Publications
Publications
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- All HBS Web
(1,879)
- Faculty Publications (63)
- February 2010 (Revised November 2011)
- Case
International Agribusiness in China: Charoen Pokphand Group
By: William C. Kirby, Michael Shih-ta Chen, Tracy Manty and Yi Kwan Chu
The world's leading Thai agribusiness corporation and largest agribusiness investor in China, CP Group, is facing another crossroads in China as the country starts to undergo rural reform. The issues at hand for Chairman Dhanin Chearavanont is how CP can balance its... View Details
- December 2009 (Revised June 2011)
- Case
Curt Schilling's Next Pitch
By: Noam T. Wasserman, Jeffrey J. Bussgang and Rachel Gordon
As his major-league pitching career was starting to wind down in 2006, baseball all-star Curt Schilling decided to become an entrepreneur. Looking to focus his tenacity and his passion for online role-playing games on a new challenge, he founded an online gaming... View Details
- December 2009
- Article
Closing the Customer Feedback Loop
By: Rob Markey, Fred Reichheld and Andreas Dullweber
Realizing that customer retention is more critical than ever, companies have ramped up their efforts to listen to customers. But many struggle to convert their findings into practical prescriptions for customer-facing employees. Some companies are addressing that... View Details
- March 2009
- Case
The Hotel Bed Wars
By: Youngme E. Moon
This case describes the start of The Hotel Bed Wars, the competition among hotel chains to attract customers by offering better and more elaborate bedding. The case is written from the standpoint of Starwood Hotels & Resorts, which is credited with starting The Hotel... View Details
- December 2008 (Revised October 2009)
- Case
Wal-Mart Stores in 2003 (Abridged Version)
Examines Wal-Mart's development over three decades and provides financial and descriptive detail of its domestic operations. In 2003, Wal-Mart's Supercenter business has surpassed its domestic business as the largest generator of revenues. Its international operation... View Details
- September 2007 (Revised October 2017)
- Case
Still Leading (B6): Sherry Lansing—Producing Social Change
By: Rosabeth Moss Kanter and Lance Pierce
Sherry Lansing, head of a Hollywood studio, left to start a foundation. Describes the issues in her transition. View Details
- July 2007 (Revised January 2008)
- Case
Turnaround at the Veterans Health Administration (A)
By: Amy C. Edmondson, Brian R. Golden and Gary J. Young
Investigates the challenges that Dr. Kenneth W. Kizer confronted in seeking to create organizational change at the largest integrated health care system in North America, the Veterans Health Administration (VHA). Kizer was appointed as the Under Secretary of Health, to... View Details
- March 2006 (Revised May 2009)
- Case
Entrepreneurial Insights
By: Joseph L. Bower and Sonya Hout
Presents a matrix of 42 video clips of interviews with seven entrepreneurial managers answering the same six questions about their experiences building their companies. The individual entrepreneurs (Vittorio Merloni, Merloni Elettrodomestici; Alex d'Arbeloff, Teradyne,... View Details
- September 2004 (Revised August 2007)
- Case
Enterprise IT at Cisco (2004)
By: Andrew P. McAfee, F. Warren McFarlan and Alison Berkley Wagonfeld
Illustrates the challenges associated with centralizing IT decisions at Cisco after a decade of decentralized planning and project funding. When Brad Boston became Cisco's new CIO in 2001, he found that managers were starting to get frustrated with the results of their... View Details
- September 2003 (Revised January 2004)
- Case
Wal-Mart Stores in 2003
By: Pankaj Ghemawat, Stephen P. Bradley and Ken Mark
Examines Wal-Mart's development over three decades and provides financial and descriptive detail of its domestic operations. In 2003, Wal-Mart's Supercenter business has surpassed its domestic business as the largest generator of revenues. Its international operation... View Details
- December 2002 (Revised December 2017)
- Background Note
Teaching Old Companies New Tricks: The Challenge of Managing New Streams Within the Mainstream
Describes the challenge of starting new ventures or new activities in established companies, especially if they diverge from the mainstream of ongoing commitments. Fledgling ventures require a different kind of management that acknowledges their uncertainty, intensity,... View Details
- October 1999 (Revised March 2000)
- Case
HP Consumer Products Business Organization: Distributing Printers via the Internet
By: Rajiv Lal, Kirthi Kalyanam, Shelby Mc Intyre and Edie Prescott
In spring 1998, Pradeep Jotwani, vice president and general manager of the Consumer Products Business Organization of the Hewlett-Packard Co. (HP), was contemplating the increasing success of e-commerce and its implications for his division. The consumer products group... View Details
- March 1999 (Revised February 2000)
- Case
Ken Hakuta: AllHerb.com
By: Teresa M. Amabile and Nicole Tempest
Ken Hakuta had been an entrepreneur all his life. Having started a number of consumer-oriented ventures, he became well-known as "Dr. Fad," the initiator of the "Wacky Wallwalker" toy craze in the 1980s. Wishing to strike out in an exciting new direction in 1998, he... View Details
- August 1998 (Revised October 1998)
- Case
Lark International Entertainment Ltd. (A)
By: Linda A. Hill and Jennifer Suesse
Two HBS MBA's leave McKinsey and Morgan Stanley to become entrepreneurs in Hong Kong. Together they start up a cinema chain throughout Asia. This case describes the experiences of managing a team in their Wuhan, China cinema. Looks at the challenges of managing growth... View Details
- March 1998 (Revised July 1998)
- Case
Boston Duck Tours,1996: Has Boston Gone Quackers?
By: Myra M. Hart and Stephanie Dodson
While on vacation in Memphis, former investment manager Andy Wilson discovers a unique "tour bus" that travels over land and through water. He decides to transplant the concept to Boston and to add both historical and theatrical features to the amphibious tour. As he... View Details
- February 1998 (Revised June 1999)
- Case
DigitalThink: Startup
By: William A. Sahlman, Michael J. Roberts and Christina L. Darwall
Describes a recent Berkeley MBA's attempts to start a business aimed at corporate training via the Internet. Describes the very early efforts at finding an attorney, accountant, and financing, and the interrelationships among these choices. View Details
- September 1995
- Case
Richina Capital Partners Limited
By: William A. Sahlman and Jason Green
Richard Yan and Suzanne Foels raise a $52.5 million fund to invest in Chinese companies in concert with major multinational companies. They face all the challenges of starting a business from scratch in addition to the challenges of operating in a cross-cultural... View Details
- March 1994 (Revised May 1994)
- Case
Lisa Benton (A)
By: Linda A. Hill
Lisa Benton is in her fourth month as an assistant product manager at Houseworld, a leading consumer products company. She has been on the job since graduating from the Harvard Business School, and she has been frustrated from the start by a lack of responsibility, by... View Details
- January 1994
- Case
ABC Sales and Service Division: A Case Study of Personal and Organizational Transformation
By: D. Quinn Mills, Brock W. Orwig, Janet M. Pumo, Todd C. Stilson and Richard C. Wei
In the midst of dramatic changes in the information systems industry and declining profits at the ABC Co., the vice president in charge of the sales and service division, Jeff, and his managers attempt to transform their division. The transformation gets off to a good... View Details
- May 1993 (Revised January 1994)
- Case
Cummins Engine Company, The: Starting Up "B" Crankshaft Manufacturing at the San Luis Potosi Plant
By: Robert H. Hayes
Cummins Engine Co. is starting up production of diesel engine crankshafts in its plant in central Mexico. This operation requires much tighter tolerances than any product previously produced at the plant, and the young (recent MBA) manager who is in charge of the... View Details