Publications

January 2002 (Revised April 2002)
Case

Space Data Corporation

By: Alan D. MacCormack and Jay Wynn

Space Data Corp. plans to partner with the U.S. National Weather Service to place transceivers on weather balloons and thereby create a national mobile communications network. The company is in the late development stages and is planning to launch a regional test that... View Details

Keywords: Wireless Technology; Business Startups; Business Processes; Adaptation; Partners and Partnerships; Opportunities; Telecommunications Industry; Telecommunications Industry; United States

January 1999 (Revised November 1999)
Case

Metapath Software: September 1997

By: G. Felda Hardymon and Bill Wasik

In September 1997, John Hansen called together his board to debate an interesting choice that his company had to make. Hansen--the CEO of Metapath Software, a provider of software and services to wireless carriers--had two offers to describe. The first was an offer to... View Details

Keywords: Private Ownership; Mergers and Acquisitions; Private Equity; Decision Choices and Conditions; Governing and Advisory Boards; Management Teams; Stocks; Public Ownership; Negotiation Deal; Telecommunications Industry; Telecommunications Industry

November 2023 (Revised March 2024)
Technical Note

Customer Data Privacy

By: Eva Ascarza and Ta-Wei Huang

This note provides an overview of the evolving landscape of customer data privacy in 2023. It highlights two pivotal aspects that make privacy a central concern for businesses: building and maintaining customer trust and navigating the intricate regulatory... View Details

Keywords: Customer Relationship Management; Governance Compliance; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Risk and Uncertainty; Reputation; Trust; Information Management; Telecommunications Industry; Telecommunications Industry; Telecommunications Industry; Telecommunications Industry; Europe; United States

May 1992 (Revised July 1994)
Case

Breaking with the Past?: Four Examples of Product Change

Describes four examples of product change where the new version of the product makes a "break with the past" in some important respect. The four examples are those of the IBM PS/2 family of personal computers, Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheet software, Nikon's line of SLR... View Details

Keywords: Product Design; Change; Telecommunications Industry; Telecommunications Industry; Telecommunications Industry; Telecommunications Industry

Find at Harvard

05 Aug 2008
First Look

First Look: August 5, 2008

Nalls Harvard Business School Case 808-167 Barry Nalls describes lessons learned during his 25-year career-his rise at GTE and shorter-lived ventures—and how these prepared him to found MASERGY, a telecommunications start-up. Even as a... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

26 May 2003
Research & Ideas

What Your Competition is Telling You

and do it more efficiently, over time. Richard E. Beville should know. The chief operating officer of Lamont Digital Systems, a Greenwich, Conn., provider of digital telecommunications services, Beville started his career in the Bell... View Details

Keywords: by David Stauffer

19 Jun 2007
First Look

First Look: June 19, 2007

investments include the $4 billion Chad-Cameroon pipeline, $6 billion Iridium global satellite telecommunications system, $900 million A2 Toll Road in Poland, $1.4 billion Mozal aluminum smelter in Mozambique, and $20 billion Sakhalin II... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

19 Nov 2001
Research & Ideas

Alfred Chandler on the Electronic Century

first-movers in radio were the Radio Corporation of America (RCA), a joint venture of the three leading United States producers of electrical and telecommunications equipment, and the German company Telefunken, a joint venture of the two... View Details

Keywords: by Alfred D. Chandler, Takashi Hikino & Andrew Von Nordenflycht; Computer; Consumer Products; Electronics; Manufacturing; Technology

20 Aug 2001
Research & Ideas

Making an Ally of Uncle Sam

to deter weaker players by disrupting or delaying their plans or imposing burdensome penalties. Delay is often a valuable side effect of government involvement in value-net games. Global Crossing, a small player in the telecommunications... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Watkins, Mickey Edwards & Usha Thakrar

October 1988
Case

Digital Communications, Inc.: Encoder Device Division

Explores the issues surrounding the determination of the product cost of a subassembly in a firm that has never had to determine subassembly costs. Asks students to change the cost system by adding allocation bases and developing a step-down allocation process. View Details

Keywords: Cost Accounting; Resource Allocation; Telecommunications Industry; Telecommunications Industry; Telecommunications Industry

April 2001
Teaching Note

CNBC.com (A): NBC Incubates E-business TN

By: Rosabeth M. Kanter and Brooke Bartletta

Teaching Note for (9-300-090). View Details

Keywords: Telecommunications Industry; Telecommunications Industry

March 2001 (Revised August 2001)
Case

Time Warner Inc. vs. The Walt Disney Company (A): Pulling the Plug

Describes negotiation impasse between Time Warner, Inc. and The Walt Disney Co. over the retransmission of the ABC Network over Time Warner's cable systems. More broadly, the case depicts the shifting balance of power between content creators and distributors in the... View Details

Keywords: Negotiation Process; Internet and the Web; Television Entertainment; Telecommunications Industry; Telecommunications Industry

May 1996 (Revised June 1996)
Case

Dennis Hightower: New Horizons

By: Ashish Nanda

Named president of Disney TV and Telecommunications, Dennis Hightower has to yet again come in as an outsider and take charge. The magnitude of challenge is much larger than in 1987, and the situation facing him is subtly different. View Details

Keywords: Leadership; Personal Development and Career; Telecommunications Industry; Telecommunications Industry

Find at Harvard

January 2024 (Revised February 2024)
Course Overview Note

Managing Customers for Growth: Course Overview for Students

By: Eva Ascarza

Managing Customers for Growth (MCG) is a 14-session elective course for second-year MBA students at Harvard Business School. It is designed for business professionals engaged in roles centered on customer-driven growth activities. The course explores the dynamics of... View Details

Keywords: Customer Relationship Management; Decision Making; Analytics and Data Science; Growth Management; Telecommunications Industry; Telecommunications Industry; Telecommunications Industry; Telecommunications Industry; Telecommunications Industry

January 2023
Supplement

Apple: Privacy vs. Safety (B)

By: Henry McGee, Nien-hê Hsieh and Christian Godwin

In 2020, as the COVID-19 pandemic swept across the globe, Apple and Google partnered to develop a contact tracing application that would collect information about users infected with the disease and notify those who they had been in contact with. While Apple/Google’s... View Details

22 Feb 2011
Research & Ideas

The Most Important Management Trends of the (Still Young) Twenty-First Century

Examples include the computer and telecommunication ecosystem, the health care ecosystem, and the global financial ecosystem. In the last ten years, ecosystems have emerged as an important form of economic organization, replacing the... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

November 2017
Teaching Note

Facebook Fake News in the Post-Truth World

By: John R. Wells and Gabriel Ellsworth

Teaching Note for HBS No. 717-473. In January 2017, Mark Zuckerberg, founder and CEO of Facebook, was surrounded by controversy. The election of Donald Trump as the next president of the United States in November 2016 had triggered a national storm of protests, and... View Details