Publications

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

Find at Harvard

February 2018
Case

Stealing Time: America's Disruption of the Swiss Watch Industry

By: Eric Van den Steen and Aaron Stark

After years of growth, the Swiss watch industry faced an existential crisis. Exports to the U.S., their primary market, had dropped by more than two thirds over the past five years. Swiss watches were being disrupted by high-quality and affordable American products.... View Details

Keywords: Business Strategy; Disruption; Change Management; United States; Switzerland

April 2016 (Revised June 2017)
Teaching Note

Dollar General Bids for Family Dollar

By: Jonas Heese, Paula A. Price and Suraj Srinivasan

In spring 2015, Dollar General CEO Rick Dreiling was looking ahead to retiring at year's end but worried about ensuring continued growth for the company he had built since 2008 into a market leader in the U.S. discount retail world. Dollar General operated over 11,500... View Details

Keywords: Dollar General; Family Dollar; Dollar Tree; Antitrust; Board Of Directors; Activist Investors; Federal Trade Commission; Acquisition; Valuation; Corporate Strategy; Retail Industry

January 1996 (Revised April 1997)
Case

Deutsche Allgemeinversicherung

Describes the application of statistical process control in a service industry. In this case, Annette Kluck must decide how to adopt manufacturing-based principles to a service process ranging from customer account setup to legal services. View Details

Keywords: Quality; Analysis; Service Operations; Business Strategy; Service Industry

June 2003
Case

Judo in Action

Contains four short stories about small firms challenging large firms. Illustrates some of the ideas that have been termed "judo strategy." In each case, one can argue that the small firm attempts to use the large firm's size and incumbency to constrain the large firm... View Details

Keywords: Small Business; Competitive Advantage

01 Dec 2010
News

The Transformers

nonprofit consultancy of its type. Its staff offers strategy consulting, executive search, and advice on developing funding models. Bridgespan today is far different from the organization laid out in the original View Details

Keywords: Roger Thompson; Management, Scientific, and Technical Consulting Services; Professional Services

February 2022
Case

Corporate Divestitures and Spinoffs

By: David J. Collis, Ashley Hartman and Terrence Shu

Increasingly in the 2010s, corporations turned to divestitures and spinoffs to streamline their operations. Over the course of one week in November 2021, conglomerates General Electric, Johnson & Johnson, and Toshiba announced plans for separation. The news reflected... View Details

Keywords: Divestiture; Divestment; Spin Off; Spinoffs; Business Conglomerates; Restructuring; Corporate Strategy

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

January 1985 (Revised June 1993)
Case

Turner Construction Co.

By: Frank V. Cespedes

In June, 1984, a vice president at Turner Construction Co. must decide whether to approve a construction project being considered by one of Turner's territorial offices and how to manage that territory general manager's apparent reluctance to pursue another account... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Structure; Projects; Market Entry and Exit; Integration; Contracts; Marketing Strategy; Sales; Business or Company Management; Business Offices; Geographic Location; Construction Industry

01 Jun 2012
News

Alumni Book Briefs

of risk. It emphasizes practical strategies for understanding and managing these hazards of new ventures in light of recent research. Reverse Innovation: Create Far from Home, Win Everywhere by Vijay Govindarajan (MBA 1976, DBA 1978) and... View Details

Keywords: News, Library, Internet, and Other Services; Information; Clothing and Clothing Accessories Stores; Retail Trade

08 May 2019
News

Lessons from the Ashes

play, that somehow with my dad dying, others might take it over. And the other thing from my perspective was I felt the company wasn't really being as well run as it could be. I think it could have been more profitable. So here am I, like 26 at the time of my last year... View Details

May 1995 (Revised November 2001)
Case

Microsoft/Intuit

By: William E. Fruhan Jr.

Microsoft Corp. proposes to acquire Intuit Corp. Examines the strategic fit and the price proposed to complete the transaction. View Details

Keywords: Valuation; Applications and Software; Acquisition; Business Strategy; Information Technology Industry; United States

March 2011
Supplement

International Lobbying and The Dow Chemical Company (PPT)

By: Arthur A. Daemmrich

To be used with cases 710027 and 710028. View Details

Keywords: Globalized Markets and Industries; Business Strategy; Business and Government Relations; Chemical Industry