Publications

Article

How Long Can a Company Thrive Doing Just One Thing?

By: Andy Wu and Scott Duke Kominers

The news that the chat app Slack was being sold to veteran customer relationship management company Salesforce for $27.7 billion raised a lot of eyebrows. Why sell after a year of explosive growth? The deal, however, epitomizes a question facing so-called best-of-breed... View Details

Keywords: Best-of-breed Companies; Competitive Advantage; Competitive Strategy

Read Now

January 2015 (Revised August 2016)
Case

Chateau Pontet-Canet

By: Daniel Malter

This case discusses the situation of Chateau Pontet-Canet in early 2000. Alfred Tesseron was the director and son of the owner of Chateau Pontet-Canet, a red wine producing estate in Pauillac (Bordeaux, France) and member of the fifth class of the ancient grand cru... View Details

Keywords: Plant-Based Agribusiness; Alignment; Strategy; Competition; Food and Beverage Industry; France

Educators

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

Keywords: Corporate Entrepreneurship; Corporate Strategy; Expansion; Software; Computer Industry

March 1982 (Revised April 1982)
Case

Hertz Corp.: Guaranteed Pricing

The Hertz Corp., a $1.3 billion subsidiary of RCA, has instituted a "no mileage charge, ever" price program in response to competitive pressures. Pro forma revenue and profit projections, however, show the firm to be even further away from its corporate plan than... View Details

Keywords: Competition; Corporate Strategy; Product Marketing; Transportation Industry; Service Industry

Career Coach

Okan Okutgen

motivations, strategies and develop their plan to break into new industries. As an international student himself, Okan has navigated the immigration system of the USA and experienced working under multiple visa types and hence can provide... View Details

June 2023
Supplement

Applied Intuition (A)

By: Andy Wu

Applied Intuition CEO Qasar Younis provides an overview of the automotive industry and the role of simulation software in the development of autonomous vehicles. View Details

Keywords: Autonomous Vehicles; Software; Strategy; Competitive Strategy; Growth and Development Strategy; Valuation; Auto Industry; Technology Industry; California; Detroit

February 1995
Case

Promus Companies, The: Harrah's Casinos

By: Stephen P. Bradley and Takia Mahmood

Provides an overview of the U.S. gambling industry and the rapid expansion of gambling beyond Nevada and New Jersey since 1988. Focuses on Harrah's, a traditional top-tier casino company, which was the first to aggressively expand into emerging gaming markets and that... View Details

Keywords: Emerging Markets; Competitive Advantage; Corporate Strategy; Expansion; Las Vegas; New Jersey

Educators

14 Oct 2008
Research & Ideas

Should You Bring Advertising Expertise In-House?

its output. An in-house advertising agency is a case of backward vertical integration. Advertising services may be fully integrated in the sense that an in-house agency provides full service (e.g., strategy and creative development, ad... View Details

Keywords: by Sarah Jane Gilbert; Advertising

17 Jul 2017
Op-Ed

Op-Ed: As America Recedes from Global Leadership, Its CEOs are Stepping Up

of powerful CEOs making up Trump’s Strategy and Policy Forum. Goldman’s Lloyd Blankfein even created a Twitter account in order to issue his first tweet objecting to the President’s decision. A responsibility to be heard Immelt’s... View Details

Keywords: by Bill George

02 Jul 2001
What Do You Think?

Built to Last or Bought to Sell?

like private equity fund managers, especially in terms of forming exit strategies at the time of business development; base decisions on an assumption of increasing competitive discontinuity and impermanence; avoid "cultural... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

March 2017 (Revised November 2017)
Case

BlackRock (A): Selling the Systems? (with video links)

By: Ranjay Gulati, Jan W. Rivkin and Kelly McNamara

As the case opens in 1999, several key leaders at BlackRock, Inc., then a relatively small asset management firm, are trying to convince CEO Larry Fink and others that the firm should begin to offer Aladdin—its proprietary analytics and trading platform—to other asset... View Details

Keywords: Strategy; Competition; Information Technology; Asset Management; Competitive Strategy; Financial Services Industry; United States

Educators

March 2011 (Revised May 2011)
Supplement

China Construction America (B): The Baha Mar Resort Deal

Why is a Chinese state-owned construction company building the largest mega-resort and casino in the Caribbean? This case examines the intricate deal-making by which CSCEC, China's leading global engineering and construction contractor, emerged as a key market player.... View Details

Keywords: Project Finance; Competitive Strategy; Global Strategy; Financial Strategy; Construction Industry; Tourism Industry; China; Bahamas

02 Feb 2015
Research & Ideas

Disruptors Sell What Customers Want and Let Competitors Sell What They Don’t

find a way out, or a company will find a way out for them." A better strategy to follow is "rebalancing," which realigns a company's activities in such a way that value is claimed by the firm every time the firm creates it. Best Buy has... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

16 May 2014
Blog Post

Leveraging Big Data to Improve Recruiting

to understand the recruiting landscape at HBS and the types of opportunities that are of interest to our students. Organizations often look to our data to improve their recruiting strategy and job offer negotiations, but organizations... View Details

01 Jun 2006
News

Faculty Books

also create business opportunities. In this book Professor Di Tella and his colleagues present case studies taught in his HBS course of the same name, which addresses opportunities created by globalization and proposes strategies for... View Details

Keywords: Business Schools & Computer & Management Training; Educational Services

February 1991
Case

Continuous Casting Commitments at Bethlehem Steel Corp.

By: Richard S. Rosenbloom and Clayton M. Christensen

Keywords: Competition; Competitive Strategy; Innovation and Invention; Steel Industry; Pennsylvania