Publications

January 2005 (Revised December 2006)
Background Note

Midway's Entry into Milwaukee: An Interactive Game

By: Dennis A. Yao

Provides background and instructions to the Airline Pricing Game courseware (9-705-802), an interactive simulation of a new entry by a lower cost airline. The courseware allows students to make round-by-round competitive pricing decisions and react to changing market... View Details

Keywords: Competitive Strategy; Wisconsin

February 2001 (Revised June 2001)
Case

Competitive Dynamics in Home Video Games (B): Nintendo Power

Tells the story of Nintendo's revival of the home video game industry in the mid-1980s and its dominance of the market in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Strategic issues addressed include the creation of value by sparking dormant demand and the capture of value... View Details

Keywords: Competitive Strategy; Video Game Industry

February 2001 (Revised June 2001)
Case

Competitive Dynamics in Home Video Games (A): The Age of Atari

Tells the story of the rise and fall of Atari Corp., the dominant player in arcade and home video games in the 1970s and early 1980s. During this period, Atari grew from a $500 initial investment into a $2 billion in revenues per year enterprise, becoming the fastest... View Details

Keywords: Competitive Strategy; Video Game Industry

May 1999
Case

African Communications Group (Condensed)

Describes the opportunities that confront the African Communications Group, an entrepreneurial organization that plans to introduce a wireless pay-phone system in Tanzania. Provides a foundation for the analysis of value creation and of value capture. The possibility... View Details

Keywords: Competitive Strategy; Telecommunications Industry; Tanzania

18 May 2015
Research & Ideas

Advertisers Get Serious About Playing With Their Brands

"There will be more missteps in this climate than in the button-down climate of copy strategies that didn't change for 20 years," Deighton says. The Rules Of Play The researchers outlined three rules for marketers who play online: 1.... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Advertising

01 Dec 2018
News

Sustaining Business And Society For The Long Term

companies, and drive change, HBX introduced the online certifi cate program Sustainable Business Strategy in June 2018. Led by Rebecca Henderson, the John and Natty McArthur University Professor, the program showcases the role faculty... View Details

March 2017
Supplement

eBay vs. Carl Icahn, 2014: Interview with John Donahoe, eBay CEO 2008-2015

By: David B. Yoffie, Eric Baldwin and Tom Ryder

This video, a supplement to HBS Case No. 717-417, features an interview with former eBay CEO John Donahoe, providing his perspective on eBay's response to activist investor Carl Icahn's attack on eBay, which began in January 2014. After giving some of his own... View Details

Keywords: Activist Shareholder; Activist Investors; Technology; Strategy; Corporate Strategy; Investment Activism; Financial Services Industry; Retail Industry; Technology Industry

Find at Harvard

June 2015 (Revised October 2015)
Case

High Liner Foods, 2015

By: John R. Wells and Galen Danskin

In 2015, Canadian-based High Liner Foods Ltd was one of North America's largest frozen fish processors with extensive shares of both the food service and retail channels in Canada, the USA and Mexico. With over C$1 billion in revenues, the company had grown four fold... View Details

Keywords: Strategic Analysis; Strategic Decision Making; Family Business; Commodities; Strategic Planning; Strategy; Competitive Strategy; Food and Beverage Industry; North America; Canada

February 2001 (Revised June 2001)
Case

Competitive Dynamics in Home Video Games (C): The Sega Genesis

Describes the launch of Sega's 16-bit Genesis console in 1988 and its effect on competitor Nintendo. A rewritten version of an earlier case. View Details

Keywords: Competitive Advantage; Competitive Strategy; Video Game Industry

February 1998 (Revised August 2006)
Case

House of Tata, 1995: The Next Generation (A)

By: Tarun Khanna, Krishna G. Palepu and Danielle Melito Wu

The Tata Group began the 1990s as a confederation of loosely coupled firms. This case considers the rise to prominence of the new CEO of Tata Group, Ratan Tata, and his attempts to strengthen the inter-relationships among the group companies at a time when critics... View Details

Keywords: Business or Company Management; Business Conglomerates; Organizations; Corporate Strategy; Consolidation; Business Strategy; Alignment; Consumer Products Industry; Service Industry

March 2019
Supplement

KITEA (E): IKEA's Opening Day

By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell and Gamze Yucaoglu

The case opens in 2016 as Amine Benkirane, CEO of the furniture retailer KITEA, observes KITEA’s dormant sales on the day IKEA opens its first store in Morocco. It then provides information on IKEA’s Morocco store, as well as a detailed pricing comparison between IKEA... View Details

Keywords: Private Sector; For-Profit Firms; Business Strategy; Strategic Planning; Competitive Strategy; Competitive Advantage; Adaptation; Corporate Strategy; Retail Industry; Africa; North Africa; Morocco

30 Jan 2019
What Do You Think?

Who Will Measure up to These Two Remarkable Leaders?

by offering both differentiation and low cost, that in fact the two strategies might feed on each other under the right circumstances to produce superior results for customers, employees, and investors. Two of the firms he studied were... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett; Air Transportation; Financial Services

Career Coach

Kara Hardie

Kara Hardie is an experienced healthcare consultant and an MBA/MS Biotechnology candidate. Kara spent four years at The Boston Consulting Group, partnering with clients across the healthcare sector on complex strategic issues. Kara's recent work as an R&D View Details

01 Jun 2015
News

Ink

Book Review: Learning from Bill, Andy, and Steve The tuxedoed trio looking out from the cover of Harvard Business School Professor David B. Yoffie’s new book on strategy can be seen as the modern-day Mount Rushmore of business. At their... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne; Apple; Microsoft; Computer and Electronic Product Manufacturing; Manufacturing; Computer Systems Design and Related Services; Professional Services

03 Jun 2020
News

Weathering the Storm

Nnamdi Okike (MBA 2007) Nnamdi Okike (MBA 2007) In this special video edition of Skydeck, contributing host Chitra Nawbatt (GMP 6, 2009) speaks with 645 Ventures Cofounder and General Partner Nnamdi Okike (MBA 2007) about near-term and long-term View Details

Keywords: Funds, Trusts, and Other Financial Vehicles; Finance

January 2025 (Revised February 2025)
Case

From Neverkusen to Meisterkusen:* Building a Winning Organization at Bayer Leverkusen

By: Boris Groysberg, Brian L. Walker, Sascha L. Schmidt and Gamze Yucaoglu

This case follows Bayer Leverkusen football team through 2018-2024, as Fernando Carro takes the helm and makes organizational changes. Led by CEO Fernando Carro, sporting director Simon Rolfes, and head coach Xabi Alonso, the Club becomes league champion for the first... View Details

Keywords: Business Strategy; Alignment; Competitive Strategy; Leading Change; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Sports Industry; Europe; Germany