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- January 2004 (Revised August 2005)
- Case
Kikkoman Corporation: Consumer Focused Innovation
By: Rohit Deshpande and Hal Hogan
In May 2003, the president and CEO of Kikkoman Corp. sat in his Tokyo office weighing various options for strengthening the company's long-term growth. Kikkoman was the world's largest producer of soy sauce, largely due to its pioneering role since the 1950s as the... View Details
- January 2004
- Article
Corporate Venturing: The Origins of Unilever's Pregnancy Test
By: Geoffrey Jones and Alison Kraft
The relative ability of different sizes of firm and organisational designs to develop and sustain dynamic capabilities in innovation and create new businesses remains a matter of contention. While Chandler among many others has emphasised the pre-eminent role of large... View Details
- December 2003 (Revised May 2004)
- Case
Sears Auto Centers (A) (Abridged)
By: Lynn S. Paine
In the early 1990s Sears faced and allegations by the California Department of Consumer Affairs that the company's auto repair centers had been overbilling customers and making unnecessary repairs. Top management must evaluate the problem and come up with a plan to... View Details
- December 2003 (Revised April 2004)
- Case
Sherif Mityas at A.T. Kearney (A): Negotiating a Client Service Predicament
By: Ashish Nanda
Sherif Mityas, recently promoted as project manager at A.T. Kearney, faced a client service challenge in his very first project experience. Mityas had been working closely for six weeks with the management team of the U.S. subsidiary of a Japan-headquartered consumer... View Details
- November 2003 (Revised April 2004)
- Background Note
Why Consumers Don't Buy: The Psychology of New Product Adoption
Looks at the consumer psychology of new product adoption. Identifies a key reason why consumers do not adopt innovations as quickly as developers think they should--an irrational resistance to behavioral change. Identifies strategies for firms to manage and overcome... View Details
- November 2003 (Revised March 2004)
- Case
Teledesic (Abridged)
Describes plans for a failed project that proposed the use of 288 satellites to deliver high-speed data communications services anywhere in the world. View Details
- November 2003
- Supplement
P&G Japan: The SK-II Globalization Project
Paolo de Cesare and A.G. Lafley review the strategic and organizational challenges they face in deciding whether to make the prestigious Japanese beauty product, SK-II, a global brand. In a three-part videotaped interview, they discuss the challenges, reveal the... View Details
- October 2003 (Revised February 2004)
- Case
Cape Wind
By: John T. Gourville and Kerry Herman
Cape Wind has proposed placing a 170-tower wind farm, with each tower more than 400-feet tall, in Nantucket Sound. Not surprisingly, public reaction is mixed. Some view the wind farm as clean, renewable energy. Others view it as an eyesore and a desecration of a valued... View Details
- October 2003 (Revised January 2005)
- Case
Microsoft: Launching the Smart Watch
By: John T. Gourville and Christina L. Darwall
Microsoft is on the verge of launching its Smart Watch technology, which will allow specially designed watches to receive up-to-date information on sports, business, traffic, news, etc. After several years of effort and millions of dollars spent, the questions now... View Details
- October 2003 (Revised December 2020)
- Case
Globalizing Consumer Durables: Singer Sewing Machine before 1914
By: Geoffrey Jones and David Kiron
Examines the global strategy of Singer, one of the world's first multinationals, before 1914. Singer, a U.S. pioneer of the modern sewing machine, established its first foreign factory in Scotland in 1867. Investments followed in manufacturing and marketing in other... View Details
- October 2003
- Teaching Note
Herman Miller (A): Innovation by Design (TN)
By: Sandra J. Sucher
Teaching Note to (9-602-023). View Details
- October 2003 (Revised March 2004)
- Case
Symbian: Setting the Mobility Standard
By: Fernando F. Suarez and Thomas R. Eisenmann
Symbian, a joint venture owned by companies who collectively sold a dominant share of the world's cell phones, faced competition from Microsoft in developing the operating system for "smartphones," which integrated mobile communications and computing functions. In... View Details
- September 2003 (Revised June 2005)
- Case
Learning from LeapFrog: Creating Educational and Business Value
By: Lynda M. Applegate, Christopher Dede and Susan Saltrick
Explores the success factors leading to one's company's rise to the number three ranking in the aggressively competitive toy industry. LeapFrog has made the strategic decision to exploit its educational model in two industry sectors: consumer toys and educational... View Details
- September 2003
- Case
Executive Compensation at Reckitt Benckiser plc
By: V.G. Narayanan, Krishna G. Palepu and Lisa Brem
Investors felt betrayed by the increasingly lucrative pay packages awarded to CEOs and other top executives at multinational companies. Yet, board members charged with adequately rewarding executives were forced to compete with rising packages of salaries and stock... View Details
- September 2003 (Revised January 2004)
- Case
Alessi: Evolution of an Italian Design Factory (A)
By: Youngme E. Moon, Vincent Dessain and Anders Sjoman
Alessio Alessi, head of distribution at family-run Alessi S.p.A., is facing price and brand confusion among customers and is considering reorganizing Alessi's worldwide network of distributors. By describing the challenges facing Alessi, an internationally acclaimed... View Details
- September 2003 (Revised February 2004)
- Case
Alessi: Evolution of an Italian Design Factory (B)
By: Youngme E. Moon, Vincent Dessain and Anders Sjoman
Since the 1970s, world-renowned architect and designer, Alessandro Mendini, has acted as adviser and counselor to Alessi, the Italian household goods design factory. By discussing Mendini's role as art director, the case introduces the artistic side of Alessi, where... View Details
- September 2003 (Revised February 2004)
- Case
Alessi: Evolution of an Italian Design Factory (C)
By: Youngme E. Moon, Vincent Dessain and Anders Sjoman
Supplements the (A) case. View Details
- September 2003 (Revised January 2004)
- Case
Alessi: Evolution of an Italian Design Factory (D)
By: Youngme E. Moon, Vincent Dessain and Anders Sjoman
Supplements the (A) case. View Details
- 2003
- Working Paper
Dynamic Mixed Duopoly: A Model Motivated by Linux vs. Windows
By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell and Pankaj Ghemawat
This paper analyzes a dynamic mixed duopoly in which a profit-maximizing competitor interacts with a competitor that prices at zero (or marginal cost), with the cumulation of output affecting their relative positions over time. The modeling effort is motivated by... View Details
- July 2003 (Revised April 2005)
- Case
Branding Citigroup's Consumer Business
By: Rohit Deshpande and Carin-Isabel Knoop
In Spring 1998, Citicorp and Travelers merged to create a financial powerhouse that united the bank with Travelers' consumer finance and brokerage businesses, including Salomon Smith Barney and Primerica. It was the first U.S. financial services company to combine... View Details