Publications

February 2023 (Revised March 2025)
Case

Graphic Packaging: Project Cowboy (A)

By: Benjamin C. Esty and E. Scott Mayfield

In July 2019, Graphic Packaging CEO Michael Doss was proposing a $600 million investment in a new machine to produce coated recycled board (CRB), a type of paper packaging used for consumer products (cups, cereal boxes, beverage boxes, etc.) that utilized recycled... View Details

Keywords: Capital Budgeting; Growth Management; Demand and Consumers; Duopoly and Oligopoly; Competitive Strategy; Competitive Advantage; Expansion; Value Creation; Supply and Industry; Pulp and Paper Industry; Manufacturing Industry; United States; North America

April 2020 (Revised April 2023)
Supplement

TransDigm in 2017: The Beginning of the End or the End of the Beginning?

By: Benjamin C. Esty and Daniel Fisher

TransDigm was a highly acquisitive company that manufactured a wide range of highly engineered aerospace parts for both military and commercial customers. Over the ten years ending in 2016, its stock price had increase ten times, and both EBITDA and revenues had grown... View Details

Keywords: Acquisition; Ethics; Private Equity; Financial Strategy; Growth Management; Performance Evaluation; Business Strategy; Competitive Strategy; Horizontal Integration; Value Creation; Competitive Advantage; Aerospace Industry; Air Transportation Industry; United States

August 1986
Article

Global High-tech Sangyou: Kawaritsutsu aru Kyousou no Gensoku (Global High-tech Industries: Changing Paradigms of Competition)

By: Hirotaka Takeuchi

Keywords: Business Ventures; Competition

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April 1995 (Revised July 1995)
Case

Power Play (B): Sega in 16-bit Video Games

Home video-game systems were pioneered by the U.S. company Atari in the mid-1970s. After going through boom and bust in the early 1980s, the industry was resurrected in the mid-1980s by the Japanese company Nintendo. With its 8-bit video-game system, Nintendo... View Details

Keywords: Information Technology; Competition; Video Game Industry; Japan; United States

2000
Book

Can Japan Compete?

By: Michael E. Porter, Hirotaka Takeuchi and M. Sakakibara

The result of a major piece of research, this book reveals that there have long been two Japans, the familiar one that was highly competitive, and another Japan, almost invisible, that was highly uncompetitive. The authors unravel this puzzle, and provide a solution... View Details

Keywords: Competition; Economy; Japan

29 Sep 2015
News

Harvard Study Highlights Business, Education 'Game Changer'

28 Sep 2015
News

Harvard Researchers Envison Better Business, Nonprofit Cooperation in K-12

August 1996 (Revised December 1999)
Case

J Boats, Inc.

By: Robert L. Simons

During the 20-year evolution of a family-owned, entrepreneurial sailboat company, two founders leverage their design and marketing skills to build one of the most recognized brands in the recreational boating industry. The founder then considers management succession... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Entrepreneurship; Family Business; Risk Management; Financial Management; Leveraged Buyouts; Brands and Branding; Competitive Strategy; Capital Markets; Valuation; Shipping Industry; Transportation Industry

May 2006 (Revised June 2006)
Case

Codon Devices

By: Joseph B. Lassiter III and David Kiron

In December 2005, 40-year-old John Danner was about to make his first presentation to the board of directors of Codon Devices, a one-year-old biotechnology start-up based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. After a month as the company's CEO, Danner was prepared to lay out... View Details

Keywords: Strategic Planning; Venture Capital; Intellectual Property; Governing and Advisory Boards; Genetics; Competitive Advantage; Science-Based Business; Business Startups; Growth and Development Strategy; Biotechnology Industry; Cambridge

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March 2006 (Revised September 2006)
Case

Irizar in 2005

By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell and Jordan Mitchell

In June 2005, Koldo Saratxaga, the leader of Basque-based luxury coach manufacturer Irizar, decided to leave after 14 years at the helm of the worker-owned cooperative. Under Saratxaga's stewardship, Irizar was saved from near bankruptcy in 1991 and has become a highly... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Business Startups; Customer Focus and Relationships; Resignation and Termination; Leadership Style; Production; Quality; Luxury; Competitive Advantage; Construction Industry; Real Estate Industry; South Africa; China; India; Mexico; Brazil

February 2000 (Revised November 2002)
Case

QuickenInsurance: The Race to Click and Close (A)

By: Lynda M. Applegate

ES Technologies started in 1976 as a storefront in Tempe, Arizona selling personal computer kits to hobbyists. Twenty years later, revenues exceeded $3.5 billion, and the business had evolved from a computer store to a master reseller and full-line integrator of... View Details

Keywords: Customer Value and Value Chain; Entrepreneurship; Technological Innovation; Growth and Development Strategy; Industry Structures; Business Strategy; Competitive Strategy; Information Technology; Information Technology Industry; Arizona

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01 Apr 1997
News

Manager's Notebook

case of diabetes care, once manufacturers' insulin became consistently pure and reliable, consumers looked to a particular syringe's ease-of-use as their purchasing criterion. When products are equally convenient to use, price becomes the final View Details

Keywords: Judith Ross

June 2011
Teaching Note

Cola Wars Continue: Coke and Pepsi in 2010 (TN)

By: David B. Yoffie

Teaching Note for 711462. View Details

Keywords: Industry Structures; Competitive Strategy; Competition; Price; Brands and Branding; Food and Beverage Industry; United States

Portrait Project

Stephanie Belcher

make a dollar. Unlike most, I also have the fortitude to find ninety-nine more. Hustling is my competitive advantage. My survival to date has depended on it, and I know my impact on society will be as a result of it. I will continue to... View Details

Alumni WDYDWYD

Jeanine Barnett

I do what I do because I believe that creativity and competitiveness are not mutually exclusive concepts. Daily, as I draw on fond memories of a Caribbean childhood filled with countless moments on theatre stages and tennis courts, I am... View Details

9 AM – 10 AM EDT, 26 Jun 2019
HBS Online

HBS Online Sustainable Business Strategy

Learn how to become a purpose-centered business leader while examining the critical role that businesses play in solving the world's big problems, including climate change, income inequality, and social injustice. Program Dates: June 26, 2019 - July 17, 2019 View Details

9 AM – 10 AM EST, 06 Feb 2019
HBS Online

HBS Online Sustainable Business Strategy

Learn how to become a purpose-centered business leader while examining the critical role that businesses play in solving the world's big problems, including climate change, income inequality, and social injustice. Program Dates: February 6, 2019 - February 27, 2019 View Details

September 2020
Supplement

The Reinvention of Kodak (B) Video Case Supplement

By: Ryan Raffaelli

This case includes links to case supplement videos for students to view with the written case before class, and also supplement videos for faculty to use exclusively during class. View Details

Keywords: CEO; Leadership; Asset Management; Transformation; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Competitive Strategy

July 2014 (Revised August 2015)
Case

Qihoo

By: Feng Zhu

Qihoo, one of the largest Internet companies in China today, was founded in 2005. The company started its business by offering a security software product, and quickly dominated the market in China after its unusual move of giving its product away for free in 2009.... View Details

Keywords: Platform Strategy; Business Model Innovation; Chinese Internet Market; Competitive Strategy; Information Technology; Digital Platforms; Internet and the Web; Information Technology Industry