Publications

October 2018
Case

African Bank Investments Limited (A)

By: Lynn S. Paine and Will Hurwitz

Less than a year after joining the board of African Bank Investments Limited (ABIL), the newest director finds himself in difficult discussions with other directors about removing the struggling company’s CEO. The case is set in South Africa in mid-2014 as shares in... View Details

Keywords: Ethics; Personal Finance; Corporate Accountability; Governing and Advisory Boards; Corporate Governance; Crisis Management; Insurance; Leadership; Management; Risk Management; Banking Industry; Financial Services Industry; Insurance Industry; Africa; South Africa

February 2021
Case

Enterprise Agility at Komerční Banka

By: Euvin Naidoo, Suraj Srinivasan and Sarah Gulick

In 2017, Jan Juchelka, the new CEO of Komerční Banka, identified the need for the bank to start an enterprise wide agile transformation. He started by working to create a sense of urgency to kick-start a process to enable the level of service delivery to customers he... View Details

Keywords: Agile; Agility; Transformation; Organizational Structure; Business Headquarters; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Management Systems; Banking Industry; Czech Republic

February 1987 (Revised January 1989)
Case

SmithKline Consumer Products: The Contac Relaunch

In March 1986, a tamperer contaminated CONTAC Cold Capsules, SmithKline Consumer Product's most popular product. To relaunch CONTAC after withdrawing it from the market, the management team had to present a plan of action to the corporation board. They knew CONTAC's 25... View Details

Keywords: Safety; Crisis Management; Product Launch; Pharmaceutical Industry

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David Ager is a Senior Lecturer in Executive Education. He engages CEOs, CHROs, and their teams to design and deliver customized executive development experiences for executive, senior and high potential leaders. The companies hail from diverse sectors including... View Details

Program

Creating Brand Value

Summary Consumer brands are one of the most valuable sources of sustainable competitive advantage, but managing brands and achieving their full potential has never been more difficult. Today's consumers are increasingly diverse, are... View Details

September 1992 (Revised January 1994)
Case

Reshaping Apple Computer's Destiny 1992

By: David B. Yoffie and Johanna M. Hurstak

Examines John Sculley's approach toward transforming Apple Computer. Focuses on Sculley's management style, his creation of a new management team, and his efforts to create a professional management system inside Apple. View Details

Keywords: Management Style; Transformation; Management Teams; Management Systems; Computer Industry; California

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26 Nov 2007
Research & Ideas

Best Practices of Global Innovators

People: Effective collaboration requires people with different skills, given that team members sit outside the boundaries of the firm in distant countries with different cultures. Rather than a focus on pure technical expertise, View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

December 1989
Supplement

People Express Philosophy: Interview with Don Burr, Video

By: Michael Beer

Presents an interview with Don Burr as he reviews the philosophy of management and managements approach of People Express. View Details

Keywords: Management Style; Management Teams; Strategy; Goals and Objectives; Air Transportation Industry

September 2022
Case

HPP: Tapping the Netherlands’ Potential

By: Brian Trelstad and Idelès Kaandorp

Stichting Het Potentieel Pakken (HPP) was launched to solve a systemic problem in the Dutch Labor Market: gender inequity that was leading to a large number of women to work part-time in fields that were in desperately short supply of labor, like health care, child... View Details

Keywords: COVID-19 Pandemic; Grants; Scaling And Growth; Nonprofit Organizations; Opportunities; Gender; Income; Employment; Health Care and Treatment; Human Capital; Mission and Purpose; Motivation and Incentives; Growth and Development Strategy; Employment Industry; Health Industry; Education Industry; Consulting Industry; Europe; Netherlands

November 1999
Case

Reshaping Apple Computer's Destiny 1992 (Abridged)

By: Clayton M. Christensen and Tara Donovan

Examines John Sculley's management approach toward transforming Apple Computer during the personal computer industry crisis in 1992. Focuses on Sculley's management style, his creation of a new management team, and his efforts to create a professional management system... View Details

Keywords: Transformation; Crisis Management; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Management Style; Management Systems; Management Teams; Computer Industry; California

October 2020 (Revised March 2024)
Case

Experimentation at Yelp

By: Iavor Bojinov and Karim R. Lakhani

Over the last decade, experimentation has become integral to the research and development processes of technology companies—including Yelp—for understanding customer preferences and mitigating innovation risks. The case describes Yelp's journey with experimentation,... View Details

Keywords: Customer Relationship Management; Collaborative Innovation and Invention; Risk Management; Advertising; Research and Development; Technology Industry

February 2001 (Revised September 2005)
Case

Howard Schultz and Starbucks Coffee Company

By: Nancy F. Koehn

Investigates the entrepreneur's strategic initiatives to develop a mass market for specialty coffee in the 1980s and 1990s. These initiatives included the development of premium products, rapid expansion of company-owned stores--each with attractive retail environments... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Groups and Teams; Brands and Branding; Growth Management; Employee Relationship Management; Consumer Behavior; Organizational Design; Leadership Style; Customer Relationship Management; Competitive Advantage; Vertical Integration; Food and Beverage Industry

14 May 2008
Research & Ideas

Getting Down to the Business of Creativity

in captivity? Three professors in Harvard Business School's Entrepreneurial Management unit who focus on the study of creativity recognize the romantic allure of believing it's a rare quality bestowed on a chosen few, but all agree that... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Retail; Apparel & Accessories; Fashion; Entertainment & Recreation

May 1994 (Revised October 1994)
Case

Motorola Corp.: The View from the CEO Office

By: Shoshana Zuboff and Janis Lee Gogan

Motorola, a leader in semiconductors and telecommunications, embarked on an ambitious program of renewal beginning in the early 1980s, leading to dramatic improvements in the company's quality, cycle time, and growth. Much of this progress was attributed to a major... View Details

Keywords: Competency and Skills; Leading Change; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Managerial Roles; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Structure; Corporate Strategy; Telecommunications Industry

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February 2022
Case

US Foods: Driving Post-Pandemic Success?

By: David E. Bell, Olivia Hull and Amy Klopfenstein

In November 2021, US Foods CEO Pietro Satriano must decide his company’s trajectory following the COVID-19 pandemic. US Foods suffered due to business closures and social distancing during the height of the pandemic. While the situation improved following the return of... View Details

19 Apr 2017
Blog Post

7 Ways MBA Students Use Baker Library

students with their team assignments. The breadth of industries and sectors, and the wide ranging locations of their immersions is always fascinating. I’ve also been lucky enough to act as a FIELD program View Details

July 2018
Article

Global Collaborative Patents

By: Sari Pekkala Kerr and William R. Kerr

We study the prevalence and traits of global collaborative patents for U.S. public companies, where the inventor team is located both within and outside of the United States. Collaborative patents are frequently observed when a corporation is entering into a new... View Details

Keywords: Innovation; Ethnic Networks; Migration; Technology Transfer; Mobility; Information Technology; Globalized Firms and Management; Diasporas; Patents; Ethnicity; Entrepreneurship; Research and Development; Foreign Direct Investment; Innovation and Invention; Globalization; United States