Publications

May 1998 (Revised October 1998)
Case

Teleswitch (B)

Supplements the (A) case. A rewritten version of an earlier case. View Details

Keywords: Initial Public Offering; Investment Banking; Entrepreneurship; Financing and Loans; Wireless Technology; Telecommunications Industry; Telecommunications Industry

January 2018 (Revised May 2018)
Case

AT&T Managing Technological Change and the Future of Telephone Operators in the 20th Century

By: Daniel P. Gross and William R. Kerr

By the 1930s, AT&T dominated the American phone industry, serving 10 million telephones and employing over 100,000 switchboard operators. But beginning in the mid-1910s, the company began changing from manually operated switchboards to mechanical switching systems that... View Details

Keywords: AT＆T; Bell Telephone; Phone Lines; Phone Operators; Mechanical Switching; Layoffs; Technological Change; Transition; History; Innovation and Invention; Technological Innovation; Information Technology; Disruption; Change Management; Telecommunications Industry; Telecommunications Industry; United States

13 Jun 2016
Blog Post

Is HBS Cutthroat or Collaborative?

When asked whether HBS is a cutthroat place my mind immediately travels back to January 2015. We are jittery with excitement as we stand at the head of the seemingly infinite table in the executive conference room of Smart Axiata, Cambodia’s second largest View Details

01 Jun 1997
News

Taylor R. M. Keen

transfixed classmates during one ceremony, "and so you must use that power responsibly. Remember also that your family is the most important thing in life." Keen, who will pursue a managerial position in telecommunications after... View Details

Keywords: Marguerite Rigoglioso

24 Jun 2014
First Look

First Look: June 24

improvement in patient throughput time. Download working paper: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1987724 Cases & Course Materials Harvard Business School Case 814-009 Mobile Broadband and the Telecommunications Industry in 2011 Mobile... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

18 Feb 2002
Research & Ideas

Wrap-up: Software, Telecom, and Recovery

Venture capital firms ask themselves tough questions these days. Among them: how can they dig out of the dot-com collapse? How should they invest going forward? How should the leader of a firm strike the right note for the future? And is it a field that graduating MBAs... View Details

Keywords: by Wendy Guild & Martha Lagace; Telecommunications; Telecommunications; Telecommunications; Telecommunications

November 2003 (Revised March 2004)
Case

Teledesic (Abridged)

By: Thomas R. Eisenmann

Describes plans for a failed project that proposed the use of 288 satellites to deliver high-speed data communications services anywhere in the world. View Details

Keywords: Communication Technology; Network Effects; Failure; Telecommunications Industry; Telecommunications Industry

April 2003
Supplement

NTT DoCoMo (B)

By: Stephen P. Bradley and Erin Sullivan

Supplements the (A) case. View Details

Keywords: Telecommunications Industry; Telecommunications Industry; Japan

December 1998 (Revised October 2007)
Case

Tele-Communications, Inc.: Accelerating Digital Deployment

By: Thomas R. Eisenmann

The top management team at Tele-Communications, Inc. (TCI), the largest U.S. cable company, conceived and implemented a dramatic operational turnaround and a radical new technology strategy over an 18-month period beginning in late 1996. View Details

Keywords: Technological Innovation; Value Creation; Operations; Information Management; Business Strategy; Telecommunications Industry; Telecommunications Industry; United States

Keywords: Information Technology; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Design; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Organizational Culture; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Performance Productivity; Problems and Challenges; Management Practices and Processes; Business Divisions; Information Management; Telecommunications Industry; Telecommunications Industry; United States

Find at Harvard

February 1991 (Revised February 1992)
Case

Appex Corp.

By: Nitin Nohria

1990 Business Week named Appex Corp. the fastest growing high-technology company in the United States. Appex provided management information systems and intercarrier network services to cellular telephone companies. During its rapid growth, the company went through... View Details

30 Nov 2011
Research & Ideas

Only Capitalists Can Save Capitalism

increasing profits and growth at the country's largest telecommunications firm; "a boutique asset-management firm that invests in companies whose business models are aligned with the needs of a sustainable global economy." But Capitalism... View Details

Keywords: by Maggie Starvish

07 Feb 2011
Lessons from the Classroom

Creating the Founders’ Dilemmas Course

of whether to launch a start-up with a classmate or accept a cushy offer from a top-tier consulting firm. Next, they look at Barry Nalls, who describes lessons learned from starting his own telecommunications start-up, MASERGY, after... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Education

20 Jul 2010
First Look

First Look: July 20

David LaneHarvard Business School Case 810-075 Iqbal Quadir, a former New York investment banker, set about to bring universal telecommunications to his native Bangladesh. He was convinced that GSM, the same advanced wireless technology... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

09 Mar 2009
Research & Ideas

How to Revive Health-Care Innovation

telecommunications did. Target started by selling things like paint, hardware, and simple kitchen supplies, not designer clothing. JCB transformed the digging of big holes not by aspiring to use hydraulics technology to excavate massive... View Details

Keywords: by Clayton M. Christensen, Jerome H. Grossman, M.D. M.D. & Jason Hwang; Health

27 Jan 2003
Research & Ideas

New Cluster Mapping Project Helps Companies Locate Facilities

city opportunity in services. For example, there is a trend to locate call centers in central cities, to access a loyal and available labor force and strong telecommunications infrastructure. What is not yet recognized is that inner... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

March 2000 (Revised April 2001)
Case

Jill Greenthal at Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette (B): The TCI/AT&T Deal

By: Ashish Nanda, Thomas J. DeLong and Sarah S. Khetani

Documents the hectic and grueling work done by Jill Greenthal's team at Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette in an attempt to execute a landmark deal on behalf of a key client. View Details

Keywords: Leadership; Negotiation Process; Service Delivery; Groups and Teams; Entrepreneurship; Negotiation Deal; Gender; Telecommunications Industry; Telecommunications Industry; Telecommunications Industry

July 2018
Teaching Note

Verizon 2018

By: Rosabeth Moss Kanter and Jonathan Cohen

Teaching Note for HBS No. 318-114. In 2018, CEO Lowell McAdam led efforts to transform Verizon through digital innovation, media acquisitions and integration, and changes to the company culture. He sought to manage change at the company as growth in traditional areas... View Details

Keywords: Change; Change Leadership; Change Management; Innovation; Digital; Management; Leading Change; Innovation and Management; Acquisition; Integration; Organizational Culture; Telecommunications Industry; Telecommunications Industry; United States

October 2012 (Revised August 2013)
Case

Global Unichip Corporation (A)

By: Willy Shih and Chen-Fu Chien

Global Unichip Corporation (GUC) is a design services company that acts as a front-end to TSMC, the world's largest semiconductor foundry. In so doing, it masked the complexity of the latest process technologies, and reduced the entry barriers for small firms to... View Details

June 2004 (Revised September 2005)
Case

Cox Communications, Inc.

By: Thomas R. Eisenmann and Jonathan Gibbons

Cox Communications, the third largest U.S. cable television system operator, is confronting strategy decisions in mid-2004. Cox managers must decide whether to speed its deployment of Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), which offers capital and operating costs savings... View Details

Keywords: Customers; Information Technology; Competition; Product Development; Telecommunications Industry; Telecommunications Industry; United States