Groom Energy Solutions: Selling Efficiency

By: Michael W. Toffel, Kira R. Fabrizio and Stephanie van Sice

Groom Energy Solutions helps organizations reduce their energy use and costs through the implementation of energy efficiency measures, which create long-term financial and environmental benefits. With early success serving customers in the cold storage and industrial... View Details

Keywords: Groom Energy Solutions; Jon Guerster; Salem, MA; Energy Management; Energy Efficiency Paradox; Sustainability Management; Manufacturing; Cold Storage; Commercial Real Estate; Enterprise Smart Grid; Carbon Accounting; LED Lighting; Sustainability Research; Entrepreneurship; Environmental Entrepreneurship; Energy Entrepreneurship; Energy Services; Electricity; Startup; Expansion; Growth; Sustainability; Business Startups; Forecasting and Prediction; Energy Conservation; Revenue; Geographic Location; Human Resources; Management; Growth and Development Strategy; Market Entry and Exit; Operations; Service Delivery; Strategic Planning; Science; Environmental Sustainability; Climate Change; Society; Social Issues; Technology Adoption; Energy Industry; Green Technology Industry; Technology Industry; Utilities Industry; United States; Boston

May 2024
Case

Naked Wines: The Profit vs. Growth Decision

By: Benjamin C. Esty and Edward A. Meyer

Nick Devlin faced a difficult strategic decision in October 2022. As the CEO of a UK-based subscription business connecting wine drinkers in the US, UK, and Australia with winemakers from around the world (which one journalist called the “Netflix of Wine”), he had to... View Details

February 2025
Case

Luca de Meo at Renault Group (A) (Abridged)

By: Emily Truelove, Linda A. Hill and Lydia Begag

When Luca de Meo became CEO of Renault Group in 2020, the 122-year-old French automaker faced financial challenges and the double technological disruption of the automotive industry: the shift to electric vehicles (EVs) and the rise of software-defined vehicles (SDVs).... View Details

Keywords: Change Management; Transformation; Transition; Interpersonal Communication; Forms of Communication; Talent and Talent Management; Experience and Expertise; Customer Value and Value Chain; Decision Making; Economic Growth; Financial Crisis; Alternative Energy; Engineering; Global Strategy; Governance; Digital Transformation; Digital Strategy; Technology Adoption; Innovation and Invention; Disruptive Innovation; Technological Innovation; Innovation Leadership; Collaborative Innovation and Invention; Leadership; Leading Change; Leadership Development; Leadership Style; Crisis Management; Management Skills; Business Processes; Organizational Culture; Organizational Structure; Performance Efficiency; Transportation; Auto Industry; Battery Industry; Energy Industry; Green Technology Industry; Transportation Industry; France; Europe; China

Vikram Gandhi

Vikram S. Gandhi is the Gerald P. Kaminsky Senior Lecturer of Business Administration in the General Management Unit. He has developed and teaches two new courses in the Elective Curriculum of the MBA Program. The first is a finance and investing course, Sustainable... View Details

Keywords: financial services

February 2022 (Revised October 2022)
Supplement

Henkel: Building a Winning Culture (D)

By: Robert L. Simons and Carolyn Deller

This three-page case is the third update to Henkel: Building a Winning Culture (A). In this supplement, dated 2021, a new CEO has taken over Henkel and implemented a new strategy. His changes to the original performance management system are presented as a new... View Details

Keywords: Execution; Management Control Systems; Performance Goals; Incentives; Levers Of Control; Strategy; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Performance Evaluation

February 1998 (Revised September 1998)
Case

Insteel Wire Products: ABM at Andrews

By: V.G. Narayanan and Ratna G. Sarkar

Insteel implements an activity-based costing (ABC) system in 1996. It finds pallet nails to be its most profitable product and decides to expand the number of cells making pallet nails from two to four. A repeat of the ABC study in 1997 shows pallet nails have become... View Details

Keywords: Cost Accounting; Expansion; Resource Allocation; Activity Based Costing and Management

August 2004 (Revised April 2007)
Case

Allianz (A1): An Insurer Acquiring a Bank?

By: Joseph L. Bower, Marc L. Bertoneche, Anders Sjoman and Sonja Ellingson Hout

The deal of the year in 2002, was the acquisition of Dresdner Bank by Allianz. Written from the perspectives of Allianz's CEO, Henning Schulte-Noelle, before and after the deal and a regional manager implementing the concept of a full-line financial service provider.... View Details

Keywords: Management; Corporate Strategy; Problems and Challenges; Acquisition; Financial Institutions; Corporate Finance; Banking Industry; Germany

February 2025
Case

Luca de Meo at Renault Group (A)

By: Emily Truelove, Linda A. Hill and Lydia Begag