Publications

26 Apr 2023
In Practice

Is AI Coming for Your Job?

experts perform their work. Yes, certain tasks can be completed correctly and completely by AI, but for those types of tasks we will see something like the Industrial Revolution, where people’s jobs changed, and they were able to use new... View Details

Keywords: by Kristen Senz; Technology

December 2002 (Revised October 2006)
Case

Commerce Bank

By: Frances X. Frei and Corey B. Hajim

Commerce Bank has become one of the fastest growing banks in the country, despite having defied conventional wisdom about how to grow deposits. Banks historically have grown either by competing on deposit rates or through acquisitions that expand their deposit base.... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Design; Growth and Development Strategy; Service Operations; Competition; Banking Industry

July 2008 (Revised April 2009)
Case

Advanced Micro Devices: Competing in the Shadow of a Giant (A)

By: Willy C. Shih and Andrew A. King

As the only significant competitor to Intel Corporation in PC microprocessors, Advanced Micro Devices faced daunting investment choices. Not only did it have to fund microprocessor design teams, it also had to fund silicon process R&D, and it faced huge capital... View Details

Keywords: Investment; Operations; Partners and Partnerships; Competitive Strategy; Technology Industry

Find at Harvard

July 2008 (Revised December 2011)
Case

ghSMART & Co., 2006: Pioneering in Professional Services

By: Noam T. Wasserman and Ashraf Haque

Geoff Smart, founder and CEO of ghSMART & Co., wanted to build ghSMART into the #1 management-assessment firm for CEOs and investors. However, he had just received two pieces of very bad news: the demise of an existing project and the loss of a $1 million engagement he... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Decision Choices and Conditions; Entrepreneurship; Corporate Governance; Growth and Development Strategy; Organizational Structure; Service Industry

February 2001 (Revised April 2001)
Case

Merrill Lynch: Integrated Choice (Abridged)

By: F. Warren McFarlan and James Weber

Merrill Lynch, a full-service brokerage firm with $1.5 trillion in client assets, is under attack from both discount and electronic brokerage firms. It responds with Integrated Choice, a suite of products designed to capture clients, from the do-it-yourself investor... View Details

Keywords: Investment Banking; Marketing Strategy; Distribution Channels; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Risk and Uncertainty; Financial Services Industry

August 1989 (Revised May 1991)
Case

Grosvenor Park

By: William J. Poorvu and Katherine Sweetman

Dick Dublin believes he has designed a townhouse development which will appeal to mobile young professionals. Dublin has removed some market risk by locking in a forward commitment for low interest rate loans for future purchasers at Grosvenor Park. The pricing... View Details

Keywords: Financial Management; Projects; Financing and Loans; Property; Financial Strategy; Price; Strategic Planning; Business and Government Relations; Real Estate Industry; Maryland

Web

Degrees, Certifications & Alumni Status | About

learn, through flexible programs where you complete coursework on your own time while meeting regular deadlines. Executive Education Grants : Certificate of Completion for all programs Alumni Status : For select programs only Whether it’s improving leadership skills,... View Details

20 Dec 2011
First Look

First Look: December 20

stereotype-incongruent information. Implications for impression formation are discussed. Inducement Prizes and Innovation Authors:Liam Brunt, Josh Lerner, and Tom Nicholas Publication:Journal of Industrial Economics (forthcoming) Abstract... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

08 Mar 2011
First Look

First Look: March 8

shareholder value in concentrated industries. By contrast, non-delay provisions have an unambiguously negative relation with value, and more so in concentrated industries. Overall, our analysis suggests that there are governance trade-offs for shareholders, and View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

14 Oct 2008
Research & Ideas

Should You Bring Advertising Expertise In-House?

reasons include structural changes in the advertising industry such as the unbundling of agency services, and improved communication tools that make it easier and more cost efficient for firms to manage some aspect of their own... View Details

Keywords: by Sarah Jane Gilbert; Advertising

Program

Competing in the Age of Digital Platforms

strategic planning or developing new businesses at companies in any industry (e.g., technology, retail, financial services, auto, insurance, consumer products, etc.) Executives, directors, vice presidents, and senior managers who want to... View Details

March 2014 (Revised March 2015)
Case

Samsung Electronics: TV in an Era of Convergence

By: Karim R. Lakhani, Marco Iansiti and Kerry Herman

From the late 1990s to 2006/2007, Samsung Electronics moved from one of 170 TV manufacturers to gain dominant TV market share year over year from 2007-2013. As digital technologies increasingly converged in 2013-2014, the industry faced new questions: What was the... View Details

Keywords: Digital Innovation; Technology; Technology Management; Digital Convergence; Digital Technology; Innovation; Korea; Samsung; Television; Technological Innovation; Information Technology; Innovation and Invention; Innovation Leadership; Innovation and Management; Product Development; Product Design; Electronics Industry; Korean Peninsula; Asia

Web

Podcast - Business & Environment

imagery, AI, and systems design to enable more targeted insurance underwriting and disaster preparedness. She also explains how Bellwether is creating geospatial AI infrastructure and tools to support natural disaster response by the... View Details

February 1990 (Revised July 1990)
Case

Internal Revenue Service: Automated Collection System

By: Nitin Nohria

Describes how the IRS's collection operations changed from a largely manual system (COF) to an automated system (ACS). A central aspect of ACS was the electronic scheduling and maintaining of work. While with ACS the IRS accomplished significant improvements in the... View Details

Keywords: Sovereign Finance; Revenue; Information Technology; Taxation; Change Management; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Design; Human Resources; Public Administration Industry; United States

Web

Insights & Advice Blog

Partnering with student clubs is a great way to build relationships, promote your brand, and discover our MBA talent. [...] How Student-Proposed Internships Can Create Value 20 May 2025 | Summer Internships One student shares her experience View Details

17 Jul 2006
Lessons from the Classroom

Developing a Strategy for Digital Convergence

not only changed how Yoffie designed the course, called Strategy and Technology, but it's also changing how managers in tech-intensive companies are dealing with this issue on the front lines. Yoffie begins the course by exploring the... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Computer; Education

September 1985 (Revised January 1986)
Case

Peter Wendell

By: William A. Sahlman

Contains a description of a decision confronting an employee of IBM in late 1981. Should he leave IBM to become head of a new venture capital fund which will specialize in technology investments? The case is designed to expose students to the nature of the opportunity... View Details

Keywords: Personal Development and Career; Jobs and Positions; Opportunities; Valuation; Decision Choices and Conditions; Resignation and Termination; Venture Capital; Financial Services Industry; Financial Services Industry

December 1994 (Revised October 1996)
Case

Patriot National Insurance Company: Case and Simulation

Designed to be used in conjunction with Byrnes, Byrnes & Townsend. Discusses a suit brought by a woman client who was badly injured in an automobile accident and alleges that a proximate cause of the accident was faulty repairs on her car by a Patriot-insured auto... View Details

Keywords: Negotiation; Insurance; Insurance Industry

November 2002 (Revised August 2003)
Case

MedSource Technologies

By: Robert S. Huckman

Considers the issues facing Richard Effress, MedSource's chairman and CEO, as the firm approaches the Precision Cut project--the first test of MedSource's capabilities as an integrated, contract manufacturer in the medical device industry. MedSource Technologies was... View Details

Keywords: Product Development; Production; Mergers and Acquisitions; Product Design; Supply Chain Management; Management Teams; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry; United States