Publications

November 1989 (Revised August 1994)
Supplement

Du Pont's Titanium Dioxide Business (B)

Provides students with the opportunity to track industry evolution over time, to explore the role that signaling may play in such evolution, and to construct and validate industry scenarios. View Details

Keywords: Analysis; Supply and Industry; Chemical Industry

February 1984 (Revised February 1986)
Case

E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Co.: Titanium Dioxide

By: W. Carl Kester, Robert R. Glauber, David W. Mullins Jr. and Stacy S. Dick

Disequilibrium in the $350 million TiO2 market has prompted Du Pont's Pigments Department to develop two strategies for competing in this market in the future. The growth strategy has a smaller internal rate of return than the alternative strategy due to large capital... View Details

Keywords: Forecasting and Prediction; Cash Flow; Investment Return; Growth and Development Strategy; Strategic Planning; Projects; Chemical Industry

June 2010 (Revised February 2013)
Background Note

The Precautionary Principle

By: Michael W. Toffel and Nazli Z. Uludere Aragon

This note describes the precautionary principle and its key tenets, highlights challenges associated with its use, and includes many examples of its application, primarily within the realm of regulating activities based on the risk of harm to human health and the... View Details

Keywords: Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Policy; Health Disorders; Business and Government Relations; Safety; Natural Environment; Pollutants; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Chemical Industry; Pharmaceutical Industry

Keywords: Chemicals

Career Coach

Maude Hoffman

Maude is happy to help fellow students talk through career decisions and strategies to pivot to investing, sustainability, and energy. She studied chemical engineering... View Details

10 Sep 2013
First Look

First Look: September 10

verbal communication, the complexity in the narrative impacts the market reaction to the disclosure. Download working paper: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2154948 Historical Origins of Environmental Sustainability in the German Chemical... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

04 Dec 2012
Research & Ideas

Book Excerpt: Harder Than I Thought

high-fiber grain. Sipping coffee to clear his throat, he adjusted the reading glasses he'd begun using last week and couldn't quite get used to, without shifting attention from the editorial he'd just come... View Details

Keywords: by Robert D. Austin, Richard L. Nolan & Shannon O'Donnell; Aerospace

10 Aug 2020
Research & Ideas

COVID's Surprising Toll on Careers of Women Scientists

timed experiments—like biological and chemical fields—research time slid 30 to 40 percent. Overall, 55 percent of the respondents reported a decline in total work hours, 27 percent indicated no change, View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne; Pharmaceutical; Biotechnology; Health

December 2016 (Revised April 2017)
Case

BASF: Co-Creating Innovation (A)

By: V. Kasturi Rangan, Emilie Billaud and Vincent Dessain

In 2016, BASF's chief executive officer and chief technology officer reflected on the co-creation innovation program started almost 18 months ago as part of BASF's 150th anniversary celebration. Five hundred project ideas had been created, of which 100 had already... View Details

Keywords: Sustainability; Knowledge Sharing; Innovation Strategy; Innovation and Management; Chemicals; Environmental Sustainability; Collaborative Innovation and Invention; Consumer Products Industry; Europe

July 2010 (Revised December 2010)
Case

Formosa Plastics Group: Business Continuity Forever

Wang Yung-ching, legendary Taiwanese businessman and philanthropist, passed away in 2008. He left behind an estate worth US $5.5 billion, but did not leave a will. The case discusses the potential motivation for Wang, and uses it to study succession planning for family... View Details

Keywords: Family Business; Governance Controls; Management Succession; Family Ownership; Planning; Motivation and Incentives; Chemical Industry; Taiwan

January 1997 (Revised July 1998)
Case

Dendrite International (Condensed)

By: John A. Deighton

This version has been shortened to concentrate on the issue of managing a long selling process and long post-sale account relationship. The focus on the pharmaceutical industry in the United States, Europe, and Japan is preserved. Broader questions of expansion into... View Details

Keywords: Customer Focus and Relationships; Marketing Strategy; Product Development; Sales; Expansion; Chemical Industry; Chemical Industry; Japan; Europe; United States

Find at Harvard

September 2019
Case

Shell: A Company of Opportunity?

By: Joseph B. Fuller and Emer Moloney

The Opportunity Hub was a cloud-based platform that enabled managers to market projects they were working on and associated resourcing needs as “Opportunity Owners” and employees, or “Opportunity Seekers,” to browse these statements of need and engage when they had... View Details

Keywords: Business Divisions; Change Management; Competency and Skills; Experience and Expertise; Talent and Talent Management; Energy; Energy Sources; Non-Renewable Energy; Renewable Energy; Human Resources; Employees; Retention; Collaborative Innovation and Invention; Innovation and Management; Innovation Strategy; Technological Innovation; Jobs and Positions; Job Design and Levels; Knowledge Sharing; Knowledge; Knowledge Use and Leverage; Labor; Human Capital; Labor Unions; Leading Change; Resource Allocation; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Performance Evaluation; Performance Productivity; Strategic Planning; Projects; Motivation and Incentives; Business Strategy; Social and Collaborative Networks; Technology Platform; Chemical Industry; Chemical Industry; Chemical Industry; Chemical Industry; United Kingdom; Netherlands

May 24, 2016
Article

Build a Culture of Health

By: John A. Quelch

Every company, large and small, has an impact on health. It does so in four ways: first, through the healthfulness and safety of the products and services it sells; second, through its attention to employee health and well-being in its work practices and benefits;... View Details

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November 1989 (Revised April 2004)
Case

Du Pont's Titanium Dioxide Business (A)

This case series is a vehicle for examining the strategic logic and risks of preemption. Rewritten versions of earlier cases. View Details

Keywords: Competition; Supply and Industry; Product Marketing; Chemical Industry

27 Apr 2021
Blog Post

There Are No HBS People, Just People Who Happen to Go to HBS

hosted at my school. I learned that chemical engineers create fragrances, lotions, and my favorite, skincare. It was the best of both worlds, science and beauty. I knew... View Details

Robert T. Powers

During his tenure as CEO, Powers expanded Nalco’s international presence and diversified Nalco’s product lines – moving beyond water-treatment into specialty and industrial chemicals. Under his leadership,... View Details

Keywords: Chemicals & Industrial

10 Mar 2021
News

Elevator Pitch: Game Time

has begun manufacturing, and the glasses will be available to all in summer 2021. Bottom Line: Tilt Five’s competitive advantage boils down to its proprietary technology, resulting in a more affordable,... View Details

Keywords: AI; virtual reality; gaming; technology; entrepreneurship; startups; Amusement, Gambling, and Recreation Industries; Amusement, Gambling, and Recreation Industries

August 1989 (Revised October 1989)
Case

Charlestown Chemical, Inc.

Involves price negotiation and reciprocity. A rewritten version of a case by W.B. England and J. Landendorf. View Details

Keywords: Negotiation; Price; Chemical Industry