Publications

Teaching Interest

Data Science for Managers

Served as a teaching fellow; assisted MBA students with classroom coding exercises.
Developed course materials, including new case studies, technical notes, and code notebooks students used to analzye case data.
Developed interactive web... View Details

05 Dec 2018
Research & Ideas

Why Managers Should Reveal Their Failures

their projects to potential investors. (The idea was to determine the effects of envy in a field setting, not whether those feelings affected the chances of winning funding.) Some entrepreneurs listened to what they thought was an audio... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

August 2024
Case

The Walt Disney Company: Management Guidance

By: Joseph Pacelli and James Weber

In November 2023, financial analyst Aurora Fee was forecasting The Walt Disney Company’s earnings and stock price, with the goal of providing an investment recommendation to her clients. Disney, one of the world’s largest media and entertainment companies, had just... View Details

Keywords: Valuation; Accounting; Investment; Communication; Forecasting and Prediction; Business Earnings; Growth and Development Strategy; Financial Services Industry; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; United States

July 1992 (Revised June 1994)
Case

Air Products and Chemicals, Inc.: MIS Reorganization (A) and Project ICON (A), Abridged

Describes the reorganization of the Systems Development resource from Central MIS to the divisions. Whereas this had been planned for October 1990, unexpected senior management changes precipitated a request to reorganize 12 to 18 months ahead of schedule. Also... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Information Technology; London; Pennsylvania

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January 2025
Case

North Forty: Managing Liquidity Through Change

By: Luis M. Viceira and Brad Towne

This case explores the interaction between spending and investment decisions at a family office, specifically the family office of Jeff and Tricia Raikes, with special emphasis on the management of spending, portfolio investments, and asset liquidity in the presence of... View Details

Keywords: Family Office; Forecasting and Prediction; Asset Management; Financial Liquidity; Financial Strategy; Investment Portfolio; Spending; Planning

March 2006
Module Note

Managing Innovation in an Uncertain World: Module 3: Expanding Diversity

By: Alan D. MacCormack

Describes the third module of the 30-session Harvard Business School elective course Managing Innovation in an Uncertain World. The course helps students understand the challenges that uncertainty implies for innovation and how to overcome them. The course emphasizes... View Details

Keywords: Innovation and Management; Business Processes; Projects; Risk and Uncertainty; Product Development; Managerial Roles; Opportunities; Perspective; Expansion; Goals and Objectives

September 2016 (Revised March 2018)
Case

Qalaa Holdings and the Egyptian Refining Company

By: Victoria Ivashina and Marc Homsy

This case follows Qalaa Holdings, a successful Egypt-based private equity firm, and gives insight into the types of investments it pursued, its growth over time, and the limited partner base it had at hand. It also allows students to consider and debate whether the... View Details

Keywords: Africa; Structuring And Financing Large Projects; Private Equity; Infrastructure; Project Finance; Emerging Markets; Financial Services Industry; Egypt; Africa

March 2006
Background Note

Managing Innovation in an Uncertain World: Course Overview Note

By: Alan D. MacCormack

The Harvard Business School Managing Innovation in an Uncertain World course helps students understand the challenges that uncertainty implies for innovation and how to overcome them. The course emphasizes multiple levels of analysis--from creating and executing... View Details

Keywords: Curriculum and Courses; Innovation and Management; Projects; Opportunities; Perspective; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Risk and Uncertainty; Problems and Challenges; Managerial Roles

26 Mar 2006
Research & Ideas

The Office of Strategy Management

and think in strategic terms are critical. They need good interpersonal skills since they must interact effectively and authoritatively with senior business units and functional heads. Project management... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

March 1998 (Revised October 2001)
Case

Teradyne: Corporate Management of Disruptive Change

By: Joseph L. Bower

Two cases deal with the introduction of a new product to Teradyne's line of semiconductor test equipment. This case deals with the problems facing the head of a start-up division responsible for developing and bringing to market a new product based on technology deemed... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Disruption; Management; Market Entry and Exit; Product; Problems and Challenges; Competitive Strategy; Corporate Strategy; Technology

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Research Summary

Managing Product Development in Rapidly Changing Environments

By: Alan D. MacCormack

A consistent finding in many studies of innovation is the repeated failure of established firms when faced with radical changes in their core markets or technologies. Professor MacCormack's research takes the view that many of these failures can be attributed to the... View Details

06 Mar 2013
What Do You Think?

Who Should Manage Our Work Time?

Summing Up Who Will Save Us From Our Work Habits? We have a problem in the workplace. Some of it is being forced upon us by forces in society. Some of it is of our own making. But we face increasing challenges in managing our work time... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

May 1997
Teaching Note

Introduction and Overview: Managing Product Development, Instructor's Note

By: Marco Iansiti

The first module, comprising three cases and a team exercise, provides an impressionistic look at all the issues raised in greater detail in subsequent classes. It thus enables students, who come to the course with a range of experience and skills, to get up to speed... View Details

Keywords: Experience and Expertise; Product Development; Projects; Groups and Teams

June 2004 (Revised October 2004)
Teaching Note

International Rivers Network and the Bujagali Dam Project (TN) (A & B)

By: Benjamin C. Esty and Aldo Sesia

Teaching Note to (9-204-083) and (9-204-139). View Details

Keywords: Environmental Sustainability

November 2016
Case

Anthony Starks at InSiL Therapeutics (A)

By: Gary Pisano and Vicki Sato

When Bruce Wayne hired Anthony Starks, he thought he had hit a home run by getting the most brilliant and passionate scientist-leader in the field to be his CSO. But a few months in, Wayne and Starks begin to clash over crucial forward-looking decisions about the... View Details

Keywords: Biotech; Silicon; Managing Innovation; Management Challenges; Managing People; Managing Organization; R＆D; R＆D Project Management; Platform; Venture Capital; Drug Discovery; management; Biotechnology Industry; California

May 1997
Teaching Note

Managing Product Development: Matching Technology with Context, Instructor's Note

By: Marco Iansiti

This overview to Managing Product Development (MPD) both previews course material, cases, exercises, and lectures--and provides its conceptual and academic underpinnings. Additionally, this note links these materials to the activities students will be undertaking in... View Details

Keywords: Curriculum and Courses; Product Development; Knowledge Management; Performance; Projects; Management Practices and Processes; Opportunities; Strategy; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques