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- May 1990 (Revised April 1991)
- Background Note
Dirty Hands
A one-paragraph excerpt from a play by Jean-Paul Sartre. Describes in the words of one character, the ethical problem of "dirty hands": the problem that doing the morally superior thing in some circumstances inevitably involves doing some things that are morally wrong.... View Details
- May – June 1990
- Article
Case of the Complaining Customer (HBR Case Study and Commentary)
By: Dan Finkelman, Tony Goland, Leonard A. Schlesinger, Dinah Nemeroff, Ron Zemke and Claus Moller
- April 1990 (Revised December 1995)
- Case
SouthPark IV
A young entrepreneur examines an 80,000 square foot office/warehouse building as a potential acquisition. The building is currently fully leased but all four leases will expire shortly. Due to changing market conditions, the protagonist has to look at current market... View Details
- April 1990 (Revised January 1993)
- Case
Ad Council's AIDS Campaign (A): Advertising Strategy
By: V. Kasturi Rangan and Janet Montgomery
Ad Council wished to run an educational campaign aimed at preventing the spread of AIDS. They were challenged to find acceptable ways to address this very sensitive subject matter--ways that the media and the public would approve. One of the big challenges was to make... View Details
- April 1990
- Case
Perrier Recall: A Source of Trouble
By: Stephen A. Greyser and Norman Klein
When a laboratory discovered traces of the carcinogen benzene in bottles of Perrier, Group Perrier of America immediately announced a voluntary U.S. recall of all Perrier brand imported water. This case describes press coverage of the U.S. recall and the worldwide... View Details
- March 1990 (Revised October 1999)
- Case
Turner Construction Company: Project Management Control Systems
By: Robert L. Simons and Hilary Weston
After providing a brief overview of Turner Construction Co.'s structure and project work, the case gives a detailed description of its project management control system, the IOR system. In addition to explaining the mechanics of the IOR system, the case identifies the... View Details
- March 1990 (Revised June 1991)
- Case
IBM Corp.: ""Make It Your Business"" (A)
By: Robert L. Simons
In 1987, IBM changed its strategy in an attempt to become a market-driven company rather than a product-driven company. The case begins with a description of the new strategy and the reasons for the change and then describes the top-down sales planning and quota system... View Details
- March 1990 (Revised June 1993)
- Case
Analog Devices, Inc.: The Half-Life System
By: Robert S. Kaplan
The company has committed to major improvements in quality, cost, and on-time delivery performance. Despite strong senior management support, however, the actual rate of improvement was disappointing until a new measurement philosophy was introduced. The new approach... View Details
- March 1990 (Revised January 1997)
- Case
ROLM: The SIGMA Introduction
ROLM's product development manager, Bob Lundy, has to prepare a detailed plan for launching a new product, code named SIGMA. The new product, though outstanding in features, has the potential to drastically affect ROLM's fortunes because it is incompatible with its... View Details
- February 1990 (Revised August 2001)
- Case
Merloni Elettrodomestici SpA: The Transit Point Experiment
By: Janice H. Hammond and Maura G Kelly
Merloni Elettrodomestici is a leading Italian manufacturer of domestic appliances. In 1986, an exposition for Merloni customers is scheduled at its Milano regional warehouse. During the two-month period preceding the event, when the warehouse must be free of inventory,... View Details
- February 1990 (Revised July 1990)
- Case
Internal Revenue Service: Automated Collection System
By: Nitin Nohria
Describes how the IRS's collection operations changed from a largely manual system (COF) to an automated system (ACS). A central aspect of ACS was the electronic scheduling and maintaining of work. While with ACS the IRS accomplished significant improvements in the... View Details
- February 1990
- Background Note
Career Choice-Making Case Assignment
By: Shoshana Zuboff
Keywords: Personal Development and Career
- January 1990 (Revised October 1993)
- Case
Monsanto's March into Biotechnology (A)
By: Gary P. Pisano
Very early in the history of biotechnology (about 1979), Monsanto made a major commitment to move into this field. This case recounts the history from the point of view of the eminent scientist hired to head up corporate R&D. He took Monsanto from a very traditional... View Details
- January 1990
- Teaching Note
Student Cases on Career Choice-Making, Instructor's Note
By: Shoshana Zuboff
- January 1990 (Revised March 1991)
- Case
American Red Cross Blood Services: Northeast Region
By: Robert L. Simons
Recounts the financial difficulties and management changes experienced by American Red Cross Blood Services: Northeast Region (NER) during the 1980s. After summarizing industry-wide changes in the collection, testing, and distribution of blood and blood products, the... View Details
Keywords: Change Management; Budgets and Budgeting; Financial Management; Restructuring; Health; SWOT Analysis; Social Enterprise; Marketplace Matching; Management Style; Organizational Culture; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry; Health Industry; North and Central America
- January 1990 (Revised March 1994)
- Case
Royal Ahold NV
By: Richard F. Meyer
Contains a general description of a large international retailer. Focus is on the major financial risks facing the company: exchange rate risk and commodity price risk. This case is an introduction to financial risk management. It poses some of the major problem areas. View Details
- December 1989 (Revised February 1993)
- Case
Frito-Lay, Inc.: A Strategic Transition (C)
In 1989, Frito-Lay designed an information technology infrastructure to support time-based competition and organizational restructuring. The company planned to provide timely flexible information to all major decision makers at all levels. This case describes the... View Details
- November 1989 (Revised February 1992)
- Case
Ford Motor Co.: Dealer Sales and Service
Since Henry Ford founded Ford Motor Co., Ford vehicles have been sold and serviced the same way. By the late 1980s Ford began to consider making changes in its sales and service process. Two developments forced Ford to reconsider these processes. First, Ford found... View Details
- October 1989 (Revised June 1993)
- Case
Texas Eastman Co.
By: Robert S. Kaplan
The company as part of a commitment to Total Quality Management has installed a computer system that accumulates 30,000 observations on its processes every 2-4 hours. Operating people have found the monthly summaries of financial performance not too useful in this... View Details
- October 1989 (Revised October 1992)
- Case
Smoke Wars: The Case for and Against the Cigarette Industry
Describes the arguments for and against the tobacco industry. With the per capita demand for cigarettes steadily declining by 2% to 3% every year, the tobacco companies have been using various approaches to stem the tide. Many such moves, however, have come under... View Details