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- May 2004 (Revised July 2004)
- Case
Clarence Saunders: The Comeback King
By: Nitin Nohria and Bridget Gurtler
Follows the rise and fall of the founder of the modern supermarket, Clarence Saunders. Prior to 1915, all staple shopping took place in the market or general store, where a clerk behind a counter pulled items from shelves for customers , measured them from a barrel, or... View Details
- May 2004 (Revised June 2004)
- Case
Brief Biographical Note on P. Roy Vagelos
By: Nitin Nohria and Bridget Gurtler
Provides background biographical information on P. Roy Vagelos, chief executive officer of Merck Pharmaceuticals. Teaching Purpose: To chart the development of a leader in the pharmaceutical industry. View Details
- May 2004
- Article
Was Electricity a General Purpose Technology: Evidence from Historical Patent Citations
By: Tom Nicholas and Petra Moser
- 2004
- Working Paper
Regulation and Reaction: The Other Side of Free Banking in Antebellum New York
By: David A. Moss and Sarah Brennan
Free banking, which first appeared in the United States in the late 1830s, comprised two essential features: general incorporation for banks and rigorous security requirements for note issue. Because the general incorporation feature is what allowed free entry, it has... View Details
- January 2004 (Revised May 2008)
- Case
Johnson & Johnson's Corporate Credo
By: Thomas R. Piper
No corporate credo is better known than that of Johnson & Johnson. Describes the history of the credo, including the credo challenge initiated by the CEO, James Burke, in 1975 and the role the credo played during the Tylenol poisoning crisis. View Details
- October 2003 (Revised February 2004)
- Background Note
Introduction to the Large-Scale Investment (LSI) Course at Harvard Business School
By: Benjamin C. Esty
Introduces students to the Large-Scale Investment (LSI) course taught at Harvard Business School. LSI is a case-based course about project finance that is designed for second-year MBA students. The course is about project finance, which involves creation of a legally... View Details
- October 2003 (Revised January 2016)
- Exercise
The BCPC Internet Strategy Team: An Exercise
By: Amy C. Edmondson and Laura Feldman
This short fictional case forms the basis of a team decision-making exercise. The case, inspired by a real decision facing a major telecommunications company, describes a cross-functional management team convened by the CEO for the purpose of developing a... View Details
- May 2003
- Case
Sun Hydraulics: Leading in Tough Times (A) (Abridged)
By: Linda A. Hill and Jennifer Suesse
Sun Hydraulics, 32-year-old global hydraulics engineering and manufacturing company headquartered in Sarasota, Florida; confronts tough choices due to the economic downturn in 2001. The company leadership debates how to maintain profitability and reduce labor costs... View Details
- February 2003 (Revised March 2003)
- Case
Large Scale Change at The WSSC
By: Amy C. Edmondson and Corey B. Hajim
Describes the organizational transformation occurring at the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission (WSSC), a public utility. Faced with the possibility of privatization after decades of providing service in the absence of competition or performance pressures, the... View Details
- February 2003 (Revised October 2003)
- Case
Versity.com
By: Leslie A. Perlow
Versity.com has grown from four college students working out of a dorm to a $125 million venture capital-backed company. The young founders and new professional managers struggle to create a company vision and grapple with the question of whether to acquire another... View Details
- January 2003 (Revised April 2003)
- Case
Sun Hydraulics: Leading in Tough Times (A)
By: Linda A. Hill and Jennifer Suesse
Sun Hydraulics, 32-year-old global hydraulics engineering and manufacturing company headquartered in Sarasota, Florida, confronts tough choices due to the economic downturn in 2001. The company leadership debates how to maintain profitability and reduce labor costs... View Details
- October 2002 (Revised February 2006)
- Case
Codex Alimentarius and Food Labeling
By: Ray A. Goldberg and Hal Hogan
Codex Alimentarius is a set of international food standards devised by the Codex Commission, a body within the United Nations jointly sponsored by the FAO and WHO. The purpose of the standards is to harmonize global trade in food products and agricultural commodities,... View Details
- October 2002 (Revised May 2004)
- Case
Starbucks and Conservation International
By: James E. Austin and Cate Reavis
Starbucks, the world's leading specialty coffee company, developed a strategic alliance with Conservation International, a major international environmental nonprofit organization. The purpose of the alliance was to promote coffee-growing practices of small farms that... View Details
- August 2002 (Revised March 2003)
- Teaching Note
NerveWire (TN)
By: Nitin Nohria and Bridget Gurtler
Teaching Note for (9-402-020), (9-402-021), and (9-402-022). View Details
- Other Article
What Do We Know About Variance in Accounting Profitability?
By: Anita M. McGahan and Michael E. Porter
In this paper, we analyze the variance of accounting profitability among a broad cross-section of firms in the American economy from 1981 to 1994. The purpose of the analysis is to identify the importance of year, industry, corporate-parent, and business-specific... View Details
- April 2002 (Revised February 2003)
- Module Note
Teaching Project Finance: An Overview of the Large-Scale Investment Course
By: Benjamin C. Esty
Large-Scale Investment is a case-based course about project finance for second-year MBA students. Project finance involves the creation of a legally independent project company financed with nonrecourse debt for the purpose of investing in a single-purpose industrial... View Details
- January 2002 (Revised February 2002)
- Case
Postgirot Bank and Provment AB: Managing the Cost of IT Operations
By: F. Warren McFarlan and Nancy Bartlett
Describes a specific approach for measuring the efficiency of the groups of computers inside an organization and suggests ways this tool may be used to reduce the company's computing investment while maintaining service. It is a software-enabled industrial engineering... View Details