Publications

November 2009 (Revised January 2010)
Case

Communispace

By: Anat Keinan

Communispace is the market leader in creating and managing private, brand-focused online communities for major corporate clients. These communities have provided its clients with insights into how consumers view their brands, with quick feedback on potential marketing... View Details

Keywords: Customer Focus and Relationships; Brands and Branding; Product Launch; Network Effects; Social and Collaborative Networks; Online Technology; Communications Industry; Media and Broadcasting Industry

October 1991 (Revised June 1996)
Case

Lotus MarketPlace: Households

By: Lynn S. Paine

Managers at Lotus and Equifax must decide what to do about their new jointly developed database and software product Lotus MarketPlace which has been criticized as a threat to individual privacy. The Product, which would allow small businesses to buy targeting mail... View Details

Keywords: Information; Business or Company Management; Rights; Ethics; Marketing Communications; Applications and Software; Product Marketing; Information Technology Industry

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November 1999
Case

Long-Term Capital Management, L.P. (A)

By: Andre F. Perold

Long-Term Capital Management, L.P. (LTCM) was in the business of engaging in trading strategies to exploit market pricing discrepancies. Because the firm employed strategies designed to make money over long horizons--from six months to two years or more--it adopted a... View Details

Keywords: Fluctuation; Capital; Financial Liquidity; Financing and Loans; Investment Funds; Investment Portfolio; Corporate Governance; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Management; Risk Management; Marketing; Motivation and Incentives; Financial Services Industry

Research Summary

Science-Based Business and the Business of Science

By: H. Kent Bowen

Science and technology can provide strategic advantage to companies' through differentiated products and processes. The focus of our research is on unusually productive and creative labs that are the sources of breakthroughs that create platforms for sustained... View Details

June 2008 (Revised October 2008)
Case

AREVA T&D

By: Ananth Raman, Vincent Marie Dessain, Ane Damgaard Jensen and Gudrun Urfalino Kristinsdottir

The case explores the rapid and highly effective turnaround at AREVA's transmission and distribution (T and D) business by focusing on the division's operations. The division was struggling in 2004 when newly-appointed CEO Philippe Guillemot and his team improved... View Details

Keywords: Business Divisions; Customer Focus and Relationships; Product Development; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Performance Improvement; Environmental Sustainability

April 2004
Case

Case Vignette: The Salesman Saga

By: G. Felda Hardymon, Josh Lerner and Ann Leamon

A venture capitalist faces a situation in which a struggling portfolio company has found a promising vice president of sales through a recruitment agency. The candidate would be an excellent fit for another one of the investor's companies--one that is doing much... View Details

Keywords: Salesforce Management; Corporate Governance; Venture Capital; Ethics; Recruitment

27 Feb 2023
Research & Ideas

How One Late Employee Can Hurt Your Business: Data from 25 Million Timecards

The retail business is not for the faint of heart. Turning a consistent profit requires navigating many variables, such as hiring capable staff, ordering the right products at the right time, and complying with a litany of regulations.... View Details

Keywords: by Ben Rand; Retail

September 2013 (Revised November 2023)
Case

Antoine Leboyer and GSX

By: Richard S. Ruback and Royce Yudkoff

Antoine Leboyer (HBS '92) acquired the Swiss-based software company GSX in February 2008. He managed through the recession of 2008–2009, dealt with a tumultuous separation from the founder/owner, rebuilt the management team, and upgraded the company's software... View Details

Keywords: Acquisition; Small Business; Finance; Private Equity; Growth and Development Strategy; France; Switzerland

January 1997 (Revised July 1998)
Case

Dendrite International (Condensed)

By: John A. Deighton

This version has been shortened to concentrate on the issue of managing a long selling process and long post-sale account relationship. The focus on the pharmaceutical industry in the United States, Europe, and Japan is preserved. Broader questions of expansion into... View Details

Keywords: Customer Focus and Relationships; Marketing Strategy; Product Development; Sales; Expansion; Chemical Industry; Pharmaceutical Industry; Japan; Europe; United States

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22 Apr 2015
HBS Seminar

Riitta Katila, Stanford School of Engineering

May 2007 (Revised December 2009)
Case

Cradle-to-Cradle Design at Herman Miller: Moving Toward Environmental Sustainability

By: Deishin Lee and Lionel Bony

Herman Miller decided to implement the cradle-to-cradle (C2C) design protocol during the design of its mid-level office chair, Mirra. The C2C protocol was a set of environmentally friendly product development guidelines. View Details

Keywords: Product Design; Production; Supply Chain Management; Business Processes; Environmental Sustainability

October 1996
Case

Jim Bender and Alert, Inc. (A)

Jim Bender has just been hired as CEO of Alert, Inc. Alert, founded in 1986 by a charismatic technologist, has accumulated an impressive portfolio of patents and leading edge technology projects in a variety of fields. The company has never, however, shown a profit and... View Details

Keywords: Business or Company Management; Entrepreneurship; Management Skills; Business Startups; Technology Industry

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January 2011 (Revised October 2014)
Case

Dropbox: 'It Just Works'

By: Thomas R. Eisenmann, Michael Pao and Lauren Barley

Dropbox is a venture-backed Silicon Valley startup, founded in 2006, that provides online storage and backup services to millions of customers using a "freemium" (free + premium offers) business model. The case recounts Dropbox's history from conception through... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Growth and Development Strategy; Management Practices and Processes; Distribution; Product Design; Product Development; Internet; Service Industry; California

18 Mar 2013
HBS Case

HBS Cases: LEGO

enough" would later be carved into a wooden plaque and hung in the workshop. These themes of good play and quality products were both bedrocks and touchstones for future generations of LEGO toy makers. Godtfred Kirk Kristiansen... View Details

Keywords: by Maggie Starvish; Entertainment & Recreation

April 2001 (Revised August 2001)
Case

Color Kinetics Incorporated (A)

By: Das Narayandas and Mary N. Caravella

Two-year-old start-up Color Kinetics has developed unique colored lighting technology using digitally controlled LEDs, and has developed that technology into a successful line of products for its first targeted market of "retailtainment." Now in November 1999, the... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Growth and Development; Management Teams; Marketing Strategy; Product Launch; Market Entry and Exit; Business Strategy; Corporate Strategy; Electronics Industry

Career Coach

Nicole Ledoux

finance. She started her career in investment management at Putnam Investments as a fixed income quantitative analyst. Post-HBS, she worked at Constellation Energy in London in portfolio management, where... View Details

Keywords: Consumer Products; Consumer Products; Consumer Products; Consumer Products

May 1994 (Revised January 1995)
Case

Warner Cable (A) and (B) (Condensed)

The new general manager of Warner Cable's Medford, Massachusetts complex faces a number of turnaround challenges in 1985, including service deficiencies, customer complaints, high turnover, and low employee morale. By 1988 he has turned the situation around, but some... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Management Style; Change Management; Performance Improvement; Telecommunications Industry; Massachusetts

October 2001 (Revised March 2008)
Case

Anagene, Inc.

By: Robert S. Kaplan and Christina L. Darwall

An entrepreneurial, publicly traded biotech company has begun production and sales of its core product--cartridges that permit DNA samples to be analyzed on a microchip. In the early quarters, sales are difficult to forecast and the company has experienced fluctuating... View Details

Keywords: Cost Accounting; Financial Reporting; Production; Performance Capacity; Risk and Uncertainty; Genetics; Governing and Advisory Boards; Biotechnology Industry; California