Publications
Publications
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- All HBS Web
(526)
- Faculty Publications (87)
- March 2002 (Revised August 2002)
- Case
Microsoft.NET
By: Alan D. MacCormack and Kerry Herman
Set in the summer of 2000, following the unveiling of Microsoft's .NET initiative to the public. Three of the key figures in .NET's development are considering the next steps they would have to take to keep the initiative moving forward. Specifically, the challenges... View Details
- March 2002 (Revised January 2003)
- Case
Microsoft: Positioning the Tablet PC
By: Youngme E. Moon and Christina L. Darwall
Microsoft is preparing for the launch of the Tablet PC, which allows users to use a pen (stylus) to run Windows and Windows applications, annotate documents, and create handwritten documents for later reference or even conversion to text. Microsoft's original equipment... View Details
- January 2002 (Revised February 2002)
- Case
Postgirot Bank and Provment AB: Managing the Cost of IT Operations
By: F. Warren McFarlan and Nancy Bartlett
Describes a specific approach for measuring the efficiency of the groups of computers inside an organization and suggests ways this tool may be used to reduce the company's computing investment while maintaining service. It is a software-enabled industrial engineering... View Details
- September 2001 (Revised August 2005)
- Case
Microsoft in 2002
By: Michael G. Rukstad, David B. Yoffie, Carl Johnston and Tyrell Levine
Examines Microsoft's strategy and competitive position as it prepares to launch Windows XP. The discussion explores how Microsoft builds and sustains its competitive edge. View Details
- September 2001
- Background Note
Accounting for Computer Software Development Costs
By: Robert S. Kaplan and Tatiana Sandino
Summarizes the debate on accounting for computer software development costs. Provides a historical description of the development of standards on accounting of computer software development costs, both in the United States and internationally. Describes how, after much... View Details
- July 2001 (Revised December 2001)
- Case
American Express Interactive
Follows the protagonist, Sonia Sharpe, as she and her American Express Interactive Team attempt to develop and market an interactive, on-line, corporate travel service in a highly competitive environment. Looks at the possible resources and partnerships a company needs... View Details
Keywords: Corporate Entrepreneurship; Partners and Partnerships; Growth and Development Strategy; Competitive Strategy; Marketing Strategy; Product Positioning; Applications and Software; Technological Innovation; Global Strategy; Expansion; Information Technology; Vertical Integration; Financial Services Industry; Travel Industry
- April 2001 (Revised March 2002)
- Case
Seagate Technology Buyout
By: Gregor M. Andrade, Stuart C. Gilson and Todd C. Pulvino
In March 2000, a group of private investors and senior managers were negotiating a deal to acquire the disk drive operations of Seagate Technology. The motivating factor for the buyout was the apparently anomalous market value of Seagate's equity: Seagate's equity... View Details
- January 2001
- Case
Valuing Project Achieve
By: Mihir A. Desai and Kathleen Luchs
Project Achieve is a start-up providing information management solutions for schools. Its founders see a need for software both to manage the volumes of information necessary to administer a school and to connect parents, teachers, and students in a more effective way.... View Details
- December 1999
- Case
Sun Microsystems, Inc. (A5): Solaris 7: Rich Green on Product Strategy and Culture Change
By: Rosabeth M. Kanter and Jane Roessner
Solaris, Sun Microsystems' version of the UNIX operating system, was an amorphous collection of capabilities that had accumulated over the years, a product the company vaguely wished it could market and sell better. Developing and marketing Solaris 7 would help... View Details
- September 1999
- Case
Project Dreamcast: Serious Play at Sega Enterprises Ltd. (A)
By: Stefan H. Thomke and Andrew Robertson
Focuses on the ongoing competitive battles in the global home video game market that is estimated to exceed $15 billion by 1999 in the United States and Japan alone. Describes how Sega Enterprises has redesigned its development processes to create a revolutionary... View Details
- November 1998 (Revised February 1999)
- Case
Microsoft Office: Finding the Suite Spot
By: Stefan H. Thomke and Steven Sinofsky
Describes a key decision-making process within Microsoft's Office products division. At a time when the PC software business has a great deal of uncertainty, Microsoft's management has to make a key decision regarding the future of software suites. A strengthening of... View Details
Keywords: Decisions; Applications and Software; Strategic Planning; Organizational Design; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Product Development; Managerial Roles; Growth and Development Strategy; Risk and Uncertainty; Goals and Objectives; Digital Platforms; Innovation and Management; Computer Industry; Computer Industry
- June 1998 (Revised January 2000)
- Case
Egghead.com
Egghead Software, an entrenched traditional chain retailer specializing in computer software and peripherals, had established a nationwide chain of mall and shopping center stores and a well-organized national brand. In early 1998, management made a highly unusual, and... View Details
- 01 May 1998
- Conference Presentation
Rapid Learning and Adaptation in Product Development: An Empirical Study of the Internet Software Industry
By: Alan MacCormack, M. Iansiti and R Verganti
- January 1998 (Revised February 1998)
- Case
Timberjack Parts: Packaged Software Selection Project
By: F. Warren McFarlan, Mark Keil and Darryl S. Romanow
This case provides a realistic, current, and detailed view of software procurement in an international business environment where the competition in enterprise-wide software solutions is growing. Focuses on the selection of packaged software to serve multiple sites... View Details
- 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
- June 1996 (Revised January 1999)
- Case
XcelleNet, Inc. (A)
By: Stephen P. Bradley, Richard L. Nolan and James Leonard
XcelleNet, a $35 million system software company based in Atlanta, was founded in 1986 to address the computing needs of a class of remote and mobile users and data that were rarely connected to a network. Though the clear first mover and leader in the remote... View Details
- April 1995 (Revised July 1996)
- Case
Microsoft, 1995
By: Tarun Khanna, David B. Yoffie and Israel Yellen Ganot
Explores Microsoft's core desktop computing software business and its newer endeavors in 1995. Designed to explore the sustainability of its phenomenal success, and to examine the logic behind its renewed emphasis on some areas, particularly the home computing software... View Details
- April 1995 (Revised December 1997)
- Case
Silicon Graphics, Inc. (A)
By: Marco Iansiti and Ellen Stein
Based on a Silicon Valley company that has developed the capability to compete in a rapidly growing, highly turbulent environment. This capability hinges on its flexible and rapid development process, which the case characterizes in detail. Focuses on the development... View Details
- February 1995 (Revised August 1995)
- Case
Microsoft in the People's Republic of China, 1993
By: Tarun Khanna
Explores some of the economic and political tradeoffs that need to be negotiated by a firm seeking to influence industry structure. The setting is the nascent personal computer software industry in the People's Republic of China (PRC) in 1993. Microsoft has to localize... View Details
- August 1994
- Case
Intuit, Inc.
The merger of two computer software firms with very rapidly growing non-overlapping products makes great strategic sense, but presents difficult valuation and accounting problems. How can a firm pay $225 million to acquire another firm with negligible current earnings,... View Details