Publications

November 2011 (Revised August 2012)
Background Note

Customer Visits for Entrepreneurs

By: Frank V. Cespedes

Provides practical guidelines for conducting customer visits to explore and validate demand for an entrepreneurial offering. Reviews conditions under which visits will yield superior insights, compared to other research methods. Describes criteria for selecting visit... View Details

Keywords: Customers; Entrepreneurship

25 Jun 2012
News

Harvard’s prescription for a broken American political system

07 Sep 2019
Op-Ed

Even for Non-Believers, These Are the Next Steps on Climate Change

It was a dramatic contrast on our screens last week. As Hurricane Dorian unleashed nature’s fury on the Bahamas and danced with a wide swath of the East Coast of the United States, I flipped to the CNN Climate Town Hall, where Democratic presidential candidates... View Details

Keywords: by John Macomber

Program

Building a Legacy

solutions to your wealth management challenges Develop an action plan for initiating an intergenerational transfer Implement best practices for separating operating assets and family office assets Make key hires or use outsourcing to... View Details

September 1992 (Revised March 2007)
Case

Kaiser Steel Corporation, 1987

By: Timothy A. Luehrman

Kaiser Steel entered Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings in early 1987. Nine months later it still faces several difficult obstacles to reorganization, including litigation, environmental liabilities, and pension and medical benefits for retired employees. Students are... View Details

Keywords: Business Plan; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Employee Relationship Management; Resource Allocation; Opportunities; Conflict and Resolution; Steel Industry; United States

January 2021 (Revised February 2021)
Case

TCS: From Physical Offices to Borderless Work

By: Prithwiraj Choudhury and Malini Sen

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), a multinational IT services company headquartered in Mumbai, is a subsidiary of one of India’s most reputed conglomerates, the Tata Group. In 2020, TCS was valued at $144.7 billion, the highest for any company in the IT sector,... View Details

Keywords: Remote Work; Organizational Structure; Change Management; Transformation; Decision Choices and Conditions; Customer Satisfaction; Information Technology Industry; India; Asia; United States; Europe

29 Jan 2019
Blog Post

Interning in the Agribusiness Sector

Katie Hsia-Kiung, MBA 2019, describes her summer internship in the agribusiness sector. Having worked in solar energy before HBS, Katie was excited by the opportunity to create the business plan for a brand new team at Indigo Ag, a... View Details

Keywords: Manufacturing

February 2017
Case

Aston Martin: A Second Century of Performance and Luxury

By: Vish V. Krishnan, Karim R. Lakhani and Amram Migdal

Following the March 2016 launch of DB11, Aston Martin Lagonda Ltd.’s first new sports car platform in over a decade, this case discusses the future strategy of the famed British luxury auto manufacturer. Since its founding in 1902, Aston Martin has been characterized... View Details

July 2010 (Revised December 2010)
Case

Post-Crisis Compensation at Credit Suisse (A)

By: Clayton S. Rose and Aldo Sesia

On October 20, 2009, Brady Dougan, the CEO of Credit Suisse Group, announced a new compensation plan for the bank. The announcement had followed quickly on the heels of the G-20 meeting the prior month where, in the wake of the financial crisis, the major governments... View Details

Keywords: Financial Crisis; Globalized Firms and Management; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Taxation; Compensation and Benefits; Organizational Culture; Business and Shareholder Relations; Banking Industry; Financial Services Industry; Switzerland; United Kingdom

August 22, 2019
Article

CEOs Say Their Aim Is Inclusive Prosperity. Do They Mean It?

By: Lynn S. Paine

Earlier this week, the Business Roundtable issued a statement on corporate purpose. It is noteworthy both for its endorsement of inclusive prosperity as an ideal and for its rejection of maximizing shareholder returns as the sole corporate objective. However, the real... View Details

Keywords: Mission and Purpose; Goals and Objectives; Corporate Governance

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December 2007 (Revised April 2008)
Exercise

The Elcer Products Transaction: Confidential Information for TNDA Corporation

By: James K. Sebenius

In a six-party negotiation exercise, the TNDA Corp. plans to sell the Elcer Products Division to one of four potential buyers (industrial, financial, U.S., German). This case contains confidential information for the TNDA Corporation management role. Challenges include... View Details

Keywords: Negotiation

February 2007
Case

South African Airways (A)

By: Joshua D. Margolis, Laura Morgan Roberts and Laura Winig

Amid efforts to engineer a turnaround at South African Airways (SAA), the CEO confronts an impending strike at the struggling company. How should the company address questions of distributive and procedural justice in post-Apartheid South Africa, and how should the CEO... View Details

Keywords: Fairness; Crisis Management; Employees; Employment; Growth and Development; Developing Countries and Economies; Air Transportation Industry; South Africa

April 2001
Supplement

Acer America: Development of the Aspire

By: Christopher A. Bartlett

Consists of five segments. Segment 1 shows Culver and Pai discussing the tensions between Taiwan and the United States and the resulting performance problems with Aspire; Segment 2 features Culver and Shih describing the changes Acer made as a result of the problems... View Details

Keywords: Digital Marketing; Transformation; Forecasting and Prediction; Marketing Strategy; Outcome or Result; Problems and Challenges; Information Infrastructure; Internet and the Web; Computer Industry; Taiwan; United States

March 2001
Case

Breakup of AT&T, The: Project "Grand Slam"

Focuses on AT&T's 2000 restructuring, in which the company broke itself into four units: business services, consumer services, broadband, and wireless. Examines the strategy of the company during this time: (1) to deliver information in any form (voice, video, data)... View Details

Keywords: Restructuring; Telecommunications Industry

March 1996 (Revised January 2002)
Case

Freeport Indonesia

By: Richard H.K. Vietor

In 1996, PT Freeport Indonesia, the mining subsidiary of Freeport McMoRan, had just completed an expansion of its copper and gold mine in the western half of New Guinea. The mine, which had dealt with numerous environmental and sociocultural problems over the past... View Details

Keywords: Trade; Mining; Environmental Sustainability; Business Strategy; Expansion; Social Issues; Mining Industry; Indonesia

October 1996 (Revised May 1998)
Case

Presenting PenPoint (A)

Containing excerpts from Jerry Kaplan's best-selling book, Startup: A Silicon Valley Adventure, this case begins with Kaplan's idea for developing a handheld, pen-operated computer. It follows Kaplan, who becomes the CEO of GO Corp., as he goes on the road to sell his... View Details

Keywords: Information Infrastructure; Entrepreneurship; Product Marketing; Computer Industry; United States