Publications

January 2007
Case

Robert E. Rubin (A)

By: Nitin Nohria, Robert Steven Kaplan and Nicole Davison

Bob Rubin was a businessman given the task of setting up and running the National Economic Council for the Clinton Administration. Unfamiliar with management in a political climate, Rubin worked hard to design, staff, and position the Council to make better economic... View Details

Keywords: Personal Development and Career; Government and Politics; Managerial Roles; Macroeconomics; Organizational Design; Economy

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August 1994 (Revised May 1995)
Case

Engineering Inspection & Insurance Company

By: Robert H. Hayes

Engineering Inspection & Insurance Co. (EIIC) is a small but highly successful company that offers machinery and boiler inspection and insurance services. After years of above-average growth and profits, both are retreating toward the industry average, policy delivery... View Details

Keywords: Service Operations; Business Strategy; Organizational Design; Organizational Structure; Insurance; Strategic Planning; Problems and Challenges; Insurance Industry; United States

January 1997 (Revised June 1997)
Case

Southwire: Beyond 2000

By: F. Warren McFarlan and Melissa Dailey

Southwire, based in Carrollton, GA, was the leading producer of aluminum and copper rod, wire, and cable for the transmission and distribution of electricity. In one decade, CEO Roy Richards, Jr. grew annual sales from $500 million in 1985 to $1.9 billion in 1995, an... View Details

Keywords: Leading Change; Growth Management; Competitive Strategy; Global Strategy; Manufacturing Industry

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July 2002 (Revised April 2003)
Case

QuickMedx Inc.

By: Richard M.J. Bohmer and Jonathan P Groberg

QuickMedx has created a chain of small kiosks, located in drugstores and shopping malls in the Minneapolis area, that cater to patients with a limited range of very simple primary care conditions. Service is rapid and cheap and patients wait only a few minutes to be... View Details

Keywords: Health Care and Treatment; Decision Making; Disruptive Innovation; Expansion; Service Delivery; Business Processes; Design; Management; Health Industry

July 1990
Case

Ceramics Process Systems Corp. (B)

By: Kim B. Clark and Brent D. Barnett

Ceramics Process Systems (CPS) is an advanced ceramics company facing problems with lead time in product/process development, and late delivery of prototype parts to its customers. Engineering is confronted with difficult technical problems and multiple objectives... View Details

Keywords: Product Development; Business Processes; Management Practices and Processes; Supply Chain Management; Machinery and Machining; Goals and Objectives; Resource Allocation; Customer Satisfaction; Customer Value and Value Chain; Manufacturing Industry

01 Jun 2015
News

Ink

Book Review: Learning from Bill, Andy, and Steve The tuxedoed trio looking out from the cover of Harvard Business School Professor David B. Yoffie’s new book on strategy can be seen as the modern-day Mount Rushmore of business. At their... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne; Apple; Microsoft; Computer and Electronic Product Manufacturing; Computer and Electronic Product Manufacturing; Computer and Electronic Product Manufacturing; Computer and Electronic Product Manufacturing

December 2016
Case

Public Mission, Private Funding: The University of California, Berkeley

By: William C. Kirby and Joycelyn W. Eby

UC Berkley, long known as one of the leading public universities in both the U.S. and the world, has seen turbulent times recently. While student enrollment and costs have increased steadily in recent years, the school, which has been fiercely proud of its public... View Details

April 2022
Teaching Note

Tempur Sealy International (A, B & C)

By: Benjamin C. Esty and Daniel Fisher

Teaching Note for HBS Case Nos. 718-422, 718-423, and 718-424. The cases explore the long-term relationship between Tempur Sealy (TPX, a mattress manufacturer) and Mattress Firm (MFRM, a bedding retailer and TPX's largest customer). For almost 20 years, the firms... View Details

18 Apr 2005
Research & Ideas

Selling Luxury to Everyone

shifting," she said. Panelist Rory Tahari, creative director and brand designer for Elie Tahari, Ltd.—and wife of designer Elie Tahari—said she saw a clear trend toward... View Details

Keywords: by Julie Jette; Consumer Products

December 2011 (Revised January 2012)
Supplement

Pierre Frankel in Moscow (B): Plowing Ahead

By: Rosabeth Moss Kanter and Matthew Bird

After several months into his turnaround of a global technology company's Russia subsidiary, a young and upcoming French executive reflected on how to institutionalize the subsidiary's transformation by further driving cultural change and breaking down internal silos.... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Culture; Organizational Structure; Business Subsidiaries; Leadership; Manufacturing Industry; Russia

July 2022
Article

A Strategic View of Team Learning in Organizations

By: Jean-François Harvey, Henrik Bresman, Amy C. Edmondson and Gary P. Pisano

Research in strategic management and organizational behavior has increasingly focused on understanding how organizations achieve and sustain performance in fast-changing environments. Strategy research suggests that senior managers, through their decisions, influence... View Details

Keywords: Strategic Management; Organization Behavior; Teams; Organizational Capabilities; Groups and Teams; Learning; Management; Decision Making; Performance; Organizational Design

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09 Feb 2004
Research & Ideas

Got a New Strategy? Now Make it Happen

years ago we launched a research program to develop a process that leaders could use to engage their people in an honest conversation. The "strategic fitness process" was designed in partnership with senior executives to enhance... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Beer & Russell A. Eisenstat

23 Apr 2014
HBS Case

Are Electronic Cigarettes a Public Good or Health Hazard?

health," one health advocate said. Consisting of a small barrel-shaped design that mimics an actual cigarette, the devices vaporize a liquid nicotine solution, which is then inhaled without the tar and... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Food & Beverage; Advertising

08 Jul 2011
Working Paper Summaries

Delegation in Multi-Establishment Firms: Adaptation vs. Coordination in I.T. Purchasing Authority

Keywords: by Kristina McElheran

September 2001 (Revised June 2005)
Case

Stevenson Industries (A)

By: John A. Davis and Kacie LaChapelle

Simon Carlson, chairman of the board of his family's fourth-generation industrial company, must decide how to deal with his conflict with the company's nonfamily CEO. Hired by the board just 15 months earlier to pursue growth more aggressively, CEO Paul Steel has upset... View Details

Keywords: Family Business; Management Succession; Management Style; Governing and Advisory Boards; Management Teams; Rank and Position; Organizational Culture; Decision Making; Manufacturing Industry

25 Apr 2005
Research & Ideas

New Learning at American Home Products

University, and it was acquired from Harvard for virtually nothing.25 By 1931 Wyeth was producing vitamins, vaccines, and serums. In addition, in 1943, American Home Products acquired Ayerst Laboratories, a... View Details

Keywords: by Alfred D. Chandler Jr.; Manufacturing; Manufacturing; Manufacturing; Manufacturing

May 2010 (Revised June 2012)
Case

From Imitation to Innovation: Zongshen Industrial Group

By: Willy Shih and Nancy Hua Dai

As Zuo Zongshen drove the transformation of the Zongshen Industrial Group from an early imitator in the motorcycle business to a company that increasingly focused on innovation as a way to get out of the hyper-competitive commodity business, he continually faced new... View Details

Keywords: Experience and Expertise; Learning; Investment; Disruptive Innovation; Knowledge Acquisition; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Structure; Competitive Strategy; Manufacturing Industry; Manufacturing Industry; China

01 Sep 2007
News

Riding It Out

purchasing, had just been notified by the contract manufacturer of SmartPak’s dog food that the weight-control formula might contain melamine. The substance, which has been used by Chinese manufacturers to... View Details

Keywords: Julia Hanna; dog food; pets; Food Manufacturing; Food Manufacturing; Food Manufacturing; Food Manufacturing

February 1985 (Revised September 1988)
Case

Caterpillar Tractor Co.

By: Christopher A. Bartlett

Describes the structure and evolution of the earth moving equipment industry worldwide in the post war era, particularly focusing on developments in the 1960s and 1970s. Describes Caterpillar's strategy in becoming the dominant worldwide competitor (industry market... View Details

Keywords: Business Growth and Maturation; Business Strategy; Manufacturing Industry; Manufacturing Industry