Publications

January 2003 (Revised November 2003)
Case

Merloni Elettrodomestici: The New Century Begins

By: Joseph L. Bower

Merloni Elettrodomestici was founded in 1975. This case traces the evolution of the company's strategy, organization, and management as it becomes the #3 player in Europe (the #1 in Eastern Europe). Issues involve questions of geographic expansion, resource allocation,... View Details

Keywords: Management; Resource Allocation; Organizational Structure; Competitive Strategy; Expansion

23 Jun 2020
Book

Beginning America Over Again with a New Electoral System

Created by the people for the people, the American political system is instead "a private industry dominated by a textbook duopoly—the Democrats and the Republicans—and plagued and perverted by unhealthy competition between players," according to a View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

28 Oct 2009
Lessons from the Classroom

HBS Begins Teaching Consumer Finance

empirical projects, and experiments—the latter often in conjunction with the Doorways to Dreams Fund, a nonprofit I cofounded that is an R&D lab for new financial products for low-income families. My first outlet for teaching the... View Details

Keywords: by Roger Thompson; Financial Services; Education

Article

Using Fresh Starts to Nudge Increased Retirement Savings

By: John Beshears, Hengchen Dai, Katherine L. Milkman and Shlomo Benartzi

We conducted a field experiment to study the effect of framing future moments in time as new beginnings (or “fresh starts”). University employees (N=6,082) received mailings with an opportunity to choose between increasing their contributions to a savings plan... View Details

Keywords: Choice Architecture; Randomized Field Experiment; Savings; New Beginning; Fresh Start; Saving; Retirement; Behavior

Read Now

June 1991 (Revised April 1995)
Background Note

Mass Production and the Beginnings of Scientific Management

Examines the coming of mass production (continuous and large-batch processes and those involving fabricating and assembling of interchangeable parts), and relates the beginnings of modern factory management to the needs and opportunities created by the new technology.... View Details

Keywords: Technology; Change Management; Production; Manufacturing Industry; Industrial Products Industry

August 1990
Background Note

Twenty Five Questions to Ask as You Begin to Develop a New Case Study

Provides advice for the new casewriter. View Details

Keywords: Cases

01 Dec 2003
Research & Ideas

Sometimes Success Begins at Failure

In the late 1980s, scientists for New York City-based drug-maker Pfizer began testing what was then known as compound UK-92,480 for the treatment of angina. Although UK-92,480 seemed promising in the lab and in animal tests, the compound... View Details

Keywords: by Henry Chesbrough; Health; Pharmaceutical

22 Nov 2022
Research & Ideas

When Agreeing to Disagree Is a Good Beginning

Disagreements don’t have to end discussions. In fact, as researchers from the Harvard Kennedy School and Harvard Business School discussed at a recent event, engaging with those who hold opposing views can be constructive and lead to new... View Details

Keywords: by Clea Simon, Harvard Gazette

30 Mar 2016
Cold Call Podcast

A Map for Economic Renewal Begins in Maine

Keywords: Re: Karen Mills

March 2008 (Revised November 2009)
Case

New Schools for New Orleans 2008

Founded in the wake of Hurricane Katrina as a catalyst for the transformation of the public education system in New Orleans, President Sarah Usdin and CEO Matt Candler must adapt their strategy to respond to a continuously shifting local context. By 2008, conditions on... View Details

Keywords: Transformation; Education; Social Entrepreneurship; Situation or Environment; Adaptation; Value Creation; Education Industry; New Orleans

2006
Book

Confidence: How Winning Streaks and Losing Streaks Begin and End

By: Rosabeth M. Kanter

Is success simply a matter of money and talent? Or is there another reason why some people and organizations always land on their feet, while others, equally talented, stumble again and again? There's a fundamental principle at work—confidence—that makes the difference... View Details

Keywords: Social Psychology

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

April 2020 (Revised April 2023)
Supplement

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 increase ten times, and both EBITDA and revenues had grown... View Details

Keywords: Acquisition; Ethics; Private Equity; Financial Strategy; Growth Management; Performance Evaluation; Business Strategy; Competitive Strategy; Horizontal Integration; Value Creation; Competitive Advantage; Aerospace Industry; Air Transportation Industry; United States

September 2020
Teaching Note

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

By: Benjamin C. Esty and Daniel Fisher

Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 720-422. 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 increase ten times,... View Details

May–June 2020
Article

The New-Market Conundrum

By: Rory McDonald and Kathleen M. Eisenhardt

Brand-new markets are like the wormholes of science fiction, where the usual rules of time and space do not apply. When a market has just been born, the forces of competition there are constantly in flux, it’s unclear who your customers really are, and conventional... View Details

Keywords: New Markets; Markets; Business Model; Strategy; Framework; Innovation and Invention; Value Creation

Read Now

06 Mar 2012
Working Paper Summaries

Big BRICs, Weak Foundations: The Beginning of Public Elementary Education in Brazil, Russia, India, and China

Keywords: by Latika Chaudhary, Aldo Musacchio, Steven Nafziger & Se Yan; Education

September 2020
Case

The Black New Venture Competition

By: Karen Mills, Jeffrey J. Bussgang, Martin Sinozich and Gabriella Elanbeck

Black entrepreneurs encounter many unique obstacles when raising capital to start and grow a business. During their second year at Harvard Business School (HBS), MBA students Kimberly Foster and Tyler Simpson decided to do something to make a difference for... View Details

12 Mar 2006
Research & Ideas

New Research Explores Multi-Sided Markets

Andrei Hagiu is on the vanguard of a new field of business research that explores the dynamics of multi-sided markets. Although these markets have been around a long time, they have not really been recognized as entities unique from other... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Technology

November 2015 (Revised August 2016)
Case

Unilever's New Global Strategy: Competing through Sustainability

By: Christopher A. Bartlett

In January 2009, when Paul Polman was appointed CEO of Unilever, he inherited a company in long-term decline at the beginning of a major global financial crisis. As the first outsider ever recruited to lead the company, Polman lost little time in challenging the... View Details

Keywords: Globalized Firms and Management; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Competitive Strategy; Environmental Sustainability; Consumer Products Industry