Publications
Publications
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- All HBS Web
(4,246)
- Faculty Publications (1,946)
- January 2007 (Revised November 2007)
- Case
Organic Growth at Wal-Mart
By: Jan W. Rivkin and Troy Smith
In 2005, an executive vice president at Wal-Mart must decide whether to expand the retailer's selection of organic food. The decision is made in the context of wider attempts to move the giant retailer slightly upscale and to focus on environmental sustainability. View Details
- January 2007 (Revised December 2008)
- Case
Mercy Corps: Positioning the Organization to Reach New Heights
By: Allen S. Grossman and Caroline Joan King
Mercy Corps, the world's 5th largest international relief and development agency, is at a turning point. The nonprofit's opportunities to grow and serve a larger number of beneficiaries are unprecedented. By looking at the unique relationship between headquarters and... View Details
- January 2007 (Revised May 2008)
- Case
National Logistics Management: Founder Decisions
By: Lynda M. Applegate and Elizabeth Collins
Scott Taylor, CEO & founder of NLM, is a serial entrepreneur faced with an important decision. As his industry consolidates, he knows that his company must grow quickly, yet he believes he has reached the limit of what organic growth can achieve. Should he accept the... View Details
- January 2007 (Revised December 2007)
- Case
Digital China Holdings Limited: Managing the Transition from a Product-oriented to a Service-oriented Company
By: F. Warren McFarlan, Guoqing Chen, Kai Reimers and Xunhua Guo
Digital China is the largest Chinese independent systems integrator (IBM and HP are larger). Describes their history and their current strategy and invites the student to advise them as to how they should continue to grow in the future. This is the closest China... View Details
- January 2007
- Article
Introducing the First Management Control Systems: Evidence from the Retail Sector
By: Tatiana Sandino
Focusing on a sample of US retailers, I study the management control systems (MCS) that firms introduce when they first invest in controls, and identify four categories of initial MCS, which are defined in terms of the purposes these MCS fulfill. The first category,... View Details
- December 2006 (Revised February 2007)
- Case
Opportunity International: Measurement and Mission
By: Herman B. Leonard, Marc J. Epstein and Melissa Tritter
After a "first career" in business, HBS graduate Christopher Crane becomes CEO of a worldwide microfinance network. The organization's twin challenges are: 1) developing metrics to give it an accurate picture of its situation and impacts, and 2) generating rapid... View Details
- December 2006 (Revised September 2007)
- Case
Ponsse: From Finland to Global
By: David E. Bell and Mary L. Shelman
Finland-based Ponsse Oyj, with 2005 turnover of $250 million, is the only dedicated forest equipment company of size that remained in a consolidating industry. Competitors included global giants such as John Deere and Komatsu. Since his arrival at Ponsse in 2004, CEO... View Details
- December 2006 (Revised January 2007)
- Case
Infosys in India: Building a Software Giant in a Corrupt Environment
By: Rawi E. Abdelal, Rafael M. Di Tella and Prabakar (PK) Kothandaraman
Shortly after Infosys was founded in 1981, its managers faced a major turning point when they made a decision to operate without giving in to the petty corruption rife in the Indian economy. Within just a few years, that decision had truly defined the company. Over the... View Details
- 2006
- Working Paper
The Value of a 'Free' Customer
By: Sunil Gupta, Carl F. Mela and Jose M. Vidal-Sanz
Central to a firm's growth and marketing policy is the revenus and profit potential of its customer assets. As a result, there has been a recent proliferation of work regarding customer lifetime value. However, extant research in this area is silent regarding how to... View Details
- November 2006 (Revised November 2007)
- Case
EFJ, Inc.
By: Lynda M. Applegate, Ajay Vinze and Mara Vatz
Michael Jalbert plans to transform EFJI, a land mobile radio manufacturer, into a leading radio systems and solutions provider. Taking advantage of new industry standards and the country's increased focus on public safety agencies and homeland security, Jalbert says... View Details
- November 2006
- Case
Tickle
By: William A. Sahlman and Dan Heath
Describes a set of decisions confronting the management team of a rapidly growing online psychological testing and social networking company. They can either sell the company to a large public company, raise another round of capital from a preeminent venture capital... View Details
- November 2006 (Revised October 2017)
- Case
China: 'To Get Rich Is Glorious'
By: Richard Vietor and Julia Galef
In 1978, Deng Xiaoping assumed the leadership of an impoverished China, after Mao Zedong's disastrous Cultural Revolution. During the next 17 years, Deng applied pragmatic policies to liberalize the Chinese economy gradually while maintaining the power of the Communist... View Details
- November 2006 (Revised August 2009)
- Case
Malaysia: Halfway to 2020
This country case on Malaysia extends forward by seven years the case “Malaysia: Capital and Control” (702-040). It is based on Malaysia's ninth plan, which took effect in 2006. The ninth plan proposed five thrusts—moving the economy to higher value-added goods and... View Details
- October 2006 (Revised March 2007)
- Case
Production I.G: Challenging the Status Quo
By: Andrei Hagiu, Tarun Khanna, Felix Oberholzer-Gee, Masako Egawa and Chisato Toyama
In July 2006, Mitsuhisa Ishikawa wondered how he could further enhance the success and visibility of his animation production company headquartered in Tokyo, Production I.G. For the year ended May 2006, Production I.G. had sales of 5,439 million yen ($47.3 million),... View Details
- October 2006 (Revised August 2007)
- Case
Marketing Chateau Margaux
By: John A. Deighton, Leyland Pitt, Vincent Marie Dessain, Daniela Beyersdorfer and Anders Sjoman
Chateau Margaux, luxury brand or connoisseur brand? Although France is awash with unsold wine, demand has never been stronger for the very finest Bordeaux. How should Margaux sustain and grow its business? The Chateau management team is wondering if it can take more... View Details
- October 2006 (Revised August 2007)
- Case
Calloway Laboratory: Pee for Profit
By: Richard G. Hamermesh and David Kiron
Describes the formation and rapid growth of a drug-testing company. The company needs to decide whether to enter the painkiller testing market, in addition to growing its drug treatment center business. View Details
- September 2006 (Revised February 2011)
- Case
Empemex
By: Lynda M. Applegate and Regina Garcia-Cuellar
Studies an entrepreneurial venture in Mexico City. The protagonists, two MBAs from HBS, started a pawn shop chain funded from their private equity office after finishing business school. This is timed at a point where the protagonists have to decide how to grow the... View Details
- September 2006 (Revised September 2007)
- Case
VMware, Inc. (A)
By: David B. Yoffie, Ward Bullard, Nikhil Raj and Suja Vaidyanathan
VMware, Inc., the first company to crack the software virtualization market, faces new challenges from competitors' plans to bundle free virtualization solutions in operating systems. VMware, acquired by data storage giant EMC Corp. in 2003, has delivered top-line... View Details
- August 2006 (Revised February 2021)
- Case
Anthem, Inc.
Describes the U.S. Health Care industry and WellPoint's background, market growth strategies, and potential as an investment option. View Details