Publications

July 1995
Teaching Note

Air Products and Chemicals, Inc.: MIS Reorganization (A) and Project ICON (A), (Abridged) TN

By: F. Warren McFarlan

Teaching Note for (9-193-008). View Details

Keywords: Restructuring; Management Teams; Transformation; Decisions; Management Succession; Chemical Industry; London

May 2013
Case

Transport Corporation of India (A): The Cross-selling Conundrum

By: V.G. Narayanan and Saloni Chaturvedi

Transport Corporation of India was a logistics company that provided multi-modal transport solutions to its customers. Set up in 1958, TCI had grown from a 'one man, one truck, one office' set-up to a company with revenues of $400 million in half a century. TCI's... View Details

Keywords: Customer Relationship Management; Business Divisions; Performance; Sales; Transportation Industry; India

February 2007 (Revised July 2009)
Case

Leadership at WildChina (A)

WildChina (A) tells the story of Mei Zhang, a Chinese-born HBS alumna, and her pursuit of a dream: to share her passion for travel, her appreciation of China's beauty and culture, and her desire to start her own business. Describes the startup of WildChina, a tour... View Details

Keywords: Globalized Firms and Management; Leadership; Management Succession; Entrepreneurship; Business Startups; Tourism Industry; Los Angeles; Beijing

April 1999
Case

Steve Perlman and WebTV (A)

By: James K. Sebenius and Ron Fortgang

The dynamics of a linked series of internal and external negotiations involved in launching, growing, and selling a high-tech, Internet start-up are explored. Steve Perlman unfurled an impressive new technology, recruited a top technical and management team, secured... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Entrepreneurship; Agreements and Arrangements; Negotiation Tactics; Alliances; Internet; Communications Industry

October 1996 (Revised December 1997)
Case

American Cyanamid (A): Boardroom Response to a Hostile Takeover Offer

American Home Products' (AHP) $9 billion hostile takeover of American Cyanamid (Cyanamid) was the largest mergers and-acquistions transaction in 1994, and made AHP the fourth largest pharmaceutical firm in the United States. At the time of AHP's offer, Cyanamid had... View Details

Keywords: Governing and Advisory Boards; Mergers and Acquisitions; Corporate Governance; Pharmaceutical Industry; United States

April 1999 (Revised August 2004)
Case

Women's Professional Basketball and the American Basketball League

By: Stephen A. Greyser and Natalie Zakarian

Chronicles the growth and development of women's professional basketball. Particular emphasis is on the impact of Title IX, the 1996 women's gold medal Olympic team, and the advent of the American Basketball League (ABL). The structure and "basic business model" of the... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Problems and Challenges; Sports; Gender; Planning; Growth and Development; Sports Industry

Find at Harvard

01 Mar 2019
News

The Fight Beyond

chocolate and a pack of Camels,” the airman recalled gratefully. For his new mission in Slovakia, Green requisitioned more candy and cigarettes—and thousands and thousands of guns. Banská Bystrica had become the capital of the Slovak... View Details

Keywords: April White; illustration by Wesley Allsbrook

01 Sep 2020
News

Alumni and Faculty Books for September 2020

human competition—and even the future of humanity itself. Featuring select interviews from the biggest names in the industry, The Book of Esports weaves tales of trust, betrayal, and superhuman reflexes into predictive frameworks, explaining exactly why the View Details

12 Jun 2014
News

The First Five Years: Minal Mehta (MBA 2011)

challenging? "By far the most enjoyable and rewarding part is building the BollyX community. I love working in the fitness industry—people in this industry are so positive, outgoing, and inspiring (it must be the exercising and... View Details

Keywords: fitness; Arts, Entertainment

01 Mar 2023
News

Case Study: Power Nappy

had worked as a design engineer at Procter and Gamble, in addition to having cofounded a social enterprise that successfully commercialized biodegradable sanitary pads in India. Saigal started looking into the $10 billion diaper industry... View Details

Keywords: Jen McFarland Flint; Miscellaneous Manufacturing; Manufacturing

05 Mar 2013
First Look

First Look: March 5

and Alexis BrownellHarvard Business School Case 813-121 Rebeca Minguela hopes to create an arbitrage platform, similar to Rocket Internet, that can bring start-up ideas and opportunities to Spain. However, Blink Booking, her first venture... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

15 Jan 2025
Blog Post

Building Bridges to Sustainable Infrastructure with Allied Climate Partners

particularly in sectors where capital can drive meaningful impact. Throughout my first year, I solidified my interest in this area, especially as I reflected on the significant infrastructure deficits in my home country, Mali. This issue... View Details

Keywords: All Industries

November 2008 (Revised January 2010)
Case

Stone Finch, Inc.: Young Division, Old Division

By: Richard G. Hamermesh and Elizabeth Collins

CEO Jim Billings wants to attract energetic, entrepreneurial talent to Stone Finch, Inc., which comprises an older division that fabricates products like piping and tanks for water and wastewater processing plants, and a much newer division that develops biochemical... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Behavior; Human Resource Management; Motivation; Business Growth; Motivation and Incentives; Leadership; Business Subsidiaries; Innovation Strategy; Resource Allocation; Organizational Structure; Organizational Culture; Retention; Operations; Recruitment; Integration; Business Growth and Maturation; Mergers and Acquisitions; Growth and Development Strategy; Manufacturing Industry

20 Sep 2016
First Look

September 20, 2016

communicated and received information, and as the broader advertising industry changed. New and more aggressive competitors were emerging, and the industry was quickly consolidating. Big Spaceship had... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

September 2014
Case

Marquee: Reinventing the Business of Nightlife

By: Anita Elberse

Keywords: Marketing; Business Growth and Maturation; Distribution Channels; Product Marketing; Entertainment and Recreation Industry

November 2012
Case

Sugar Bowl

By: Richard G. Hamermesh and Alisa Zalosh

Shelby Givens, a recent business school graduate, returned home to Raleigh, North Carolina, to help rescue her family's ailing and outdated bowling alley, Westlake Lanes. Although she cut costs and addressed inefficiencies, moving the business from near-bankruptcy to... View Details

Keywords: Family Business; Entrepreneurship; Operations; Performance; Business Strategy; Corporate Finance; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; Raleigh

August 1994 (Revised January 1999)
Case

Taco Bell Corporation (Abridged Update)

By: James L. Heskett

Taco Bell's management has developed plans to establish 100,000 points of service for its fast food business. Clearly, this will require significantly different approaches to management and organization. View Details

Keywords: Business Plan; Growth and Development Strategy; Service Delivery; Organizations; Food and Beverage Industry

Find at Harvard

01 Mar 2005
News

Ideas: Books

plantations to local growers, transforming itself into a marketing company. The firm’s shareholders opted for lower risks but also lower profits. Multinationals and Global Capitalism by Geoffrey Jones (Oxford University Press) Professor... View Details

Keywords: Publishing Industries (except Internet); Publishing Industries (except Internet)

June 2025
Case

Accounting for OpenAI at Microsoft

By: Jonas Heese, Joseph Pacelli, Nicole Zelazko and Michael Norris

In early 2025, Microsoft was evaluating the impact of its $14 billion investment in OpenAI. As OpenAI’s computing needs expanded, Microsoft positioned Azure as the exclusive provider for training and inference of their large language models. Despite the scale of the... View Details

Keywords: Accounting; Financial Reporting; Revenue Recognition; Corporate Finance; Capital; Investment; Revenue; AI and Machine Learning; Valuation; Governance; Technology Industry; Technology Industry; Technology Industry; Technology Industry; United States