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July 1998 (Revised February 1999)
Case

Private Communications Corporation (A)

Ann Meceda is a soon-to-be MBA graduate. She has been working as the director of marketing in an Internet start-up, and now the founder wants her to become CEO. She must weigh the personal and business risks and assess her own objectives and tolerance for risks. View Details

Keywords: Risk Management; Internet and the Web; Management Succession; Marketing; Personal Development and Career; Business Startups; Service Industry

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July 2007 (Revised February 2010)
Case

Launching Telmore (A)

By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell, Celso Fernandez and Moritz Jobke

When the Danish mobile phone service provider Telmore entered the market in October 2000, few people took notice. Its business model was not perceived as particularly aggressive or threatening to the industry. Less than three years later, Telmore's creative adaptation... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Disruptive Innovation; Market Entry and Exit; Creativity; Adaptation; Competitive Advantage; Telecommunications Industry; Denmark

03 Sep 2014
What Do You Think?

Who Should Choose Your Boss?

Summing Up Is The Question of Who Should Choose Your Boss Becoming "A Little Irrelevant"? The remarkable events at grocery chain Market Basket over the summer stimulated a range of responses to this month's column about who... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett; Food & Beverage

14 Jun 2023
Op-Ed

Every Company Should Have These Leaders—or Develop Them if They Don't

We’ve long known that organizations require so-called flexible leaders to respond to rapid market fluctuations; the last couple of years have only emphasized that necessity. The environment we operate in—shaped by the pandemic, social... View Details

Keywords: by Hise Gibson

March 2016 (Revised November 2020)
Case

Tableau

By: Boris Vallee

Matrix Capital Management, a long-short equity hedge fund based in Waltham, Massachusetts, is assessing its investment in Tableau, a data visualization company. Tableau, which conducted an IPO a few years ago, has been experiencing substantial growth as it aims at... View Details

Keywords: Hedge Fund; Long-short Equity; Growth Investing; Growth and Development Strategy; Investment; Valuation; Technology; Technology Industry; Waltham

June 1993 (Revised September 1993)
Case

Retail in Mexico 1993

By: David B. Yoffie and Charles McHugh LaFollette

In the wake of NAFTA, U.S. retail firms begin to see Mexico as an attractive market for international expansion. This case examines the structure of Mexico's volume retail (grocery, discount, warehouse club, hypermarket) industry, the joint ventures between U.S. and... View Details

Keywords: Expansion; Global Strategy; Joint Ventures; Industry Structures; Trade; Retail Industry; United States; Mexico

24 Oct 2018
Video

Susana Balbo CEM Full Interview (Private Link)

March 2007 (Revised April 2007)
Case

Fujifilm: A Second Foundation

Fujifilm was the second largest manufacturer of photographic film in the world when digital imaging began to substitute for its core business. In contrast to some photography incumbents, such as Polaroid, Fuji had a relatively successful transition to digital imaging.... View Details

Keywords: Growth and Development Strategy; Transition; Mission and Purpose; Globalized Markets and Industries; Opportunities; Electronics Industry; Technology Industry

Myra Hart's research focus is high potential entrepreneurship. She has taught MBA and executive programs, co-chaired the entrepreneurship unit, and led several HBS initiatives. As a founding memberView Details

Keywords: consumer products; e-commerce industry; education industry; real estate; retailing

August 2003 (Revised December 2004)
Case

Peninsula Community Foundation

By: James E. Austin, Jane Wei-Skillern and Alison Berkley Wagonfeld

After leading the Peninsula Community Foundation (PCF) through a period of tremendous growth, its president, Sterling Speirn, is facing the prospect of a decline in the foundation's asset base for the first time in the foundation's history. In addition, the fact that... View Details

Keywords: Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Product Positioning; Planning; Alliances; Opportunities; Nonprofit Organizations; Valuation; Financial Services Industry

May 2010 (Revised August 2010)
Case

Breaking the Buck

By: Robert C. Pozen and Elizabeth Leonard

After an incredibly volatile six months since Lehman Brothers declared bankruptcy, Finbar McCall contemplated his options. As the investment manager of RPG Prime Reserve Fund, Inc. (RPGXX), McCall had just heard the news that the U.S. Treasury was extending the... View Details

Keywords: Change Management; Financial Crisis; Financial Management; Insurance; Investment Funds; Business and Government Relations; Business and Shareholder Relations; Financial Services Industry

15 May 2024
Research & Ideas

A Major Roadblock for Autonomous Cars: Motorists Believe They Drive Better

for marketers is to make such interventions short, memorable, and motivational—as when Metro Trains in Melbourne, Victoria, successfully launched a viral ad campaign on railway safety called “Dumb ways to... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne; Transportation; Auto

17 Aug 2016
News

To Get More Out of Social Media, Think Like an Anthropologist

December 1990 (Revised December 1993)
Case

Australian Paper Manufacturers (A)

By: David M. Upton and Joshua D. Margolis

Describes a company which has broken an unwritten cordial agreement amongst the three Australian paper manufacturers to split the domestic market three ways by market segment. The company invades another's "territory" with advanced technology, quality, and,... View Details

Keywords: Agreements and Arrangements; Production; Information Technology; Ethics; Situation or Environment; Product Development; Segmentation; Expansion; Financial Strategy; Pulp and Paper Industry; Australia

September 2019 (Revised January 2021)
Case

Vispera: Visual Intelligence for Retail

By: Yael Grushka-Cockayne and Gamze Yucaoglu

The case opens in 2019 as Aytul Ercil, co-founder and CEO of Vispera, computer vision technology provider for retail, is contemplating the company’s agenda trying to decide how to prioritize the impeding options. The case chronicles the founding of Vispera, the... View Details

Keywords: Computer Vision Technology; Visual Analysis; Retail; Information Technology; Business Model; Operations; Performance Efficiency; Competitive Strategy; Decision Choices and Conditions; Global Strategy; Technology Industry; Retail Industry; Turkey

June 2002 (Revised October 2002)
Case

Mexico: The Tequila Crisis 1994-1995

By: Huw Pill

Describes the evolution of the Mexican economy and its relation to the international capital markets in the period leading up to the Peso crisis of December 1994. Emphasizes the role of "Washington consensus" policies in stimulating the inflows and the inability of the... View Details

Keywords: Capital Markets; Macroeconomics; Mexico