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- March 2025 (Revised April 2025)
- Teaching Note
Moving Science: The Rowland Institute at Harvard
By: Maria Roche
Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 724-441. View Details
- October 2024 (Revised December 2024)
- Case
Kering Eyewear
By: Rohit Deshpandé, Dante Roscini and Elena Corsi
In June 2024, Roberto Vedovotto, CEO of Kering Eyewear, prepared to discuss the future of the recently acquired brands LINDBERG, a Danish optical eyewear brand, and Maui Jim, an American sunglasses brand. Vedovotto founded Kering Eyewear in 2014, convincing... View Details
- July 2024
- Case
ZEISS: Commercializing Science
By: Maria P. Roche, Carlota Moniz and Daniela Beyersdorfer
Karl Lamprecht, President and CEO of the ZEISS AG Group, mused on how far ZEISS had come in 175 years of being a pioneer in optics, and how the course he had charted since taking the helm of the company could keep it on track. In his role, he oversaw the four core... View Details
Keywords: Business Model; Business Organization; Decisions; Business Strategy; Competition; Business History; Collaborative Innovation and Invention; Independent Innovation and Invention; Disruptive Innovation; Innovation and Management; Innovation Strategy; Technological Innovation; Growth and Development Strategy; Knowledge Sharing; Industry Growth; Monopoly; Organizational Culture; Supply Chain Management; Partners and Partnerships; Risk and Uncertainty; Adaptation; Commercialization; Resource Allocation; Corporate Strategy; Semiconductor Industry; Technology Industry; Germany; Europe
- February 2024 (Revised March 2025)
- Case
Moving Science: The Rowland Institute at Harvard
By: Maria P. Roche
Set in 2022, this case describes the considerations involved in organizing the physical relocation of the Rowland Institute at Harvard (RIH), a research institute established in 1980 by Edwin H. Land, the founder of the Polaroid Corporation, for the advancement of... View Details
- December 2020 (Revised March 2021)
- Case
Made In Space, Expectations Management, and the Business of In-Space Manufacturing
By: Matthew C. Weinzierl and Mehak Sarang
After having proven its base technology (3D printing) through NASA solicitations and contracts, Made In Space was searching for a viable commercial application. But the business case for the leading candidate, high-quality fiber optic cable for use on Earth, remained... View Details
- October 2020
- Case
TowerBrook: ESG in Action (A)
By: Victoria Ivashina, Brian Trelstad and Meaghan Conway
This case is the first of a two-part series that follows Ramez Sousou and his team at TowerBrook Capital Partners as they face a challenging investment decision in February of 2013. Since its founding, TowerBrook has prided itself on its purpose-driven investing... View Details
Keywords: ESG; Finance; Private Equity; Corporate Governance; Value Creation; Investment; Decision Making
- March 2020
- Case
ZEISS Group: Organize by Customer Culture?
By: Willy C. Shih
How should ZEISS, the German manufacturer of precision optical and optoelectronic systems manage two historic businesses that operated fairly autonomously? The Industrial Quality Solutions (IQS) business sold measurement equipment to manufacturing companies in sectors... View Details
- August 2019 (Revised August 2020)
- Case
Magrabi: Fulfilling the Vision for the Future
By: John Beshears, Alpana Thapar and Boris Tsimerinov
In 2018, Magrabi was the leading retailer of eyeglasses, sunglasses, and other optical products in the Middle East, and it was embarking on a major shift in strategy, transitioning from a brand focused on clinical expertise to a brand that combined technical excellence... View Details
- December 2015 (Revised May 2017)
- Case
Corning, 2002
By: Malcolm Baker
Corning, with large investments in fiber optic technology, was hit particularly hard by the collapse of the telecommunications industry in 2001. With over $4 billion in debt, the firm's survival appears to rest on raising additional equity capital. James Flaws, the... View Details
- October 2013
- Case
Pearle Vision: Clearly Different?
By: Rajiv Lal and Natalie Kindred
Ohio-based optical retailer Pearle Vision, part of the vertically integrated Italian eyewear group Luxottica, sold glasses and offered in-store eye exams. Once the largest U.S. optical retailer, Pearle Vision, with 266 corporate stores and 356 franchised stores in... View Details
- September 2012
- Supplement
Industrial Metrology: Getting In-Line? (B)
By: Willy Shih
Rainer Ohnheiser, the President of Carl Zeiss's Business Group Industrial Metrology (IMT), was focused on the threat that in-line metrology posed to Carl Zeiss IMT's core business. Historically, coordinate measurement machines (CMMs) that employed tactile measurement... View Details
- November 2010
- Case
Spudnik, Inc.
By: William A. Sahlman and Elizabeth A. Kind
This case describes the plan to finance a revolutionary new television set manufacturing business in late 2009. Yatin Mundkur, a venture capitalist at Artiman Ventures, has recruited a team of veteran eecutives from the optical disk drive business, to design large... View Details
- May 2008
- Case
Sensors Unlimited: Bringing InGaAs Technology to the Market
By: Willy C. Shih
Sensors Unlimited was a small start-up in short-wavelength infrared imaging. Its learning base came out of Bell Labs, RCA's Sarnoff Lab, and the Rockwell Science Center, and as it built its capabilities and ventured into new application areas, it discovered a “killer... View Details
- December 2005 (Revised November 2006)
- Case
Corning, 2002
By: Malcolm P. Baker and James Quinn
Corning, with large investments in fiber optic technology, was hit particularly hard by the collapse of the telecommunications industry in 2001. With over $4 billion in debt, the firm's survival appears to rest on raising additional equity capital. The protagonist is... View Details
- November 2002 (Revised June 2003)
- Case
Corning, Inc.: Technology Strategy in 2003
Corning, Inc. has a 150-year history of building a strategy around innovation. Founded as a glass manufacturer in 1851, the company quickly established itself as a maker of specialty glass products and over the next 100 years diversified into light bulbs, television,... View Details
- February 2001 (Revised June 2002)
- Case
Customer Value Measurement at Nortel Networks--Optical Networks Division
By: Das Narayandas
Since 1995, Nortel Networks' Optical Networks (ON) division has been incorporating customer satisfaction and loyalty measures into its business practices to increase customer value. Over the years, key process owners in various parts of the organization have become... View Details
- August 2000 (Revised July 2001)
- Case
Laura Martin: Real Options and the Cable Industry
By: Mihir A. Desai and Peter Tufano
CSFB equity research analyst Laura Martin publishes a report on valuing Cox Communications that introduces an innovative approach to valuation. She contends that EBITDA multiple analysis, typical for the cable industry, is flawed because it overlooks the value of the... View Details
- July 2000 (Revised July 2001)
- Case
Sycamore Networks
By: Joseph B. Lassiter III and Daniel J. Green
Founders Desh Deshpande and Dan Smith reflect on Sycamore's sales strategies and consider how going public might affect the morale of its key employees. In the optical networking sector, technological change and exploding demand has created a market for talent in which... View Details
- November 1999
- Case
Lucent Technologies: Optical Networking Group
By: Marco Iansiti and Barbara Feinberg
Set in June 1999, this case describes the development of a new platform product, the Wavestar OLS 400G, that responded both to a demand for greater "bandwidth" and aggressive competitors seeking to supply it. The 400G's development process took only 14 months and... View Details
- January 1998 (Revised May 1999)
- Case
General Scanning, Inc. (A)
By: H. Kent Bowen, Sean McClenaghan and Charles Tillen
General Scanning, Inc. was founded by Jean Montagu and Pierre Brosens, two MIT mechanical engineers with an interest in developing innovative products based on the early application of lasers. They invented proprietary technology for laser beam positioning and scanning... View Details