個案總覽

Consistent innovation is the key to market leadership. Outstanding companies know that and build their success on it. And other organizations can do the same, the author explains in this HBR article from 1988, by making a systematic effort to concentrate on five key activities. Start at the top. Innovation begins with a CEO or general manager who believes change is the way to survive. Spread that mind-set through the organization by setting challenging, measurable goals; getting everyone focused on beating a specific competitor; and supporting individuals who take risks. Allow innovation to rise. New ideas need champions, sponsors, a mix of creative types (for ideas) and operators (to keep things practical), and separate systems to get ideas to top management early and quickly. Know the competitive dynamics of your business cold. A realistic strategic vision will channel innovative efforts to ideas that will pay off in the marketplace. Determine where innovation lives. Look hard at your customers to find new segments, at your competitors to see what's already working, and at your own business to determine where you can leverage existing strengths. Once an idea is well developed, go for broke. Set priorities. Think through every step of the launch.

Champions of virtual corporations urge managers to subcontract anything and everything. And because several high-profile corporate giants have been outperformed by more nimble, "networked" competitors, the idea of the virtual organization is tantalizing. Many executives have come to believe that a company that invests in as little as possible will be more responsive to a changing marketplace and more likely to attain global competitive advantage. But is that really the best way to organize for innovation? In this HBR article from 1996, Henry Chesbrough and David Teece argue that the virtual corporation has been oversold. Innovation is not monolithic. For some innovations, joint ventures, alliances, and outsourcing can play a useful role. But for others, they are inappropriate--and strategically dangerous. The authors present a framework to help managers determine when to innovate by going virtual, when to form alliances, and when to rely on internal development. They provide a range of cases to illustrate how to match organizational strategy to the type of innovation being pursued. Long-term success requires considerable and sustained investment within a company.

Creativity is often touted as a miraculous road to organizational growth and affluence. But creative new ideas can hinder rather than help a company if they are put forward irresponsibly. Too often, the creative types who generate a proliferation of ideas confuse creativity with practical innovation. Without understanding the operating executive's day-to-day problems or the complexity of business organizations, they usually pepper their managers with intriguing but short memoranda that lack details about what's at stake or how the new ideas should be implemented. They pass off onto others the responsibility for getting down to brass tacks. In this classic HBR article from 1963, the author, a professor emeritus at Harvard Business School and a former HBR editor, offers suggestions for the person with a great new idea. First, work with the situation as it is--recognize that the executive is already bombarded with problems. Second, act responsibly by including in your proposal at least a minimal indication of the costs, risks, manpower, and time your idea may involve. Extolling corporate creativity at the expense of conformity may, in fact, reduce the creative animation of business. Conformity and rigidity are necessary for corporations to function.

Many of the greatest discoveries happen by accident, not design. Innovations often emerge not at the center of a company's field of focus, but at its periphery, hidden in the mass of work done in the pursuit of some other goal. Everyone knows that innovation is risky, and it's rare that you arrive at your expected destination. But maybe the destination isn't so important. Maybe what you should be paying attention to are the little detours along the way: It's down those back roads and byways that the real payoff usually is found. The discovery of penicillin and the creation of e-mail are just two examples of such stumblings into brilliance.

HomeStar's reputation for being "the first, the best, the only" name in appliances is under threat. For the second time in six months, upstart competitor Vanguard has pulled off a market coup: Its retro line of refrigerators, ranges, and dishwashers is a huge hit. Meanwhile, HomeStar's latest big idea--jumbo appliances--is bombing. CEO Hal Marden is chagrined: How did the company lose its edge? Kelly Dowd, HomeStar's head of marketing, blames Charlie Hamad, the company's chief engineer. Charlie is so focused on developing smart appliances--products that can cook, clean, and even shop--that he's lost touch with the changing marketplace, Kelly complains. Global competition is growing, and consumers' tastes are changing. Now, more than ever, churning out new products is critical to HomeStar's success. But Charlie, a 27-year veteran who has spearheaded almost every major technological advance in the industry, pooh-poohs the new, flashy products: "Form over function. Nothing new there but a fancy paint job and higher prices." Hal is torn. Charlie is a hero to him, but what if the market doesn't go for networked appliances? The company simply can't afford to put all its eggs in one basket. What's more, the biggest trade show of the year is just six months away, and HomeStar has nothing new to offer. Vanguard, meanwhile, is making product announcements every quarter. Is it time for Charlie to move on? How can HomeStar get its R&D efforts back on track? In R0208A and R0208Z, four commentators--Ideo's Tom Kelley, Whirlpool's Philip Pejovich, Thayer School of Engineering's Lewis Duncan, and Ealing Studios' John Kao -- offer advice in this fictional case study.

HomeStar's reputation for being "the first, the best, the only" name in appliances is under threat. For the second time in six months, upstart competitor Vanguard has pulled off a market coup: Its retro line of refrigerators, ranges, and dishwashers is a huge hit. Meanwhile, HomeStar's latest big idea--jumbo appliances--is bombing. CEO Hal Marden is chagrined: How did the company lose its edge? Kelly Dowd, HomeStar's head of marketing, blames Charlie Hamad, the company's chief engineer. Charlie is so focused on developing smart appliances--products that can cook, clean, and even shop--that he's lost touch with the changing marketplace, Kelly complains. Global competition is growing, and consumers' tastes are changing. Now, more than ever, churning out new products is critical to HomeStar's success. But Charlie, a 27-year veteran who has spearheaded almost every major technological advance in the industry, pooh-poohs the new, flashy products: "Form over function. Nothing new there but a fancy paint job and higher prices." Hal is torn. Charlie is a hero to him, but what if the market doesn't go for networked appliances? The company simply can't afford to put all its eggs in one basket. What's more, the biggest trade show of the year is just six months away, and HomeStar has nothing new to offer. Vanguard, meanwhile, is making product announcements every quarter. Is it time for Charlie to move on? How can HomeStar get its R&D efforts back on track? In R0208A and R0208Z, four commentators--Ideo's Tom Kelley, Whirlpool's Philip Pejovich, Thayer School of Engineering's Lewis Duncan, and Ealing Studios' John Kao--offer advice on this fictional case study.

In August 2002, Microsoft approached the one-year anniversary of its video game console, the Xbox. The first wave of console systems were available in the United States, Japan, Europe, and Australia, and the second wave of rollouts was targeted for Asian markets: Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Singapore. Dan Adelman, business development manager for the Xbox, and Brenda Ng, Xbox's consumer strategy and research manager, considered the marketing data for the Korea launch. They needed to analyze the findings of the first report and to identify issues to resolve in a second, follow-up marketing study. Over the course of the next few months, Adelman and Ng would direct the Xbox team in identifying console purchase drivers and deciding what segments of gamers to target and the message to send to the target segments.

Nearly 30 years after it was first incorporated to help stabilize and improve older, declining parts of the city, Neighborhood Housing Services (NHS) of Chicago had become among the best-known and most-respected organizations of its kind. Its combination of low-interest lending to homebuyers and home renovators, as well as its neighborhood improvement efforts, had won it credit for helping to maintain or revive parts of Chicago during a time when the city was losing population and private financial institutions were loathe to make conventional loans in its poorer neighborhoods. But, in the late 1990s, NHS Chicago finds it is facing a struggle to survive. Poorer neighborhoods, long-starved of credit, find themselves flooded by lending offers from a new generation of so-called "subprime" lenders. NHS efforts to improve the nine Chicago neighborhoods in which it has offices are threatened both by mortgage foreclosures which result from such high-interest loans, and by a decline in NHS Chicago's own lending business, which has difficulty competing with well-advertised "subprimes". This case raises the question of what strategy NHS Chicago, under pressure from a major foundation which had historically helped support it, should adopt to right itself financially and whether and how it should continue the mission for which it was founded. Case discussion may include both an examination of data-including trends in its revenues and expenses-and of prospective long-term organizational strategies. HKS Case Number 1659.0

Some companies are better at scouting out new market opportunities than others are. Those that lack the time or the talent for this work should consider outsourcing it to reconnaissance experts.

Diversity, cohesiveness, and autonomy may seem critical to the creative work that teams do. But new research shows that too much of those things can thwart innovation.

Not long ago, it seemed far-fetched to think that feature films could be made on computers. Pixar cofounder Ed Catmull discusses how his company turned improbability into reality with the blockbusters Toy Story, A Bug's Life, and Monsters, Inc.

Regions where social ties are tight are the worst places to put your innovation operations. Look instead for communities that promote tolerance, diversity, and creativity.

Protagonist Frank Ruderman evolved from entrepreneur to traditional angel investor and later to innovative angel or hybrid investor. Ruderman's investing group, Tenex Greenhouse, was created as a hybrid investing fund that brought together Ruderman's angel network with two institutional partners. At the outset of the case, Ruderman is in conversation with an entrepreneur/CEO who is seeking funding from the Greenhouse. Prepared for a class on venture capital, the case can serve as an introduction to angel investing and new innovations in angel investing. The fund in question has developed new techniques for fundraising (institutional partners) and investing (a narrow but deep focus).

The "eInstant Bonus" was an interactive advertising concept designed internally by the Mass Transit Railway Corp. Ltd. (MTR) in Hong Kong. Under this scheme, special discount offers from merchants/advertisers were displayed on a 42-inch Plasma TV in the form of a 10-second static slide or a 30-second TV commercial. Passengers could select items on the touch-screen monitor and a discount coupon would be issued. The discount coupon could then be redeemed for products or services purchased at the merchant's premises. For each coupon issued, a transaction fee of $1.00 would be deducted from the passenger's Octopus Card. This case illustrates the use of information technology by a large corporation for strategic alignment and value creation. Multimedia kiosks are a new phenomenon of the 1990s to provide personalized and interactive customer service on-site. Discussion is provided on the concepts and applications of kiosks for a customer service organization. The MTR eInstant Bonus project is considered a successful innovation by various measures. Also provides an understanding of innovation adoption and diffusion, specifically, how the attributes of the innovation relate to its rate of adoption and diffusion.

China's economic reform program has had many important impacts on business competition in the nation. In many industries, foreign competitors entered, making "strategic investments" that they believed would lose money for a significant period of time and then turn profitable. At the same time, many Chinese companies adapted to the new environment much quicker than many observers expected. Meanwhile, however, a regulatory and administrative system that created substantial uncertainty, links between the state and companies, bank lending that kept money-losing firms in business, and a rapidly changing and reforming economy made business competition in China different from business competition in many other places. This case provides vignettes of four industry sectors in China in which competition was already fierce on the eve of China's WTO accession, including beer, personal computers, steel, and television sets. The class discussion focuses on the nature of competition in the industries and the likely impact of full accession into the WTO on competition. Allows for a discussion of the nature of uncertainty in business and for the development of tools to generate scenarios about future competition in uncertain situations.

ING Group is one of the 10 largest financial services companies in the world. The president of ING Direct USA is considering adding e-brokering to the ING Direct portfolio. He must examine the company's overall strategy, marketing strategy, operations, information technology, and finances to help determine whether the company should grow its own e-brokerage or buy one of three potential e-brokerage targets.

Covers the evolution of retail real estate in the United States. Specifically covers types of retail centers, such as neighborhood, community, regional, and super-regional as well as the recent phenomenon of the 1990s to 2002 of the growing emergence of value retail, i.e., discount, off-price, and manufacturer outlet retailers.

Insurance giant Marsh & McLennan acquires management consulting firms Temple, Barker & Sloane (TBS) in 1987 and Strategic Planning Associates (SPA) in 1990 and sets out to merge the two. The merger proceeds slowly and painfully. Following the February 1990 merger, George Overholser and Ware Adams face difficult decisions. Overholser, a principal at Mercer, must decide how to meet the challenge of leading an effort to integrate the two firms. Adams, a Mercer associate, must decide whether to leave the firm to join Dean & Co., a spin-off recently founded by former partners Dean Wilde and Dean Silverman. Overholser, who had also been invited to join the Deans, had already declined the offer when the case opens. Overholser, Adams, Wilde, and Silverman are all formerly of SPA, a firm whose culture and business model differed markedly from that of TBS. Walker Lewis, founder of SPA, arrived at the terms "industry knowledge consulting" and "expertise consulting" to describe TBS's approach and "analytical consulting" and "model-driven consulting" to describe SPA's.

Supplements the (A) case.

Describes how major pharmaceutical firms changed their strategy and pricing policies in the years 2000 to 2002 to respond to the growing AIDS epidemic in Africa.