Publications

February 2008 (Revised September 2010)
Case

Enterprise Culture in Chinese History: Zhang Jian and the Dasheng Cotton Mills

By: Elisabeth Koll

This case focuses on the legal and managerial evolution of limited-liability firms in China, using the example of the Dasheng cotton mills in Nantong near Shanghai. Dasheng, one of the earliest and most successful industrial enterprises in pre-war China, was founded by... View Details

Keywords: History; Law; Organizational Culture; Family Ownership; State Ownership; Corporate Governance; Financial Crisis; Business and Government Relations; Entrepreneurship; Change; Manufacturing Industry; Shanghai; China

10 May 2011
First Look

First Look: May 10

more than five years, the global shipping (maritime) industry experienced a dramatic crash in late 2008 as the global financial system froze and the global economy slid into recession. Ship charter rates (revenue) fell by as much as 90%... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

Web

General Merchants to Commodities Brokers | Baker Library | Bloomberg Center | Harvard Business School

Introduction 1840s – 1880s General Merchants to Commodities Brokers 1880s – 1920s Investment Banking & Securities Underwriting 1920s – 1960s Investing in Emerging Industries 1850–1968 Lehman Brothers Family Partners 1960s – 2000s... View Details

August 2013 (Revised November 2013)
Supplement

Ford vs. GM: The Evolution of Mass Production (B)

By: Willy Shih

This case explores the very different paths taken by the Ford Motor Company and the General Motors Corporation in the first three decades of the twentieth century. Henry Ford's Model T was a car for the masses. After considerable experimentation, Ford Motor... View Details

Keywords: Innovation; Exploration; Dominant Design; Business Growth and Maturation; Business History; Innovation and Management; Innovation Strategy; Technological Innovation; Leading Change; Growth and Development Strategy; Product Positioning; Product Design; Product Development; Business Strategy; Corporate Strategy; Vertical Integration; Auto Industry; Auto Industry; Michigan

March 1998
Case

Bumper Acquisition (A2), A: Confidential Information for Medallion Capital, Inc.

By: James K. Sebenius and David T. Kotchen

Located in Mundelein, IL, Thermo-Impact, Inc. is a rapidly growing, private firm that manufactures automotive bumpers. In 1995, a number of large automotive supply companies and a private equity investment firm offer to buy Thermo-Impact. The cases in this series focus... View Details

Keywords: Private Equity; Valuation; Negotiation Participants; Decision Making; Negotiation Process; Entrepreneurship; Negotiation Offer; Acquisition; Manufacturing Industry; Manufacturing Industry; Illinois

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William Sahlman is a Baker Foundation Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School.

Mr. Sahlman received an A.B. degree in Economics from Princeton University (1972), an M.B.A. from Harvard University (1975), and a Ph.D. in Business... View Details

Web

Mid-US - Global

at Parker Hannifin By: Hubert Joly , Alicia Dadlani and Martha Hostetter In 2019, Parker Hannifin, one of the world’s largest manufacturers of motion and control technologies, did something unusual for an View Details

2018
Chapter

The Orphan Drug Act at 35: Observations and an Outlook for the Twenty-First Century

By: Nicholas Bagley, Benjamin Berger, Amitabh Chandra, Craig Garthwaite and Ariel Dora Stern

On the 35th anniversary of the adoption of the Orphan Drug Act (ODA), we describe the enormous changes in the markets for therapies for rare diseases that have emerged over recent decades. The most prominent example is the fact that the profit-maximizing price of new... View Details

Keywords: Health Care and Treatment; Laws and Statutes; Research and Development; Investment; Markets; Monopoly

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October 2010 (Revised November 2010)
Background Note

Plavix: Drugs in the Age of Personalized Medicine

By: Richard G. Hamermesh, Mara G. Aspinall and Rachel Gordon

PIavix, one of the world's best selling drugs in 2010, appears to have a limited future. Its patent was due to expire soon, and recently new data had been discovered that indicated that a small subset of the population would be at risk for stroke, heart attack, or even... View Details

Keywords: Health Care and Treatment; Product Positioning; Business and Government Relations; Genetics; Competitive Strategy; Pharmaceutical Industry

April 2010 (Revised December 2010)
Case

Shanzhai! MediaTek and the "White Box" Handset Market

By: Willy C. Shih, Chen-Fu Chien and Jyun-Cheng Wang

The term "white box" is often used to describe products without a brand name. Such products are assembled from standardized parts, and they became a very popular category of desktop PCs. Hsinchu, Taiwan based MediaTek is a fabless semiconductor company that unleashed a... View Details

Keywords: Disruptive Innovation; Growth and Development Strategy; Emerging Markets; Competitive Advantage; Wireless Technology; Semiconductor Industry; Taiwan

18 Mar 2013
HBS Case

HBS Cases: LEGO

Out of work for a year following a serious illness in 1993, Kjeld appointed a five-person management team to help him run the company when he returned. The group focused mainly on driving growth. When a benchmarking study revealed LEGO's global name recognition was on... View Details

Keywords: by Maggie Starvish; Entertainment & Recreation

Stefan H. Thomke

Stefan Thomke (sthomke@hbs.edu), an authority on the management of innovation, is the William Barclay Harding Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School. He has worked with firms on product, process, and... View Details

06 Feb 2018
First Look

First Look at New Research and Ideas: February 6, 2018

(B2C) industries (i.e., those that sell primarily to consumers). We find that the supply chain economy is a distinct and large segment of the economy, with a mix of manufacturers and more importantly service... View Details

16 Jan 2013
Research & Ideas

The Messy Link Between Slave Owners and Modern Management

Caitlin C. Rosenthal didn't intend to write a book about slavery. She set out to tackle something much more mundane: the history of business practices. But when she started researching account books from the mid-1800s, a period of major economic development during the... View Details

Keywords: by Katie Johnston

September 2023 (Revised September 2023)
Supplement

On

By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell, Karolin Frankenberger, Sascha Mader, Jordan Mitchell and Karen Elterman

Slides to support the teaching of the On case, 723-430. On is a premium performance running shoe company founded in Switzerland in 2010. The company rapidly gained traction through its unique CloudTec cushioning technology, its innovative midsole plate called the... View Details

Career Coach

Lauren Murphy

coaches. In that role, she also led the Career development program team and doubled career development programs offered to alumni and students. In her current work with HBS, Lauren skillfully coaches students and alumni across all View Details

03 Oct 2005
Research & Ideas

The Truck Driver Who Reinvented Shipping

Malcolm P. McLean, a truck driver, fundamentally transformed the centuries-old shipping industry, an industry that had long decided that it had no incentive to change. By developing the first safe, reliable, and cost effective approach to... View Details

Keywords: by Anthony J. Mayo & Nitin Nohria; Manufacturing; Manufacturing; Manufacturing

November–December 2024
Article

Scaling Up Transformational Innovations

By: Peter Koen, Ananya Sheth, Mike DiPaola and Linda A. Hill

For large companies operating in mature sectors—such as Procter & Gamble in consumer goods, Apple in consumer electronics, and Adobe in cloud software—driving growth is a perennial challenge. Growth through acquisition is always an option, but companies often quickly... View Details

Keywords: Growth and Development Strategy; Leadership; Innovation Strategy; Consumer Products Industry