Publications

February 2000 (Revised April 2005)
Case

Gray Security: Building a South African Services Firm

Describes Gray Security Services, an entrepreneurial South African firm that has recently gone through a financial restructuring with the help of Brait Capital Partners, a private equity firm. Gray provides complete security services to companies in South Africa, other... View Details

Keywords: Initial Public Offering; Entrepreneurship; Equity; Growth and Development Strategy; Service Industry; South Africa

2020
Working Paper

Why Do Firms Automate Production, and How Do They Adjust? Evidence from the Bell Telephone System over the 20th Century

By: Daniel P. Gross and James J. Feigenbaum

Over the course of the 20th century, AT&T's operating companies replaced telephone operators with mechanical switching and dial telephones. Yet it took AT&T 30 years from the invention of the technology to begin using it, and another 60 years to finish installing it... View Details

Keywords: Employment; Labor; Technology Adoption; Technology Networks; History; Telecommunications Industry; United States

January 2015 (Revised October 2016)
Case

onefinestay: Building a Luxury Experience in the Sharing Economy

By: Jill Avery, Anat Keinan and Liz Kind

onefinestay was a two-sided marketplace that offered high-end home rentals to travelers who sought a more authentic and local experience than a typical upscale hotel might provide. After five years of rapid growth, it was time to do a comprehensive analysis of the... View Details

21 Aug 2023
Book

You’re More Than Your Job: 3 Tips for a Healthier Work-Life Balance

it part of your personal brand. The more you’re wedded to one position, the harder it will be to find a new one if layoffs happen. “Older generations are going to feel this most acutely: Equating your identity with your occupation is problematic, because View Details

Keywords: by Kara Baskin

January 2005 (Revised November 2005)
Case

Gobi Partners: October 2004

By: G. Felda Hardymon and Ann Leamon

The general partners of Gobi Partners, a venture fund located in Shanghai, are trying to decide the best way to raise money for their first fund. Their strategy of investing in early-stage digital media companies in China was well-received by strategic investors--IBM... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Venture Capital; Private Equity; Investment; Goals and Objectives; Emerging Markets; Problems and Challenges; Conflict Management; Shanghai

June 1994 (Revised September 1994)
Background Note

Commercializing Technology: Imaginative Understanding of User Needs

By: Dorothy A. Leonard

The transformation of technology into commercially successful products is a process fraught with risk and uncertainty, and increasing pressure on time to market is exacerbating the difficulties. This note first describes a study conducted by Hewlett-Packard to improve... View Details

Keywords: Transformation; Communication Strategy; Customers; Design; Marketing; Consumer Behavior; Product Development; Research; Risk and Uncertainty; Commercialization; Technology Adoption

June 2013 (Revised October 2013)
Case

Tim Blanchard at Jones Mendel & Co. (Abridged)

By: Jay W. Lorsch and John Gabarro

Tim Blanchard struggles to balance all the demands facing him as a partner of a consulting firm. He must decide how to serve clients, mentor his people, provide strategy and direction to the high-tech group, and spend time with family. View Details

Keywords: Business or Company Management; Management Style; Partners and Partnerships; Work-Life Balance; Problems and Challenges; Management Teams; Consulting Industry

05 Apr 2004
What Do You Think?

Should We Brace Ourselves for Another Era of M&A Value Destruction?

(no matter the company source) in charge is always the best plan ... 3) ... thinking that a top-down communication, sent once, is sufficient." Marcus Dancer blamed some of the problem on the way that executives are compensated. In... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

23 Jan 2013
Research & Ideas

Three-Dimensional Strategy: Winning the Multisided Platform

contractual relationships) or noncommercial (e.g., communication on a dating website). Affiliation requires platform-specific investments of time or money or both. For example, a supermarket would not qualify because it is a reseller:... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna

March 2020
Teaching Note

onefinestay: Building a Luxury Experience in the Sharing Economy

By: Jill Avery and Anat Keinan

onefinestay was a two-sided marketplace that offered high-end home rentals to travelers who sought a more authentic and local experience than a typical upscale hotel might provide. After five years of rapid growth, it was time to do a comprehensive analysis of the... View Details

July 2024
Supplement

Fail Safe Testing, Inc. (B)

By: Richard S. Ruback and Royce Yudkoff

Pre-Abstract: Instructors should consider the timing of making videos available to students, as they may reveal key case details.
Abstract: Fail Safe Testing, Inc., founded in 1988, was the leading provider of fire hose pressure testing, ground ladder and pump... View Details

Keywords: Marketing Strategy; Business Plan; Acquisition; Customers

February 15, 2022
Article

How Managers Can Build a Culture of Experimentation

By: Frank V. Cespedes and Neil Hoyne

Testing in business presents qualitatively different challenges than those in clinical trials and most scientific research. There are very few opportunities for randomized control experiments in a changing, competitive market. Yet, change and competition make testing a... View Details

Keywords: Experimentation; Management; Decision Making

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January 2014 (Revised March 2014)
Case

SAP 2014: Reaching for the Cloud

By: Karim R. Lakhani, Marco Iansiti and Noah Fisher

In May 2014, Bill McDermott will become the sole CEO of SAP AG, the world leader in the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) field. The case occurs in January 2014 at SAP's investors meeting, at a time when the company's stock is near record high. A 2010 strategy... View Details

Keywords: Cloud Computing; Platform; Strategy And Execution; Strategy And Leadership; Enterprise Resource Planning; Software; Information Technology; Digital Platforms; Applications and Software; Information Technology Industry; Germany

November 2001
Background Note

Global Approaches to Anti-Corruption

By: Joseph Hinsey, Guhan Subramanian and Michelle Kalka

In the 1970s, a series of unpleasant revelations about corporate conduct, culminating in the public disclosure about unsavory business practices abroad by more than 400 U.S. corporations, jarred popular perceptions concerning business ethics. Congress responded by... View Details

Keywords: Crime and Corruption; Globalization; Developing Countries and Economies; Laws and Statutes; Ethics; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Information Industry; United States

02 Nov 2020
What Do You Think?

Is Antitrust Just a Quaint Notion in the Digital Age?

antitrust laws also don’t deal well with companies that took advantage of network effects to become huge and now are perceived as ‘too big to fail’ or to do anything about.” Does antitrust law need a high tech reset? What do you think?... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett; Retail; Technology; Telecommunications; Communications; Consumer Products; Service

12 Nov 2001
Research & Ideas

Facing the New World Order

attributes that companies care about. So it's very important that everybody keeps their head about them and don't do anything stupid. On the corporate side, I think the implications that grow out of our thinking suggests that this is a... View Details

Keywords: by Staff

24 May 2018
Blog Post

Win/Win Board Assignments: Expert Advice from Board Recruiter Julie Norris

For many successful business people, retirement (or the advanced stages of their careers) is not a time to abandon old interests, but an opportunity to create new successes on the foundations of previous ones, perhaps by serving on a... View Details

October 2016 (Revised November 2016)
Case

DO & CO: Gourmet Entertainment

By: Juan Alcácer and Esel Çekin

This case is about a global catering, restaurant, and hospitality company, DO & CO, growing geographically with its existing businesses while also adding new brands to its portfolio. The company had $1 billion in revenues in 2015 from its three divisions: airline... View Details