Publications
Publications
Show Results For
- All HBS Web
(11,787)
- Faculty Publications (1,953)
- January 1995
- Case
Understanding User Needs
By: Marco Iansiti and Ellen Stein
Presents an introduction to methods for understanding user needs in product development. Describes a number of techniques including the use of focus groups, interviews, questionnaires, the Kano method, Lead User analysis, the Product Value matrix, OFD, etc. Provides a... View Details
- December 1994 (Revised May 1999)
- Case
3M Optical Systems: Managing Corporate Entrepreneurship
By: Christopher A. Bartlett and Afroze A Mohammed
A middle-level division manager must decide whether he should support an investment request for a third attempt at launching a new product developed by a struggling business unit. Describes the long, difficult process by which the unit has developed the product--a... View Details
- December 1994 (Revised September 2011)
- Case
The Millegan Creek Apartments
By: William J. Poorvu and John H. Vogel Jr.
Fleet Bank is considering a construction loan for a 390-unit apartment project in Austin, Texas. The case describes the location, market, product, and other real estate factors the bank needs to consider in making this loan. Also discusses the financial and... View Details
- December 1994 (Revised December 1995)
- Case
The JKJ Pension Fund
By: William J. Poorvu and John H. Vogel Jr.
The JKJ pension fund currently has $187 million invested in 14 properties. Sarah Griffin, the portfolio manager for real estate, needs to value each of the properties and recommend which ones should be sold and which ones to hold. She further needs to recommend... View Details
- November 1994 (Revised May 1998)
- Background Note
Strategic Sales Management: A Boardroom Issue
By: Benson P. Shapiro, Stephen X. Doyle and Adrian J. Slywotsky
Explains why sales management has become an increasingly important and complex topic for top managers. Demonstrates the financial impact of a superior salesforce and then describes a way to gain superiority. The focus is on a salesforce that is responsive to customer... View Details
- November 1994 (Revised February 1996)
- Case
Toy World, Inc.
By: W. Carl Kester
A shift from seasonal to level production of toys will change the seasonal cycle of Toy World's working capital needs and necessitate new bank credit arrangements. A rewritten version of an earlier case. View Details
- October 1994 (Revised March 1999)
- Case
Ritz-Carlton: Using Information Systems to Better Serve the Customer
By: W. Earl Sasser, Thomas O. Jones and Norman Klein
Explores the interface of an information system that keeps track of guests and their preferences, and the people systems that deliver multiple services at Ritz-Carlton hotels. The luxury hotel chain's unique service credo and commitment to quality principles are... View Details
- September 1994 (Revised May 2010)
- Case
Hamilton Test Systems, Inc.
By: William A. Sahlman and Norman Klein
The protagonists must decide whether to invest in an auto emissions testing company as the first investment in the leveraged buyout fund they recently formed. Issues of how to raise the needed equity capital and how to structure the acquisition are emphasized. View Details
- 1994
- Chapter
Beyond Strategy, Structure, and Systems to Purpose, Process, and People: Reflections on a Voyage of Discovery
By: C. A. Bartlett and S. Ghoshal
- June 1994 (Revised September 1994)
- Background Note
Commercializing Technology: Imaginative Understanding of User Needs
The transformation of technology into commercially successful products is a process fraught with risk and uncertainty, and increasing pressure on time to market is exacerbating the difficulties. This note first describes a study conducted by Hewlett-Packard to improve... View Details
- June 1994 (Revised September 1995)
- Case
Leland O'Brien Rubinstein Associates, Inc.: SuperTrust
By: Peter Tufano
Leland O'Brien Rubinstein Associates, Inc. (LOR), which profited by selling portfolio insurance to institutional investors, attempts to rebuild itself after the 1987 stock market crash by creating new products to meet the unsatisfied needs of equity investors. LOR... View Details
- April 1994 (Revised August 1996)
- Case
American Express (A)
By: Jay W. Lorsch
In January 1993, the American Express board met to decide who would succeed James D. Robinson, III as chairman and CEO. The board needed to act in the spotlight of intense media and investor scrutiny, and after leaks had revealed that there was a conflict among the... View Details
- April 1994 (Revised October 2002)
- Case
Frito-Lay, Inc.: A Strategic Transition (1987-1989)
Describes the actions taken by the new CEO to return the company to profitability, to clarify the vision, and then to build the infrastructure (human, capital, and information) needed to support the long-term change in strategy and organization. Ends with senior... View Details
- April 1994 (Revised September 1994)
- Case
KENETECH Corporation
Involves a strategic decision about how fast to ramp up sales. Improvements in technology have driven down the cost of electric power generated from wind turbines to the point where they are competitive with fossil-fuel plants. KENETECH needs to raise equity capital to... View Details
- March 1994 (Revised October 1994)
- Case
Reading Energy
Reading Energy builds facilities that produce energy from nontraditional fuels. A privately held, entrepreneurial organization, it has spent six years developing a plan to build a waste-to-energy plant in the town of Robbins, Illinois. The plant would burn municipal... View Details
- January 1994 (Revised August 1994)
- Case
Ocean Spray Cranberries: Environmental Risk Management
Ocean Spray Cranberries, one of the nation's most successful agricultural cooperatives, faces some difficult environmental management problems associated with water usage and wetlands development. Because of federal and state wetlands laws, new bogs for expansion had... View Details
- 1994
- Chapter
Competition Policy and Privatization: An Organizational Perspective
By: James Langenfeld and Dennis Yao
Competition (antitrust) policies in Central and Eastern Europe need to address both short-term problems associated with the transition to a market economy as well as the development of institutions suitable for a mature market economy. In this paper we employ an... View Details
- December 1993 (Revised January 1994)
- Case
Montana Land Reliance
By: Forest L. Reinhardt and Thomas Patterson
The Montana Land Reliance is a small not-for-profit organization in the business of creating conservation easements on private lands in Montana. The easements preserve the scenic character and recreational value of the lands by precluding subdivision and other forms of... View Details
- October 1993 (Revised September 1994)
- Background Note
Accounting for Productivity Growth
Introduces students to the arithmetic of the accounting for national productivity growth. It defines labor productivity, capital productivity, and total factor productivity, describes the relationships among them, and discusses the phenomena that cause them to change... View Details
- August 1993 (Revised August 1994)
- Background Note
Rhetoric of Change
By: Nitin Nohria
Describes the ways in which managers communicate the need to change, specifically the way in which they use vision, crisis, and transition as rhetorical strategies to mobilize change. Also discusses strategies used by those trying to resist change, setting up what may... View Details