Publications

June 2001 (Revised March 2002)
Case

Ducati

Focuses on the turnaround and strategic repositioning of Ducati, an Italian maker of high-end sport motorcycles, and describes the current concerns with the growth prospects of the company. Federico Minoli, the CEO and strategic mind behind the turnaround, knew that... View Details

Keywords: Growth and Development Strategy; Competitive Strategy; Product Positioning; Management Teams; Brands and Branding; Motorcycle Industry

September 1999 (Revised April 2001)
Case

Credit Suisse (A) (Abridged)

By: W. Earl Sasser and William E. Fulmer

Credit Suisse is looking for ways to differentiate itself from current and likely competitors. After two years of restructuring, the bank's leadership wants profitable growth. It has decided to emphasize customer service. View Details

Keywords: Restructuring; Competitive Advantage; Customer Satisfaction; Banks and Banking; Growth and Development Strategy; Banking Industry; Retail Industry

Find at Harvard

01 Dec 1999
News

Buffett Preaches Investment Discipline

airlines filed for bankruptcy. "You've got to think where the competitive dynamics of a business or industry are going to lead over time," Buffett said. "What causes unusual profitability," he emphasized, "is not demand or a great idea,... View Details

01 Mar 2003
News

People Power

HBS professor Christopher Bartlett and Sumantra Ghoshal (DBA ’86) of the London Business School have won the 2002 Award for Leadership and Corporate Governance from the Association of ExecutiveSearch Consultants for their article “Building View Details

Carl E. Wickman

In 1926, with a colleague named Orville Caesar, he formed the holding company that would eventually become Greyhound. Wickman, seeing that an increased bus transportation system was beneficial to both bus companies and the seemingly View Details

Keywords: Transportation

May 2025
Supplement

On (B): The Cyclon Spins On

By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell, Karolin Frankenberger, Sascha Mader and Karen Elterman

A follow-up to the On case (723-430), this short case explores how the performance athletic shoe company On expanded its Cyclon subscription and recycling program through 2024, adding two new shoe models to the subscription and a one-time-purchase recyclable T-shirt. View Details

bonds in foreclosure, launching a fight that took years to settle. Young, however, came out on top and was vindicated when the SEC formally instituted a competitive bidding requirement for all bond issuances. The C&O railroad itself,... View Details

Keywords: Transportation

01 Mar 2018
News

@Soldiers Field

Complex was hoisted into place in November. After its completion in 2020, it will be home to more than 1,800 students, researchers, and faculty from the Harvard John A. Paulson (MBA 1980) School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. VALUE CHAIN In March, the HBS Africa... View Details

05 Feb 2001
What Do You Think?

Do MBA Programs Face “The Innovator’s Dilemma”?

content ... [with] aggregation and interpretation of knowledge [as] ... their core competency," all of which gives them significant competitive advantages in the educational market. However, this doesn't mean that onsite programs can... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

John D. Ryan

Ryan’s negotiation skills helped put an end to bitter competition among Montana copper moguls in the early 1900s. When he assumed control of Anaconda, he capitalized on the increasing importance of copper in electricity production,... View Details

Keywords: Agriculture & Mining

John L. Collyer

In 1940, Collyer brought to market the first tire with a substantial man-made rubber content. Goodrich’s tire was 50% synthetic rubber at a time when man-made rubber was not yet cost competitive with crude rubber. However, shortly... View Details

Keywords: Automotive & Aerospace

December 1998
Case

Retail Financial Services in 1998: First Union

By: Stephen P. Bradley and Takia Mahmood

Provides an overview of First Union's current strategy for retail financial services. Retail Financial Services in 1998 should be given to all students as background material. The class should then be split into groups, with each group receiving one of the following... View Details

Keywords: Investment Funds; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Industry Structures; Competition; Competitive Strategy; Financial Services Industry

Find at Harvard

28 Feb 2005
Research & Ideas

How to Harness Auction Fever

professor Deepak Malhotra. "These might all increase the likelihood of overbidding due to auction fever." This research comes from a recently published paper, coauthored with Gillian Ku, "Towards a Competitive Arousal Model... View Details

Keywords: by Manda Salls; Web Services; Technology

December 2018
Case

Good Energy Group PLC

By: John R. Wells and Benjamin Weinstock

Founded at the end of 1999 by Juliet Davenport and Martin Edwards, Good Energy was the number-two renewable-energy seller in the United Kingdom at the end of 2016, supplying over 71,000 of the country’s 27 million households and small businesses with 100% renewable... View Details

Keywords: Power/Energy; Green Energy; Renewables; Wind Power; Electricity; Power; Strategy Development; Electric Vehicles; Customer Service; Energy Policy; Barriers To Entry; Renewable Energy; Growth and Development Strategy; Competitive Strategy; Business and Government Relations; Problems and Challenges; Strategy; Energy Industry; United Kingdom

2011
Working Paper

Historical Trajectories and Corporate Competences in Wind Energy

By: Geoffrey Jones and Loubna Bouamane

This working paper surveys the business history of the global wind energy turbine industry between the late nineteenth century and the present day. It examines the long-term prominence of firms headquartered in Denmark, the more fluctuating role of U.S.-based firms,... View Details

Keywords: Business History; Renewable Energy; Competitive Advantage; Technology Adoption; Policy; Business and Government Relations; Energy Industry; United States; Denmark

Read Now

August 2010 (Revised August 2011)
Case

Developing an App for That

By: Hanna Halaburda, Joshua Gans and Nathaniel Burbank

At a time when ever-rising smartphone sales are driven as much by demand for devices that run must-have third-party "apps" as by the quality of traditional voice and data services, there is a myriad of challenges facing the software developer who is looking to choose... View Details

Keywords: Product Development; Competitive Strategy; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Applications and Software; Digital Platforms; Banking Industry; Information Technology Industry

August 2010 (Revised October 2014)
Case

Herborist

By: John Deighton, Leora Kornfeld, Yanqun He and Qingyun Jiang

Global brands such as L'Oreal and Oil of Olay dominate China's skin care market. A Chinese domestic brand, after some success in partnership with Sephora in Europe, aspires to challenge the French and U.S. brands' hold on the China market. It must decide how to segment... View Details

Keywords: Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Product Marketing; Product Positioning; Demand and Consumers; Competitive Strategy; Segmentation; Beauty and Cosmetics Industry; China