Publications

February 2000 (Revised October 2000)
Case

E-commerce at Williams-Sonoma

By: Rosabeth M. Kanter and Daniel Galvin

Describes Williams-Sonoma's development of a third channel of business on the Internet. Describes the strategies for managing changes in the organizational, operational, and technological structure of the company. The new e-commerce division confronts challenges posed... View Details

Keywords: Change Management; Internet and the Web; Trade; Corporate Strategy; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Operations; Information Technology; Technological Innovation; Information Technology Industry; Retail Industry; California

15 Jan 2007
Research & Ideas

The Business of Free Software

IT vendors including Oracle, IBM, and Sun that traditionally have built offerings based on proprietary technologies are now investing billions of dollars into open source software—arrangements that are transforming in some ways the fundamental nature of technology... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Computer

January 2016 (Revised January 2019)
Supplement

The Allergan Board Under Fire (B)

By: Lynn S. Paine, Suraj Srinivasan, John C. Coates and David Lane

In 2014, the Allergan Inc. board of directors received a surprise takeover offer from Valeant Pharmaceuticals in alliance with hedge fund activist Bill Ackman's Pershing Square Capital Management. In the unprecedented arrangement between an acquirer and a hedge fund... View Details

2020
Book

Capitalism at Risk: How Business Can Lead

By: Joseph L. Bower, Dutch Leonard and Lynn S. Paine

Who should take the lead in fixing market capitalism? Business—not government alone. The spread of capitalism worldwide has made people wealthier than ever before. But capitalism's future is far from assured. Pandemics, income inequality, resource depletion, mass... View Details

Keywords: Capitalism; Business And Society; Economic Systems; Economic Growth; Policy; Leading Change; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Business and Community Relations; Corporate Strategy

July 1996 (Revised December 2001)
Case

Becton Dickinson--Designing the New Strategic, Operational, and Financial Planning Process

By: Robert L. Simons, Antonio Davila and Afroze A Mohammed

Describes management's attempts to design and install a sophisticated planning and control system in an international company as it changes its strategy. Issues of strategy implementation, accountability, and performance measurement are at the core of the analysis, as... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Strategy; Business or Company Management; Corporate Accountability; Governance Controls; System; Performance Evaluation

Fall 2013
Article

Spurring Innovation Through Competitions

By: Alan MacCormack, Fiona Murray and Erika Wagner

Alan MacCormack, Fiona Murray, and Erika Wagner examine the phenomenon of corporations using innovation contests. They write: "Companies are searching for better ways to identify and exploit novel solutions. Increasingly, they are discovering that many of the very best... View Details

Keywords: Competition; Innovation Strategy; Innovation and Management

Read Now

14 Dec 2010
First Look

First Look: Dec. 14

owning and operating farmland, but the potential financial rewards are potentially significant. As competition has increased and farmland values have skyrocketed in the last eight years, Cresud's overall corporate View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

20 Dec 2006
Working Paper Summaries

The Demise of Cost and Profit Centers

Keywords: by Robert S. Kaplan

2000
Book

Merchants to Multinationals

By: Geoffrey Jones

This book examines the evolution of multinational trading companies from the eighteenth century to the present day. During the Industrial Revolution, British merchants established overseas branches which became major trade intermediaries, and later engaged in foreign... View Details

Keywords: Competency and Skills; Trade; Foreign Direct Investment; Multinational Firms and Management; Corporate Governance; Growth and Development; Human Resources; Information Management; Relationships; Corporate Strategy; Africa; Asia; Latin America

February 2008
Case

Cincom Systems, Inc.

By: Tom Nicholas and David Chen

Tom Nies, charismatic CEO of Cincom Systems, is considering a public offering of his software enterprise, but the 1987 stock market crash checks his plans. Nies reflects that capital for expansion will keep Cincom at the frontier of technological development in a... View Details

Keywords: Customer Satisfaction; Capital; Initial Public Offering; Organizational Culture; Going Public; Corporate Strategy; Information Technology Industry

Web

Curriculum - Case Method Project

the various strategies employed by civil rights activists, with a special emphasis on the civil disobedience protests of the modern Civil Rights Movement, and culminates in Martin Luther King’s decision of whether to lead protesters... View Details

2009
Chapter

Evaluating the Impact of SA8000 Certification

By: Michael J. Hiscox, Claire Schwartz and Michael W. Toffel

SA 8000, along with other types of certification standards and corporate codes of conduct, represents a new form of private governance of working conditions, initiated and implemented by companies, labor unions, and non-governmental activist groups. Whether these codes... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Governance; Working Conditions; Standards; Performance Evaluation

Read Now

November 1996
Case

Diamond Walnut Growers

By: Ray A. Goldberg and Mollie H. Carter

Diamond Walnut Growers is the largest walnut marketer in the world. As a grower-owned cooperative, it is under pressure to operate as efficiently as independent handlers. Diamond is evaluating its high-margin consumer branded business, which has experienced little to... View Details

Keywords: Plant-Based Agribusiness; Change Management; Marketing Strategy; Operations; Cooperative Ownership; Corporate Strategy; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry

February 2001
Case

PlanetFeedback: The Voice of One ... The Power of Many (A)

By: James L. Heskett

The management of PlanetFeedback in proposes a merger with Intelliseek. Their goal is to create a comprehensive C2B and B2B business focused on the generation and analysis for business clients of consumer feedback data via the Internet, Planet Feedback's board of... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Decisions; Information Management; Analytics and Data Science; Business Strategy; Internet and the Web; Information Technology Industry

December 1999
Case

Agrochemicals at Ciba-Geigy AG (A)

By: Michael L. Tushman, Wendy Smith and Daniel Radov

After spending five years to develop a revolutionary product, the director of Ciba-Geigy's fungicide research department is handed an unfavorable market study. The case details the R&D process for the new product, including information on corporate partnerships,... View Details

Keywords: Agribusiness; Plant-Based Agribusiness; Research and Development; Innovation and Invention; Innovation Strategy; Product Launch; Marketing Channels; Change Management; Product Development; Business Processes; Organizational Structure; Corporate Accountability; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Pharmaceutical Industry

26 Mar 2013
First Look

First Look: March 26

conducted by OWS, and allows students to understand implications of the growth strategy for financial performance and valuation. Additionally, the case highlights the role of corporate boards and audit... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

April 2012
Article

Celebrate Innovation, No Matter Where It Occurs

By: Nitin Nohria

The author offers opinions on technological innovations and innovations in business. It is argued that the country of origin of a technological innovation is less economically important than the ability of a society to capitalize on that innovation and convert it into... View Details

Keywords: Technological Innovation; Profit; Commercialization; Marketing; Distribution

July 1984 (Revised September 1986)
Case

CML Group, Inc.: Going Public (A)

By: William A. Sahlman

Describes a series of decisions confronting Charles Leighton, co-founder and chairman of the CML Group. CML is a successful participant in the leisure time industry with two lines of business: specialty retailing and recreational consumer products. The key issues in... View Details

Keywords: Valuation; Going Public; Strategy; Business or Company Management; Cost vs Benefits; SWOT Analysis; Investment Banking; Financing and Loans; Planning; Corporate Finance; Retail Industry; Consumer Products Industry