Publications

February 2008 (Revised March 2011)
Case

Sandhar Technologies Group, Ltd.

By: G. Felda Hardymon and Ann Leamon

Jayant Davar, CEO and founder of Sandhar Technologies Group, a privately held auto components maker in India, is trying to decide how best to grow the company. He recently took a $22 million investment from Actis Capital, a major emerging markets private equity firm,... View Details

Keywords: Private Equity; Business Growth and Maturation; Competitive Advantage; Entrepreneurship; Mergers and Acquisitions; Emerging Markets; Growth and Development Strategy; Manufacturing Industry; Auto Industry; India

Find at Harvard

June 2021
Teaching Note

Amazon: Cult or Culture?

By: Boris Groysberg, Kerry Herman and Amy Klopfenstein

Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 421-008. Amazon was one of the first entrants in e-commerce. Under the leadership of founder Jeff Bezos, Amazon had expanded beyond books to manufacturing and selling a wide range of products and services globally. Bezos had built a... View Details

Keywords: Leadership; Organizational Culture; Growth Management; Information Technology; Human Resources; Talent and Talent Management; Retail Industry; Technology Industry

October 2014 (Revised July 2015)
Case

Indus Towers: From Infancy to Maturity

By: Ranjay Gulati, Maxim Sytch and Rachna Tahilyani

Indus Towers, the world's largest telecom tower company, is a joint venture between three telecom rivals in India. These rivals—Bharti Airtel, Vodafone India, and Idea Cellular—combined their telecom towers to provide "shared telecom infrastructure" to wireless telecom... View Details

Keywords: Decisions; Judgments; Customer Focus and Relationships; Management; Information Technology; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Information Infrastructure; Telecommunications Industry; India

July 2021 (Revised October 2021)
Case

Allianz Customer Centricity: Is Simplicity the Way Forward?

By: Eva Ascarza and Emilie Billaud

This case explores the tradeoffs between product personalization and simplicity as companies grow. The case presents an opportunity to understand whether and how each of these approaches enables and/or limits companies’ abilities to provide customer satisfaction while... View Details

Keywords: Simplicity; Customer Focus and Relationships; Customization and Personalization; Customer Satisfaction; Performance Efficiency; Strategy; Insurance Industry; Europe; Germany

Rohit Deshpandé is a Baker Foundation Professor and Sebastian S. Kresge Professor of Marketing, Emeritus at Harvard Business School, where he has been teaching in the Advanced Management Program,... View Details

Keywords: advertising; agribusiness; airline; banking; beauty products; beverage; financial services; home video games; marketing industry; pharmaceuticals; telecommunications; tourism; video games

November 2024 (Revised January 2025)
Case

Precision Agriculture at AGCO

By: Rajiv Lal, Alicia Dadlani and Ai-Ling Jamila Malone

In 2024, AGCO, a leading agricultural equipment manufacturer, sought to improve its customers net farm income by 20% over five years by becoming a comprehensive one-stop precision agriculture solutions provider and strengthening its dual channel sales approach—retrofit... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Customer Relationship Management; Collaborative Innovation and Invention; Organizational Culture; Sales; Alignment; Integration; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Manufacturing Industry

August 2007
Case

Codelco Copper Mines

Codelco was a Chilean copper-mining company, widely considered to be one of the most professionally managed firms in South America in spite of the fact that it was 100% government-owned. A $10.5 billion company in 2005, Codelco faced the challenge of incorporating... View Details

Keywords: Mining; Geographic Location; Leading Change; Business Processes; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Information Technology; Mining Industry; Chile

December 2022
Case

To Feed the Planet: Juan Luciano at ADM

By: Joshua D. Margolis, David E. Bell, Damien McLoughlin, Stacy Straaberg and James Weber

In December 2022, Juan Luciano, Chairman and CEO of agribusiness and nutrition giant ADM, considered the next phase of the historic company’s future. Beginning in 2011 when he joined as COO and moving into his tenure as CEO in 2015, Luciano led a transformation of ADM... View Details

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

Research Summary

Lean Startup Management Practices

By: Thomas R. Eisenmann

Many information technology startups have embraced "lean startup" management practices. Lean startups confront high levels of uncertainty about both customer problems and product solutions: the strength of demand for new... View Details

Rajiv Lal

Rajiv Lal, is the Stanley Roth, Sr. Professor of Retailing at Harvard Business School. He is currently teaching an elective MBA course on the Business of Smart Connected Products/IOT. He has been responsible for the retailing curriculum and has served as the course... View Details

October 2014 (Revised March 2015)
Case

Integrated Reporting at Aegon

By: Robert G. Eccles, George Serafeim, Sydney Ribot and Michael Krzus

In 2011, Aegon adopted integrated reporting—a corporate reporting approach that sought to present company performance in a holistic light by considering medium- to long-term issues, stakeholder opinions, and the relationship between material financial and nonfinancial... View Details