Publications

February 2020 (Revised August 2021)
Case

Australia: Commodities, Competitiveness, Climate and China

By: Richard H.K. Vietor and Laura Alfaro

For the past few decades, Australia has dealt with the benefits and costs of repeated mining booms—inflation, a housing bubble, a current account deficit, and growing dependence on China. Between 1996 and 2007, however, Australia had most of these issues under control... View Details

Keywords: Commodities; Competitiveness; Carbon Tax; Environment; Capital Flows; Current Account; Mining; Economy; Problems and Challenges; Climate Change; Taxation; Competition; Financial Condition; Government and Politics; Inflation and Deflation; Environmental Sustainability; Australia

March 2003
Background Note

A Short Note on the AccuFlow Excel Model

By: Jay O. Light

Describes an Excel spreadsheet workbook that facilitates the analysis of AccuFlow, Inc. View Details

Keywords: History; Analytics and Data Science; Cost of Capital; Negotiation; Capital; Business Model; Economic Systems; Machinery and Machining; Leveraged Buyouts; Business Startups; Equity

05 Jun 2014
Research & Ideas

Fixing the ‘I Hate Work’ Blues

scientists and engineers about their latest ideas; visiting production facilities and service centers to check on quality and customer support. That means far less time holding lengthy business reviews in their conference rooms or having... View Details

Keywords: by Bill George

20 Dec 2006
Op-Ed

Investors Hurt by Dual-Track Tax Reporting

of being able to characterize their income separately depending on the audience. Something as simple as interest expense can be engineered to be an expense for tax authorities and a dividend for capital markets. Investors On The Short End... View Details

Keywords: by Mihir Desai

01 Jul 2019
What Do You Think?

Are Super Stretch Goals Only for the Very Young?

further growth, and essentially the loss of control of the company by the board, which was even required to remake its composition. At Volkswagen, eerily similar things happened, this time with engineering practices and goals. This sad... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

08 Jun 2010
First Look

First Look: June 8

uniquely individual model? Purchase this case:http://cb.hbsp.harvard.edu/cb/product/810098-PDF-ENG Systems Infrastructure at Google (A) Linda A. Hill and Emily A. SteckerHarvard Business School Case 410-110 This case describes how a senior vice president of View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

09 Jul 2018
Research & Ideas

Overcoming the Challenges of Selling Brand New Technology (Hey, Need a 3-D Printer?)

focused on selling software to engineers and designers and might not be as committed to selling hardware, which cost less and offered a lower commission. Selling on Amazon was the easiest option of all, but meant sacrificing 12 to 18... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Technology; Consumer Products; Electronics; Industrial Products; Information Technology; Manufacturing; Medical Devices & Supplies; Retail

07 Mar 2017
First Look

First Look at New Research, March 7

Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences as it 1) grapples with rapid undergraduate enrollment growth and its smaller scale relative to other top engineering schools and 2) prepares to move... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

08 Oct 2013
First Look

First Look: October 8

http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1939494 Working Papers Competing Ad Auctions By: Ashlagi, Itai, Benjamin Edelman, and Hoan Soo Lee Abstract—We present a two-stage model of competing ad auctions. Search engines attract... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

February 1996 (Revised November 1996)
Case

Wainwright Industries (A): Beyond the Baldrige

By: Rosabeth M. Kanter and Norman Klein

Traces the growth of Wainwright, a small automotive supply company, focusing on its commitment to quality in 1981 and the evolution of its quality culture. Breakthrough programs that stress "trust and belief" in the workforce and commitment to customers result in... View Details

Keywords: Quality; Customer Satisfaction; Customer Relationship Management; Ethics; Business or Company Management; Standards; Machinery and Machining; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Culture; Auto Industry; Missouri

July 2020 (Revised November 2020)
Case

Gera Developments: Leadership at a Crossroads

By: Christina R. Wing and John Masko

For decades, Gera Developments (Gera) was a boutique family-owned real estate development firm in Pune, India. But since 2000, managing director Rohit Gera had turned the company into a dynamic innovator in housing solutions for urban Indian families. Over the 2010s,... View Details

Keywords: Buildings and Facilities; Business Growth and Maturation; Construction; Geographic Location; Global Strategy; Globalized Firms and Management; Housing; Leadership Style; Management Succession; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Culture; Family Ownership; Family and Family Relationships; Urban Development; Customization and Personalization; Real Estate Industry; Maharashtra; India; United States

August 2006 (Revised May 2016)
Case

Cluster Mobilization in Mitteldeutschland

By: Jeffrey Fear, Christian H.M. Ketels and Claudia Linsenmeier

As part of the privatization in Eastern Germany after the fall of the Berlin Wall, Dow Chemical made a major investment in the Halle-Leipzig region, one of the largest chemical industry sites in Europe. The executive in charge of Dow's operations in the region, Bart... View Details

Keywords: Industry Clusters; Development Economics; Privatization; Chemicals; Foreign Direct Investment; Management Teams; Private Sector; Competitive Strategy; Brands and Branding; Market Participation; Chemical Industry; Germany

January 2024
Case

Fusion Industry Association: Igniting the Future of Clean Energy

By: Joshua Lev Krieger, Jim Matheson, Kyle R. Myers and Henry Tao

Fusion energy is evolving from a scientific idea to a commercial possibility, drawing large investments and regulatory discussions; how should the FIA navigate this evolution?

The Fusion Industry Association (FIA) is at the forefront of transforming fusion... View Details

Keywords: Science-Based Business; Engineering; Venture Capital; Entrepreneurship; Government and Politics; Government Legislation; Industry Clusters; Industry Growth; Industry Structures; Technological Innovation; Energy Industry; United States

January 2017 (Revised March 2017)
Case

Royal DSM: From Continuous Transformation to Organic Growth

By: William W. George, Carin-Isabel Knoop and Amram Migdal

Royal DSM CEO Feike Sijbesma was pondering the challenges of shifting DSM’s global organization from the constant transformations of the past 100 years to creating organic growth. When Sijbesma took the helm as CEO in 2007, he further pushed and completed the company’s... View Details

Keywords: Organic Growth; Organizational Change; M＆A; Mergers And Acquisitions; Divestment; Business Ventures; Business Divisions; Business Growth and Maturation; Restructuring; Change; Change Management; Transformation; Transition; Engineering; Chemicals; Mining; Ethics; Values and Beliefs; Finance; Capital Markets; Financial Markets; Food; Globalization; Global Strategy; Globalized Firms and Management; Globalized Markets and Industries; Health; Nutrition; History; Leadership; Leadership Development; Leadership Style; Leading Change; Management; Business or Company Management; Growth and Development Strategy; Growth Management; Management Practices and Processes; Management Style; Organizations; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Mission and Purpose; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Culture; Organizational Design; Ownership; Public Ownership; Performance; Strategy; Adaptation; Consolidation; Corporate Strategy; Value; Value Creation; Biotechnology Industry; Chemical Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; Mining Industry; Pharmaceutical Industry; Europe; Netherlands

May 2017
Teaching Note

Hilti Fleet Management (A) and (B)

By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell, Oliver Gassmann and Roman Sauer

These notes are meant to accompany Hilti Fleet Management (A): Turning a Successful Business Model on Its Head (717-427) and Hilti Fleet Management (B): Towards a New Business Model (717-465).
This case explores the introduction of fleet management in the... View Details

2003
Conference Paper

Follow the Money: What Really Drives Technology Innovation in Construction

By: John D. Macomber

Technology enthusiasts, academics, and software companies remain concerned about the slow pace of innovation in the construction industry. Tools are widely available that seem to provide eminently sensible and clearly apparent improvement to the process of design and... View Details

Keywords: Buildings and Facilities; Technological Innovation; Construction; Design; Performance Improvement; Motivation and Incentives; Knowledge Management; Adoption; Business Model; Capital Structure; Supply Chain

07 Aug 2006
Research & Ideas

Whatever Happened to Caveat Emptor?

the world. If my goal had been to explore the historical roots of consumer protection, the U.S. case would have been a natural focus. German companies have been able to excel in highly engineered products in part because German consumers... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Retail

July 2018 (Revised March 2019)
Teaching Note

Hilti (A): Fleet Management?

By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell and Jan Rivkin

This Teaching Note accompanies the case HBS No. 718-419, “Hilti (A): Fleet Management.” It provides guidelines for class discussion, as well as a board plan and transcripts of the associated videos, Hilti Fleet Management Video Supplements.
The associated case... View Details