Publications
Publications
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- All HBS Web
(1,080)
- Faculty Publications (236)
- July 2013 (Revised March 2015)
- Case
Carl Zeiss and Free-Form Production: Can We See Clearly Yet?
By: Willy Shih
The prescription eyeglass lens industry was complicated and highly fragmented, and even though many of the tools and techniques employed have been relatively unchanged over the last century, there was still a surprising pace of innovation. An aging population around... View Details
- March 2013 (Revised April 2014)
- Case
Barnes & Noble: Managing the E-Book Revolution
By: Alan MacCormack, Brian Kimball Dunn and Chris F. Kemerer
The case describes competition in the market for E-Books, and Barnes & Noble's Strategy in this industry. As a traditional retailer, B&N was challenged by the introduction of digital technologies that allow books to be published, distributed and sold to consumers... View Details
- January 2013 (Revised April 2013)
- Case
Microsoft Server & Tools
By: Marco Iansiti and Alain Serels
In 2011, Microsoft's Server & Tools Business (STB) was large, fast growing and highly profitable on the strength of traditional packaged product lines led by the Windows Server operating system. Even as the current packaged business was performing exceptionally well,... View Details
- January 2013
- Supplement
Microsoft Server & Tools (B)
By: Marco Iansiti and Alain Serels
Supplement for case 613031. Update on progress of Microsoft's Server & Tools Business through July 2011. Satya Nadella and his team explore whether or not to support Linux on Windows Azure. View Details
- January 2013
- Supplement
Microsoft Server & Tools (C)
By: Marco Iansiti and Alain Serels
Supplement for case 613031. Update on progress of Microsoft's Server & Tools Business through August 2012. Pleased with the Windows Azure product, Satya Nadella must decide how to attract customers to the cloud based platform. View Details
- September 2012
- Supplement
Intraoperative Radiotherapy for Breast Cancer (B)
By: Willy Shih
The intraoperative radiotherapy (IORT) business at Carl Zeiss Meditec had struggled with growth since the time of the (A) case. Though the unit had grown revenues in excess of 50% and had exceeded its EBIT target, it faced several key strategic choices. Should it... View Details
Keywords: Radiotherapy; Breast Cancer; Brachytherapy; Therapeutic Radiation; Oncology; Oncology Treatment Systems; Elekta AB; Varian Medical Systems; Xoft; Electronic Brachytherapy; Intraoperative Radiotherapy; Disruptive Innovation; Health Care and Treatment; Entrepreneurship; Technological Innovation; Growth and Development Strategy; Health Industry; Germany
- September 2012 (Revised April 2013)
- Case
Digital Microscopy at Carl Zeiss: Managing Disruption
By: Willy Shih
Ulrich Simon, the head of the Microscopy business group at Carl Zeiss AG knew that his unit was facing a disruptive threat, so he chartered a special team to tackle the industrial segment. Given a high degree of autonomy, the project team developed an understanding of... View Details
- September 2012
- Supplement
Industrial Metrology: Getting In-Line? (B)
By: Willy Shih
Rainer Ohnheiser, the President of Carl Zeiss's Business Group Industrial Metrology (IMT), was focused on the threat that in-line metrology posed to Carl Zeiss IMT's core business. Historically, coordinate measurement machines (CMMs) that employed tactile measurement... View Details
- August 2012 (Revised August 2013)
- Background Note
Competency-Destroying Technology Transitions: Why the Transition to Digital Is Particularly Challenging
By: Willy Shih
Some technology transitions are exceedingly difficult for incumbent firms to execute. The bankruptcy filing by the Eastman Kodak Company highlighted the difficulty companies faced when their core business transitioned from an analog to a digital world. Kodak's business... View Details
Keywords: Technology Transitions; Competency-destroying; Digital; Analog; Digital Transition; Modular; Modularity; Technological Change; Radical Innovation; Incremental Innovation; Architectural Innovation; Modular Innovation; Sustaining Innovation; Competency-enhancing; Noise Propagation; Perfect Copying; Digital Music; Digital Media; Consumer Electronics; Kodak; Sony; Panasonic; Disruptive Innovation; Technology Adoption; Transition; Change Management; Consumer Products Industry; United States
- June 2012 (Revised August 2013)
- Case
Driving Towards a Disruption?
By: Willy Shih and William Noble
As Clayton Christensen drove to the studio to deliver an online executive education class, he pondered the future of management education. How big a threat did online degree programs, corporate universities, and other innovations in the delivery of management training... View Details
- June 2012
- Supplement
Foro Energy (B)
By: Joseph B. Lassiter, William A. Sahlman and James McQuade
Foro Energy developed proprietary and patent-pending fiber-laser technologies that could disrupt existing processes and services for the exploration and production of oil and natural gas. These breakthrough laser technologies were protected by a strong intellectual... View Details
- March 2012 (Revised December 2012)
- Case
Foro Energy (A)
By: Joseph B. Lassiter III, William A. Sahlman and James McQuade
Foro Energy developed proprietary and patent-pending fiber-laser technologies that could disrupt existing processes and services for the exploration and production of oil and natural gas. These breakthrough laser technologies were protected by a strong intellectual... View Details
- December 2011
- Case
Roger Caracappa: Package Deals for the Estée Lauder Companies
Roger Caracappa must negotiate a cost-saving, innovative proposal from a potential French supplier that could displace the otherwise satisfactory, long-time incumbent supplier. Shortly after being promoted to executive vice president of the Estée Lauder Companies with... View Details
- September 2011
- Article
Global Capitalism at Risk: What Are You Doing About It?
Market capitalism, a system that has proven to be a remarkable engine of wealth creation, is poised for a breakdown. That sounds dire, and it is. Increasing income inequality, migration, weaknesses in the global financial system, environmental degradation, and... View Details
- August 2011 (Revised April 2013)
- Case
Language and Globalization: 'Englishnization' at Rakuten (A)
By: Tsedal Neeley
Hiroshi Mikitani, the CEO of Rakuten, (Japan's largest online retailer), is at the helm of an organization that is rapidly expanding into global markets. In a critical stride toward becoming the world's No. 1 Internet services company, Mikitani announces... View Details
- July 2011 (Revised September 2012)
- Case
Intraoperative Radiotherapy for Breast Cancer (A)
By: Willy Shih
"This trial is going to take longer." Those were words that Michael Kaschke, CEO of Carl Zeiss AG, was not surprised to hear as he nurtured the intraoperative radiotherapy business inside his company's microsurgery unit. But he also didn't expect it to take 13 years to... View Details
- July 2011 (Revised January 2013)
- Case
Digital Microscopy Is Making Me Crazy!
By: Willy Shih
For Carl Zeiss Microimaging, modular hardware and software enabled customers to tailor Zeiss's broad range of microscopy systems hardware and software to meet a wide range of needs from basic scientific research in the biological and medical sciences to clinical... View Details
- June 2011
- Case
CA Technologies: Bringing the Cloud to Earth
By: Marco Iansiti and Kerry Herman
Adam Famularo, general manager, Cloud Computing business, CA Technologies, and David Dobson, WVP and group executive, Customer Solutions Group, were preparing for a presentation on communicating and positioning CA Technologies' new strategy for cloud computing.... View Details
- March 2011
- Supplement
Cree, Inc.: An Update
By: David J. Collis and Mary Furey
An update to "Cree Inc.: Which Bright Future?" View Details
- February 2011 (Revised November 2012)
- Case
Aquion Energy
By: Thomas R. Eisenmann and David Kiron
Leaders at Aquion Energy, a Pittsburgh-based battery start-up, are deciding on a market entry strategy. Should they pursue the large but unproven grid utility market or a smaller, but higher margin market? View Details