A decade and a half of instability: The history of Google messaging apps

Sixteen years after the launch of Google Talk, Google messaging is still a mess.

Editor’s Note: This is a very long but fascinating look at how one of the world’s most successful companies has completely missed the boat, strategically speaking, over and over again.

How Amazon Innovates in Ways that Google and Apple Can’t

Amazon has shown a remarkable ability to succeed in a wide variety of different product categories. That’s a contrast to most other high-profile tech companies that are really good in one area — Google’s dominant online services or Apple’s extraordinarily profitable hardware — but struggle when the quest for growth pushes them outside their zone of core competency. Amazon has figured out how to combine … [ Read more ]

How Discovery Keeps Innovating

CEO Adrian Gore describes how the South African company has been shaking up its industry through business-model innovation and explains what helps to catalyze new ideas.

Reborn in the Cloud

Adobe executives discuss the company’s move from selling shrink-wrapped products to offering web-based software and services.

Hyundai’s Capabilities Play

The Korean automaker’s explosive growth in the last few years—achieved through better quality, stylish design, and clever marketing—has made it a dynamic player in the U.S. auto industry.

The Hershey Company: Aligning Inside to Win on the Outside

Changes in the marketplace, if not monitored, can cause serious losses in profit, market share, and in stakeholders’ confidence. Such was the case with one of the most celebrated American companies, Hershey’s. When the company failed to keep its ear to the ground and eye on the ball it lost touch with consumers and retailers. A shift in the company’s focus and a re-alignment of … [ Read more ]

Blank Checks: Unleashing the Potential of People and Businesses

How an unusual management technique inspires business teams to envision — and achieve — breakthrough results.

The First Customers

In a new market, you need to secure a foothold. World domination can come later.

Thales: Defending Independence

With rivals poised to pounce, is there a way for Thales to remain a standalone company?

Selling to a Cash Poor Firm

“Bertrand Caron sat in his office and contemplated his most recent communications with George Milne and Philip Brown of Vancouver Aluminum Company of Vancouver, Washington, USA. Caron was the marketing director of the Canadian Railway Car Corporation (CRCC) headquartered in Montreal. CRCC was a privately-held firm that manufactured various types of railway cars. However, Caron’s firm was now threatened by increasing competition from U.S. manufacturers … [ Read more ]

Block by Block

During an economic downturn, Cemex, the world’s second-largest cement maker, decided to try to sell more products to Mexico’s poor. Almost by accident, the company discovered a global model for developing previously overlooked markets.

Smarter ways to do business with the competition

Companies that enter into strategic alliances thus encounter many dilemmas. This article summarises the key issues into six categories of 10 dilemmas and discusses how Star Alliance, the world’s largest airline alliance, has dealt with these 10 dilemmas.

The Keys to Success

For 150 years, Steinway & Sons has set the standard for the quality manufacture of pianos. The secret to its longevity: a mix of old-world craftsmanship and modern-day management techniques.

Where Does Apple Go from Here?

Macintosh market share continues to decline, but the iPod and iTunes are hit products. Where does Apple Computer’s future lie? An interview with HBS professor David Yoffie.

ChateauOnline

This Case Study examines how ChateauOnline took its wine e-tailing model from promising and well-publicized beginnings in cyberspace and then met the challenge of negotiating the complexities of a less propitious climate in a highly fragmented market. It explains how this young company developed a viable, sustainable and profitable business at a time when other start up competitors were collapsing as a result of financing … [ Read more ]

ARM Holdings Plc

In just ten years, ARM transformed itself from beleaguered computer company to designer of RISC chips that are today the de facto standard for mobile phones, storage devices, automotive computing, and others. In this Case Study, Eleanor O’Keeffe and Professor Peter Williamson present the company’s innovative business model based on partnerships that give it unrivalled capability to “learn from the world”.

NTT DoCoMo i-mode: Creating a solution for the masses

The Internet: wow, what a great concept! And wouldn’t it be even better if you could access it from your mobile phone? Kouiji Ohboshi, chairman of the Japanese telephone giant, NTT DoCoMo, thought so. But back in the early days of 1999, it seemed that few others agreed. In this story of a contrarian business leader, Professors W. Chan Kim, Renée … [ Read more ]

The Secret of How Microsoft Stays on Top

Critics say Microsoft’s incredible two-decade run at the top of the computer industry has less to do with innovation than it does with bully tactics. But new research from Harvard Business School professors Marco Iansiti and Alan MacCormack suggest a different reason: the company’s ability to spot technological trends and exploit key software technologies.

SingTel (A): Newfound Status; SingTel (B): Taking Control

From state-regulated monopoly to pan-Asian powerhouse, the Singaporean telecom SingTel has come a long way. In this two-part case study, Research Fellow Sarah Meegan and Professor Peter Williamson focus on SingTel’s mobile operations, asking you to consider the firm’s history, its acquisition of Optus, and the challenges it faces in managing its network of partnerships and executing its regional strategy.