Publications
Publications
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- All HBS Web
(4,321)
- Faculty Publications (2,028)
- April 1999 (Revised March 2001)
- Case
Be Our Guest, Inc.
By: Dwight B. Crane and Penny Joseph
Be Our Guest is a rapidly growing equipment rental company with substantial seasonality in its revenues and profits. In the spring of 1998, the senior management team is reviewing its financial plans in preparation for a meeting with the company's bank. The case... View Details
- March 1999 (Revised March 2001)
- Case
Nike, Inc.--Entering the Millennium
Traces the evolution of Nike from 1987 through 1998. Through a series of eight assignment questions, it examines how the company has created and sustained a competitive advantage, and how that competitive advantage is reflected in growth, profitability, and share price... View Details
- March 1999 (Revised January 2000)
- Background Note
A Note on Microeconomics for Strategists
By: Kenneth S. Corts and Jan W. Rivkin
Summarizes the core ideas about the microeconomics of markets that are most relevant to business strategy. Sections I and II develop two basic building blocks of any market, demand and supply. Section II discusses how demand and supply interact to determine the... View Details
- March 1999
- Case
MySoftware Company (A)
By: H. Kent Bowen and Nicole Tempest
In 1997, Gregory Slayton took the position as CEO of MySoftware, which had been experiencing revenue and operating losses for the past two years. Within 90 days, he stabilized the company through a combination of cost cutting, financial discipline, and accountability... View Details
- March 1999 (Revised October 2002)
- Case
Xerox: Book-In-Time
Book-In-Time, developed at Xerox, can dramatically reduce the cost of printing "one" book. Combined with the possibilities of digital content storage and transmittal, the new technology has vast opportunities. Xerox needs a commercial plan. The case describes the state... View Details
- March 1999
- Case
Eastman Kodak Company
By: Robert J. Dolan
Eastman Kodak has suffered significant declines in film market share at the hands of lower-priced branded producers and private label products. The case presents Kodak's proposal to launch a new economy brand of film to combat these rivals. A rewritten version of an... View Details
- February 1999
- Case
Lifeline Systems, Inc. (B)
By: H. Kent Bowen and Marilyn Matis
In 1997, Lifeline Systems continues to grow its service business to $32 million, 56% of the company's total revenues. More local hospital Lifeline programs turn over their monitoring service to Lifeline Central, expanding the company's subscriber base by 30%. The... View Details
- February 1999 (Revised April 1999)
- Case
Guaranty Trust Bank PLC Nigeria (A)
By: Lynn S. Paine and Hal Hogan
Fola Adeola, the CEO of Nigeria's Guaranty Trust Bank and one of its founders in 1991, is considering what should be done to maintain the bank's original vision and vitality in the face of its rapid growth and success in the marketplace. Known for its high ethical... View Details
- Article
Businessmen and Land Ownership in the Late Nineteenth Century
By: Tom Nicholas
This article analyses the proportions of personal to real estate wealth for a group of 295 businessmen profiled in the Dictionary of business biography. It shows that businessmen who owned land on a large scale in the late nineteenth century were a comparatively small... View Details
- February 1999 (Revised June 2010)
- Case
Car Wash Partners, Inc.
By: Paul A. Gompers
Examines the investment decision of Cabot Brown and Bill Burgin, two venture capitalists, to finance Car Wash Partners (CWP). CWP intends to purchase automatic car washes around the country. Investment strategy and deal structuring are discussed. View Details
- February 1999
- Article
The Persistence of Shocks to Profitability
By: Anita M. McGahan and Michael E. Porter
In this study, we use data for 1981 through 1994 on a large sample of U.S. companies to examine the persistence of incremental industry, corporate-parent, and business-specific effects on profitability. Our results indicate that the incremental effects of industry on... View Details
- January 1999 (Revised March 2000)
- Case
ZEFER: November 1998
By: Paul A. Gompers
ZEFER, a young Internet professional service firm, is considering its expansion options. Organic growth versus growth by acquisition is a central theme. The firm's financing strategy will be determined by its business strategy. View Details
- January 1999
- Case
Prague Post, The
By: Paul A. Gompers
Lisa Frankenberg, co-founder of the Prague Post, is faced with several business and professional decisions. The English-language paper she founded is under pressure from competition and a Czech Republic recession. She must decide how to return the paper to... View Details
- January 1999 (Revised June 2006)
- Case
Advanced Technologies, Inc.
By: Thomas R. Piper
The CEO of a semiconductor equipment manufacturer is assessing the financial forecasts and financing plan prepared by the chief financial officer. Continued rapid growth will create substantial financing pressures, especially if profitability fails to recover and/or if... View Details
- January 1999
- Case
Ciba Specialty Chemicals
Based on extensive interviews, this case discusses the environmental policies of a successful firm in the specialty chemicals business. Executives at Ciba have differentiated products along environmental lines and have used environmental scrutiny as a tool for cutting... View Details
- Article
Wealth-Making in Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Century Britain: Industry v. Commerce and Finance
By: Tom Nicholas
This paper refutes the hypothesis put forward by W.D. Rubinstein that a disproportionately large share of Britain's wealth makers were active in commercial and financial trades in London. We use a data set of businessmen active in nineteenth- and early... View Details
Keywords: Trade; Finance; Commercialization; Mathematical Methods; Wealth and Poverty; Great Britain; London
- 1999
- Article
When and How Is the Internet Likely to Decrease Price Competition
By: R. Lal and M. Sarvary
- December 1998 (Revised March 1999)
- Case
Guangdong Nowada Group, The
By: Ray A. Goldberg, Carin-Isabel Knoop and Anthony St. George
In late 1998, 38-year-old He Boquan, CEO of the Guangdong Nowada Group, a health beverage producer, needs to decide how to fund his company's growth and ambition to become China's number one domestic health beverage producer by 2002. A consultants study revealed that... View Details
- December 1998 (Revised December 1999)
- Case
Morgan Stanley Dean Witter Private Client Services
By: Thomas J. DeLong, David M. Darst, Ann K Rusher and Catherine M. Conneely
The 1997 merger of retail giant Dean Witter and investment bank Morgan Stanley was a year old when Bob Sculthorpe was appointed director of Private Client Services (PCS) at Morgan Stanley Dean Witter (MSDW). The firm was still operating under two separate broker-dealer... View Details
- December 1998
- Background Note
Retail Financial Services in 1998
By: Stephen P. Bradley and Takia Mahmood
Provides an overview of the current restructuring that is taking place in the retail financial services industry. Provides a brief overview of the structural changes in banking, brokerage, insurance, and mutual funds. Used as background for examining the strategies of... View Details