Publications
Publications
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- All HBS Web
(340)
- Faculty Publications (87)
- May 2005 (Revised April 2010)
- Case
GlaxoSmithKline: Reorganizing Drug Discovery (A)
By: Robert S. Huckman and Eli Strick
Describes the reorganization of drug discovery at GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) following the formation of GSK from the merger of Glaxo Wellcome and SmithKline Beecham. This reorganization placed nearly 2,000 research scientists into six centers of excellence in drug discovery... View Details
- February 2005
- Article
European Integration and Corporate Restructuring: The Strategy of Unilever c1957-c1990
By: Geoffrey Jones and Peter Miskell
This article examines the role of the large Anglo-Dutch consumer products company in promoting European integration. It shows that Unilever contributed financially to campaigns to support the creation of the European Union, and its subsequent expansion, despite a... View Details
- September 2004 (Revised August 2007)
- Case
Enterprise IT at Cisco (2004)
By: Andrew P. McAfee, F. Warren McFarlan and Alison Berkley Wagonfeld
Illustrates the challenges associated with centralizing IT decisions at Cisco after a decade of decentralized planning and project funding. When Brad Boston became Cisco's new CIO in 2001, he found that managers were starting to get frustrated with the results of their... View Details
- November 2003 (Revised July 2006)
- Case
STAR 2003
By: Thomas R. Piper
A shift in strategy from broadcasting standardized programs throughout its footprint to localized programming necessitates a review of STAR's organizational structure. Growing complexity and a need for local responsiveness point toward adoption of a country-based... View Details
- September 2001 (Revised October 2018)
- Case
DIENA
By: Robert Simons and Indra Reinbergs
Requires students to draw a new organization structure diagram for a rapidly evolving business. A/S DIENA is a newspaper publisher founded during Latvia's 1990/91 struggle for independence from the USSR with a clear social mission to support democracy. With the help of... View Details
- May 2001 (Revised May 2015)
- Case
Compagnie Lyonnaise de Transport (A)
By: Michael Tushman and Michael J. Roberts
Describes the issues surrounding the funding of a centralized research service that supports two related divisions. The company has a very decentralized and financially driven culture, and the centralized service is used unequally, setting up a conflict. View Details
- March 2001 (Revised April 2001)
- Case
Montefiore Medical Center
By: Robert S. Kaplan and Syeda Noorein Inamdar
A large urban medical center implements the Balanced Scorecard management tool. Elaine Brennan, senior VP of operations, has reorganized a highly functional health care organization into decentralized patient care centers and support units. Having recently endured the... View Details
- April 2000 (Revised December 2001)
- Case
AirTex Aviation
By: Brian J. Hall and Carleen Madigan
Two young and inexperienced MBAs buy a virtually bankrupt company. They design a decentralized control system organized around profit centers. As a case in control systems, there is ample detail for a discussion of design issues, control of independent profit centers,... View Details
- September 1997
- Case
Information at the World Bank: In Search of a Technology Solution (A)
By: W. Earl Sasser, Josep Valor and Carin-Isabel Knoop
Information Technology Services Director Mohamed Muhsin planned to restructure the World Bank's information technology in response to President Jim Wolfensohn's call to build a knowledge bank. Several reorganization efforts taken by the bank in the 1980s led to a... View Details
- October 1996 (Revised April 1998)
- Case
Mobil USM&R (D): Gasoline Marketing
By: Robert S. Kaplan
Mobil US Marketing & Refining has shifted from a centralized staff-driven organization to decentralized business-units. Staff functions now must negotiate service agreements with a buyer's committee consisting of representatives from the profit-center business units.... View Details
- March 1996 (Revised January 2002)
- Case
CIBA Vision: The Daily Disposable Lens Project (A)
By: Gary P. Pisano
Examines CIBA Vision's decision on whether to launch a major new R&D initiative to develop a low-cost, daily disposable contact lens, and how to organize such a project should it proceed. One group of executives favors setting up a small, autonomous project team... View Details
- August 1995
- Case
Air Products and Chemicals, Inc.: IT Organization and Architecture Challenges
By: Richard L. Nolan
Presents the outcome of Air Products ICON decentralization projects. New issues are explored, including the challenges of having a decentralized MIS staff, global network, client/server architecture, new data center issues, outsourcing, a new highly strategic customer... View Details
- July 1995 (Revised September 1995)
- Background Note
Technology for Teams
By: Lynda M. Applegate and Geoffrey Bock
The importance of groups in organizations has long been recognized but, until recently, groups were always "tacked onto" organizations that were designed around individuals. It was not just the logic of classical organizational theory that perpetuated this focus on the... View Details
- June 1995
- Case
Polaroid Corporation: European Distribution System
By: Janice H. Hammond and Afroze A Mohammed
Describes distribution operations in Polaroid Europe. In the late 1980s, Polaroid senior management in the United States proposed moving from a system of 12 decentralized warehouses to a centralized distribution system in which all inventory for European retailers... View Details
- January 1995 (Revised October 1995)
- Case
Citibank: Global Customer Management
By: Michael Y. Yoshino and Thomas W. Malnight
Describes Citibank's worldwide operations, which include activities in developing and developed markets. The bank's structure also varies across markets and regions, varying from autonomous national affiliates to an industry/product-based structure in its domestic U.S.... View Details
- December 1994 (Revised October 2009)
- Case
AES Honeycomb (A)
By: Lynn S. Paine and Sarah C. Mavrinac
Senior managers of the AES Corp., an independent power producer, must decide whether to drop the company's emphasis on corporate values and revamp organizational controls as advised by investment analysts and outside counsel. The company is recovering from an incident... View Details
- May 1994 (Revised October 1994)
- Case
Motorola Corp.: The View from the CEO Office
By: Shoshana Zuboff and Janis Lee Gogan
Motorola, a leader in semiconductors and telecommunications, embarked on an ambitious program of renewal beginning in the early 1980s, leading to dramatic improvements in the company's quality, cycle time, and growth. Much of this progress was attributed to a major... View Details
- May 1994 (Revised November 1994)
- Case
PepsiCo: A View from the Corporate Office
Describes the three business segments of PepsiCo (beverages, snack foods, and restaurants). It then explores the competitive environment within each segment and the response of PepsiCo's businesses. It seeks to show how PepsiCo CEO, D. Wayne Calloway, in a very... View Details
- January 1994 (Revised February 2001)
- Case
PepsiCo's Restaurants
In 1992 PepsiCo is considering two opportunities to expand its restaurant business, Carts of Colorado, a $7 million manufacturer and merchandiser of mobile food carts, and California Pizza Kitchen, a $60 million chain in the casual dining segment. The discussion... View Details
- November 1993 (Revised September 2018)
- Case
Rudi Gassner and the Executive Committee of BMG International (A)
By: Linda Hill and Katherine Seger Weber
Explores the roles of CEO Rudi Gassner and the 9-person executive committee in leading BMG International. BMG International is the international music subsidiary of Bertlesmann, a German company that is the second-largest media conglomerate in the world. Describes a... View Details
Keywords: Managerial Roles; Management Teams; Decision Making; Business Plan; Growth and Development Strategy; Global Strategy; Leadership Style; Organizational Culture; Business Subsidiaries; Business Conglomerates; Cost Management; Change Management; Music Industry; Media and Broadcasting Industry; Germany