Japan - Publications - Faculty & Research

July 2008 (Revised May 2017)
Teaching Note

Financial Leadership in Novartis Consumer Health Businesses

By: Boris Groysberg and Geoff Marietta

Teaching Note for HBS No. 406-102. View Details

Keywords: Health Industry; Australia; Japan; Venezuela

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16 Sep 2013
Research & Ideas

Earnings Calls That Get Lost in Translation

as Japan and China, tend to have the hardest time communicating effectively. Also, all industries are not equal in their use of complicated speech. The financial industry has the highest level of linguistic complexity, followed by the... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

05 Nov 2007
What Do You Think?

Why Is Succession So Badly Managed?

large companies around the world, even including Japan where continuity, consensus, and culture have been honored for so long. The questions posed in many of these cases include: What did the board know when? How could it have anticipated... View Details

Keywords: Re: James L. Heskett

30 Apr 2001
Research & Ideas

New Paths to Success in Asia

agree. In Japan, for example, Professor Lynda M. Applegate is working on a case on the launch of Nasdaq Japan. "This new venture is developing a hybrid financial market model for Japan that integrates Nasdaq's U.S. market and the... View Details

Keywords: by Alejandro Reyes & Deborah Blagg

07 Jun 2004
What Do You Think?

How Important are Big Ideas?

successors to the U.S. and Peter Drucker and his disciples, with a brief detour through Japan during the 1980s? And what does all of this portend for the future of competitive advantage, particularly in an increasingly global context?... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

November 1998 (Revised July 1999)
Case

Merrill Lynch's Acquisition of Mercury Asset Management

By: Andre F. Perold, Imran Ahmed and Randolph B Altschuler

In the Spring of 1998, Merrill Lynch faced an array of challenges and opportunities related to its global asset management business. The firm had recently completed its $5.3 billion cash acquisition of U.K.-based Mercury Asset Management, a transaction that made it one... View Details

Keywords: Acquisition; Asset Management; Currency; Financial Strategy; Global Strategy; Brands and Branding; Distribution; Production; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Retirement; Japan; Europe; United Kingdom

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February 1991
Teaching Note

Norton Group PLC: To Be or Not to Be in the Motorcycle Business (A) and (B), Teaching Note

By: V. Kasturi Rangan

Teaching Note for (9-589-013) and (9-589-014). View Details

Keywords: Auto Industry; Motorcycle Industry; Japan; United Kingdom

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August 1988 (Revised February 1992)
Case

Norton Group PLC: To Be or Not to Be in the Motorcycle Business (A)

By: V. Kasturi Rangan and Jon Skofic

Norton, a once famous motorcycle manufacturer, soundly beaten by Japanese competition, turns its attention to developing rotary engines. The company is acquired by Norton Group PLC, which is headed by a dashing entrepreneur. The new management must decide what... View Details

Keywords: Acquisition; Decision Choices and Conditions; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Human Resources; Crisis Management; Resource Allocation; Production; Competition; Auto Industry; Motorcycle Industry; Japan; United Kingdom

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19 Sep 2011
Research & Ideas

Doomsday Coming for Catastrophic Risk Insurers?

earthquake and Hurricanes Andrew and Katrina. In certain cases catastrophe insurance costs more than doubled and took eight years to work their way back down. This year,the earthquakes in Japan and New Zealand, and the devastating floods... View Details

Keywords: by Maggie Starvish; Financial Services

02 Jun 2011
What Do You Think?

Is it Time for a National Bankruptcy?

Japan would approach the ratios of the US. Even assuming that all such long-term projections are never accurate, is it possible that a country could fall into bankruptcy? What does national bankruptcy mean? Years ago economists told us... View Details

Keywords: by Jim Heskett

01 Nov 1999
Research & Ideas

Companies, Cultures and the Transformation to the Transnational

Japanese managers in foreign locations engaged in nemawashi and ringi by intensive telephone contact and frequent exchanges of visits between headquarters in Japan and the overseas units. View Details

Keywords: by Christopher A. Bartlett & Sumantra Ghoshal

20 May 2014
First Look

First Look: May 20

314-087 Jurlique: Globalizing Beauty from Nature and Science Considers the marketing and strategic challenges faced by natural beauty brands using the case of Australian-based Jurlique, which was acquired by Pola of Japan in 2011. The... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

01 Apr 2008
First Look

First Look: April 1, 2008

Purchase this case: http://www.hbsp.harvard.edu/b01/en/common/item_detail.jhtml?id=308009 Kinyuseisaku: Monetary Policy in Japan Harvard Business School Case 708-017 Toshihiko Fukui, Government of the Bank of Japan, faced a complex... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

01 Sep 2012
News

High Honors

launched Tokyo-based Rakuten, a 10,000-person company that began as an online shopping mall and now includes banking, travel, e-book, and credit card divisions. With a market capitalization of approximately $14 billion in fiscal year 2012, Rakuten—which means... View Details

Keywords: Susan Young; Finance; Corporate, Subsidiary, and Regional Managing Offices; Management; Mining; Management, Scientific, and Technical Consulting Services; Professional Services; Miscellaneous Store Retailers; Retail Trade

22 Feb 2010
Op-Ed

Tragedy at Toyota: How Not to Lead in Crisis

Toyota's ever-widening problems are a tragic case study in how not to lead in crisis. Under the media spotlight, Toyota CEO Akio Toyoda, grandson of the founder, went into hiding and sent American CEO Jim Lentz to make apologies. (Editor's note: Toyoda has agreed to... View Details

Keywords: by William George; Auto

January 2025
Teaching Plan

Knowledge Transfer: Toyota, NUMMI, and GM

By: Willy Shih

Teaching Plan for HBS Case No. 625-003. New United Motors Manufacturing, Inc. (NUMMI) was a joint venture between Toyota and General Motors. It was an opportunity for GM to learn about the Toyota Production System, which was quite different from the mass production... View Details

Keywords: Culture Change; Organizational Culture; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Factories, Labs, and Plants; Joint Ventures; Transformation; Selection and Staffing; Knowledge Acquisition; Knowledge Sharing; Labor Unions; Management Systems; Performance Improvement; Production; Labor and Management Relations; Auto Industry; Japan; United States

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March 2024 (Revised April 2025)
Case

TELEXISTENCE Inc.

By: Paul A. Gompers and Akiko Saito

A case about a Japanese robotics startup aiming to enter the U.S. market with its robots that combine AI and human intervention to complete restocking tasks in retail stores. View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Entrepreneurship; Market Entry and Exit; Technology Adoption; Decisions; AI and Machine Learning; Retail Industry; Technology Industry; Japan; United States

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February 2024
Case

More than Optics: Olympus's Vision to Become a Leading Global MedTech Company

By: David J. Collis and Haisley Wert

In August 2022, CEO Yasuo Takeuchi reflected on Olympus Corporation’s recent transformation from being known as a Japanese consumer camera company to becoming a leading global medical technology (MedTech) company. Over the past dozen years, Takeuchi and prior... View Details

Keywords: Global Human Resource Management; Medical Technology; Corporate Strategy; Transformation; Globalization; Business Model; Leading Change; Organizational Structure; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry; Japan; United States

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December 2020
Supplement

VIA Science (B)

By: Juan Alcácer, Rembrand Koning, Annelena Lobb and Kerry Herman

Via (a) captures the early days of the data analytics startup as founders Gounden and Ravanis considered which markets offer the right opportunities for their firm and what kinds of experiments will help them narrow their choice. Supplement Via (b) reveals the... View Details

Keywords: Data Analytics; Machine Learning; Artificial Intelligence; Strategy; Business Startups; AI and Machine Learning; Telecommunications Industry; Utilities Industry; United States; Japan

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June 2016 (Revised May 2017)
Case

FANUC Corporation: Reassessing the Firm's Governance and Financial Policies

By: Benjamin C. Esty, Nobuo Sato and Akiko Kanno

In February 2015, Daniel Loeb (a U.S.–based activist investor) announced his firm had a large investment in FANUC Corporation, a leading producer of industrial robots and software for machine tools. Loeb was demanding that the Japanese firm change its financial and... View Details