Multinationals - Publications - Faculty & Research

10 Sep 2020
Research & Ideas

The COVID Two-Step for Leaders: Protect and Pivot

challenge. For example, LVHM, a French multinational corporation and conglomerate specializing in luxury goods, announced it will cease the production of perfumes in some of its factories in order to make hand sanitizer, and Nike stated... View Details

Keywords: by Boris Groysberg and Katherine Connolly Baden

14 Jul 2020
Research & Ideas

Restarting Under Uncertainty: Managerial Experiences from Around the World

other multinationals immediately detected new operational and commercial approaches across their international branches and standardized and distributed them to subsidiaries. This proactive behavior toward information was not limited to... View Details

Keywords: by Raffaella Sadun, Andrea Bertoni, Alexia Delfino, Giovanni Fassio, and Mariapaola Testa

February 2006 (Revised November 2012)
Case

Corporate Responsibility & Community Engagement at the Tintaya Copper Mine (A)

By: V. Kasturi Rangan, Brooke Barton and Ezequiel Reficco

Located in the highlands of Peru, the Tintaya copper mine has long been a source of intense conflict between local community members and mine operators. The mine, which was owned and managed first by the Peruvian state and later by BHP Billiton, stands on 2,300... View Details

Keywords: Developing Countries and Economies; Multinational Firms and Management; Agreements and Arrangements; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Business and Community Relations; Non-Governmental Organizations; Conflict Management; Mining Industry; Australia; Peru

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17 Dec 2008
Lessons from the Classroom

‘Ted Levitt Changed My Life’

magnitude." In a world made much smaller and more homogeneous by communications technology, Levitt drew a line between the multinational company, which adjusts its products and practices from country to country (at great cost), and... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Education; Retail

November 2005 (Revised December 2016)
Case

Bally Total Fitness (A): The Rise, 1962–2004

By: John R. Wells, Elizabeth A. Raabe and Gabriel Ellsworth

From a single, modest club in 1962, Bally Total Fitness had grown to become—in management’s words—the “largest and only nationwide commercial operator of fitness centers” in the United States in 2004. Bally had faced its share of challenges, but the last couple of... View Details

Keywords: Bally Total Fitness; Fitness; Gyms; Health Clubs; Chain; Securities And Exchange Commission; Paul Toback; Weight Loss; Exercise; Contracts; Personal Training; Retention; Accounting; Accounting Audits; Accrual Accounting; Finance; Advertising; Business Growth and Maturation; Business Model; For-Profit Firms; Customers; Customer Satisfaction; Public Equity; Financing and Loans; Revenue; Revenue Recognition; Geographic Scope; Multinational Firms and Management; Health; Nutrition; Business History; Lawsuits and Litigation; Management; Business or Company Management; Goals and Objectives; Growth and Development Strategy; Marketing; Operations; Service Delivery; Service Operations; Public Ownership; Problems and Challenges; Business and Shareholder Relations; Business Strategy; Competition; Corporate Strategy; Expansion; Segmentation; Trends; Cost Management; Profit; Growth and Development; Leadership Style; Five Forces Framework; Private Ownership; Opportunities; Motivation and Incentives; Competitive Strategy; Health Industry; United States; Illinois; Chicago

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Course Development

By: Debora L. Spar

Managing International Trade and Investment

Despite the ease with which it is often conducted, doing business across borders is not the same as doing it at home. Rather, it entails a whole new set of managerial challenges: re-assessing competitive... View Details

26 Jan 2009
Research & Ideas

Where is Home for the Global Firm?

Not so long ago, multinational firms were associated with a specific national identity. Caterpillar was a prototypical U.S. company. Honda was a classic Japanese company. The location of headquarters of these and other firms served as... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

01 Dec 2012
News

Faculty Books

Banks as Multinationals edited by Geoffrey Jones (Routledge) This comparative, international study, edited by Geoffrey Jones, the Isidor Straus Professor of Business History, looks at the origins and business strategies of View Details

10 May 2004
Research & Ideas

Rethink the Value of Joint Ventures

For many multinational firms doing business in unfamiliar countries, it made sense to create joint ventures with local firms. After all, that local knowledge of customs, suppliers, and markets could save the newcomer months—maybe even... View Details

Keywords: by Cynthia Churchwell

Daniel K. Ludwig

Ludwig created the largest shipping company in the United States (the world’s third largest) and one of the world’s biggest private multinational corporations. His operations spanned 23 countries, employed more than 2,000 people, and... View Details

Keywords: Transportation

James H. Rand, Jr.

Rand grew his father’s small ledger company into a multinational conglomerate that made a wide array of office products, including filing systems, typewriters and adding machines. Under Rand’s leadership, company sales grew 100 fold from... View Details

Keywords: Fabricated Goods

01 Jun 2008
News

America the Difficult

destination end up being so much less attractive despite the relative absence of this usual litany of investment obstacles? Part of the answer may lie precisely in how these obstacles tilt the playing field between local firms and View Details

Keywords: Mihir A. Desai; foreign investors; Finance

18 Jul 2005
Research & Ideas

Identify Emerging Market Opportunities

which it has opened up to the outside world—shapes those markets, and companies must consider those factors, too. The five contexts framework places a superstructure of key markets on a base of sociopolitical choices. Many multinational... View Details

Keywords: by Tarun Khanna, Krishna G. Palepu & Jayant Sinha

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); Information

9 AM – 10 AM EDT, 16 Oct 2019
HBS Online

HBS Online Economics for Managers

Gain the knowledge and skills to craft successful business strategy, whether you are an aspiring marketing professional, strategy consultant, or entrepreneur, preparing for an MBA, or just looking to contribute more to business decision making. Program Dates: October... View Details

9 AM – 9 AM EDT, 09 Oct 2018

HBX Economics for Managers

Gain the knowledge and skills to craft successful business strategy, whether you are an aspiring marketing professional, strategy consultant, or entrepreneur, preparing for an MBA, or just looking to contribute more to business decision making. Program Dates: October... View Details

Profile

Mengwen Zhao

Before Mengwen Zhao (MBA 2019) arrived at HBS, she had worked for six years with two giant multinational corporations, Johnson & Johnson and Nestle. In a way, HBS represented a chance to think smaller. "In China, there are lots... View Details

Keywords: Consulting; CPG; Healthcare/Biotech

14 Nov 2011
Research & Ideas

Creating a Global Business Code

both heartening and disturbing. “We were looking for 'Generally Accepted Conduct Principles.'"—Rohit Deshpandé The good news is that the researchers found broad consensus among the employees of the four multinationals who were asked... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

20 Sep 2011
News

A Taxing Question

The Obama administration reportedly is considering big changes in the broken system for taxing the foreign income of US corporations. US multinationals have piled up overseas cash holdings in excess of $1 trillion, according to some... View Details

Keywords: Roger Thompson; Accounting, Tax, Bookkeeping, Payroll Services; Professional Services

01 Mar 2004
News

The New Global Business Manager

There is no such thing as a universal global manager, concluded HBS professor Christopher A. Bartlett in a 1992 article for Harvard Business Review. Rather, multinational corporations require three kinds of specialists: country managers,... View Details

Keywords: Management

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