Publications

August 2000 (Revised December 2003)
Case

Dell's Working Capital

By: Richard S. Ruback and Aldo Sesia

Dell Computer Corp. manufactures, sells, and services personal computers. The company markets its computers directly to its customers and builds computers after receiving a customer order. This build-to-order model enables Dell to have much smaller investment in... View Details

Keywords: Financial Management; Working Capital; Manufacturing Industry; Manufacturing Industry

November 1990 (Revised October 1991)
Case

John Crane UK Ltd.: The CAD-CAM Link

Describes the improvement of manufacturing performance in a job shop through the application of a variety of techniques such as group technology, manufacturing cells, and CAD-CAM. As well as exploring the limitations and merits of these methods, the case explores the... View Details

Keywords: Small Business; Production; Information Technology; Performance Improvement; Manufacturing Industry; United Kingdom

November 1997 (Revised May 2002)
Case

MicroAge, Inc.: Orchestrating the Information Technology Value Chain

By: Lynda M. Applegate and Kirk A. Goldman

MicroAge, Inc. started as a storefront in Tempe, AZ in 1976 selling personal computer kits to hobbyists. During their first year of operation, founders Jeff McKeever and Alan Hald sold $1.5 million worth of computer kits, priced at under $1,000 each. Twenty years... View Details

Keywords: Transformation; Growth Management; Risk Management; Product; Opportunities; Horizontal Integration; Information Infrastructure; Information Technology; Internet and the Web; Technology Industry; Arizona

Find at Harvard

17 Jul 2018
First Look

New Research and Ideas, July 17, 2018

introduction of a very general class of unobserved heterogeneity on agents' preferences. Under minimal assumptions, we show existence and uniqueness of equilibrium. We provide two algorithms to compute the... View Details

Keywords: Dina Gerdeman

23 Dec 2002
Research & Ideas

Partnering and the Balanced Scorecard

assets, including customer relationships; innovative products and services; high-quality and responsive operating processes; skills and knowledge... View Details

Keywords: by Robert S. Kaplan & David P. Norton

05 Dec 2017
First Look

First Look at New Research and Ideas, December 5, 2017

forthcoming New York: Dey Street Books Rebel Talent: Why It Pays to Break the Rules at Work and Life By: Gino, F. Abstract—The world’s best chef. An airline captain who brought his flight to safety in a daring water landing. A magician... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

October 2024
Background Note

The Semiconductor Industry

By: Andy Wu, Steve Blank and Matt Higgins

The semiconductor industry powers modern technology, from consumer electronics to data centers. This background note explores the layers of the semiconductor inudstry value chain, including Integrated Device Manufacturers (IDMs), fabless companies, and foundries, while... View Details

Keywords: Strategy; Supply Chain; Product Design; Customer Value and Value Chain; Manufacturing Industry; Manufacturing Industry; Manufacturing Industry; United States; China; Taiwan

August 2015 (Revised June 2021)
Case

Amazon.com, 2021

By: John R. Wells, Benjamin Weinstock, Gabriel Ellsworth and Galen Danskin

In February 2021, Amazon announced 2020 operating profits of $22,899 million, up from $2,233 million in 2015, on sales of $386 billion, up from $107 billion five years earlier (see Exhibit 1). The shareholders expressed their satisfaction (see Exhibit 2), but not all... View Details

October 2002 (Revised March 2013)
Case

Intermountain Health Care

By: Richard M.J. Bohmer, Amy C. Edmondson and Laura Feldman

Intermountain Health Care (IHC), an integrated delivery system based in Utah, has adopted a new strategy for managing health care delivery. The approach focuses management attention not only on the facilities where care takes place but also on physician decision making... View Details

Keywords: Ethnicity; Innovation Strategy; Cost Management; Information Technology; Organizational Structure; Technology Adoption; Performance Improvement; Problems and Challenges; Adoption; Change Management; Cost vs Benefits; Health Care and Treatment; Health Industry; Utah

December 2016 (Revised December 2017)
Case

Faber-Castell

By: Ryan Raffaelli and Christine Snively

By 2016, Count Anton-Wolfgang von Faber-Castell had led the 255-year-old pencil manufacturer Faber-Castell through waves of technological change. The pocket calculator decimated Faber-Castell’s slide rule business in the 1970s, and computer aided design technology... View Details

Keywords: Leadership Style; Leading Change; Family Ownership; Manufacturing Industry; Germany

01 Dec 1996
News

Starting Up and Starting Over

The result was Litton Industries, Inc., an electronic products and systems manufacturer that in its first twelve years increased sales by 30,000... View Details

June 2014
Teaching Note

Google Glass

By: Thomas Eisenmann

In early 2014, business development executives at Google were formulating a distribution strategy for Glass, a wearable computer that projected information on a display viewable with an upward glance. Options, which were not mutually exclusive, included 1) continuing... View Details

Keywords: Partners and Partnerships; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Distribution Channels; Technology Adoption; Product Marketing; Computer Industry; Computer Industry; United States

01 Jun 2023
News

Alumni and Faculty Books

the milestone of 100 years of Independence in 2047? Should India become a manufacturing powerhouse to rival China? Or should it stay content with services and become the Information Superpower of the world?... View Details

Keywords: Publishing Industries (except Internet); Information

20 Apr 2015
Research & Ideas

The 5 Strategy Rules of Bill Gates, Andy Grove, and Steve Jobs

integrated computer industry, and was able to specialize in creating the core component of computing—the microprocessor. And then he championed that silicon part with the... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Computer

Web

Sample Student Projects - Institute For Strategy And Competitiveness

Zealand's Marine Cluster (2009) Nicaragua The Nicaraguan Coffee Cluster (2006) Nigeria Lagos ICT Services Cluster (2017) Nollywood — The Nigerian Film Industry (2008) Nigeria Financial Services (2008) Norway Norway’s Fish and Fish View Details

02 Oct 2017
What Do You Think?

Do Bitcoin and Digital Currency Have a Future?

ever about innovative financial endeavors. So that brings me to the subject of digital money or “cryptocurrency,” a form of encrypted digital money. How should we think about the future of a currency that is manufactured (“mined”) View Details

Keywords: by James L. Heskett; Financial Services

30 May 2018
Research & Ideas

Should Retailers Match Their Own Prices Online and in Stores?

let me order the costume on the store’s computer and get free shipping. Sold! For multichannel retailers—those who sell both in physical stores and online—pricing is a... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Retail

September 1997 (Revised May 1999)
Case

Precision Controls, Inc.

By: James K. Sebenius and David T. Kotchen

Precision Controls is a Minnesota-based manufacturer of electronic control devices. To enhance its product line, Precision would like to establish an artificial intelligence research group, either through internal development or, preferably, by merging with or... View Details

Keywords: Information Technology; Valuation; Research and Development; Negotiation Process; Stock Shares; Negotiation Tactics; Mergers and Acquisitions; Manufacturing Industry; Manufacturing Industry; Minnesota