Publications

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September 2004 (Revised June 2005)
Case

Otis Elevator: Accelerating Business Transformation with IT

By: F. Warren McFarlan and Brian DeLacey

Focuses on a major transformation of Otis Elevator's infrastructure. Led by the CEO, this transformation represents a remarkable long-term reengineering of all the processes of the firm to drive its operating costs down and service image up. The transformation is the... View Details

Keywords: Transformation; Cost Management; Infrastructure; Business Processes; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Information Technology

26 Feb 2001
Research & Ideas

David, Goliath, and Disruption

into a disruptee. Learning To Chicken-scratch If a technology is to succeed, in theory at least, it should not require people to radically change their behavior. Instead, companies that promote the... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

31 Jul 2012
First Look

First Look: July 31

perfect substitutes for equity finance, payout taxes may therefore have an effect on the investment of firms. High taxes will favor investment by firms that can finance internally. Using an international panel with many View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

August 2019 (Revised January 2020)
Case

Essential Explorations at MUJI

By: Tomomichi Amano, Das Narayandas, Naoko Jinjo and Akiko Kanno

Launched as a private brand in 1980 to counter the increasingly brand-conscious consumer in Japan, MUJI offered beautifully designed, fairly priced, no-frills quality goods. The once modest private label brand with 40 products had expanded significantly by 2019 to more... View Details

Keywords: Product Portfolio Management; Brands and Branding; Product; Management; Change Management; Mission and Purpose; Retail Industry; Japan

February 2001 (Revised May 2001)
Case

Wipro Technologies (A)

By: Lynn S. Paine, Carin-Isabel Knoop and Suma Raju

The new general manager of Wipro's software services division has been brought on board from General Electric to develop the division into a leading provider of software services to the world's largest corporations. A native of India who received management training in... View Details

Keywords: Business or Company Management; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Transformation; Change Management; Human Resources; Software; Information Technology Industry; India

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June 2004 (Revised June 2004)
Case

Utah Symphony and Utah Opera: A Merger Proposal

By: Thomas J. DeLong and David L. Ager

Anne Ewers, general director of Utah Opera, is awaiting the decision of the members of the board of the Utah Symphony and Utah Opera about whether to merge Utah's top two arts organizations. If the vote favors the merger, Ewers will be asked to assume the helm of the... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Change Management; Organizational Culture; Human Resources; Management; Fine Arts Industry; Music Industry; Utah

September–October 2012
Article

Toward a New Culture for Corporate Boards

By: Robert C. Pozen

A decade of business scandals and regulatory reforms find corporate America... facing fresh scandals and calls for more reforms. Robert Pozen, former chair of MFS Investment, noted director, and Harvard Business School faculty member, wonders if we have been fixing the... View Details

Keywords: Governing and Advisory Boards; Ethics; Change; United States

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January 2009 (Revised January 2011)
Background Note

The Great Moderation, Dead or Alive?

By: Diego A. Comin

The Great Moderation is a significant decline in the volatility of fluctuations in most macroeconomic variables that the United States and other developed and developing economies have experienced at least since the mid-1980s. This case describes the basic facts,... View Details

Keywords: Volatility; Business Cycles; Macroeconomics; United States

29 Apr 2020
Book

The Key to Powerful Social Change: Small Villages

he helped put together Partners HealthCare. Two of the teaching hospitals just got them to do it because the process was too slow to try to get all five to agree at that time. But my way of attacking a... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

14 Aug 2007
First Look

First Look: August 14, 2007

can increase use. We test this hypothesis in a field experiment in Zambia using door-to-door marketing of a home water purification solution. Our methodology separates the screening effect of prices... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

04 Dec 2006
Research & Ideas

The Money Connection—Understanding VC Networks

Most of us have experienced the power of networks. There's the job found through a friend's sister's boyfriend, or the lifelong partner met through a neighbor's cousin. But how do networks play into... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Financial Services

01 Jul 2002
Research & Ideas

What it Takes to Lead Through Turmoil

take advantage of change in fundamental ways. In a presentation to an overflow crowd of HBS alumni, Kanter discussed the characteristics of... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

15 Nov 2020
News

Podcasts Engage New Audiences with HBS

among US millennials. Climate Change Challenges Facing the Real Estate Industry Arthur Segal and a Boston Properties EVP talk about the difficulty of financing development in coastal cities and the need to... View Details

28 Jan 2014
First Look

First Look: January 28

that suggest that the Act has produced financial reporting benefits. While the direct costs of the Act were substantial and fell disproportionately on smaller companies, costs have fallen over time and in response to View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

25 Nov 2014
First Look

First Look: November 25

emerged in recent years as a flashpoint of debate in the United States. I characterize the direct effects that changes in that price index would have on retirees who differ in their initial wealth at... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

17 Dec 2015
News

Examining Global Workforce Management

As executives of an international company are considering workforce reductions in Europe and South America, they are providing layoff support to employees and working with communities to create incentives for new businesses to replace... View Details

April 2020
Supplement

Open Innovation at Fujitsu (C)

By: Amy C. Edmondson and Jean-François Harvey

This follow-on case study provides a multi-year update on the achievements of the Open Innovation Gateway (OIG). Over time, OIG honed a process that enabled open innovation. It developed three streams of activities, namely co-creation projects with major customers and... View Details

Keywords: Open Innovation; Inter-organizational Relationships; Collaborative Innovation and Invention; Change Management; Relationships; Leadership Development

November 2024
Case

Fyffes International SA

By: David E. Bell, Damien McLoughlin and Tonia Labruyère

Helge Sparsoe, CEO of Fyffes since 2020, had taken the tropical produce importer and distributor back to a path of stable level of profitability since he joined in 2020. He was now thinking about next steps for the business, which mainly traded in bananas. He was... View Details

Keywords: Plant-Based Agribusiness; Change Management; Environmental Sustainability; Brands and Branding; Demand and Consumers; Supply Chain; Competition; Price; Value Creation; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; Switzerland; United Kingdom; Republic of Ireland; Colombia; Guatemala; Costa Rica; Ecuador

January 2021
Supplement

Barbara Krakow Gallery (B): Art and the Pandemic

By: José B. Alvarez and David Lane

Updates (A) case by describing the early impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the art market, the renaming of the gallery as the Krakow Witkin Gallery, and the response of its partners and staff to the pandemic. View Details

Keywords: Art Market; COVID-19; Arts; Business Model; Change Management; Trends; Communication; Customer Focus and Relationships; Human Resources; Marketing; Distribution Channels; Outcome or Result; Health Pandemics; Fine Arts Industry