Publications

May 1997
Case

CompUSA

By: Krishna G. Palepu and Sarayu Srinivasan

CompUSA was performing poorly until new management reorganized and redirected the business. Consequently, CompUSA became the top retailer in its industry. Management outlines its future plans. View Details

Keywords: Restructuring; Change Management; Finance; Success; Performance Evaluation; Strategic Planning; Business Strategy; Computer Industry; Retail Industry; United States

27 Oct 2016
News

Pathfinder

of the more successful companies in the world,” Lesser told The Business Times of Singapore in a wide-ranging conversation that touches on the firm’s five decades of double-digit growth and evolution into digital solutions. Clients, he... View Details

13 Jun 2017
Research & Ideas

Why Global Investments Are Still a Good Bet

sectors that are booming. However, as markets in different countries have increasingly moved in tandem or correlated, from 50 or 60 percent in the 1990s to more than 90 percent after the financial crisis of 2008, that strategy has seemed... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Financial Services

15 Dec 2015
News

The Year in Ideas 2015

From social media to the grocery store to the corner office and all the way to the stratosphere, the research and entrepreneurial adventures HBS faculty, doctoral students and alumni undertook this year have changed the way we understand and operate in the View Details

Keywords: Julia Hanna, Christine Lejeune, Dan Morrell, and April White

01 Dec 2018
News

Research Is the Foundation

Neeley hopes her book—along with recent Harvard Business Review articles, academic articles, cases, an online learning global collaboration simulation, and insights she shares as a professor in the MBA and Executive Education... View Details

June 1991 (Revised April 1997)
Background Note

Managing the Multibusiness Corporation

By: David J. Collis

Lays out some ideas on how to restructure a multibusiness corporation. Identifies sixteen elements of organization design, and then applies contingency theory to argue that these elements need to be aligned with the tasks the corporation uses to create value across its... View Details

Keywords: Restructuring; Organizational Design; Organizational Structure; Alignment; Corporate Strategy; Theory; Value Creation

August 2003
Case

BRAC and Aarong Commercial Brands, The

By: John A. Quelch

BRAC is the world's largest NGO and has recently initiated a number of successful profit-making commercial enterprises, ranging from dairy processing to vegetable exports, as well as a university. Explores the tensions and benefits of a major nonprofit entering the... View Details

Keywords: Business or Company Management; Commercialization; For-Profit Firms; Non-Governmental Organizations

August 1985
Supplement

Benetton Factory Tour--Ponzano, Italy, Video

By: James L. Heskett

Shows the flow of products through Benetton's Ponzano factory, including its use of subcontractors. Includes information about Benetton's manufacturing, logistics, and retailing strategies. View Details

Keywords: Factories, Labs, and Plants; Logistics; Product; Production; Strategy; Italy

21 Aug 2019
News

Analyzing Homelessness

If business leaders want to solve societal problems, Randy Shumway (MBA 2000) suggests, “Find an issue that inspires you. Your impact will compound from there.” For Shumway, that issue is homelessness. Shumway is founder and chairman of... 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

Keywords: Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools; Educational Services; Management of Companies and Enterprises; Management; Management, Scientific, and Technical Consulting Services; Professional Services; Electric Power Generation, Transmission, Distribution; Utilities

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Web

Online Entrepreneurial Marketing Course | HBS Online

Intrapreneurs Small- to Medium-Sized Business Owners Establish your venture’s go-to-market strategy and learn how to evolve it over time to achieve scale. "The Entrepreneurial Marketing course provided... View Details

01 Sep 2009
News

Ready for Launch

of 93 teams that competed in the 13th annual HBS Business Plan Contest. Final presentations were held in Burden Auditorium in late April. A number of competitors from years past (Endeca, Finale, New Leaders for New Schools, and... View Details

April 2024
Supplement

RHI Magnesita (B): Brick by Brick—Diversification?

By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell, David M Wagner, Oliver Gassmann and Jordan Mitchell

In Part A, as of April 2017, Austria’s RHI, a backward integrated refractory company is still within the midst of merging with the next biggest competitor, Brazil’s Magnesita, while weighing options for future growth. Should the company pursue organic growth options... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Growth and Development Strategy; Diversification

March 2018
Teaching Note

Adaptive Platform Trials: The Clinical Trial of the Future?

By: Ariel D. Stern and Sarah Mehta

This teaching note provides guidance and recommendations for teaching HBS Case No. 618-025, entitled “Adaptive Platform Trials: The Clinical Trial of the Future?” View Details

Keywords: Clinical Trials; Drug Trials; Drug Testing; Cancer Trials; Glioblastoma; Platform Trials; Adaptive Trials; Adaptive Platform Trials; Health Testing and Trials; Health Care and Treatment; Business Strategy; Health Industry; United States

December 2000
Case

Drug Wars, The: Pfizer's Hostile Bid for Warner-Lambert in 1999

By: Stephen P. Bradley and Matthew Sandoval

Describes Pfizer's hostile bid for Warner-Lambert in the fall of 1999. Allows for an evaluation of the possible synergies created and poses the question as to whether Pfizer will pay too much. View Details

Keywords: Acquisition; Bids and Bidding; Competitive Strategy; Valuation

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01 Jun 2020
What Do You Think?

Will Challenged Amazon Tweak Its Retail Model Post-Pandemic?

out-satisfy Amazon. The managements of Walmart and Target didn’t just come up with emergency strategies on the spur of the moment. Clearly, their managements had for some time been plotting ways of competing against an organization that... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett; Retail

January 2011 (Revised November 2014)
Case

Mochi Media

By: Thomas R. Eisenmann and Amit Jain

In late 2009, the management of Mochi Media, a venture-backed startup, must decide how to invest scarce resources to achieve continued growth. Mochi has developed a three-sided platform, connecting Flash game developers, sites that aggregate these games, and... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Business Startups; Games, Gaming, and Gambling; Entrepreneurship; Growth and Development Strategy; Network Effects; Multi-Sided Platforms; Partners and Partnerships; Competition