Publications

30 Apr 2001
Research & Ideas

Entering the Age of Alliances

The twenty-first century will be the age of alliances. In this age, collaboration between nonprofit organizations and corporations will grow in frequency and strategic importance. Collaborative relationships will increasingly migrate from... View Details

Keywords: by James Austin

David J. Collis

For the past thirty years David J. Collis has been a professor at the Harvard Business School, where he was only the second ever full-time Adjunct Professor appointed. Previously, he was the Thomas Henry Carroll Ford Foundation Adjunct Professor, the MBA Class... View Details

September 1989 (Revised July 1991)
Case

Caterpillar, Inc.: George Schaefer Takes Charge

By: Christopher A. Bartlett

For over half a century, Caterpillar, Inc. (CAT) had been a world leader in the manufacture of earthmoving and construction machinery. In 1982, just months after it recorded the highest sales and profits in its history, CAT experienced its greatest crisis. Demand fell... View Details

Keywords: Machinery and Machining; Crisis Management; Labor Unions; Demand and Consumers; Management Teams; Problems and Challenges; Competitive Strategy; Business Strategy; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Manufacturing Industry; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Industrial Products Industry

Forest L. Reinhardt is the John D. Black Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School, and HBS’s Senior Associate Dean for Faculty Promotions and Tenure.

Professor Reinhardt is interested in the relationships between market and nonmarket... View Details

Keywords: agribusiness; agriculture; beverage; biotechnology; chemical; energy; federal government; food; food processing; forest products; nonprofit industry; oil ＆ gas; paper; petroleum; tourism; transportation

March 2010
Case

Sonoco Products Company (A): Building a World-Class HR Organization (Abridged)

By: David A. Thomas and Boris Groysberg

Describes the steps the vice-president of human resources takes in revamping an HR function that was noncooperative and, at times, competitive and introducing the company to the notion of HR as a strategic business partner. Explores changes made to the company's... View Details

Keywords: Human Resources; Organizations; Restructuring; Partners and Partnerships; Management Succession; Strategic Planning; Performance

Earl Sasser is a Baker Foundation Professor at Harvard Business School and has been a member of the faculty there since 1969. He received a B.A. in Mathematics from Duke University in 1965, an MBA from the University of North Carolina in 1967, and a Ph.D. in... View Details

07 Jun 2004
Research & Ideas

What Drives Supply Chain Behavior?

To err is human, but most research on supply chain management doesn't take psychological, functional, incentive-related, and other biases into account. HBS professors Rogelio Oliva and Noel Watson have devised their latest research to... View Details

Keywords: by Sarah Jane Johnston

February 2009 (Revised June 2010)
Case

Mibanco: Meeting the Mainstreaming of Microfinance

By: Michael Chu and Gustavo A. Herrero

Mibanco, Peru's leading microfinance bank, faces intense competition as the banking industry rushes into low income segments. Companion video clips bring into the classroom the contemporary reality of a world-class microfinance institution, where the unpaved streets... View Details

Keywords: Microfinance; Profit; Business History; Growth and Development Strategy; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Marketing Strategy; Service Operations; Performance; Competition; Banking Industry; Peru

November 1998 (Revised November 2001)
Case

BMW AG: The Digital Car Project (A)

By: Stefan H. Thomke and Ashok Nimgade

Describes how the German automotive firm BMW is trying to reduce its development time by half with the aid of computer-aided technologies. To leverage these technologies fully in the very competitive automotive industry, BMW is faced with the challenge of changing its... View Details

Keywords: Change; Competency and Skills; Management; Time Management; Product Positioning; Product Development; Business Processes; Performance; Problems and Challenges; Technology; Auto Industry

2014
Book

Reinventing State Capitalism: Leviathan in Business, Brazil and Beyond

By: Aldo Musacchio and Sergio G. Lazzarini

In this book we describe the transformation of state capitalism from a model in which governments owned and ran corporations and broadly controlled the allocation of financial resources into two new varieties of state capitalism: Leviathan as a majority and as a... View Details

July 2019
Case

Four Products: Predicting Diffusion (2019)

By: John Gourville

One job of product managers, marketers, strategic planners, and other corporate executives is to predict what the demand will be for a new product. This task is easier for certain classes of new products than for others. For new consumer package goods, for instance,... View Details

Keywords: Diffusion Processes; Product Adoption; Marketing; Forecasting and Prediction; Demand and Consumers; Product; Adoption; Product Launch

May 2024 (Revised September 2024)
Case

Hakluyt: From Corporate Intelligence to Trusted Advisors

By: Joseph B. Fuller and Lena Duchene

Established in 1995 by a group of ex-British intelligence officers, Hakluyt & Company (Hakluyt) was a corporate advisory firm that generated insights by leveraging a unique blend of internal expertise and a global network of well-connected individuals. Since 2019, the... View Details

09 Mar 2016
Lessons from the Classroom

In This Classroom, Beer Can Improve Your Grade

simulations, but Strategic Brew stands alone in scope. All 940 first-year students play the game simultaneously as part of the required Strategy course. Roughly 40 faculty and project members manage and... View Details

Keywords: by Roberta Holland; Education; Food & Beverage

March 2017 (Revised October 2018)
Case

Catalant: The Future of Work?

By: Thomas Eisenmann, Jeffrey F. Rayport and Christine Snively

Catalant, founded in 2013 as an online marketplace where MBAs could bid on consulting projects posted by small- to medium-sized businesses, had expanded by 2016 to provide Fortune 1000 companies with access to over 35,000 independent experts. The founders envisioned... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Human Resources; Recruitment; Labor; Market Platforms; Growth and Development Strategy; Employment Industry; Consulting Industry; United States

February 2009 (Revised June 2019)
Case

Cleveland Clinic: Transformation and Growth 2015

By: Michael E. Porter and Elizabeth O. Teisberg

The Cleveland Clinic's health care services are internationally renowned for quality. In 2008, The Clinic began to restructure the organization into teams defined around patient needs, rather than traditional medical specialties. "Patients First!" takes shape as the... View Details

Keywords: Health; Health Care Operations; Health Care Quality; Health Care; Strategy And Leadership; Strategy Development; Health Care and Treatment; Leading Change; Goals and Objectives; Growth and Development Strategy; Measurement and Metrics; Service Delivery; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Outcome or Result; Health Industry; Cleveland

31 Jan 2012
First Look

First Look: Jan. 31

existing theory would predict. We discuss how these findings advance understanding of how organizational structure and corporate leadership interact and of how organizations can more effectively realize the strategic value of corporate... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne & Carmen Nobel

March 2013 (Revised May 2013)
Case

Building Innovation at Terrapin Bright Green

By: Amy C. Edmondson, Sydney Ribot and Mary Saunders

Describes Terrapin Bright Green, an environmental consulting and strategic planning firm, and its approach for creating integrative, systematic solutions to green-building conundrums through consulting, research, and policy-related activities. Emphasis is placed on the... View Details

Keywords: Integrated Design; Entrepreneurs; Creative Industries; CONSULTING Firms; Energy; Design; Governance; Growth and Development; Innovation and Invention; Knowledge; Labor; Organizations; Problems and Challenges; Research; Strategy; Value; Consulting Industry; New York (city, NY)

August 1996
Supplement

Andersen Consulting - EMEAI: Bill Barnard on Organization Change

By: Ashish Nanda and Michael Y. Yoshino

Remarks by William (Bill) Barnard, partner-in-charge for Strategic Services in the subregion of Western Europe, in a conversation he had with Professors Ashish Nanda and Michael Yoshino of the Harvard Business School on November 1, 1995. View Details

Keywords: Management Teams; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Consulting Industry; Europe