Publications
Publications
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- All HBS Web
(6,015)
- Faculty Publications (1,415)
- January 2004
- Article
Corporate Venturing: The Origins of Unilever's Pregnancy Test
By: Geoffrey Jones and Alison Kraft
The relative ability of different sizes of firm and organisational designs to develop and sustain dynamic capabilities in innovation and create new businesses remains a matter of contention. While Chandler among many others has emphasised the pre-eminent role of large... View Details
- December 2003 (Revised October 2006)
- Case
Globalizing the Cost of Capital and Capital Budgeting at AES
By: Mihir A. Desai and Douglas Kurt Schillinger
With electricity generating businesses around the world, AES Corp. is seeking a methodology for calculating the cost of capital for its various businesses and potential projects. In the past, AES used the same cost of capital for all of its capital budgeting, but the... View Details
- November 2003 (Revised March 2004)
- Case
Drilling South: Petrobras Evaluates Pecom
By: Mihir A. Desai and Ricardo Reisen de Pinho
The Brazilian oil company, Petrobras, is evaluating the acquisition of an Argentine oil company, the Perez Companc Group (Pecom). The acquisition would increase Petrobras' oil reserves and expand its interests outside Brazil, a significant step for the largest company... View Details
Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Forecasting and Prediction; Financial Crisis; Non-Renewable Energy; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Corporate Governance; Risk Management; Emerging Markets; State Ownership; Performance Evaluation; Risk and Uncertainty; Valuation; Energy Industry; Argentina; Brazil
- October 2003 (Revised November 2006)
- Case
GE's Talent Machine: The Making of a CEO
By: Christopher A. Bartlett and Andrew N. McLean
GE believes its ability to develop management talent is a core competency that represents a source of sustainable competitive advantage. This case traces the development of GE's rich system of human resource policies and practices under five CEOs in the post-war era,... View Details
- October 2003 (Revised April 2005)
- Case
Innovation Corrupted: The Rise and Fall of Enron
Presents an historical overview of Enron's rise and fall and summarizes what is currently known about (1) the evolution of Enron's business model, (2) the organizational processes Enron officials relied on to drive and monitor the business, (3) emergent behavior... View Details
- September 2003 (Revised May 2004)
- Case
New Partnership for Africa's Development, The
By: Laura Alfaro, Debora L. Spar and Cate Reavis
In a world context of international institutions such as the World Trade Organization and the International Monetary Fund and their interaction with developing countries, this case looks at an African development initiative to address its own problems: The New Economic... View Details
- September 2003 (Revised June 2005)
- Case
Learning from LeapFrog: Creating Educational and Business Value
By: Lynda M. Applegate, Christopher Dede and Susan Saltrick
Explores the success factors leading to one's company's rise to the number three ranking in the aggressively competitive toy industry. LeapFrog has made the strategic decision to exploit its educational model in two industry sectors: consumer toys and educational... View Details
- September 2003
- Case
Allscripts, Inc.
By: William A. Sahlman and Laurence E. Katz
Describes a set of decisions confronting an entrepreneurial team that is considering taking managerial control of Allscripts, a health care venture. The company has gone through nine rounds of external financing and has changed its business model several times. View Details
- June 2003 (Revised October 2004)
- Case
StorageNetworks: Restarting a Public Company (A)
By: Joseph B. Lassiter III and Todd H Thedinga
Peter Bell, founder and CEO of StorageNetworks, faces the problem of "restarting" a public company by changing its business model from being a storage-services provider to being a storage software developer. The task seems challenging, but surely doable, with $200... View Details
- June 2003 (Revised August 2003)
- Case
Pension Policy at The Boots Company PLC
By: Luis M. Viceira and Akiko M. Mitsui
In early 2000, the trustees of the pension scheme at Boots considered a proposal to move 100% of the pension assets into a bond portfolio, which would be passively managed. The Boots Co. PLC was a leading retailer of cosmetics and toiletries in the United Kingdom, and... View Details
- June 2003 (Revised July 2003)
- Case
Union City Schools: Sustaining The Turnaround
By: Rosabeth M. Kanter and Ryan Raffaelli
Under the leadership of Superintendent Thomas Highton, Union City Schools, New Jersey, underwent a 14-year turnaround. In 1989, the Union City School District was the second-worst-performing district in New Jersey. As Mr. Highton prepared to retire, 2002 student test... View Details
- March 2003 (Revised November 2005)
- Case
Bertelsmann AG
By: Bharat N. Anand, Michael G. Rukstad and Christoph Kostring
On July 28, 2002, Bertelsmann announced the firing of its CEO, Thomas Middelhoff, in a move that surprised industry observers, analysts, and many employees. Bertelsmann, a privately held company headquartered in Germany, was one of the largest global media... View Details
Keywords: Business Conglomerates; Corporate Strategy; Entertainment; Media; Change Management; Integration; Resignation and Termination; Private Ownership; Initial Public Offering; Business Units; Media and Broadcasting Industry; Media and Broadcasting Industry; Media and Broadcasting Industry; Germany
- February 2003 (Revised July 2005)
- Case
British Broadcasting Corporation (A): One BBC
By: Rosabeth M. Kanter and Douglas A Raymond
Greg Dyke, the new director general of the British Broadcasting Corp. (BBC) must decide whether to extend an already ambitious change effort at the world's largest public service broadcaster. The initial results of the effort are very positive: audience numbers are up,... View Details
- February 2003 (Revised July 2005)
- Case
British Broadcasting Corporation (B): Making it Happen
By: Rosabeth M. Kanter and Douglas A Raymond
Greg Dyke, the new director general of the British Broadcasting Corp. (BBC), has launched an ambitious change program, called Making It Happen, with the objective of unlocking creativity, building a sense of common purpose, and encouraging collaboration throughout the... View Details
- February 2003
- Other Article
The Emergence and Sustainability of Abnormal Profits
By: Michael E. Porter and Anita M. McGahan
In this paper, we examine the emergence and the sustainability of abnormal profits among businesses that were part of U.S. public corporations between 1981 and 1994 and that reported financial results for at least six years. Our results reveal strong asymmetries... View Details
- January 2003 (Revised February 2003)
- Case
Office Depot, Inc.: Business Transformation (A)
By: James L. Heskett, Dan Maher, Daniel F. OBrien, Thomas Watson and Jeffrey F. Rayport
The company's management is considering the possibility of launching a rebranding campaign around the promises "What you need. What you need to know." The questions are whether and when to launch the campaign in view of the large number of training efforts and... View Details
- 2003
- Article
BMW Group's Sustainability Management System: Preliminary Results, Ongoing Challenges, and the UN Global Compact
By: Michael W. Toffel, Natalie Hill and Kellie McElhaney
This article describes preliminary results and ongoing challenges faced by Designworks/USA, an industrial design subsidiary of BMW Group, in its sustainability management efforts since it implemented the world's first certified Sustainability Management System (SMS).... View Details
- December 2002
- Other Article
The Competitive Advantage of Corporate Philanthropy
By: Michael E. Porter and Mark R. Kramer
When it comes to philanthropy, executives increasingly see themselves as caught between critics demanding ever higher levels of "corporate social responsibility" and investors applying pressure to maximize short-term profits. Increasingly, philanthropy is used as a... View Details
Keywords: Strategy
- November 2002 (Revised February 2010)
- Case
Intel Corporation: 1968-2003
By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell, David B. Yoffie and Sasha Mattu
Describes three stages in Intel's history: the initial success and then collapse in DRAMs and EPROMs, its transition to and dominance in microprocessors, and its move to become the main supplier of the building blocks for the Internet economy. Allows a rich discussion... View Details