Publications

November 2019 (Revised April 2021)
Case

United Technologies: Are the Parts Worth More Than the Whole?

By: Benjamin C. Esty and Daniel Fisher

After spending more than 50 years creating a diversified industrial conglomerate that Fortune magazine described as “arguably the most profitable conglomerate in America” in 2014, UTC’s CEO Greg Hayes was under pressure from activist investors (Dan Loeb and Bill... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Strategy; Business Conglomerates; Financial Management; Corporate Governance; Organizational Structure; Investment Funds; Value Creation; Aerospace Industry; Aerospace Industry; Aerospace Industry; United States

March – April 2008
Article

Identity Incentives as an Engaging Form of Control: Revisiting Leniencies in an Aeronautic Plant

By: Michel Anteby

Research has long shown that organizations shape members' identities. However, the possibility that these identities might also be desired and that members might benefit from this process has only recently been explored. In a qualitative study of a French aeronautic... View Details

Keywords: Governance Controls; Employee Relationship Management; Organizational Culture; Identity; Motivation and Incentives; Aerospace Industry; France

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July 15, 2022
Article

Does Elon Musk Have a Strategy?

By: Andy Wu and Goran Calic

Does Elon Musk have a strategy? Or is he just out there winging it? Looking at Musk’s many companies, common themes stand out across three areas: what fits into his vision for problems to solve, how he designs an organization as a solution to those problems, and why he... View Details

Keywords: Technology; Strategy; Vision; Resources; Organization; Platform; Closed Systems; Leadership; Complexity; Organizational Design; Vertical Integration; Problems and Challenges; Success; Aerospace Industry; Aerospace Industry; Aerospace Industry; Aerospace Industry

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August 1993 (Revised May 1994)
Case

American Airlines' Value Pricing (A)

By: Alvin J. Silk

In April 1992, American Airlines launched "Value Pricing" -- a radical simplification of the complex pricing structure that had evolved over more than a decade following deregulation of the U.S. domestic airline industry. American expected that the new pricing... View Details

Keywords: Price; Marketing Channels; Consumer Behavior; Performance Expectations; Value Creation; Aerospace Industry

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

Keywords: Cash; Corporate Governance; Financial Markets; Law; Leadership; Patents; Values and Beliefs; Aerospace Industry; Aerospace Industry

12 Apr 2016
First Look

April 12, 2016

member to discover how and whether his employees can speed up cleaning, checking, restocking, and refueling. Expert commentary comes from Atilla Korkmazoglu, president of ground handling View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

10 May 2017
Research & Ideas

Amazon Web Services Changed the Way VCs Fund Startups

substantially between 2006, when AWS was introduced, and 2010, especially for those firms that could most take advantage of cloud services. For the control group of companies in industries such as aerospace... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Banking; Financial Services; Information Technology

13 Mar 2014
Research & Ideas

Can We Get To Where We Need To Go?

Trumka, President, AFL-CIO; and Michael Ward (HBS MBA '76), CEO, CSX. From government, the participant list included Charles Bolden, NASA Administrator; Anthony Foxx, US Secretary of Transportation; Jane Garvey, former head of the Federal... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Transportation; Air Transportation; Auto

03 Nov 2014
Research & Ideas

Brand Lessons From the Nobel Prize

Greyser cites the early days of Airbus, which began as a consortium of independent European aviation firms, to build planes together using the Airbus brand as a hub—and to compete with Boeing, Lockheed, and... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

July 1996 (Revised June 2001)
Case

Atlantic Corporation-Abridged

By: Thomas R. Piper

A major paper company is considering acquiring the assets of a company that is threatened by a hostile takeover. The acquisition can be evaluated in terms of industry attractiveness, comparative advantage, and cash-flow analysis. View Details

Keywords: Projects; Cash Flow; Interest Rates; Valuation; Mathematical Methods; Horizontal Integration; Acquisition; Competitive Advantage; Aerospace Industry

May 2001 (Revised August 2001)
Case

Airbus A3XX: Developing the World's Largest Commercial Jet (B)

By: Benjamin C. Esty and Michael Kane

Supplements the (A) case. View Details

Keywords: Research and Development; Aerospace Industry

10 Oct 2007
Research & Ideas

“Blank” Inside: Branding Ingredients

brand-building to add the ingredient brand on the package as well as in advertising? There are 4 conditions: 1. The ingredient is highly differentiated, usually supported by patent protection, and so adds an aura of quality to the overall... View Details

Keywords: by John Quelch; Aerospace; Aerospace

12 Apr 2010
Research & Ideas

One Report: Better Strategy through Integrated Reporting

electronics company Philips; the Danish pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk; the Brazilian cosmetics company Natura; and the U.S.-based technology and aerospace company United... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

29 Aug 2024
Research & Ideas

Shoot for the Stars: What to Know About the Space Economy

A new space race—one fueled more by commercial conquest than intergalactic domination—is charting solutions to pressing problems in national security, climate change, and communication. With costs poised to drop View Details

Keywords: by Kara Baskin; Aerospace

06 Jul 2010
Research & Ideas

Renewable Energy: Winds at Our Back?

When American energy entrepreneur Jim Gordon envisioned the first offshore wind farm lining the horizon a few miles off the coast of the eastern United States, he perhaps did not factor in blowback from almost every angle. Gordon's nearly 10-year battle to gain... View Details

Keywords: by Sarah Jane Gilbert; Energy; Utilities

05 Feb 2013
First Look

First Look: Feb. 5

Teaming at GE Aviation Khurana, Rakesh, Jeffrey T. Polzer, Willy Shih, and Eric BaldwinHarvard Business School Case 413-074 Describes the challenges and successes encountered... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

February 2003 (Revised January 2004)
Case

Mission to Mars (A)

By: Alan D. MacCormack and Jay Wynn

This case is set in spring 2000, several months after two successive, failed missions to the planet Mars. Students are asked to evaluate the reasons for these failures in the context of NASA's "Faster, Better, Cheaper" program, which was initiated in 1992. They are... View Details

Keywords: Failure; Change Management; Innovation Strategy; Collaborative Innovation and Invention; Projects; Management; Risk Management; Risk and Uncertainty; Aerospace Industry; Aerospace Industry

11 Dec 2018
Research & Ideas

Free Trade Needs Nurturing—and Other Lessons from History

Question: What patterns emerge from history that can help us better understand where we are today? Sophus Reinert: To many people, globalization is teleological, something that necessarily becomes stronger over time and leads to an... View Details

Keywords: by Staff; Aerospace; Aerospace; Aerospace; Aerospace; Aerospace; Aerospace; Aerospace; Aerospace; Aerospace; Aerospace

March 2010
Background Note

Airline Travel in the U.S.

By: Sunil Gupta and Kavita Shukla

How should airlines respond to the rising share of Online Travel Agencies (OTAs) as consumers increasingly search the web to buy tickets? View Details

Keywords: Management; Marketing Channels; Consumer Behavior; Market Participation; Agency Theory; Online Technology; Aerospace Industry; United States