Publications

Find at Harvard

June 1991 (Revised May 1995)
Case

Jay Gould and the Coming of Railroad Consolidation

Concerns the role of Jay Gould in causing the creation of large regional rail systems after the Civil War in the United States. In class it will be used to show the inevitability of consolidation in that industry. View Details

Keywords: Rail Transportation; Industry Growth; Consolidation; Rail Industry; United States

January 2016 (Revised March 2016)
Case

HNA Group: Global Excellence with Chinese Characteristics

By: William C. Kirby, F. Warren McFarlan and Joycelyn W. Eby

By 2015, the HNA Group had grown from its roots as Hainan Airlines, a small airline founded in 1993 into a global conglomerate that ranked #464 in the Global 500. Much of this success it had achieved by cross-industry expansion within China, but since 2008, it had... View Details

Keywords: China; Aviation And Aerospace; Airline Industry; Airlines; Globalization; Corporate Culture; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Global Strategy; Globalized Markets and Industries; Growth and Development; Air Transportation; Air Transportation Industry; China

July 2013 (Revised March 2015)
Case

Carl Zeiss and Free-Form Production: Can We See Clearly Yet?

By: Willy Shih

The prescription eyeglass lens industry was complicated and highly fragmented, and even though many of the tools and techniques employed have been relatively unchanged over the last century, there was still a surprising pace of innovation. An aging population around... View Details

Keywords: History; Demand and Consumers; Disruptive Innovation; Vertical Integration; Theory; Technology Adoption; Health Industry

January 2009
Case

Marks and Spencer: Plan A

By: David E. Bell, Nitin Sanghavi and Laura Winig

Marks & Spencer initiated a comprehensive approach to sustainability (reduction of waste, carbon emissions, fair trade) called Plan A. Does it offer a competitive advantage? View Details

Keywords: Marketing; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Strategic Planning; Environmental Sustainability; Competitive Advantage; Retail Industry

January 2000
Case

Talbots - A Classic

By: V. Kasturi Rangan and Marie Bell

This case traces why the $1 billion women's clothing retailer decided to attract younger customers, what went wrong, and the actions taken to recover. By the end of 1999, the company has reestablished itself and faces several growth opportunities and must decide on the... View Details

Keywords: Customer Focus and Relationships; Decisions; Crisis Management; Product Positioning; Problems and Challenges; Segmentation; Fashion Industry

15 Nov 2001
Research & Ideas

Five Questions for Paul Gompers and Josh Lerner

by venture groups in the upcoming years, as well as an imposition of tougher terms on venture groups by the institutions who are their primary sources of capital. At the same time, there have been some fundamental changes happening in the venture capital View Details

Keywords: by Carol Elsen; Financial Services

March 2021 (Revised January 2023)
Background Note

The Pandemic's Impact on the U.S. Food System

By: José B. Alvarez and Natalie Kindred

This note is intended not as a comprehensive account but as a starting point for discussion about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the U.S. food system. Written in late 2020, the note describes, in part through the voices of industry leaders, how the pandemic... View Details

Keywords: COVID-19 Pandemic; Agribusiness; Risk and Uncertainty; Risk Management; Leadership; Change Management; Safety; Health; Health Pandemics; Disruption; Adaptation; Supply Chain; Supply Chain Management; Consumer Behavior; Retail Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Transportation Industry; United States

January 2010
Teaching Note

Transforming ASUSTeK: Breaking from the Past (TN)

By: Willy C. Shih

Teaching Note for [610041]. View Details

Keywords: Information Infrastructure; Transformation; Contracts; Production; Product Design; Customers; Competition; Management Practices and Processes; Value; Performance Effectiveness; Brands and Branding; Disruptive Innovation; Computer Industry; Electronics Industry

30 May 2018
What Do You Think?

Should Intellectual Property be Protected in International Trade?

discourage IP owners from selling and trading it in ways that may provide short-term business benefits but damage long-term international competition. For example, companies wishing access to China’s huge markets often have to enter into... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett; Technology

01 Jun 2012
News

Made in the USA

heavily in quality control and state-of-the-art equipment, a strategy that has helped him fend off competitors. A case in point is a Chinese company that launched a product similar to Aquamesh in 2000. “They tried to invade my View Details

Keywords: Blagg, Deborah; cheese; lobster fishing; Fishing, Hunting and Trapping; Agriculture; Management of Companies and Enterprises; Management; Food Manufacturing; Manufacturing

20 Oct 2021
Blog Post

Mobilizing Private Sector Action For Racial Equity in Milwaukee: SE Summer Fellow Zach Komes (MBA 2022)

initiative, with over a hundred area corporations, from Fortune 500 companies to mid-sized businesses, pledging to expand Black and Brown talent in their management roles by 25% and overall staff by 15% by 2025. Over the course of the last three months, I led a View Details

31 Jan 2017
Research & Ideas

The Dow at 20,000: What's That All About?

economy in the last hundred-plus years. There was no specific event that brought the Dow over the 20,000 mark last week. Markets exhibit a fairly large degree of short-term volatility, so once you get close to 20,000, normal daily View Details

Keywords: by Jim Aisner

05 May 2017
News

Barnes & Noble Names Demos Parneros CEO

feature full-service restaurants. The changes are in reaction to a market that, as the Times notes, is in flux: After decades of decline, independent bookstores have rebounded. The American Booksellers Association counted 1,775 member... View Details

01 Mar 2018
News

Making Sense of the Modern Startup

MBA course, in which he would combine then-emerging thinking at HBS about entrepreneurship with some new kinds of financial strategies he had been roughing out. Entrepreneurial Finance seemed like a logical name for the course. Almost... View Details

Keywords: Jeffrey L. Cruikshank (PMD 51, 1986)

02 Jan 2019
What Do You Think?

SUMMING UP: Do We Need an Artificial Intelligence Czar?

incompetent entrepreneur that wants to steal from the better firm and distort the market is accountable only to his bank account and ethics. So we need someone capable enough to make sure markets remain free... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett; Technology

01 Sep 2008
News

Say “Green Cheese”

market that’s worth billions, CEO Jeff Housenbold (MBA ’96) of Shutterfly is battling giants such as Hewlett-Packard and Kodak as he seeks to carve out a high-quality, high-end niche. A 20-page, 12” x 12” book sells for about $54. “We’d... View Details

Keywords: News, Library, Internet, and Other Services; Information; Printing and Related Support Activities; Manufacturing

Web

Industrial Production & Materials - Business & Environment

pollutants that cause climate change. Transitioning to fossil-fuel free energy sources for these processes, improving efficiency and reducing waste, and bringing low-carbon alternatives to market could dramatically reduce greenhouse gas... View Details

October 2015
Teaching Note

Molycorp: Financing the Production of Rare Earth Minerals (A)

By: Benjamin C. Esty and E. Scott Mayfield

Molycorp, the western hemisphere's only producer of rare earth minerals, was in the middle of a $1 billion capital expenditure project in its effort to become a vertically integrated supplier of rare earth minerals, oxides, and metals. Yet it had just reported lower... View Details

November 2000
Case

Geocast Network Systems, Inc.

By: Thomas R. Eisenmann, Christina L. Darwall and Elizabeth Kind

Geocast, a venture-backed start-up, had developed innovative technology for "datacasting" broadband information and entertainment content to an external hard drive, where it was cached for later retrieval by a Web-enabled PC. By using terrestrial TV, direct broadcast... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Customer Value and Value Chain; Entrepreneurship; Venture Capital; Information Management; Technological Innovation; Marketing Channels; Corporate Strategy; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; Web Services Industry