Publications

Find at Harvard

May 06 2021
Tout

Earn a Certificate of Management Excellence

Web

Curriculum - MBA

Operations Management (TOM) View Course Descriptions Video Technology & Operations Management: Climate Change Challenge CLOSE Year One, Spring PRACTICE TEAMWORK AND DEEPEN CONVERSATIONS ABOUT DIVERSITY AS... View Details

June 1992 (Revised January 1994)
Case

Coopers & Lybrand in Hungary (A)

Multinational professional services firm Coopers & Lybrand has decided to enter the Hungarian market and weighs its strategic options in light of the environment in which it will operate and its resources. View Details

Keywords: Strategy; Multinational Firms and Management; Market Entry and Exit; Service Industry; Hungary

April 2019
Case

Walmart Update, 2019

By: David B. Yoffie and Daniel Fisher

In 2019 Walmart was still the world's largest company, with over $500 billion in annual revenue and operations around the world. Although it had mostly vanquished its rival discount retailers in the U.S., it was struggling to find the right growth strategy. Facing a... View Details

Keywords: E-Commerce Strategy; Strategy; Competitive Strategy; Business Growth and Maturation; Growth and Development Strategy; Global Range; Business Strategy; Corporate Strategy; E-commerce; Retail Industry

August 2015 (Revised June 2021)
Case

Amazon.com, 2021

By: John R. Wells, Benjamin Weinstock, Gabriel Ellsworth and Galen Danskin

In February 2021, Amazon announced 2020 operating profits of $22,899 million, up from $2,233 million in 2015, on sales of $386 billion, up from $107 billion five years earlier (see Exhibit 1). The shareholders expressed their satisfaction (see Exhibit 2), but not all... View Details

Keywords: Strategic Analysis; Retail; E-commerce; Amazon; Internet; Amazon.com; AmazonFresh; Jeff Bezos; Cloud Computing; Marketplaces; Streaming; E-reader Market; Digital Media; Mobile App; Online Retail; Shipping; Database; Tablet; Kindle; Kindle Fire; Smartphone; Delivery; Digital Platforms; Competition; Internet and the Web; Corporate Strategy; Digital Marketing; Business Growth and Maturation; Business Model; Business Organization; For-Profit Firms; Film Entertainment; Games, Gaming, and Gambling; Music Entertainment; Television Entertainment; Profit; Revenue; Global Strategy; Multinational Firms and Management; Taxation; Business History; Human Resources; Resignation and Termination; Books; Human Capital; Working Conditions; Business or Company Management; Goals and Objectives; Growth and Development Strategy; Growth Management; Management Practices and Processes; Industry Growth; Industry Structures; Media; Distribution; Distribution Channels; Order Taking and Fulfillment; Infrastructure; Logistics; Product Development; Supply Chain; Supply Chain Management; Organizational Culture; Public Ownership; Work-Life Balance; Problems and Challenges; Labor and Management Relations; Strategy; Adaptation; Business Strategy; Competitive Strategy; Diversification; Expansion; Integration; Horizontal Integration; Vertical Integration; Information Infrastructure; Information Technology; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Price; Applications and Software; Marketing; Marketing Strategy; Working Capital; Customer Focus and Relationships; Customer Value and Value Chain; Retail Industry; Advertising Industry; Distribution Industry; Electronics Industry; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; Information Technology Industry; Manufacturing Industry; Motion Pictures and Video Industry; Music Industry; Publishing Industry; Shipping Industry; Technology Industry; Video Game Industry; Web Services Industry; United States; Washington (state, US); Seattle

July 2006 (Revised June 2007)
Case

Cathay Pacific

By: F. Warren McFarlan, Waishun Lo and Fred Young

Explores the various aspects of information technology that can be outsourced. Cathay Pacific outsourced a significant part of its vital operations from Hong Kong to Sydney, Australia. View Details

Keywords: Job Cuts and Outsourcing; Globalized Economies and Regions; Information Technology; Air Transportation Industry; Sydney; Hong Kong

December 2009 (Revised May 2010)
Case

Codevasf

By: David E. Bell, Marcos Fava Neves, Luciano Thome e Castro and Natalie Kindred

With many countries facing scarcity of freshwater and farmable land, Brazil decided to leverage its wealth of both resources to attract global agribusiness players to the historically poor Sao Francisco Valley (SFV) in the country's northeast. To do so, Brazil was... View Details

Keywords: Agribusiness; Resource Allocation; Bids and Bidding; Infrastructure; Supply Chain; Business and Government Relations; Natural Environment; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Brazil

12 Aug 2002
Op-Ed

Using Big Business to Fight Poverty

Agency for International Development, LAAD has helped establish and promote hundreds of agribusiness enterprises throughout Latin America—fighting poverty regionally in the way the WDC would do on a global scale. John Browne, chief... View Details

Keywords: by George C. Lodge

July 2018
Case

LIXIL Group Corporation: Building a New Company in an Old Industry

By: Boris Groysberg and Akiko Kanno

In the spring of 2018, Kinya Seto, president and CEO of LIXIL Group Corporation, a major housing and building products and services company, called a meeting at the company’s head office in central Tokyo to discuss how to implement the new three-year strategic plan.... View Details

Keywords: Turnaround; Leadership And Change Management; Consolidation; Change Management; Leadership; Global Strategy; Business Model; Consumer Products Industry; Manufacturing Industry; Japan

Web

Publications - Faculty & Research

companies operating in mature sectors—such as Procter & Gamble in consumer goods, Apple in consumer electronics, and Adobe in cloud software—driving growth is a perennial challenge. Growth through acquisition is always an option, but... View Details

September 2010
Case

Quanta Research Institute: Rainforest or Hothouse?

By: Willy C. Shih, Jyun-Cheng Wang and Ho Howard Yu

Barry Lam, the CEO and founder of Quanta Computer (the largest notebook computer manufacturer worldwide), has recognized for many years that he had to transform the company to decrease its dependence on producing commodity hardware for other global brands and move the... View Details

Keywords: Change Management; Leading Change; Growth and Development Strategy; Product Development; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Research and Development; Computer Industry; Taiwan

July 2010 (Revised September 2011)
Background Note

Hiring Professionals in China: A Practitioner's Guide

By: Heidi K. Gardner

This note outlines how leading professional service firms operating in China revise their standard hiring practices to fit local challenges and customs. Based on interviews with professionals in a number of established accounting, strategy consulting, and executive... View Details

Keywords: Talent and Talent Management; Globalized Firms and Management; Employees; Selection and Staffing; Service Industry; China

April 2018
Article

Elite Strategies and Incremental Policy Change: The Expansion of Primary Education in India

By: Akshay Mangla

This article analyzes India’s recent enactment of universal primary education. This programmatic policy change is puzzling given the clientelistic features of Indian democracy. Drawing on interviews and official documents, I demonstrate the catalytic role of committed... View Details

Keywords: Education; Policy Change; Policy Elites; Institutions; India; Early Childhood Education; Policy; Education Industry; India

Find at Harvard

June 2017
Case

Veolia: Resourcing the World

By: Gautam Ahuja, Tarun Khanna, Kristina Maslauskaite and Vincent Dessain

In March 2016, Antoine Frérot, CEO of Veolia, a global environmental services provider, was undergoing an important transformation of the company. In 2013, Frérot presented a growth strategy that focused on increasing the share of industrial clients, enhancing growth... View Details

Keywords: Strategy; Circular; Emerging Markets; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Growth and Development Strategy; Economy

June 2005 (Revised May 2006)
Case

Alex Montana at ESH Manufacturing Co.

By: Thomas J. DeLong and Michael Kernish

Alex Montana sat at his desk pondering the career decision before him. Alex was director of the North American division of ESH Manufacturing, a $4.6 billion, Cleveland-based company with operations on three continents. ESH's CEO had just offered Montana a promotion to... View Details

Keywords: Decision Making; Decision Choices and Conditions; Personal Development and Career; Work-Life Balance; Manufacturing Industry; Cleveland

June 2011
Case

Shelley Capital and the Hedge Fund Secondary Market

By: Luis Viceira, Elena Corsi and Ruth Dittrich

An advisory company has to decide how to sell their client's hedge fund holdings in the secondary market, and thinks about their future. Shelley Capital was a a European advisory company operating in the hedge fund secondary market, a market that boosted in 2008 with... View Details

Keywords: Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Investment Funds; Marketing Strategy; Financial Crisis; Sales; Leadership Development; Financial Markets; Crisis Management; Business Processes; Risk and Uncertainty; Globalized Economies and Regions; Financial Services Industry; Service Industry; Europe

October 2022
Supplement

The SAH Group: The Time is Right, Instructor Spreadsheet

By: Juan Alcacer and Alpana Thapar

In January 2021, Jalila Mezni, CEO of the SAH Group, was preparing to present the company’s future growth plans to its board of directors. The Tunisian company was a leading producer and distributor of personal care and packaged hygiene products. In 2019, it expanded... View Details

Keywords: Growth Strategy; Entrepreneurship; Investment Decisions; Growth Management; Vertical Integration; Distribution; Competition; Strategy; Supply Chain; Presentations; Product Positioning; Market Entry and Exit; Consumer Products Industry; Pulp and Paper Industry; Health Industry; Tunisia