Publications
Publications
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- All HBS Web
(435)
- Faculty Publications (76)
- September 2009
- Article
Are You Having Trouble Keeping Your Operations Focused?
As a business broadens over time, it can lose the operational edge that led to its original success. Core strengths atrophy, efficiency or quality suffers, and sharper rivals close in to take advantage of the loss of focus. In his classic article "The Focused Factory"... View Details
- March 2009 (Revised January 2010)
- Supplement
The Walt Disney Company and Pixar Inc.: To Acquire or Not to Acquire? An Update
By: Juan Alcacer, David J. Collis and Mary Furey
This four-page update to the case, "The Walt Disney Company and Pixar Inc.: To Acquire or Not to Acquire?" details the Walt Disney Company's acquisition of Pixar, including deal terms, executive appointments, and operating guidelines for the two studios. View Details
- June 2008 (Revised January 2012)
- Background Note
Solving a Problem or Sounding the Alarm? Guidelines on Blowing the Whistle
By: Lynn S. Paine and Lara Adamsons
Many of us will at some point in our professional lives encounter situations involving what we believe to be wrongful or injurious activities that may cause harm to innocent parties, our company, or the public. It may be necessary to bring the matter to the attention... View Details
- 2008
- Working Paper
Collaborative Architectures for Innovation
By: Gary P. Pisano and Roberto Verganti
Collaborative innovation has become a hot topic in innovation today. Scholars, consultants, and the business press all urge companies seeking to boost innovative performance to become more "collaborative." Too often, however, companies fail to distinguish among the... View Details
- March 2008
- Background Note
Marketing Input and Innovation Strategy
By: Elie Ofek
This note develops a framework for considering the challenges of incorporating marketing input when setting innovation strategy. The framework lays out the possible innovation opportunities a firm can entertain and describes how the customer knowledge gained from... View Details
- March 2008
- Article
Linguistic Network Configurations: Management of Innovation in Design-intensive Firms
By: Claudio Dell'Era, Alessio Marchesi and Roberto Verganti
In today's business and academic arenas, design is more and more viewed as an important strategic resource. In fact, over the last couple of years, we have seen a real explosion in business and research literature that see scholars and companies alike trying to... View Details
- February 2008 (Revised May 2011)
- Background Note
A Note on Compensation Research
By: Robert G. Eccles, Boris Groysberg and Ann Cullen
This note provides guidelines to consider and reviews the sources available for compensation research. Having an understanding of the “outside option,” that is effectively the average salary being offered for a position in a specific type of firm is an important... View Details
- 2008
- Book
Managing Your Boss
By: John J. Gabarro and John P. Kotter
Managing your boss: Isn't that merely manipulation? Corporate cozying up? Not according to John Gabarro and John Kotter. In this handy guidebook, the authors contend that you manage your boss for a very good reason: to do your best on the job—and thereby benefit not... View Details
- July 2007 (Revised March 2008)
- Background Note
Staging Two-Sided Platforms
By: Thomas R. Eisenmann and Andrei Hagiu
Firms that aspire to develop two-sided platforms face a formidable challenge. Prospective users on each side will not invest in the platform until they are confident there will be enough users on the other side. Traditional strategies for dealing with this... View Details
- March 2006 (Revised April 2008)
- Module Note
Conceptualizing the Customer Operating Role
By: Frances X. Frei
The module introduces students to the concept and implications of a customer operating role. Building on the first year operations curriculum in which only employees' and machines' operating roles are considered, it provides the additional perspectives needed to bring... View Details
- December 2005
- Article
Up to Code: Does Your Company's Conduct Meet World-Class Standards?
Codes of conduct have long been a feature of corporate life. Today, they are arguably a legal necessity—at least for public companies with a presence in the United States. But the issue goes beyond U.S. legal and regulatory requirements. Sparked by corruption and... View Details
- June 2005 (Revised January 2007)
- Case
Equator Principles, The: An Industry Approach to Managing Environmental and Social Risks
By: Benjamin C. Esty, Carin-Isabel Knoop and Aldo Sesia
In June 2003, 10 leading international banks adopted new voluntary guidelines, called the Equator Principles, to promote sustainable development in project finance. In recent years, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) had raised issues about the lenders'... View Details
- March 2005 (Revised March 2006)
- Case
Foreign Exchange Hedging Strategies at General Motors: Competitive Exposures
By: Mihir A. Desai and Mark Veblen
How can a multinational firm analyze and manage currency risks that arise from competitive exposures? General Motors has a substantial competitive exposure to the Japanese yen. Although the risks GM faces from the depreciating yen are widely acknowledged, the company's... View Details
- March 2003 (Revised November 2005)
- Case
Bertelsmann AG
By: Bharat N. Anand, Michael G. Rukstad and Christoph Kostring
On July 28, 2002, Bertelsmann announced the firing of its CEO, Thomas Middelhoff, in a move that surprised industry observers, analysts, and many employees. Bertelsmann, a privately held company headquartered in Germany, was one of the largest global media... 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
- January 2002 (Revised April 2004)
- Case
Chapter Enrichment Program Teams at the American Red Cross (A)
By: Jeffrey T. Polzer and Anita Williams Woolley
The American Red Cross has a system for structuring, staffing, and leading teams to review its local chapters. Mirroring professional services firms that use teams to serve clients, this system provides detailed guidelines to increase individual team member's... View Details
- March 2001 (Revised July 2007)
- Background Note
Power and Influence: Achieving Your Objectives in Organizations
By: Kathleen L. McGinn and Elizabeth Long Lingo
Power is the potential to mobilize energy. This rather neutral definition does not address the issues of how to exercise power or to what ends. The answers to these questions determine the ultimate value of an individual's power. This note is written to help readers... View Details
- July 1995
- Background Note
Managerial Duties and Business Law
By: Joseph L. Badaracco Jr. and Jerry Useem
Consists of excerpts from Principles of Corporate Governance, a set of legal guidelines that enumerates the principal duties of corporate managers and directors, including fiduciary duty, duty of care, and duty of fair dealing. Also addresses legal obligations relating... View Details
- May 1995
- Teaching Note
Note on the Federal Sentencing Guidelines for Organizations and Corporate Criminal Fines Exercise TN
By: Lynn S. Paine and Michael Santoro
Teaching Note for (9-393-060) and (9-394-101). View Details
- December 1994 (Revised December 1995)
- Case
The JKJ Pension Fund
By: William J. Poorvu and John H. Vogel Jr.
The JKJ pension fund currently has $187 million invested in 14 properties. Sarah Griffin, the portfolio manager for real estate, needs to value each of the properties and recommend which ones should be sold and which ones to hold. She further needs to recommend... View Details