Publications
Publications
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- All HBS Web
(5,346)
- Faculty Publications (1,027)
- March 1999 (Revised January 2005)
- Case
Newell Company: Corporate Strategy
By: Cynthia A. Montgomery and Elizabeth Gordon
In 1998, Newell Co., a manufacturer of low-tech, high-volume consumer goods, acquired Calphalon Corp., a high-end cookware company, and Rubbermaid, a $2 billion manufacturer of consumer and commercial plastic products. The case focuses on Newell's strategy and its... View Details
- March 1999
- Case
Australia's Telstra Corporation (A): Going Public
By: W. Earl Sasser, Carin-Isabel Knoop and Cate Reavis
Frank Blount is named CEO of Telstra, Australia's state-owned telecommunications giant. In preparation for its 1997 IPO, he must reorganize the company from an inefficient public entity into a lean, customer-driven organization. View Details
- March 1999
- Article
Practices for Managing Information Flows Within Organizations
By: Joel Demski, Tracy Lewis, Dennis Yao and Huseyin Yildirim
Firm organization determines how coworkers communicate and how information flows within the firm. Banking, accounting, consulting, and legal firms process proprietary information which their clients wish to protect. The firm's ability to safeguard and manage... View Details
- February 1999 (Revised June 2000)
- Case
Alexander Bandelli (A)
By: Thomas J. DeLong and Catherine M. Conneely
Alexander Bandelli has the opportunity to redefine the way real estate business is done in the Northeast region. He has just joined Ronsini and Fitch and has been asked by senior management to move to a client focus rather than the older, traditional transaction focus.... View Details
- February 1999 (Revised June 1999)
- Case
Bloomberg L.P.
By: Clayton M. Christensen, Richard G. Hamermesh and Jeremy Dann
Michael Bloomberg founded his company to provide customers quick access to financial market data and analytical tools for understanding that data. As Bloomberg L.P. grew quickly,entered the ranks of "large, established companies," it grappled with a whole new range of... View Details
- February 1999
- Case
Sports Agents: Is There a Firm Advantage?
By: Stephen A. Greyser and Brian R. Harris
Focuses on the decision of a young tennis player on what kind of agent to have as his representative. The choice is between someone in a large sports management/marketing firm and an independent agent representing a small number of individual athletes. Outlines the... 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; Information Technology Industry
- November 1998 (Revised November 2001)
- Case
BMW AG: The Digital Car Project (A)
By: Stefan H. Thomke and Ashok Nimgade
Describes how the German automotive firm BMW is trying to reduce its development time by half with the aid of computer-aided technologies. To leverage these technologies fully in the very competitive automotive industry, BMW is faced with the challenge of changing its... View Details
- October 1998
- Case
CRA Managed Care, Inc. (A)
By: Myra M. Hart and Jennifer Starr
Silverman and her co-founder, Don Larson, own the largest privately held injury-management and cost-containment services firm in the United States. When their $80+ million company attracts substantial interest of investment bankers and venture capitalists, the two must... View Details
- October 1998 (Revised December 1998)
- Case
CompUSA The Computer Superstore
By: Ananth Raman and Anna Sheen McClelland
Examines the CompUSA organization, focusing especially on the operations and the company culture. Highlights the economics of PC retailing and the importance of a responsive supply chain for their product category. The description of company culture emphasizes the role... View Details
- September 1998
- Case
Vanguard Group, Inc. (1998), The
By: Andre F. Perold
Since the beginning of 1997, Vanguard's assets under management have increased more than 60% from $240 billion to almost $400 billion, making it second in market share only to Fidelity. Vanguard views this success as another vindication of its low-cost strategy of... View Details
- August 1998 (Revised July 2002)
- Case
Innovation at 3M Corporation (A)
By: Stefan H. Thomke and Ashok Nimgade
Describes how 3M Corp. introduces and learns a new and innovative methodology called Lead User research to understand future customer and market needs. A team from 3M's Medical-Surgical Markets Division applies the Lead User methodology to the field of surgical... View Details
- August 1998 (Revised October 1998)
- Case
Disney's "The Lion King" (C): Repeat Performance?
By: Jeffrey F. Rayport, Carin-Isabel Knoop and Cate Reavis
Three of Disney's animated films that followed "The Lion King"—"Pocahontas," "Toy Story," and "The Hunchback of Notre Dame"—were significantly less successful at the box office and in retail sales. Meanwhile, Disney was focusing on developing live-action blockbusters. View Details
- August 1998 (Revised February 1999)
- Case
Product Development at Dell Computer Corporation
By: Stefan H. Thomke, Vish V. Krishnan and Ashok Nimgade
Describes how Dell redesigned its new product development process after experiencing a major product setback and a significant decline in firm profits in 1993. Dell's new process is challenged during the development of a new line of portable computers when the incoming... View Details
- July 1998 (Revised March 2000)
- Case
Champion International
By: Michael Beer and James Weber
Richard Olson, a long-tenured employee, was named CEO of Champion in 1996. Champion had been conducting an organizational transformation since the early 1980s that could be considered successful on most operational and social measures. However, due to industry... View Details
- April 1998 (Revised November 1999)
- Case
Hambrecht & Quist
By: Thomas J. DeLong and Nicole Tempest
Hambrecht & Quist (H&Q), an investment bank headquartered in San Francisco, has a very unique culture relative to its Wall Street counterparts. Firm members and even competitors describe the culture as entrepreneurial, team-driven, non-bureaucratic, and... View Details
- January 1998
- Case
Connecticut Spring and Stamping Corporation (B)
By: H. Kent Bowen, Massimo Russo and Steven J. Spear
Connecticut Spring and Stamping Corp. (CSSC), a 50-year-old spring manufacturing and metal stamping firm, is experiencing slow sales growth and feeling the impact of global competition. The company has over 800 customers but little understanding of those customers'... View Details
- January 1998 (Revised May 1999)
- Case
General Scanning, Inc. (A)
By: H. Kent Bowen, Sean McClenaghan and Charles Tillen
General Scanning, Inc. was founded by Jean Montagu and Pierre Brosens, two MIT mechanical engineers with an interest in developing innovative products based on the early application of lasers. They invented proprietary technology for laser beam positioning and scanning... View Details
- January 1998 (Revised February 2002)
- Case
Funai Consulting Company, Ltd. (A)
By: Lynn S. Paine and Tomoya Nakamura
In the summer of 1997, a consultant at Japan's Funai Consulting Co. Ltd., must decide how to respond to a client's proposal to offer "open pricing" (based on willingness to pay) to customers unable to pay the standard price for the client's product. The client, Akita... View Details
- January 1998 (Revised February 1998)
- Case
Sideco Americana S.A. (A)
By: Lynn S. Paine and Harold F. Hogan Jr
This case focuses on a decision the Sideco management team faces when customers of its newly acquired and privatized water and sewer company neglect to pay its bills. Describes the effort to transform an old-style Argentine construction and engineering company into a... View Details