Publications

2002
Case

Dell Computer Corporation

By: Vijay Govindarajan and Julie Lang

The world's largest direct-selling computer company grew from its philosophy that customers know what they want and Dell can deliver it through custom assembly of outsourced components. Through a combination of financial and non-financial measures, Dell turned itself... View Details

Keywords: Marketing Strategy; Hardware; Customization and Personalization; Consumer Products Industry; Service Industry

07 Jul 2011
News

Innovation Depends on a Robust Manufacturing Sector

27 Jul 2017
News

Want to Be Happy? Buy More Takeout and Hire a Maid, Study Says

12 Oct 2022
Video

Mike Luca: The Role Experiments Play in Addressing Discrimination

August 2007
Case

Codelco Copper Mines

Codelco was a Chilean copper-mining company, widely considered to be one of the most professionally managed firms in South America in spite of the fact that it was 100% government-owned. A $10.5 billion company in 2005, Codelco faced the challenge of incorporating... View Details

Keywords: Mining; Geographic Location; Leading Change; Business Processes; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Information Technology; Mining Industry; Chile

11 Apr 2014
Working Paper Summaries

Learning By Thinking: How Reflection Improves Performance

Keywords: by Giada Di Stefano, Francesca Gino, Gary Pisano & Bradley Staats

August 2012
Case

Danshui Plant No. 2

By: William Bruns, Julie H. Hertenstein and Kelvin Liu

Danshui Plant No. 2 in southern China has a one-year contract with Apple Inc. to assemble 2.4 million iPhones. In the first three months of the contract, the plant is unable to assemble as many phones as expected and is operating at a loss. The plant manager must... View Details

Keywords: Job Cuts and Outsourcing; Production; Budgets and Budgeting; Manufacturing Industry; Electronics Industry; China

June 2016
Teaching Note

HubSpot: Lower Churn through Greater CHI

By: Jill Avery, Asis Martinez Jerez and Thomas Steenburgh

HubSpot, a web marketing startup selling inbound marketing software to small- and medium-sized businesses, is under pressure from its venture capital partners to rapidly acquire new customers and to maintain a low level of customer churn. The B2B SaaS company is in the... View Details

Keywords: CRM; Customer Acquisition; Customer Retention; Churn Management; SaaS Business Models; Customer Lifetime Value; Venture Capital; Startup; Software; Monitoring And Control; Marketing; Customer Relationship Management; Marketing Strategy; Accounting; Technology Industry; United States

02 Jun 2016
Blog Post

Applying to the JD/MBA Program

Applying to business school can be a stressful and time consuming endeavor. For those who hope to pursue a joint degree, the application process is doubly demanding. Joanna Cornell and Bhargav Srinivasan... View Details

March 2019
Case

Wattpad

By: John Deighton and Leora Kornfeld

How to run a platform to match four million writers of stories to 75 million readers? Use data science. Make money by doing deals with television and filmmakers and book publishers. The case describes the challenges of matching readers to stories and of helping writers... View Details

July – August 2009
Article

Restoring American Competitiveness

By: Gary P. Pisano and Willy C. Shih

For decades, U.S. companies have been outsourcing manufacturing in the belief that it held no competitive advantage. That's been a disaster, maintain Harvard professors Pisano and Shih, because today's low-value manufacturing operations hold the seeds of tomorrow's... View Details

Keywords: Competitive Advantage; Value; Production; Innovation and Invention; Product Development; Government and Politics; Social Issues; Management Practices and Processes; Investment; Research and Development; Job Cuts and Outsourcing; Competency and Skills; Service Industry; United States

Find at Harvard

Companies compete on the decisions they make. For years—even decades—in response to intensifying global competition, companies decided to outsource their manufacturing operations in order to reduce costs. But we are now seeing the alarming long-term effect of those... View Details

Web

The Campus Emerges - A Concrete Symbol: The Building of Harvard Business School 1908-1927 – Baker Library | Bloomberg Center, Historical Collections

HBS Quick Links HBS Home MBA Executive Education Doctoral Programs Faculty and Research Alumni Publishing Site Index HBS Home Contact Us Map/Directions A Concrete Symbol The Exhibition Introduction Educating Business Administrators Core... View Details

January 2015 (Revised April 2015)
Case

Zeal: Launching Personalized and Social Learning

By: John J-H Kim and Christine S. An

Set in 2014, this case follows John Danner and his team at Zeal as they consider their product development strategy. In February 2013, serial entrepreneurs John Danner and Sanjay Noronha co-found Zeal, an education technology start up providing a web-based, mobile... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Education Technology; MVP; Product Development; Product Market Fit; Monetization Strategy; SaaS Business Models; Education; Personalized Learning

14 Feb 2018
News

Money Can’t Buy Love, But Here’s What Can

28 Jan 2014
First Look

First Look: January 28

business-planning process at the LEGO Group. It allows students to understand the difference between a tailored scenario planning exercise and the tenuous future-gazing processes that generally fail to get... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

06 Feb 2012
Research & Ideas

Kodak: A Parable of American Competitiveness

in the United States, but US companies gave it all up.” HBS Professor of Management Practice Willy C. Shih served as president of Kodak's Digital & Applied Imaging business through the turn of the 21st century. Shortly after starting... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Manufacturing

Eva Arias

Keywords: Mining

September 2008 (Revised October 2012)
Case

Tong Lung Metal Industry Co., Ltd.

By: Willy C. Shih, Chintay Shih, Chen-Fu Chien, Ho Howard Yu and Yu-Shian Chiang

Develop its own branded line, or continue as an original design manufacturer (ODM)? Tung Lung Metal Industries Co. Ltd. is a Taiwanese maker of door lock hardware that is faced with the question of whether to continue to focus on its ODM business or start placing more... View Details

Keywords: Globalized Markets and Industries; Job Cuts and Outsourcing; Brands and Branding; Corporate Strategy; Industrial Products Industry; Taiwan