Publications

July 1987 (Revised October 1995)
Case

Phillips 66: Controlling a Company Through Crisis

By: Lynda M. Applegate

The downstream operations subsidiary of a major U.S. petroleum company is faced with major restructuring decisions and responds by developing an Executive Information System (EIS) which allows for increased responsiveness, wider span of control, and higher levels of... View Details

Keywords: Restructuring; Information Management; Governance Controls; Organizational Design; Crisis Management; Communication; Management Teams; Growth Management; Mining Industry; Energy Industry; United States

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June 1995
Case

Strategic Countermoves: Coca-Cola vs. Pepsi

Describes strategic acquisitions by Coca-Cola and Pepsi-Cola in the late 1980s. The context allows students to evaluate the implications of the mergers for the competitiveness of the industry. View Details

Keywords: Competition; Mergers and Acquisitions; Manufacturing Industry; Manufacturing Industry

August 2008
Case

System on a Chip 2008: Ardentec Corporation

By: Willy C. Shih, Chen-Fu Chien, Chintay Shih and Ting-Chen Chen

Ardentec Corporation is a specialist in "wafer probing," a highly specialized niche sandwiched between the "front-end" and the "back-end" of semiconductor manufacturing. Because the semiconductor industry uses modular processes and has standard containers for the... View Details

Keywords: Growth and Development Strategy; Industry Structures; Horizontal Integration; Vertical Integration; Manufacturing Industry; Manufacturing Industry

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07 May 2013
First Look

First Look: May 7

topic generated a multi-year research project that ultimately led to a comprehensive program, built around eight key management attributes, designed to help Google employees become better managers. By November 2012, the program had been... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

December 1998 (Revised January 2004)
Case

Singulus

By: Walter Kuemmerle and Chad S Ellis

Describes Singulus, the compact disk metallizer business of Leybold AG, a large German company, which has been put up for sale. In April 1995, buyout firm Schroder Ventures has to decide whether to acquire the business. The investment decision is complicated by a... View Details

Keywords: Leveraged Buyouts; Decision Choices and Conditions; Manufacturing Industry; Germany

January 2014
Supplement

Ford Asia Pacific & Africa: The E-coating Facility Decision in Gujarat, India (B)

By: Juan Alcacer and Nancy Hua Dai

The case reveals that Ford decided to open its own e-coating plant in Gujarat, India, and details how the decision was made at different organizational levels. View Details

Keywords: Foreign Investment; Organizational Alignment; Strategic Decision Making; Motivation and Incentives; Communication; Organizational Structure; Decision Making; Business Processes; Foreign Direct Investment; Manufacturing Industry; Manufacturing Industry; Gujarat

December 1999 (Revised March 2001)
Case

Machinery International (A)

By: David F. Hawkins

A U.S. company must decide how to translate its German subsidiary's DM financial statements into U.S. dollars for public and internal reporting purposes. A rewritten version of an earlier case. View Details

Keywords: Machinery and Machining; Financial Statements; Financial Reporting; Currency; Money; Accounting; Valuation; Manufacturing Industry; Manufacturing Industry; United States

01 Dec 2014
News

Instilling Production with Principles

Video Embed The Esquel Group has reduced water consumption at its factories by more than 50 percent in the last nine years. Asia–based Esquel Group is one of the world’s largest manufacturers of high-end cotton shirts, producing about 100... View Details

Keywords: April White; fashion; Manufacturing

05 Jan 2016
Working Paper Summaries

The Integrity of Private Third-party Compliance Monitoring

Keywords: by Michael W. Toffel & Jodi L. Short; Manufacturing; Manufacturing; Manufacturing; Manufacturing

19 Jan 2021
Blog Post

2+2 Where Are They Now Spotlight: Marc Duranteau (MBA 2019)

often been frustrated with how things were designed and for the first time I had the opportunity to do it myself! In the end, because of the COVID crisis, I had to make modifications to my plans View Details

February 2008 (Revised March 2011)
Case

Sandhar Technologies Group, Ltd.

By: G. Felda Hardymon and Ann Leamon

Jayant Davar, CEO and founder of Sandhar Technologies Group, a privately held auto components maker in India, is trying to decide how best to grow the company. He recently took a $22 million investment from Actis Capital, a major emerging markets private equity firm,... View Details

Keywords: Private Equity; Business Growth and Maturation; Competitive Advantage; Entrepreneurship; Mergers and Acquisitions; Emerging Markets; Growth and Development Strategy; Manufacturing Industry; Manufacturing Industry; India

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July 2000 (Revised September 2005)
Case

Guidant: Radiation Therapy

Describes a potential new approach to treating cardiac disease--radiation therapy. Guidant, a leading medical device maker, faces a choice about whether to pursue this new and risky technology and, if so with what strategy. View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Decisions; Innovation Strategy; Health Care and Treatment; Product Design; Corporate Strategy; Medical Specialties; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry

September 2011
Case

Vibco Industrial Vibrators

By: Das Narayandas, Kerry Herman and Matthew Preble

Karl Wadensten, president of Vibco Vibrators, was deciding whether to grow his small company through a marketing push for one of two technologies that he believed could launch his company to the next level of sales, or if he should continue to grow his company through... View Details

Keywords: Budgets and Budgeting; Customer Relationship Management; Decision Choices and Conditions; Marketing; Product Launch; Customization and Personalization; Expansion; Manufacturing Industry

07 Aug 2019
Research & Ideas

Big Infrastructure May Not Always Produce Big Benefits

coauthors on this paper was connected to the manufacturing sector of India. We studied how the GQ project affected the productivity of incumbent plants and the growth of new entrants. The GQ was very... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Construction

10 Aug 2015
Research & Ideas

Why a Federal Rule on CEO Pay Disclosure May Get You In Trouble With Customers

Norton and Rohit Deshpandé. Mohan's interest in the subject began when she was a kid, on a shopping trip with her father. "We were walking around Costco, and he turned to me View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Retail

December 1998
Background Note

Cash Management Practices in Small Companies

By: H. Kent Bowen, Andrew R. Jassy, Laurence E. Katz, Kevin E. Kelly and Baltej Kochar

Most small business managers claim that cash management is their leading concern. Often walking a tightrope between growth and illiquidity, small business managers face different cash management challenges than their counterparts in larger companies. Compared to larger... View Details

Keywords: Motivation and Incentives; Working Capital; Management Practices and Processes; Organizational Design; Cash; Forecasting and Prediction; Policy; Business Strategy