Publications

April 2022
Case

The First Opium War and Global Free Trade

By: Jeremy Friedman and Allison Lazarus

The First Opium War (1839-1842) symbolized the peak of the era of European imperialism, with a political and cultural legacy that remains potent to this day. The British Empire, “acquired in a fit of absent-mindedness” as one observer famously claimed, seemed to be... View Details

Keywords: Imperialism; Narcotics; Importing; History; Globalized Markets and Industries; Trade; Social Issues

11 Nov 2021
Blog Post

ZONE DEFENSE: These self-driving, AI-powered drones do recon so soldiers don’t have to

Brandon Tseng (MBA 2017) remembers his aha moment. It was April 2015, and Tseng was a US Navy SEAL approaching the end of seven years’ service; his next step would be Harvard Business School. Tseng was reading about a military effort to... View Details

24 Oct 2023
Cold Call Podcast

How the United States Air Force Accelerated AI Adoption

Keywords: Re: Maria P. Roche

15 Sep 2014
News

The U.S. is Returning to Iraq, But What About Libya?

April 2019 (Revised October 2021)
Case

The Rohingya Refugee: Past, Genocide, Future

By: Reshmaan N. Hussam

In August 2017, the Myanmar military commenced a brutal pogrom of the Rohingya minority in Rakhine State, Myanmar. The genocidal campaign marked the most recent and decisive of a series of ethnic cleansing efforts fueled by contention around race, religion, and... View Details

Keywords: War; Ethnicity; Race; Religion; Identity; Change; Resource Allocation; Social Issues; Myanmar; Africa; Bangladesh

April 2020 (Revised April 2023)
Case

TransDigm in 2017: The Beginning of the End or the End of the Beginning?

By: Benjamin C. Esty and Daniel Fisher

TransDigm was a highly acquisitive company that manufactured a wide range of highly engineered aerospace parts for both military and commercial customers. Over the ten years ending in 2016, its stock price had increased ten times, and both EBITDA and revenues had grown... View Details

28 Aug 2011
News

In Gaddafi's Wake

2020
Working Paper

Performance Hacking: The Contagious Business Practice that Corrodes Corporate Culture, Undermines Core Values, and Damages Great Companies

By: Robert D. Austin and Richard L. Nolan

August 7, 1955 is an important date in commercial aviation history. You could say it began the jet airliner age, though other dates might also qualify. Jet engines had proven successful in military aircraft. But no one knew then whether members of the general public... View Details

Keywords: Performance; Organizational Culture; Values and Beliefs

SSRN

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June 2015 (Revised February 2016)
Case

Team Rubicon: Bridging the Gap from Startup to National Organization

By: Leonard A. Schlesinger and Dan Nidess

Team Rubicon, a military veteran volunteer disaster relief organization, has experienced significant success in attracting attention and support in its first four years of operation. The challenges of managing the volunteer base, the cost of responding to disasters,... View Details

Keywords: Growth Strategy And Execution; Disaster Relief; NGO; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Growth and Development Strategy; Growth Management; Non-Governmental Organizations

December 2004 (Revised August 2006)
Case

Brcko and the Arizona Market

By: Bruce R. Scott and Edward Murphy

Explores the role of the U.S. military in facilitating the establishment of a spectacularly successful free trade area in one of the most devastated areas of Bosnia. NATO's imposition of law and order, plus protection from local political protection rackets, led to... View Details

Keywords: Developing Countries and Economies; Trade; Economic Growth; Industry Growth; Government Legislation; Emerging Markets; Bosnia and Hercegovina; United States

24 Jun 2016
News

What Brexit Means for the Openness of the World Economy

25 Mar 2025
Other Presentation

Louis E. Caldera on the Panama Canal and DEI Under Trump's Administration

By: Louis Caldera and June Carolyn Erlick

Louis E. Caldera, a Senior Lecturer at Harvard Business School, chaired the Panama Canal Commission the year the Canal was returned to Panama, 1999. He was also the first (and only) Latino to serve as Secretary of the Army. He talks on issues ranging from President... View Details

Keywords: Government Administration; History; National Security; Diversity; Panama; United States

20 Nov 2019
News

Lifting Fallen Families

In 1989, Sergeant William Delaney Gibbs was in Panama participating in Operation Just Cause, set to remove military dictator Manuel Noriega from power. He was with the Seventh Infantry Division and, during combat five days before the Christmas holiday, he was killed.... View Details

Keywords: Maureen Harmon

February 1995 (Revised April 1997)
Case

EG&G Rotron Division

Rotron has recently entered the commercial motor market, after many years of servicing government military contracts. Faced with fierce commercial competition, Rotron has attacked its costs and reduced its delivery times and its plants. A new crisis, however, is... View Details

Keywords: Competition; Production; Expansion; Manufacturing Industry

October 2015
Case

DRW Technologies

By: Stephen A. Greyser and William Ellet

Ed Claiborne is a newly hired corporate vice president of procurement for DRW Technologies, a company that produces advanced military systems with 21 plants in the United States. Claiborne was hired from another company from within the industry, and the news of his... View Details

Keywords: Announcements; Management Style; Organizational Structure; Leadership Style; Human Resources

November 1995 (Revised January 1998)
Case

Transformation of Pratt & Whitney North Haven (A)

By: H. Kent Bowen, Linda A. Hill, Andrew P. Burtis, Sylvie Ryckebusch and John Schiavone

Pratt & Whitney is a leader in the development and manufacturing of gas turbine engines for commercial and military aircraft. Economic conditions for the airline and defense industries are forcing the airplane engine builders to restructure. Ed Northern, a new general... View Details

Keywords: Transformation; Restructuring; Production; Opportunities; Economy; Aerospace Industry; Manufacturing Industry; Connecticut