Publications

June 2003 (Revised March 2006)
Case

Modi-Revlon

By: Rohit Deshpande and Seth Schulman

The head of the Indian subsidiary of cosmetics firm Revlon faces a crucial turnaround situation for the company. After a high-profile product launch, sales were very disappointing and Revlon was trying to decide whether it should pull out of India. The Indian majority... View Details

Keywords: Business Subsidiaries; Marketing Strategy; Product Launch; Product Design; Value Creation; India

March 1989 (Revised October 1994)
Case

Philip Morris Companies and Kraft, Inc.

By: Richard S. Ruback

Gives students the opportunity to explore the effect of substantial free cash flow on corporate acquisition and operating strategies. Students are also given the opportunity to extract information from the common stock prices of the participating firms. A variety of... View Details

Keywords: Cash Flow; Strategic Planning; Acquisition; Strategy; Restructuring; Valuation; Stocks

June 1973 (Revised July 1982)
Case

Textron, Inc.

By: Norman A. Berg

Covers the historical development, current business, management philosophies, corporate strategy, and the nature and role of the corporate headquarters in managing the highly diversified operations. Based on Textron, Inc. (A). View Details

Keywords: History; Management Style; Business or Company Management; Corporate Strategy; Business Headquarters; Operations

01 Mar 2014
News

Everything Old Is a New Opportunity

Stephen Johnston (photo by Gary Laufman) For a mobile-focused business entrepreneur, Stephen Johnston (MBA 2002) is more than a bit of a contrarian. Unlike many of his peers, Johnston, 41, has his sights set not on emerging nations but on... View Details

Keywords: Robert S. Benchley; Health, Social Assistance; Personal Services

23 Mar 2020
Research & Ideas

Product Disasters Can Be Fertile Ground for Innovation

the Strategy Unit of Harvard Business School. The case caught the attention of Luo and Alberto Galasso, a professor at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management, who have together looked at the... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Health; Medical Devices & Supplies

October 2003
Case

ABS Global

By: David E. Bell, Hal Hogan and Jose M. M. Porraz

ABS Global is considering an acquisition in Australia. Efficient production and distribution is becoming more difficult as it becomes global. Yet trade restrictions and local preferences for its product, bull semen, dictate that ABS come up with a new way to... View Details

Keywords: Acquisition; Production; Global Strategy; Distribution; Adaptation; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Australia

September 1988 (Revised November 1988)
Case

American Rice: A Farmers Cooperative Goes Public

By: Ray A. Goldberg

Keywords: Cooperative Ownership; Restructuring; Competitive Strategy; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Food and Beverage Industry

01 Sep 2016
News

@Soldiers Field

Readiness (CORe) program and the Disruptive Strategy course the opportunity to meet faculty—including professors Bharat Anand, Jan Hammond, and V.G. Narayanan—and classmates in person. Events included a full day of faculty-led case... View Details

01 Jun 2014
News

Alumni and Faculty Books for June 2014

the long term. Faculty Books Aligning Strategy and Sales: The Choices, Systems, and Behaviors that Drive Effective Selling by Frank V. Cespedes (Harvard Business Review Press) Although US companies invest... View Details

05 Nov 2012
Research & Ideas

What Wall Street Doesn’t Understand About International Trade

the authors of Channels of Influence, by Harvard Business School Associate Professors Lauren H. Cohen and Christopher J. Malloy, and Umit G. Gurun, an associate professor at the University of Texas at Dallas. “When nearly half of anything... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

July 2024
Supplement

Fail Safe Testing, Inc. (A)

By: Richard S. Ruback and Royce Yudkoff

Pre-Abstract: Instructors should consider the timing of making videos available to students, as they may reveal key case details.
Abstract: Fail Safe Testing, Inc., founded in 1988, was the leading provider of fire hose pressure testing, ground ladder and pump... View Details

Keywords: Customers; Acquisition; Business Plan; Marketing Strategy

February 2007
Case

IBM Culture in Its Architecture

By: A. Eugene Kohn and Kerry Herman

In 1992, Lou Gerstner was the CEO of IBM during a period where the firm was losing money and a turnaround was desperately needed. In a bold decision, Gerstner chose to build a new headquarters in Armonk, NY that had strict limits on expandability. His idea was to use... View Details

Keywords: Design; Leadership; Job Design and Levels; Organizational Structure; Buildings and Facilities; Business Headquarters; Decisions; Organizational Culture; Corporate Strategy; Expansion; Information Technology Industry; New York (state, US)

01 Jun 2016
News

Prima Datarina

and more experimental pieces, Boston Ballet has to sell tickets, which is easier to do for a Saturday showing of Cinderella, for example, than a Wednesday evening performance of contemporary works. To address that challenge—and engage a broader audience—Hodges turned... View Details

Keywords: Julia Hanna

10 Jul 2000
Research & Ideas

IT Links for Boundaryless Companies

said, it's time for a new kind of standards to emerge: standards not just for how computers communicate, but for how business processes work. Even an advanced technical protocol like XML, said Upton, "with all its cleverness, doesn't... View Details

Keywords: by Kenneth Liss

14 May 2013
First Look

First Look: May 14

entertainment industry really works-and how to navigate today's high-stakes business world at large. Publisher's link: http://www.blockbusters-thebook.com/ 2006 Journal of Economic Perspectives The Investment View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

23 Dec 2008
First Look

First Look: December 23, 2008

http://www.hbs.edu/research/pdf/09-005.pdf Cases & Course MaterialsAmerican Cancer Society: Access to Care Harvard Business School Case 109-015 CEO John Seffrin decides to radically change the strategy... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

October 2000 (Revised November 2001)
Case

Garage.com (A)

By: Dorothy A. Leonard and Elizabeth Kind

Silicon Valley's Garage.com matches venture capital and corporate angel investors with high-tech start-ups that are looking for early stage funding. As a Web-based service, Garage.com fields inquiries from entrepreneurs and investors around the world, and is eager to... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Corporate Strategy; Business Growth and Maturation; Venture Capital; Investment; Internet and the Web; Expansion; Operations; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Global Strategy; Technological Innovation; Brands and Branding; Information Technology Industry

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