Publications

12 May 2020
Research & Ideas

It’s Time To Relaunch Your Remote Team

by offering input, asking questions, and responding to others based on their experience working together thus far. In the relaunch session, the team can discuss how business goals and strategy may have changed in light of the pandemic. Perhaps customers’ needs have... View Details

Keywords: by Tsedal Neeley

08 Nov 2021
Blog Post

4 Ways the MS/MBA is Preparing Me for a Career in Health Care and the Life Sciences

health care value chain in Israel and Western Europe, an experience that culminated in supporting the COVID-19 vaccine response as part of the McKinsey Social Sector Hub in Geneva. Why the MS/MBA Biotechnology: Life Sciences degree?... View Details

17 May 2011
First Look

First Look: May 17

http://papers.nber.org/papers/w16922 Historical Trajectories and Corporate Competences in Wind Energy Authors:Geoffrey Jones and Loubna Bouamane Abstract This working paper surveys the business history of the global wind energy turbine View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

09 Jan 2006
Research & Ideas

When Benchmarks Don’t Work

assembly plant could change its stamping presses from one model to another in eight minutes, compared with the eight hours GM plants spent to change over the same basic equipment. Clearly a deviation of this magnitude between its current performance on a critical... View Details

Keywords: by Robert S. Kaplan; Service

31 Aug 2021
Book

Feeling Powerless at Work? Time to Agitate, Innovate, and Orchestrate

supplies in the 1980s. "As the rise and fall of De Beers exemplifies, while a diamond may be forever, power is not." But in recent years, competition from other diamond sellers has increased, providing customers with many more... View Details

Keywords: by Jay Fitzgerald

August 1998 (Revised July 2002)
Case

Innovation at 3M Corporation (A)

By: Stefan H. Thomke and Ashok Nimgade

Describes how 3M Corp. introduces and learns a new and innovative methodology called Lead User research to understand future customer and market needs. A team from 3M's Medical-Surgical Markets Division applies the Lead User methodology to the field of surgical... View Details

Keywords: Innovation and Management; Innovation Strategy; Managerial Roles; Marketing Strategy; Demand and Consumers; Market Timing; Product Development; Problems and Challenges; Business Strategy; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry

January 2017
Case

The Six CEOs of Tyco International Ltd.

By: John R. Wells and Gabriel Ellsworth

In September 2016, Johnson Controls, Inc. completed the acquisition of Tyco International PLC, a $9.9 billion business with operating profits of $884 million. The purchase consideration was $14.4 billion. Although the deal was billed as a merger, Ireland-based Tyco... View Details

Keywords: Tyco; Dennis Kozlowski; Edward Breen; Fire Safety; Fire Protection; Security; Packaging; Securities And Exchange Commission; Fraud; Accounting; Accounting Audits; Earnings Management; Financial Statements; Goodwill Accounting; Acquisition; Mergers and Acquisitions; Business Conglomerates; Business Divisions; Business Exit or Shutdown; Business Growth and Maturation; Business Headquarters; Business Model; Business Organization; For-Profit Firms; Restructuring; Crime and Corruption; Engineering; Applied Optics; Chemicals; Construction; Metals and Minerals; Ethics; Finance; Cash Flow; Public Equity; Stock Options; Financing and Loans; Initial Public Offering; Profit; Revenue; Geographic Location; Geographic Scope; Global Range; Globalized Firms and Management; Multinational Firms and Management; Corporate Accountability; Corporate Disclosure; Health Care and Treatment; Business History; Executive Compensation; Selection and Staffing; Courts and Trials; Lawfulness; Lawsuits and Litigation; Business or Company Management; Goals and Objectives; Growth and Development Strategy; Market Entry and Exit; Public Ownership; Problems and Challenges; Strategy; Business Strategy; Competition; Competitive Strategy; Competitive Advantage; Consolidation; Corporate Strategy; Diversification; Expansion; Horizontal Integration; Value; Chemical Industry; Chemical Industry; Chemical Industry; Chemical Industry; Chemical Industry; Chemical Industry; Chemical Industry; Chemical Industry; Chemical Industry; Chemical Industry; Chemical Industry; Chemical Industry; Chemical Industry; Republic of Ireland; Switzerland; Bermuda; United States; New Hampshire

10 Oct 2023
Blog Post

Policy Drivers for Environmental Justice: What Businesses Need to Know

communities disproportionately face increased levels of pollution and are often more vulnerable to the dangerous effects of climate change. Dorceta E. Taylor’s Toxic Communities breaks down environmental racism as it relates to the siting of View Details

18 Feb 2019
Book

What’s Really Disrupting Business? It’s Not Technology

going to do it more conveniently,’” says Thales S. Teixeira, author of the new book Unlocking the Customer Value Chain: How Decoupling Drives Consumer Disruption, which debuts tomorrow. “Incumbents tend to respond to decoupling by gluing back the part of the value... View Details

Keywords: by Danielle Kost; Beauty & Cosmetics; Insurance; Service; Retail

12 Nov 2021
News

Alumni Business Leaders on Confronting the Climate Change Challenge

That is why we introduced pep+ (PepsiCo Positive), our strategic end-to-end transformation, with sustainability at the center of how we will create value for our shareholders and all our stakeholders. Climate action across our supply... View Details

14 Mar 2024
Blog Post

IFC India: SELCO - Last Mile Solar Powered Energy for Rural India

expanded services to include the supply and distribution of sustainable energy through solar lighting, thermal water heaters, and inverter systems, enabling the underserved sector to receive sustainable energy at affordable costs. SELCO... View Details

01 Jan 2004
News

D. Ronald Daniel, MBA 1954

graduated from HBS and was finishing a three-and-a-half-year stint as an officer in the U.S. Navy Supply Corps, in charge of a select group that used early models of giant IBM computers to manage inventory for the Navy's airplanes. About... View Details

September 1991 (Revised February 1993)
Case

Burroughs Wellcome and AZT (A)

By: Willis M. Emmons III

Burroughs Wellcome Co., developer of AZT, the first drug approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS), finds itself under siege in September 1989 by AIDS activists and various segments of the U.S.... View Details

Keywords: Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Ethics; Business and Government Relations; Communication Strategy; Health Care and Treatment; Monopoly; Intellectual Property; Research and Development; Price; Pharmaceutical Industry; London

May 2022
Case

Byte

By: Boris Groysberg, Katherine Connolly Baden and Julia Kelley

In January 2021, Byte co-founders Scott Cohen and Blake Johnson reflected on how far their Los Angeles-based direct-to-consumer (DTC) orthodontics company had come since launching its clear aligners just a little over two years earlier. Cohen and Johnson were both... View Details

Keywords: Growth; Customer Experience; Customer Focused Organization; Innovation; DTC; Growth Management; Expansion; Entrepreneurship; Customer Focus and Relationships; Innovation and Invention; Growth and Development Strategy; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry; United States

March 2015 (Revised December 2016)
Case

American Well: The DTC Decision

By: Elie Ofek and Natalie Kindred

In late 2013, telehealth company American Well, which developed a digital platform that allowed patients to conduct online medical consultations with physicians, is considering pursuing a direct-to-consumer (DTC) strategy. Founded in 2006, American Well had, to date,... View Details