Publications
Publications
Show Results For
- All HBS Web
(10,565)
- Faculty Publications (2,438)
- March 2006 (Revised September 2006)
- Case
Irizar in 2005
By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell and Jordan Mitchell
In June 2005, Koldo Saratxaga, the leader of Basque-based luxury coach manufacturer Irizar, decided to leave after 14 years at the helm of the worker-owned cooperative. Under Saratxaga's stewardship, Irizar was saved from near bankruptcy in 1991 and has become a highly... View Details
- March 2006
- Background Note
Customer-Introduced Variability in Service Operations
By: Frances X. Frei
Presents a typology of customer-introduced variability and offers guidance on how to manage each type. Central to the ideas developed is how to mitigate the effects of the apparent trade-off between reducing variability and diminishing the service experience or... View Details
- March 2006 (Revised December 2013)
- Case
Hexcel Turnaround — 2001 (A)
By: Paul W. Marshall, James Quinn and Reed Martin
Hexcel's new CEO is faced with deciding how to "take out" $60 million in cash costs in fiscal 2002, as two of the company's end markets—electronics and commercial aerospace—are expected to decline precipitously. Options include closing plants, exiting a business, or... View Details
- March 2006
- Background Note
Influencing Customer Behavior in Service Operations
By: Frances X. Frei and Amy C. Edmondson
Explores ways in which service firms can influence the behavior of their customers. Drawing from research on employee motivation and applying it to customer motivation, the note describes two levels of managerial control: instrumental control, which shapes behavior... View Details
- February 2006
- Case
Bumble and bumble: Building a Successful Business in Beauty and Fashion
By: Nancy F. Koehn and Erica Helms
Explores the creation and subsequent rise of Bumble and bumble, a trend-setting hair-care company. Analyzes the vision and achievements of the founding entrepreneur, Michael Gordon, and charts the evolution of the company within the $230 billion global beauty industry.... View Details
- February 2006 (Revised October 2006)
- Case
China: Building "Capitalism with Socialist Characteristics"
By: Debora L. Spar
Describes China's phenomenal development from a poor, communist country to a global powerhouse. Provides background on China's history and culture, details the reforms launched in 1978 by Seng Xiaoping, and describes the situation as of 2006, focusing on the... View Details
- February 2006 (Revised October 2006)
- Case
Veridian: Putting a Value on Values
By: Rakesh Khurana, Joel Podolny and Jaan Margus Elias
David Langstaff, the CEO of Veridian, a defense company, struggles with the decision of selling the company. Langstaff has concerned himself with inculcalating his organization with the values necessary for superior achievement over the long term. But as a fiduciary,... View Details
- February 2006 (Revised August 2006)
- Case
Investment Banking at Thomas Weisel Partners
By: Malcolm P. Baker and Lauren Barley
Thomas Weisel Partners (TWP), a San Francisco-based bank focusing on emerging growth companies, is considering its strategy in the context of regulatory, competitive, and legal changes. Blake Jorgensen, the chief operating officer and co-director of investment banking,... View Details
- January 2006 (Revised February 2015)
- Case
Innovation at Timberland: Thinking Outside the Shoe Box
By: Rosabeth M. Kanter and Ryan Raffaelli
Innovation was linked to Timberland's heritage. In 2005, CEO Jeff Swartz and COO Ken Pucker hoped the Invention Factory, an advanced concept lab, would develop new breakthrough products and reinvigorate the company's culture of innovation. Since the 1960s, Timberland... View Details
- January 2006 (Revised July 2016)
- Case
Gordon Bethune at Continental Airlines
By: Nitin Nohria, Anthony Mayo and Mark Benson
A $385 million loss for the final months of fiscal year 1994 signaled Continental might go bankrupt. Could new CEO Gordon Bethune turn Continental around? Continental was in dire straits because the deregulation of the commercial airline industry in 1978 ushered in a... View Details
- January 2006 (Revised August 2006)
- Case
Four Products: Predicting Diffusion (2006)
One of the critical tasks in the marketing of new innovations is predicting demand and rates of diffusion for those products. Focuses on four innovative products from different domains. Although one can speculate on the scope and rate of diffusion for each of these... View Details
- January 2006 (Revised October 2007)
- Background Note
Managing Networked Businesses: Course Overview for Students
Provides an overview for students of the MBA elective course Managing Networked Businesses (MNB). MNB focuses on management challenges in businesses that exhibit network effects. The first section of the note explains that such businesses comprise a large and growing... View Details
- December 2005 (Revised May 2009)
- Case
C.R. Smith and the Birth of American Airlines
By: Anthony Mayo and Laura Gaie Singleton
Presents an overview of the path that C.R. Smith pursued to build American Airlines into one of the largest airlines in the world in the 20th century. Over the course of his 30-year tenure as president of American Airlines, Smith deployed a three-pronged... View Details
- December 2005 (Revised February 2006)
- Case
Migros
By: Forest L. Reinhardt, Vincent Marie Dessain and Anders Sjoman
In October 2005, Urs Riedener, head of marketing at Swiss retailer Migros, is contemplating the company's competitive position. Primarily a retailer for foods and near-foods products, the cooperative Migros, with close to 600 retail outlets in Switzerland (but only... View Details
Keywords: Competitive Advantage; Corporate Governance; Corporate Strategy; Cooperative Ownership; Supply Chain Management; Product Marketing; Environmental Sustainability; Social Enterprise; Business or Company Management; Marketing Strategy; Retail Industry; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Switzerland
- December 2005 (Revised May 2014)
- Case
Walt Disney and the 1941 Animators' Strike
By: Nitin Nohria, Anthony Mayo and Bridget Gurtler
Focuses on the leadership lessons drawn from the events precipitating the Animator's Strike of 1941, depicting the growing pains of a company that was as much formed and changed by American culture as American culture was formed and changed by it. The tale of Walt... View Details
- December 2005
- Article
Up to Code: Does Your Company's Conduct Meet World-Class Standards?
Codes of conduct have long been a feature of corporate life. Today, they are arguably a legal necessity—at least for public companies with a presence in the United States. But the issue goes beyond U.S. legal and regulatory requirements. Sparked by corruption and... View Details
- November 2005 (Revised December 2005)
- Case
County Department of Public Health: Organizing for Emergency Preparedness and Response
By: Lynda M. Applegate, Ajay Vinze and Minu Ipe
The anthrax attacks of 2001 exposed serious inadequacies in the response of the U.S. public health system to meet such grave threats. The public health infrastructure required rebuilding to respond to any type of large-scale health emergency. The Public Health... View Details
- November 2005 (Revised February 2006)
- Case
Oracle vs. PeopleSoft (A)
By: Lynn S. Paine, Guhan Subramanian and David Millstone
Focuses on the hotly contested takeover battle between software rivals Oracle and PeopleSoft in 2003 and 2004. Raises novel issues of takeover law under Delaware corporate law as well as issues of fair competition under California law. A central issue is whether the... View Details
- November 2005 (Revised September 2007)
- Case
Beijing Hualian
By: David E. Bell and Mary L. Shelman
China's fifth largest domestic retailer faced intensifying competition from Wal-Mart and Carrefour with the opening of China's fast-growing retail market in January 2005. In response, Beijing Hualian developed a new "Family Store" format targeted at the nation's... View Details
- November 2005 (Revised March 2007)
- Case
Leadership Development at Goldman Sachs
By: Boris Groysberg, Scott A. Snook and David Lane
In November 1999, 11 of Goldman Sachs' finest gathered to put the final touches on a revolutionary leadership development plan. Following Goldman's explosive growth during the 1990s and its eventual IPO in 1999, a diverse group of leaders from across the firm were... View Details