Publications

November 2005 (Revised September 2007)
Case

Beijing Hualian

By: David E. Bell and Mary L. Shelman

China's fifth largest domestic retailer faced intensifying competition from Wal-Mart and Carrefour with the opening of China's fast-growing retail market in January 2005. In response, Beijing Hualian developed a new "Family Store" format targeted at the nation's... View Details

Keywords: Marketing Strategy; Product Positioning; Consumer Behavior; Competition; Corporate Strategy; Retail Industry; China

Due to network effects and switching costs in platform markets, entrants generally must offer revolutionary functionality. Platform envelopment offers a second entry path: one that does not rely upon Schumpeterian innovation. Examples of successful envelopment... View Details

July 1997
Case

Walt Disney's Dennis Hightower: Weaving Together the European Operations

By: Ashish Nanda

The case describes the actions taken by Dennis Hightower as president of Disney Consumer Products in Europe and the Middle East from 1988 to 1994. It focuses on how he has gone about establishing a regional office and knitting local operations closer together, the... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Business or Company Management; Multinational Firms and Management; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; Middle East; Europe

Educators

April 2006
Article

Competitive Advantage and the Value Network Configuration: Making Decisions at a Swedish Life Insurance Company

By: Øystein D. Fjeldstad and Christian H.M. Ketels

When the Swedish Life Insurers Förenade Liv found themselves in difficulties in a rapidly changing market, their response was to call in the consultants. And one of the consultant's first suggestions was to use the Value Network, not the Value Chain, as a new... View Details

Keywords: Competitive Advantage; Fluctuation; Networks; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Value; Quality; Decision Making; Market Transactions; Performance Effectiveness; Customers; Insurance Industry; Sweden

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May 2013
Supplement

Transport Corporation of India (C): Dealing with Shortcomings in Service Quality

By: V.G. Narayanan and Saloni Chaturvedi

Transport Corporation of India was a logistics company that provided multi-modal transport solutions to its customers. Set up in 1958, TCI had grown from a 'one man, one truck, one office' set-up to a company with revenues of $400 million in half a century. TCI's... View Details

Keywords: Transportation; Transportation Industry; India

Article

Making Exit Interviews Count

By: Everett Spain and Boris Groysberg

In the knowledge economy, skilled employees are the assets that drive organizational success. Thus companies must learn from them—why they stay, why they leave, and how the organization needs to change. A thoughtful exit interview—whether it be a face-to-face... View Details

Keywords: Information; Management Practices and Processes; Retention; Resignation and Termination

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28 Apr 2015
First Look

First Look: April 28

enlightening guide, they show how Gates, Grove, and Jobs approached strategy and execution in remarkably similar ways-yet markedly differently from their erstwhile competitors-keeping their focus on five strategic rules. Strategy Rules... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

April 2011 (Revised July 2014)
Case

Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd.: Driving Change Through Internal Communication

By: Boris Groysberg and Michael Slind

Hindustan Petroleum (HPCL), confronted in 2003 with an urgent need to change how it operated externally, adopted a highly innovative approach to communicating internally. This case, set in 2010, presents an overview of the new, more interactive model of employee... View Details

Keywords: Communication Strategy; Interpersonal Communication; Employee Relationship Management; Innovation and Management; Leading Change; Management Practices and Processes; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Culture; Corporate Strategy; India

Educators

June 1983 (Revised April 1991)
Case

Dominion Engineering Works

By: Christopher A. Bartlett

Dominion Engineering Works faces important strategic decisions about whether to continue its focused strategy of selling newsprint machines to the Canadian paper industry or whether recent changes in industry conditions and the emergence of three global competitors... View Details

Keywords: Machinery and Machining; Globalized Markets and Industries; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Partners and Partnerships; Competitive Strategy; Customization and Personalization; Diversification

11 Apr 2023
Op-Ed

The First 90 Hours: What New CEOs Should—and Shouldn't—Do to Set the Right Tone

and the way unexpected crises can emerge rapidly, leaders must move faster and display more strategic agility than ever before. Much of Watkins’ advice about how company officials should assume a leadership post still holds true. It’s... View Details

Keywords: by John Quelch

2015
Chapter

Innovating without Information Constraints: Organization, Communities, and Innovation when Information Costs Approach Zero

By: Elizabeth J. Altman, Frank Nagle and Michael Tushman

Innovation has traditionally taken place within an organization's boundaries and/or with selected partners. This Chandlerian approach to innovation has been rooted in transaction costs, organizational boundaries, and information processing challenges associated with... View Details

Keywords: Knowledge Sharing; Cost; Innovation and Management; Collaborative Innovation and Invention

13 Mar 2018
First Look

March 13, 2018

February 2018 Management Science Laboratory Evidence on the Effects of Sponsorship on the Competitive Preferences of Men and Women By: Baldiga, Nancy R., and Katherine Baldiga Coffman Abstract—Sponsorship programs have been proposed as... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

Program

Aligning Strategy and Sales

strategy and sales activities and discover how to synchronize your strategic priorities, go-to-market initiatives, and sales team to boost revenue and long-term success. This program is eligible for the Certificate of View Details

Web

Institute For Strategy And Competitiveness

1 | January 2021 To compete successfully in an increasingly value-oriented marketplace, health care providers must adopt a strategic Value Agenda that delivers outcomes that matter to patients through comprehensive care-delivery methods... View Details

December 2005 (Revised August 2006)
Case

Amgen Inc.'s Epogen--Commercializing the First Biotech Blockbuster Drug

By: Felix Oberholzer-Gee and Dennis A. Yao

Amgen Inc.'s Epogen was the first biotech blockbuster drug. Epogen helped prevent anemia, a condition that leads to severe fatigue, increased risk of cardiovascular disease, and even death. At the time, the market for Epogen, which included dialysis patients and... View Details

Keywords: Health Care and Treatment; Strategic Planning; Competition; Patents; Innovation and Invention; Pharmaceutical Industry; Biotechnology Industry; United States

Educators