Publications

February 2003
Case

Whitbread Hotel Company (A)

By: Michael Beer and James Weber

Alan Parker has developed an effective organization using organizational fitness profiling and other change methodologies. Parker knows that as Whitbread continues to grow, both internally and through acquisitions, the company will have to change its organization... View Details

Keywords: Acquisition; Growth Management; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Integration

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October 2000 (Revised March 2007)
Case

Nick Fiore: Healer or Hitman? (A)

By: Clayton M. Christensen and Tara Donovan

Many general managers face this predicament at one time or another: if I don't deliver the numbers, senior management won't invest in our growth. But what it takes to deliver the desired numbers may include layoffs and other undesirable solutions. Is it better to back... View Details

Keywords: Risk Management; Job Cuts and Outsourcing; Strategic Planning; Decision Choices and Conditions

August 1996
Case

Watermill Ventures

By: David A. Garvin and Artemis March

Watermill Ventures acquires and turns around an underperforming business. The case describes the criteria the company uses to identify acquisition candidates, its screening and selection process, and the way it introduces strategic thinking at the business it acquires.... View Details

Keywords: Acquisition; Transformation; Standards; Performance Improvement; Business Strategy; Web Sites

18 Apr 2013
News

Why Do Patients Take Their Doctor's Advice?

09 Sep 2011
News

Business schools need to focus on students' 'doing' skills

31 Aug 2016
News

Hillary Clinton wants to be America’s small business president

2008
Simulation

Strategic Innovation Simulation: Back Bay Battery

By: Willy C. Shih and Clayton Christensen

This online simulation allows students to play the role of a business unit manager at Back Bay Battery Company who faces the dilemma of balancing a portfolio of investment strategies across products in the rechargeable battery space. Players have to manage R&D... View Details

Keywords: Competitive Strategy; Disruptive Innovation; Growth and Development Strategy; Innovation and Management; Investment; Product Development; Research and Development; Battery Industry

25 Feb 2019
Research & Ideas

How Gender Stereotypes Kill a Woman’s Self-Confidence

cognitive ability in five areas: general science, arithmetic reasoning, math knowledge, mechanical comprehension, and assembling objects. They were asked to guess their total number of correct answers, as well as how their performance... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

Article

Digital Ubiquity: How Connections, Sensors, and Data Are Revolutionizing Business

By: Marco Iansiti and Karim R. Lakhani

When Google bought Nest, a maker of digital thermostats, for $3.2 billion just a few months ago, it was a clear indication that digital transformation and connection are spreading across even the most traditional industrial segments and creating a staggering array of... View Details

Keywords: Digital Innovation; Digitization; Industrial Internet; Technological Innovation; Production; Competitive Strategy; Engineering; Aerospace Industry

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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

Leonard A. Schlesinger is Baker Foundation Professor at the Harvard Business School where he serves as Chair of the School’s Practice based faculty and faculty Chair of the MBA Field Global Immersion program. He has served as a member of the HBS faculty from 1978 to... View Details

August 2022
Article

Regulatory Considerations to Keep Pace with Innovation in Digital Health Products

By: John Torous, Ariel Dora Stern and Florence T. Bourgeois

Rapid innovation and proliferation of software as a medical device have accelerated the clinical use of digital technologies across a wide array of medical conditions. Current regulatory pathways were developed for traditional (hardware) medical devices and offer a... View Details

Keywords: Emerging Technologies; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Innovation and Invention; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry

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2010
Chapter

Facts and Fallacies about U.S. FDI in China

By: Lee Branstetter and C. Fritz Foley

Despite the rapid expansion of U.S.-China trade ties, the increase in U.S. FDI in China, and the expanding amount of economic research exploring these developments, a number of misconceptions distort the popular understanding of U.S. multinationals in China. In this... View Details

Keywords: Expansion; Trade; Foreign Direct Investment; Mathematical Methods; Multinational Firms and Management; China; United States

SSRN

July 1997 (Revised February 1998)
Case

Aladdin Knowledge Systems

By: John A. Quelch

The founder, president, and CEO of a leading software security company has just announced the $5.1 million cash acquisition of a key competitor. As a result, his company becomes the market share leader in Europe and number two in the United States. But now, he and the... View Details

Keywords: Distribution; Marketing; Applications and Software; Globalization; Acquisition; Sales; Information Technology Industry; United States; Europe

September 1994 (Revised September 1994)
Case

Acer Group, The: Vision for the Year 2000

By: D. Quinn Mills and Richard C. Wei

In the early 1990s, Acer, Inc. set two goals: to be a top-five PC company worldwide in 1995 and to be a global consortium of companies by the year 2000. The company identified potential obstacles concerning capital, image, number of experienced international managers,... View Details

Keywords: Mission and Purpose; Goals and Objectives; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Organizational Structure; Global Strategy; Multinational Firms and Management; Experience and Expertise; Marketing Strategy; Production; Rank and Position; Business Strategy; Capital; Computer Industry; Japan

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02 Dec 2013
News

Colleges Can Still Save Themselves. Here's How.

09 Mar 2018
News

Why Is A Harvard Business Professor Is Studying Independent Bookstores?

April 2019 (Revised June 2019)
Case

Ariadne Labs: Building Impactful Partnerships

By: Ariel D. Stern and Sarah Mehta

In September 2018, the executive team at Ariadne Labs (Ariadne), a Boston-based organization dedicated to improving health systems through the discovery and implementation of simple tools, faced a number of strategic decisions. Chief among them, the seven-year-old... View Details

Keywords: Health; Health Care and Treatment; Innovation and Invention; Social Enterprise; Nonprofit Organizations; Partners and Partnerships; Health Industry; Boston

November 1991 (Revised June 1993)
Case

Accounting for Frequent Fliers

By: William J. Bruns Jr.

Airline frequent flier programs offer members the opportunity to earn free flights by accumulating mileage. Accounting and reporting the obligations of airlines and the cost of frequent flier programs raises difficult measurement issues. In 1991, the U.S. Securities... View Details

Keywords: Cost; Fair Value Accounting; Policy; Air Transportation Industry; United States