Publications

June 1994 (Revised August 1994)
Case

Cunard Line Ltd.: Managing Integrated Marketing Communications

By: Stephen A. Greyser

Cunard, the world's oldest luxury line company, is confronted with several key issues involving its marketing and marketing communications strategy. One concerns the balance between image/positioning advertising and short-term-oriented promotional... View Details

Keywords: Advertising Campaigns; Marketing Communications; Marketing Strategy; Product Positioning; Consumer Behavior; Organizational Structure; Identity; Balance and Stability; Shipping Industry

May 1994 (Revised August 1994)
Case

Motorola-Elma

By: Shoshana Zuboff and Janis Lee Gogan

Motorola's old automative electronics plant in Arcade, outside Buffalo, New York, faced the prospect of closure in the mid-1980s, but leading customers persuaded Motorola to give the plant a second chance. The new plant manager, Dennis Fiehn, recognized that existing... View Details

Keywords: Factories, Labs, and Plants; Business Exit or Shutdown; Customers; Leading Change; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Organizational Structure; Competitive Strategy; Expansion; Telecommunications Industry; New York (state, US)

20 Jul 2009
Research & Ideas

Markets or Communities? The Best Ways to Manage Outside Innovation

after identifying a structural weakness. “Apple has shown the way in how to build a market of external innovators.” According to Harvard Business School professor Karim R. Lakhani, Boeing's approach is an excellent example of how not to... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Technology

January 2025
Supplement

Go Mobile: Aligning District Managers and Store Teams (B)

By: Tatiana Sandino and Samuel Grad

In January 2025, Modi reflects on the past decade of Go Mobile and looks ahead to new growth strategies. View Details

Keywords: Employee Relationship Management; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Growth Management; Organizational Design; Organizational Structure; Salesforce Management; Motivation and Incentives; Management Practices and Processes; Telecommunications Industry; India

April 2013 (Revised October 2013)
Case

National Instruments

By: Lynda M. Applegate, Keri Pearlson and Natalie Kindred

This case explores the use of social media to support product design, customer support, marketing and HR activities at National Instruments (NI). Based in Austin, Texas, with over $1 billion in 2011 sales, NI designs, produces, and sells software and hardware platforms... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Structure; Applications and Software; Organizational Culture; Technological Innovation; Digital Platforms; Innovation and Management; Media; Management Systems; Social and Collaborative Networks; Information Technology Industry; Information Technology Industry; Texas

May 1996 (Revised May 1997)
Case

Colliers International Property Consultants, Inc.: Managing a Virtual Organization

By: Lynda M. Applegate and Carin-Isabel Knoop

In less than 20 years, the real estate firm Colliers International expanded into a federation of 180 offices with close to 4,500 professionals in over 30 countries. Because Colliers expanded by signing up existing firms strong in their local markets, its leaders had to... View Details

Keywords: Demand and Consumers; Globalized Firms and Management; Management Practices and Processes; Service Operations; Information Technology; Organizational Structure; Mergers and Acquisitions; Business Strategy; Budgets and Budgeting; Real Estate Industry

24 Jul 2018
First Look

New Research and Ideas, July 24, 2018

on, it pays its key cast and crew members the minimum salary stipulated by industry unions and only pays out sizeable bonuses if a movie’s box-office reaches certain levels, it gives its directors a great deal of creative control, and it... View Details

Keywords: Dina Gerdeman

May 2001
Supplement

Asian Strategies: Ian Buchanan

By: Tarun Khanna

Ian Buchanan, senior VP of Booz-Allen & Hamilton, comments on Sime Darby and the Asian financial crisis. He also discusses the value propositions of different types of business groups in Malaysia. View Details

Keywords: Financial Crisis; Growth and Development Strategy; Industry Structures; Strategy; Competition; Competitive Strategy; Consulting Industry; Consulting Industry; Asia; Malaysia

17 Sep 2013
First Look

First Look: September 17

effectiveness of inspections by allowing cities to target restaurants that are most likely to have a hygiene violation. In this work, we report the first empirical study demonstrating the utility of review analysis for predicting restaurant inspection results.... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

26 Apr 2011
Op-Ed

HBS Faculty Comment on Environmental Issues for Earth Day

what we have learned about how best to accelerate innovation from industries like IT and pharmaceuticals - sectors in which the US leads the world and which saw enormous rates of technical progress over the last fifty years. The results... View Details

Keywords: by Staff; Energy; Utilities

03 Feb 2009
First Look

First Look: February 3, 2009

change in a nation with a relatively constant patent policy, Great Britain. Getting Known by the Company You Keep: Publicizing the Qualifications and Former Associations of Skilled Employees Authors: Peter Roberts and Mukti Khaire Publication: View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

28 Aug 2007
First Look

First Look: August 28, 2007

outdated. Instead, innovations are increasingly brought to the market by networks of firms, selected for their unique capabilities, and operating in a coordinated manner. This new model demands that firms develop different skills, in... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

03 Oct 2017
First Look

First Look at Research and Ideas, October 3, 2017

Feedback Shapes Social Networks By: Green, Paul, Jr., Francesca Gino, and Bradley Staats Abstract—Many organizations employ interpersonal feedback processes as a structured means of informing and motivating employee improvement. Ample... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

October 2023 (Revised January 2024)
Case

SEK: Reimagining Spanish Higher Education at Universidad Camilo José Cela (UCJC)

By: John J-H Kim, Mary C. Sauer and Emilie Billaud

In 2023, Nieves Segovia, President of the SEK Education Group in Spain, contemplates the future of her family's for-profit education company, which includes K-12 schools and the newly established UCJC university. Renowned for its innovation in education, SEK faces... View Details

Keywords: Family Business; Curriculum and Courses; Higher Education; Teaching; Digital Strategy; Disruptive Innovation; Knowledge Dissemination; Leading Change; Growth and Development Strategy; Management Succession; Resource Allocation; Organizational Structure; Education Industry; Europe; Spain

29 Jun 2010
First Look

First Look: June 29

contracts model of vertical integration choices into a standard perfectly-competitive international trade framework. Integration decisions are driven by a trade-off between the pecuniary benefits of coordinating production decisions and... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

23 Aug 2004
Research & Ideas

Strategy for Small Fish

focused niche strategy have an ultimate advantage in the creation of novelty. This is partly because a focused new idea can more closely correspond to a new firm than is possible in vertical or modular industry structures: Everything... View Details

Keywords: by Marco Iansiti & Roy Levien

January 2020 (Revised December 2024)
Case

Governing PG&E

By: Lynn S. Paine and Will Hurwitz

The five commissioners of the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) listened intently at a public forum in April 2019 as PG&E Corporation’s out-going chairman Richard Kelly described the company’s proposed new board. PG&E, which provided electricity and natural... View Details