Publications

07 Sep 2016
What Do You Think?

How Can the Threat of Networks Be Reduced?

SUMMING UP Are Computers and Tech-Driven Networks In Their Twilight Years? Issues raised by the ascendancy of network technology are many and varied, judging from responses to this month’s column based on Joshua Cooper Ramo’s book, The... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

January 1993 (Revised July 1993)
Case

Frito-Lay, Inc.: A Strategic Transition (Consolidated)

By: Lynda M. Applegate

The setting is a food manufacturing company that has stumbled in terms of its historic growth and profit achievements. In trying to recapture its momentum, the president has used information technology as one element in his program of transition. The case focuses on... View Details

Keywords: Business History; Information Technology; Growth and Development Strategy; Transition; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Food and Beverage Industry; Manufacturing Industry

06 Nov 2019
Op-Ed

Torched Planet: The Business Case to Reinvent Almost Everything

The world is. on. fire. The Earth is burning. We only have a little time to arrest climate change, and if we fail to do so the consequences will be both dire and irreversible. We have the technology and the resources to fix things, if we... View Details

Keywords: by Rebecca Henderson; Energy

January 1987 (Revised January 1988)
Case

Frito-Lay, Inc.: A Strategic Transition (A)

The setting is a food manufacturing company which has stumbled in terms of its historic growth and profit achievements. In trying to recapture its momentum, the president has used information technology as one element in his program of transition. The case focuses on... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Information Technology; Growth and Development Strategy; Manufacturing Industry; Food and Beverage Industry

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17 Jul 2006
Lessons from the Classroom

Developing a Strategy for Digital Convergence

Following the dot-com bust at the turn of the century, the technology business went through a gloomy period, 2001-2002, when innovation dried up, MBAs looked for careers in finance, and investors put their funds in a holding pattern.... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Computer; Education

January 2023 (Revised January 2023)
Case

Belden and Digital Transformation: From Product Sales to Solutions Sales

By: Frank V. Cespedes and Amy Klopfenstein

This case concerns the industrial automation division at Belden, a hardware manufacturer. While Belden historically sold products such as cables, wires, and other networking devices, EVP of Industrial Automation Ashish Chand recognized that IT vendors were entering the... View Details

Keywords: Implementation; Sales Cycle; Digital Transformation; Sales; Product Positioning; Business Model; Market Entry and Exit; Customer Focus and Relationships; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Supply and Industry; Technology Industry; North America; United States

November 1989 (Revised February 1992)
Case

Ford Motor Co.: Dealer Sales and Service

By: Leonard A. Schlesinger

Since Henry Ford founded Ford Motor Co., Ford vehicles have been sold and serviced the same way. By the late 1980s Ford began to consider making changes in its sales and service process. Two developments forced Ford to reconsider these processes. First, Ford found... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Change Management; Distribution Channels; Customer Focus and Relationships; Service Industry; Auto Industry; Retail Industry; United States

05 Oct 2021
Blog Post

First-Gen Voices: Eric Westphal on Tapping into the Global Alumni Network & Making a Difference Across Borders

alumni-founded e-commerce startup for his HBS internship. Yet what might seem like a direct entrepreneurial path was anything but. Westphal’s life and career have crossed country lines, cultures, and industries, and continue to lead him... View Details

2017
Book

Geography, Location, and Strategy

By: Juan Alcácer, Bruce Kogut, Catherine Thomas and Bernard Yin Yeung

Changes in both technology and global political economy have vastly accelerated the pace of globalization in the last 40 years, eroding barriers that limited firms' geographic scope and unleashing a seemingly unlimited set of new threats, challenges, and opportunities... View Details

Keywords: Geographic Location; Global Strategy; Value Creation

October 2003 (Revised February 2004)
Case

Strategic Inflection: TiVo in 2003 (A)

By: David B. Yoffie, Pai-Ling Yin and Christina L. Darwall

Mike Ramsey, TiVo's CEO, must decide on which direction to build the company. Facing an onslaught of new competitors, a huge opportunity in the cable industry, and the possibility of becoming the new "user interface" for TV entertainment, Ramsey must balance the... View Details

Keywords: Television Entertainment; Profit; Product Positioning; Standards; Opportunities; Commercialization; Competition; Technology Adoption; Entertainment and Recreation Industry

15 Dec 2009
First Look

First Look: Dec. 15, 2009

we find it difficult to identify the tangible benefits delivered by brokers. While brokerage customers are directed toward funds that are harder to find and evaluate, they pay substantially higher fees and the funds they buy have lower... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

03 Apr 2020
News

How Hospitals Are Using AI to Battle Covid-19

Juan Alcacer

Juan Alcacer is the James J. Hill Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School. He joined HBS in 2007 and has taught the required MBA strategy course, an elective on Global Strategy and PhD courses in Strategy and International Business. Within... View Details

Keywords: consulting; management consulting; telecommunications

March 2011
Case

Semiconductor Manufacturing International Company in 2011

By: Willy Shih and Jia Cheng

When David Wang took over as the CEO of SMIC, he knew that if he was to capitalize on the company's strategic location in the China market, he would have to transform the company mindset and its operating structure from its roots in the manufacturing of DRAMs to the... View Details

Keywords: Growth and Development Strategy; Resource Allocation; Market Entry and Exit; Business Processes; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Culture; Customization and Personalization; Semiconductor Industry; China

July 2020
Case

Applying Data Science and Analytics at P&G

By: Srikant M. Datar, Sarah Mehta and Paul Hamilton

Set in December 2019, this case explores how P&G has applied data science and analytics to cut costs and improve outcomes across its business units. The case provides an overview of P&G’s approach to data management and governance, and reviews the challenges associated... View Details

Keywords: Data Science; Analytics; Analysis; Information; Information Management; Information Types; Innovation and Invention; Strategy; Analytics and Data Science; Consumer Products Industry; United States; Ohio

2023
Article

Exploiting Discovered Regression Discontinuities to Debias Conditioned-on-observable Estimators

By: Benjamin Jakubowski, Siram Somanchi, Edward McFowland III and Daniel B. Neill

Regression discontinuity (RD) designs are widely used to estimate causal effects in the absence of a randomized experiment. However, standard approaches to RD analysis face two significant limitations. First, they require a priori knowledge of discontinuities in... View Details

Keywords: Regression Discontinuity Design; Analytics and Data Science; AI and Machine Learning

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2023
Article

Green Bargains: Leveraging Public Investment to Advance Climate Regulation

By: Jonas Meckling and Jesse Strecker

Climate policy has entered a new era as public investment is increasingly moving to center stage, including recovery spending and long-term climate investment plans. While essential for decarbonization, public investment is not enough – the carrots of investment need... View Details

Keywords: Government and Politics; Environmental Regulation; Climate Change; Policy; Motivation and Incentives

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December 2018
Case

Corporate Transformation at Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany

By: Joseph B. Fuller, Amy C. Edmondson, Daniela Beyersdorfer and Tonia Labruyere

When Stefan Oschmann became CEO and chairman of the executive board of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, in 2016, the company had started its transformation from a mid-tier traditional German industry player to a global modern science and technology player. The... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Governance With Family Ownership; Transformation; Change Management; Restructuring; Corporate Governance; Family Ownership

September 2020 (Revised December 2020)
Case

Hot Wheels at Mattel: Reinventing the Wheel

By: Elie Ofek, Andres Terech and Nicole Tempest Keller

In 2017, Chris Down, Global Brand General Manager for Hot Wheels, and his team from the Advanced Play Group within Mattel, Inc., were considering which innovation path to pursue in order to "future proof" the Hot Wheels franchise going forward. Hot Wheels was the... View Details

Keywords: Toys; Industry Evolution; Innovation Strategy; Product Development; Growth and Development Strategy; Technological Innovation; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Decision Making; Digital Transformation