Publications

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December 1996 (Revised June 1998)
Case

Midnight Networks, Inc.

By: H. Kent Bowen and Marilyn Matis

Midnight Networks, Inc., is a small computer network validation company. This case describes how the five founders built their business from operations earnings and how they established "best practices" operational processes to run their firm successfully. Operational... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Entrepreneurship; Business or Company Management; Operations; Organizational Culture; Applications and Software; Business Startups; Business Growth and Maturation; Information Technology Industry; Massachusetts

April 2010 (Revised March 2011)
Case

Tata Nano The People's Car

By: Krishna G. Palepu, Bharat N. Anand and Rachna Tahilyani

The case explores how Tata Motors, India's largest automobile company, developed the Nano, the world's cheapest car. The case focuses on the translation of Ratan Tata's (chairman of Tata Motors) vision of a safe affordable car for the masses by Ravi Kant, managing... View Details

Keywords: Price; Globalized Firms and Management; Disruptive Innovation; Emerging Markets; Business Processes; Quality; Competition; Auto Industry; Manufacturing Industry; India

Fall 2013
Article

Using Open Innovation to Identify the Best Ideas

By: Andrew King and Karim R. Lakhani

Which parts of your innovation processes should you open up to the wider world? To reap the benefits of open innovation, executives must understand what to open, how to open it, and how to manage the resulting problems. According to authors Andrew King of Dartmouth... View Details

Keywords: Collaborative Innovation and Invention

15 Jun 2020
News

Anti-racism action plan

December 1998
Case

Casto Travel

By: Thomas J. DeLong and Susan Harmeling

Maryles Casto had the vision to build the largest travel agency in Silicon Valley, mirroring the growth pattern of the entire area. In 1997 the travel business changed dramatically as airlines chose not to pay travel agencies the fees they once did. Simultaneously, the... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Finance; Internet and the Web; Change Management; Markets; Travel Industry

Article

Turning Waste into By-Product

By: Deishin Lee

This paper studies how a firm can create and capture value by converting a waste stream into a useful and saleable by-product (i.e., implementing by-product synergy [BPS]). We show that BPS creates an operational synergy between two products that are jointly produced.... View Details

Keywords: Value Creation; Innovation and Invention; Cost Management; Opportunities; Market Participation; Framework; Profit; Competition; Wastes and Waste Processing; Product; Business Processes

March 2003 (Revised July 2004)
Case

Sustainable Development at Shell (B)

The case describes the complex and challenging process by which social and environmental concerns are integrated into the existing strategy of a large, multinational firm. This case focuses on a specific business within Shell Chemicals, the Close Looped Cleaning... View Details

Keywords: Multinational Firms and Management; Corporate Strategy; Environmental Sustainability; Growth and Development Strategy; Energy Industry

15 Jul 2008
First Look

First Look: July 15, 2008

that expansions abroad reduce a firm's domestic activity, instead suggesting the opposite. The Finance Function in a Global Corporation Author:Mihir A. Desai Publication:HBS Centennial Issue. Harvard Business Review 86, nos. 7/8 (July -... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

Article

Aligning Strategy and Sales

By: Frank V. Cespedes

Much current opinion asserts that strategy is less important (and may, in fact, be an impediment) in an era of constant change. This publication discusses why claims about business change are often overstated and misunderstood, why strategy is even more important as... View Details

Keywords: Strategy; Sales

04 Feb 2014
News

How Microsoft’s Global Search Ended at Home

14 Dec 2020
News

Books: Embrace Upstream Thinking

08 Sep 2020
News

Creating More Resilient Supply Chains

February 2003 (Revised March 2007)
Case

Safe to Say at Prudential Financial

By: Amy C. Edmondson and Corey B. Hajim

The CEO initiated a cultural change process at Prudential Financial to support a major business reorientation. Prudential, historically a privately held ("mutual") insurance company, went public in 2001. The cultural change was intended to prepare the organization to... View Details

Keywords: Growth and Development Strategy; Risk and Uncertainty; Private Ownership; Going Public; Transformation; Organizational Culture

March 2007
Case

Ascent Media Group (A)

Ascent Media races to adapt to the changes resulting from increasing digitalization of its business, from creative post-production services to warehousing and repurposing of old media content. Raises issues of how technology interacts with creative processes and... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Technology; Management; Creativity

08 Jul 2016
Video

Human-Centered Service Design Professor Ryan Buell

November 1995
Case

Transformation of Pratt & Whitney North Haven (C)

By: H. Kent Bowen, Linda A. Hill, Andrew P. Burtis, Sylvie Ryckebusch and John Schiavone

As part of the Pratt & Whitney North Haven restructuring effort, Ed Northern and his business unit managers are encouraging workers to make decisions and take an active role in improving the manufacturing process at North Haven. Business Unit Manager Tom Hutton has... View Details

Keywords: Restructuring; Decisions; Capital; Human Resources; Agreements and Arrangements; Production; Problems and Challenges

21 Aug 2000
Lessons from the Classroom

Under the Magnifying Glass: The Benefits of Being a Case Study

What is it really like to be the subject of a case study? According to top executives of four Latin American enterprises that have been held under the magnifying glass, the case study process can hasten a valuable journey of reflection... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

July 1989
Background Note

What Is Marketing?

An introductory note for MBA students on the nature of marketing and topics encountered in its study. Defines the topic then breaks marketing into two major conceptual pieces--the tools, tasks and variables of the marketer, and the marketing process. In the tools... View Details

Keywords: Marketing