Publications

April 1994 (Revised October 2001)
Case

Mrs. Fields, Inc. (1977 - 1987)

By: Lynda M. Applegate and Keri O. Pearlson

Describes a small company selling freshly baked goods through privately owned specialty stores (each store sells only Mrs. Fields products). The company has about 8,000 employees worldwide and less than 150 information systems people for a unique leverage of MIS... View Details

Keywords: Information Technology; Organizations; Management Systems; Business Strategy; Food and Beverage Industry

September 1989 (Revised December 1989)
Case

Siemens Electric Motor Works (A) and (B) (Combined)

Explores how a cost system can help support a firm's decision to change strategies. In the process, students are exposed to a simple activity-based cost system. Also examines Siemens policy for transferring products between sales and manufacturing divisions. Transfer... View Details

Keywords: Activity Based Costing and Management; Business Strategy; Technology Industry

June 1982
Supplement

Hartmann Luggage, Video

By: John A. Quelch

The company president describes current strategy, and the decisions made in response to the problems. View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Business Strategy; Consumer Products Industry

April 1993
Supplement

McCaw Cellular Communications, Inc. (C)

Describes events in 1991 involving Fleet Call, Inc., a potential competitor who plans to introduce an alternative form of mobile communication. View Details

Keywords: Business or Company Management; Competitive Strategy; Telecommunications Industry

January 2018
Teaching Note

BeiGene

By: Willy Shih and Jimmy Zhang

Teaching Note for HBS No. 618-033. View Details

Keywords: Biotechnology; Drug Development; Corporate Strategy; Business Startups; Technological Innovation; Situation or Environment; Biotechnology Industry; Pharmaceutical Industry; China

November 2000 (Revised February 2002)
Case

Resinas Sinteticas, S.A. (A)

By: Lynn S. Paine and Greg Rogers

A recent MBA graduate heads international marketing for his family's Mexico-based rosin supply business, he must decide how to respond to the aggressive tactics of his much larger American competitor. Among other things, the U.S. competitor is spreading false rumors... View Details

Keywords: Family Business; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Competition; Marketing Strategy; Business Strategy; Crime and Corruption; Trade; Chemical Industry; Mexico; United States; Europe

01 Mar 2013
News

2nd HBS Survey on US Competitiveness

competitiveness over the next three years, although pessimism has eased somewhat from an earlier survey conducted in 2011. "They see the boat as sinking more slowly, but still sinking," says Jan Rivkin, the Bruce V. Rauner Professor of View Details

01 Jun 1997
News

Blockbuster Deals

business strategy jointly. And it must agree as a group on an organizational vision for the new firm, as well as on which managers will occupy key positions and what should be expected of them." In... View Details

Keywords: Garry Emmons and Nancy O. Perry

March 2019
Supplement

KITEA (E): IKEA's Opening Day

By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell and Gamze Yucaoglu

The case opens in 2016 as Amine Benkirane, CEO of the furniture retailer KITEA, observes KITEA’s dormant sales on the day IKEA opens its first store in Morocco. It then provides information on IKEA’s Morocco store, as well as a detailed pricing comparison between IKEA... View Details

Keywords: Private Sector; For-Profit Firms; Business Strategy; Strategic Planning; Competitive Strategy; Competitive Advantage; Adaptation; Corporate Strategy; Retail Industry; Africa; North Africa; Morocco

09 Jul 2024
Research & Ideas

Chance Encounters: What's at Stake in Return-to-Office Decisions

Late one day in the fall of 2021, as she was packing up to head home, Assistant Professor Maria Roche bumped into Andy Wu, a colleague in the Strategy Unit whose office is next to hers. Roche asked how his research was going, and in the... View Details

Keywords: by Jen McFarland Flint, HBS Alumni Bulletin

13 Jul 2015
News

A passion for teaching

For Felix Oberholzer-Gee, chair of the MBA Program, the joy of teaching comes in seeing students learn how to make better decisions and gain the tools they need to be successful. (Published July 2015) View Details

August 1998
Teaching Note

Onset Ventures TN

Teaching Note for (9-898-154). View Details

Keywords: Venture Capital; Business Startups; Strategy

October 1998
Case

Conduit Communications

By: William A. Sahlman and Jon Biotti

Keywords: Business Model; Growth and Development Strategy; United Kingdom

Find at Harvard

2002
Report

Technology Strategy: The Theory and Application of the Christensen Model

By: C. M. Christensen and Steven Milunovich

Keywords: Technology; Business Strategy; Disruptive Innovation

01 Apr 2001
News

Q&A: Suzy Wetlaufer

interview didn’t work for me.” A stint as a New England business correspondent for the Associated Press was a better fit. “Suddenly I was interviewing CEOs and covering banking scandals, and I thought, ‘Wow, this is where it’s happening,’... View Details

Keywords: Susan Young; Publishing Industries (except Internet); Information

July 1998
Case

Microsoft--1995 (Abridged)

By: Tarun Khanna and David B. Yoffie

Focuses on how Microsoft built one of the world's greatest franchises and poses questions about what, if anything, can stop the company. Teaching purpose: To teach building competitive advantage, the advantages of bundling, and the sustainability of competitive... View Details

Keywords: Competitive Strategy; Competitive Advantage; Business Strategy; Corporate Strategy; Horizontal Integration; Information Technology Industry; Computer Industry

October 2000 (Revised October 2001)
Case

adM@rt(A)

By: F. Warren McFarlan, Carin-Isabel Knoop and David Lane

Describes the complex policy alternatives facing an online Hong Kong grocery company as it tries to apply Webvan-type concepts in the Hong Kong marketplace. Captures the extraordinary process of adaptation the company is going through as it tries to find the right... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Markets; Marketing; Business Strategy; Business Model; Decisions; Problems and Challenges; Retail Industry; Web Services Industry; Hong Kong

Find at Harvard

June 2003 (Revised May 2004)
Exercise

The Pacific Sentinel: Role for Alex Martinez

By: Kathleen L. McGinn and Dina R. Pradel

A new publishing company has just purchased the Pacific Sentinel, a fictional West Coast newspaper. The new publisher is willing to invest $1 million in the future success of the paper and has asked the executive editor and advertising manager to develop a joint plan... View Details

Keywords: Negotiation; Acquisition; Business Strategy; Publishing Industry; Western United States