Strategy

A framework to help leaders decide where to invest.

What you measure is what you get. Senior executives understand that their organization’s measurement system strongly affects the behavior of managers and employees. Executives also understand that traditional financial accounting measures like return-on-investment and earnings-per-share can give misleading signals for continuous improvement and innovation—activities today’s competitive environment demands. The traditional financial performance measures worked well […]

Understanding this new — and often confusing — asset class.

Awareness of these forces can help a company stake out a position in its industry that is less vulnerable to attack.

For the past 20 years, the theory of disruptive innovation has been enormously influential in business circles and a powerful tool for predicting which...

Firms have never known more about their customers, but their innovation processes remain hit-or-miss. Why? According to Christensen and his coauthors,...

Over the past decade, I have watched more than 100 companies try to remake themselves into significantly better competitors. They have included large organizations (Ford) and small ones (Landmark Communications), companies based in the United States (General Motors) and elsewhere (British Airways), corporations that were on their knees (Eastern Airlines), and companies that were earning […]

Wise executives tailor their approach to fit the complexity of the circumstances they face.

Companies need to make their networks more resilient. Here’s how.

Five principles to consider.

For the better part of a decade, strategy has been a business buzzword. Top executives ponder strategic objectives and missions. Managers down the line rough out product/market strategies. Functional chiefs lay out “strategies�? for everything from R&D; to raw-materials sourcing and distributor relations. Mere planning has lost its glamor; the planners have all turned into […]

Five ways to take meaningful action against climate change.

We often assume things are more evenly distributed than they actually are — and this influences how we make decisions and manage risk.

What consumers truly value can be difficult to pin down and psychologically complicated. But universal building blocks of value do exist, creating opportunities...

Executives are often confounded by culture, because much of it is anchored in unspoken behaviors, mindsets, and social patterns. But when properly managed,...

Categorizing the problems and growth patterns of small businesses in a systematic way that is useful to entrepreneurs seems at first glance a hopeless task. Small businesses vary widely in size and capacity for growth. They are characterized by independence of action, differing organizational structures, and varied management styles. Yet on closer scrutiny, it becomes […]

Anyone who has signed up for cell phone service, attempted to claim a rebate, or navigated a call center has probably suffered from a company's apparent...

They actively embrace impostor syndrome.

Why is it so hard to build and maintain the capacity to innovate? The reason is not simply a failure to execute but a failure to articulate an innovation...

When employees are disengaged and underperforming, the reaction of many managers is to try new incentives and ratchet up oversight and control. Yet often...

At Zipcar, customers share the use of cars and, as a result, rely on each other for their service experience. Customers are required to keep the car clean...

Business is changing. Will you adapt or be left behind? In "Customer Data and Privacy: Tools for Preparing Your Team for the Future," you'll apply the...

When it teamed up with Northwest Airlines of the US in 1989, KLM became Europe¿s first airline to begin a major cross-border airline alliance. What followed...

Designed to be used as an in-class handout after Florida Power Light Quality Improvement (QI) Story Exercise (A). A rewritten version of an earlier case...

In early 2017, HCA Holdings, an investor-owned hospital management company, faced a strategically important capital allocation decision. After the exit...

In December 2011 the Lego Group (TLG) announced the launch of Lego Friends, the company's sixth attempt to market a product to girls. Lego Friends, which...

Information technologies outsourcing is one of the emergent fast-growth industries in the global high-tech economy. India is the leading country for IT...

A successful Canadian road construction and maintenance company is contemplating U.S. market entry via a subsidiary in Texas. The case deals with market...

This case recounts the story of Taiwan's electronic component distributors of the early 2000s, which innovatively pursued horizontal consolidation amid...

In the summer of 2014, a large energy company was poised to begin expanding its unconventional natural gas operations in northeastern British Columbia...

Accompanies The BCPC Internet Strategy Team: An Exercise and provides unique background information on one of the team members.

An abstract is not available for this product.

Linda Doyle, president and CEO of Harvard Business School Publishing Corp., has succeeded in turning around the organization after several difficult years....

In January 2006, Joe Hogan, head of General Electric (GE) Healthcare Technologies, prepared to step into William Castell's shoes as CEO of GE Healthcare,...

The case captures the challenges Komatsu, the second largest manufacturer of the earth moving equipment faced during the past five decades as it sought...

In this article, renowned management experts Gary Hamel and C. K. Prahalad introduce their approach to strategic planning in the face of tough competition....

An angel/venture capitalist could invest in an Internet sheet-music publishing start-up. The chance of success multiplied by the value, if successful,...

In 2014, the general manager and a director of an Australian building company were seeking an outside investor to provide the company with the needed...

When the city of Boston applied to host the Democratic Party presidential nominating convention of July 2004, it did so in the belief that the event would...

This a role play supplement to Competing for Development (A): Fuel Efficient Stoves for Darfur, product # 908M61. The role plays feature additional background,...

A framework to help leaders decide where to invest.

What you measure is what you get. Senior executives understand that their organization’s measurement system strongly affects the behavior of managers and employees. Executives also understand that traditional financial accounting measures like return-on-investment and earnings-per-share can give misleading signals for continuous improvement and innovation—activities today’s competitive environment demands. The traditional financial performance measures worked well […]

Understanding this new — and often confusing — asset class.

Awareness of these forces can help a company stake out a position in its industry that is less vulnerable to attack.

For the past 20 years, the theory of disruptive innovation has been enormously influential in business circles and a powerful tool for predicting which...

Stop telling women to be more confident.

Firms have never known more about their customers, but their innovation processes remain hit-or-miss. Why? According to Christensen and his coauthors,...

Over the past decade, I have watched more than 100 companies try to remake themselves into significantly better competitors. They have included large organizations (Ford) and small ones (Landmark Communications), companies based in the United States (General Motors) and elsewhere (British Airways), corporations that were on their knees (Eastern Airlines), and companies that were earning […]

Wise executives tailor their approach to fit the complexity of the circumstances they face.

Companies need to make their networks more resilient. Here’s how.