Publications

23 Jul 2014
Lessons from the Classroom

Innovation Is Magic. Really

When business executives create innovative products or services, they often look to impress their customers by delivering an experience more meaningful, more delightful, than possibly expected. A true "wow!" moment. And Harvard Business... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Consumer Products

15 Dec 2008
Research & Ideas

The Surprisingly Successful Marriages of Multinationals and Social Brands

arrangements from the perspective of the "elephants"? A: Most successful large companies excel at business planning, allocation of capital, and execution. Many are also good at product innovation in the small, continuous... View Details

Keywords: by Sarah Jane Gilbert; Consumer Products; Consumer Products

March 1997 (Revised December 1999)
Case

Alden Products, Inc.--European Manufacturing

By: Robert H. Hayes

The European organization of Alden Products, Inc. is contemplating a doubling of unit sales over the next ten years. Their largest plant, located in Holland, was set up 25 years earlier to supply all demands of the EEC countries on the continent. It has since expanded... View Details

Keywords: Production; Growth Management; Factories, Labs, and Plants; Strategic Planning; Performance Capacity; Business Strategy; Netherlands; Europe

April 1993 (Revised November 1994)
Case

Chiron Corp.

By: Steven C. Wheelwright

Pablo Valenzuela, vice president of R&D at Chiron Corp., faces several choices for how to allocate scarce resources across several promising projects. These choices will determine Chiron's position in several emerging biotechnology and diagnostic markets, including... View Details

Keywords: Health Testing and Trials; Research and Development; Failure; Business Strategy; Joint Ventures; Strategic Planning; Opportunities; Product Development; Biotechnology Industry; California

Find at Harvard

March 1999 (Revised June 2000)
Case

Eli Lilly: The Evista Project

By: Steven C. Wheelwright and Matt Verlinden

Describes the creation and operation of the initial two heavyweight teams for new drug development and launch. The primary focus is on one of the teams, Evista, although comparisons to the other team, Zyprexa, are included. Lilly must decide the next phase (postlaunch)... View Details

Keywords: Projects; Groups and Teams; Operations; Management Teams; Product Development; Transition; Product Design; Business Startups; Business Plan; Product Launch; Competition; Service Operations; Pharmaceutical Industry

12 Oct 1999
Research & Ideas

A Perfect Fit: Aligning Organization & Strategy

their espoused strategy and management principles. Beer and Eisenstat began implementing the process ten years ago at Becton Dickinson and Company, a medical products and diagnostic systems supplier. "Ray Gilmartin, who was CEO at... View Details

Keywords: by Judith A. Ross

August 2003 (Revised December 2004)
Case

Peninsula Community Foundation

By: James E. Austin, Jane Wei-Skillern and Alison Berkley Wagonfeld

After leading the Peninsula Community Foundation (PCF) through a period of tremendous growth, its president, Sterling Speirn, is facing the prospect of a decline in the foundation's asset base for the first time in the foundation's history. In addition, the fact that... View Details

Keywords: Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Product Positioning; Planning; Alliances; Opportunities; Nonprofit Organizations; Valuation; Financial Services Industry

February 2011
Exercise

Pitch Your Project!

By: Thomas Steenburgh

No matter what you do later in your career, you are going to have to learn how to pitch ideas. Perhaps you will want to convince a venture capitalist to invest in your new business idea. Perhaps you will want to convince your company to develop an innovative product.... View Details

Keywords: Business Plan; Change; Venture Capital; Governing and Advisory Boards; Collaborative Innovation and Invention; Marketing; Product Development; Interests; Complexity; Chicago; New York (state, US)

24 Aug 2016
Research & Ideas

Can Obamacare Be Saved?

On August 15th, Aetna announced that it would reduce by 80 percent its participation in the Obama administration’s public exchanges for health insurance policies in 2017, citing significant financial losses. The move came just a few weeks after the Department of... View Details

Keywords: by John A. Quelch and Emily Boudreau; Insurance; Health

20 Jul 2016
Research & Ideas

Airplane Design Brings Out the Class Warfare in Us All

floor plan with the CEO sitting in the middle of staff, or should the CEO have an office on a separate floor? “We don’t have the data yet, but my hunch is that these decisions affect employee morale,” Norton says. “Anecdotally, people can... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Air Transportation; Sports; Travel

02 Feb 2004
Research & Ideas

Mapping Your Corporate Strategy

articulated by (HBS professor) Michael Porter, will be most successful when the collection of integrated and aligned activities enable the company to offer a value proposition—whether low total cost, product leadership, complete customer... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

December 2020 (Revised January 2025)
Case

Responsive Working at PepsiCo UK (A): Streamlining a Turnaround

By: Amy C. Edmondson and Nancy Boghossian Staples

Facing a significant decline in revenues in 2016, David Gwilliam, Head of Transformation at PepsiCo UK introduced a new way of working (“Responsive Working”), which encompasses a set of work practices and some new team structures. The work practices comprise a set of 9... View Details

Keywords: SLAM Teams; Turnaround; Groups and Teams; Employees; Training; Decision Making; Planning; Performance Improvement; Consumer Products Industry; Consumer Products Industry; United Kingdom; Europe

10 Jan 2008
Sharpening Your Skills

Sharpening Your Skills: Operations Management

Sharpening Your Skills dives into the HBS Working Knowledge archives to bring together articles on ways to improve your business skills. Questions to be answered: Can "lean" productions methods improve service industries? How can a... View Details

24 Sep 2007
Research & Ideas

The FDA: What Will the Next 100 Years Bring?

facilities each year, an increasing number of which are on foreign soil. "Without the FDA, each of us would individually spend a lot more time researching where products come from and what ingredients they contain," says Harvard Business... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Consumer Products; Consumer Products; Consumer Products; Consumer Products

January 2021 (Revised March 2021)
Supplement

Toyota and Its Labor Union in Argentina (B)

By: Jorge Tamayo, Erik Snowberg and Jenyfeer Martinez Buitrago

Toyota Argentina (TASA) and the union representing automotive industry workers in the country had been working together since 2011 to address the challenges faced by Toyota’s manufacturing plant in Zárate (Argentina). The strategy for moving forward was built on an... View Details

Keywords: Manufacturing Performance; Production; Performance Improvement; Strategy; Labor Unions; Labor and Management Relations; Agreements and Arrangements; Strategic Planning; Factories, Labs, and Plants; Auto Industry; Argentina

August 2002 (Revised February 2005)
Case

Gillette Company (A): Pressure for Change

By: Rosabeth M. Kanter and James Weber

After years of strong performance with market-dominating brands, Gillette's performance slips and a new CEO is selected from outside the company to lead a turnaround. This case describes the business and financial situation he inherited and asks what he should do... View Details

Keywords: Business History; Performance Consistency; Product Positioning; Selection and Staffing; Change Management; Leading Change; Competitive Strategy; Planning; Retail Industry

21 Nov 2016
Research & Ideas

It Matters That Your CEO Doesn't Know Much About Sales

productivity improvements. Over the past 15 years, production efficiencies have enabled an average S&P 500 company to reduce its cost of goods sold by about 250 basis points, Cespedes says, but selling... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

June 2024 (Revised August 2024)
Case

Revlon India's Turnaround: Navigating Online-Offline Decisions Using a Balanced Scorecard

By: Tatiana Sandino and Samuel Grad

Revlon India was founded as a joint venture in 1995, pairing the industrial conglomerate UMG with the global beauty brand Revlon, Inc. to bring international color cosmetics to India. After growing rapidly and pioneering the Beauty Advisor (BA) model in India, the... View Details