Publications

September 2005 (Revised June 2006)
Case

WuXi PharmaTech

By: Richard G. Hamermesh and Simin Zhou

WuXi Pharmatech has gone from zero to $21 million in sales in three years. The company must decide its growth strategy and how best to finance and organize for rapid growth. View Details

Keywords: Growth Management; Capital Markets; Problems and Challenges; Pharmaceutical Industry; China

April 1990 (Revised January 1993)
Case

Ad Council's AIDS Campaign (A): Advertising Strategy

By: V. Kasturi Rangan and Janet Montgomery

Ad Council wished to run an educational campaign aimed at preventing the spread of AIDS. They were challenged to find acceptable ways to address this very sensitive subject matter--ways that the media and the public would approve. One of the big challenges was to make... View Details

Keywords: Advertising; Goals and Objectives; Social Marketing; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Success; Problems and Challenges; Social Issues; Health Industry

October 1976 (Revised April 1983)
Case

Federal Express (A)

Federal Express is a small-package airline operating throughout the United States. After initial heavy losses it is now profitable. Management is examining the services offered by the firm and believes that there is great potential for "Courier Pak", an overnight... View Details

Keywords: Advertising; Product Marketing; Sales; Air Transportation Industry; Air Transportation Industry; United States

October 2008 (Revised August 2010)
Case

The Christmas Eve Closing

By: Peter Tufano

In 2002, two homeowners in Massachusetts are deciding whether to refinance their home less than two years after taking out an initial mortgage and a subsequent home equity line of credit. View Details

Keywords: Mortgages; Personal Finance; Consumer Behavior; Banking Industry; Massachusetts

March 2009
Teaching Note

Responding to the Wii? (TN)

By: Andrei Hagiu and Hanna Halaburda

Teaching Note for [709448]. View Details

Keywords: History; Technological Innovation; Leadership; Competition; Industry Structures; Age; Video Game Industry

13 Oct 2015
First Look

October 13, 2015

2015 Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press Shadow Cold War: The Sino-Soviet Competition for the Third World By: Friedman, Jeremy Abstract—The conflict between the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War has... View Details

September 1996 (Revised June 1998)
Case

InterSoft of Argentina (A)

By: Linda A. Hill and Stacy Palestrant

Focuses on InterSoft of Argentina, a growing software company in Argentina. In 1993, InterSoft acquires a Russian software company and Emilo Lopez, the vice president and director of InterSoft's Systems Software Lab, must manage a creative, cross-cultural, "virtual"... View Details

Keywords: Applications and Software; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Business Growth and Maturation; Mergers and Acquisitions; Management Teams; Groups and Teams; Partners and Partnerships; Information Technology Industry; Argentina; Russia

20 Mar 2007
First Look

First Look: March 20, 2007

firm-size distribution and de jure and de facto measures of international capital integration. We then explore causal channels through which foreign capital may encourage entrepreneurship. We find evidence... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

August 2018 (Revised February 2022)
Case

Lexoo: Building a Long-Lasting Platform

By: Chiara Farronato and Elena Corsi

Daniel van Binsbergen, Lexoo’s CEO, and web developer Chris O’Sullivan, CTO, had set up Lexoo, a UK legal marketplace, to help small and medium enterprises (SME) find legal advice at low prices. Lexoo had recently invested in a new vertical focused on larger companies.... View Details

Keywords: Marketplaces; Legal Services; Growth Strategy; Technology Ventures; Service Operations; Digital Platforms; Marketplace Matching; Growth and Development Strategy; Legal Services Industry; United Kingdom

March 1984 (Revised June 1998)
Case

MCI Communications Corp.--1983

MCI Communications Corp. is faced with a large need for external financing to support rapid growth and substantial uncertainty due to the AT&T antitrust settlement. The case illustrates the value of convertible debt as a financing instrument in these circumstances. View Details

Keywords: Growth Management; Emerging Markets; Financing and Loans; Telecommunications Industry; United States

March 2011 (Revised December 2012)
Case

Demand Media

By: John Deighton and Leora Kornfeld

Google search had helped Demand Media grow to be a $1.9 billion online publisher. Then, social media and smartphone apps began to change the way people navigated the Internet. How should Demand Media respond? The business ran on a radically new model in which a stable... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Information Publishing; Consumer Behavior; Customization and Personalization; Internet and the Web; Publishing Industry

01 Mar 2005
News

Time to Trek

include Las Vegas, India, New York City, Israel, and Seattle, the treks provide a means for students to meet leaders in their field of interest and travel abroad to experience an increasingly View Details

Keywords: Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools; Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools

23 Nov 1999
Research & Ideas

What’s Your Strategy for Managing Knowledge?

removing client-sensitive information, we develop 'knowledge objects' by pulling key pieces of knowledge such as interview guides, work schedules, benchmark data, and market segmentation analyses out of... View Details

Keywords: by Morten T. Hansen, Nitin Nohria & Thomas Tierney; Consulting

November 2010 (Revised May 2012)
Case

Innovating into Active ETFs: Factor Funds Capital Management LLC

By: Kenneth A. Froot, Lauren Cohen and Scott Waggoner

Kishore Karunakaran, President and COO of FFCM, faces a variety of challenges in launching an innovative investment management business in the rapidly evolving ETF space. View Details

Keywords: Investment Management; Institutional Investments; Entrepreneurial Finance; Financial Management; Innovation Strategy; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Capital Markets; Investment Funds; Financial Strategy; Management Teams; Financial Services Industry; Boston

July 2000
Case

Aerospace Technologies, Inc.

By: Paul M. Healy and Jacob Cohen

Ben Galil's privately held engineering consulting firm represents aerospace products manufacturers in Israeli government biddings. The company incurs expenses for years before getting paid. This case deals with the alternative methods for booking revenues and expenses... View Details

Keywords: Accrual Accounting; Accounting; Revenue; Cost; Business or Company Management; Profit; Engineering; Bids and Bidding; Government and Politics; Private Ownership; Consulting Industry; Israel

Find at Harvard

April 1993 (Revised June 1993)
Case

Bayerische Motoren Werke AG (BMW)

By: Robert J. Dolan

In 1992, BMW attempts to revive its position in the United States market. In 1991, unit sales had fallen to 53,000 from 88,000 in 1987. The new CEO of North America considers a multifaceted plan to turn around the situation. View Details

Keywords: Product Positioning; Marketing Strategy; Multinational Firms and Management; Market Entry and Exit; Sales; Manufacturing Industry; Manufacturing Industry; Germany; North America

July 2010 (Revised December 2010)
Case

Post-Crisis Compensation at Credit Suisse (A)

By: Clayton S. Rose and Aldo Sesia

On October 20, 2009, Brady Dougan, the CEO of Credit Suisse Group, announced a new compensation plan for the bank. The announcement had followed quickly on the heels of the G-20 meeting the prior month where, in the wake of the financial crisis, the major governments... View Details

Keywords: Financial Crisis; Globalized Firms and Management; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Taxation; Compensation and Benefits; Organizational Culture; Business and Shareholder Relations; Banking Industry; Banking Industry; Switzerland; United Kingdom