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• Case | HBS Case Collection | September 2009 (Revised April 2020)

  VIZIO, Inc.

  Krishna G. Palepu and Elizabeth A. Kind

  William Wang, CEO of VIZIO, Inc., was proud of his company's success in providing affordable flat screen TVs. Since its founding in 2002, VIZIO had grown to over $2 billion in revenue and was one of the top three flat panel TV brands, along with Samsung and Sony. Faced with intensifying price pressure from the industry leaders and an unprecedented economic recession, Wang wondered how VIZIO could best sustain its growth and finance its business.

  Keywords: Financial Crisis; Financing and Loans; Price; Growth and Development Strategy; Competitive Strategy; Consumer Products Industry; Electronics Industry;

  Citation:

  Palepu, Krishna G., and Elizabeth A. Kind. "VIZIO, Inc." Harvard Business School Case 110-024, September 2009. (Revised April 2020.)  View Details

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• Case | HBS Case Collection | February 1992 (Revised September 2019)

  The House of Tata

  James E. Austin and Ashish Nanda

  The case traces the evolution of the Tata group, one of the largest and highly respected Indian business houses, from its 19th century founding and early growth in diverse industries, to its response to changes in government regulation in independent India, up to its 1991 leadership transition from longtime chairman J.R.D. Tata to his successor, Ratan Tata. The case first describes how Tata group founder Jamsetji Tata and his sons entered into the steel, hotel, hydroelectric, cement, air travel, and insurance industries (among others). It then explores how the evolving role of government in business in post-Independence India impacted the Tata group. The case also outlines the acceleration in the Tata group’s growth during the 1980s, following government liberalization. In addition to discussing how the group’s leadership navigated through the external pressures of policy and economics, the case also examines how they managed internal pressures – reduced synergy between the diverse and legally-independent companies under Tata’s umbrella, and, at times, reluctant adjustments in company culture that corresponded to Tata’s generational leadership transitions. The case invites comparison between J.R.D. Tata’s compassionate management style and his successor Ratan Tata’s no-nonsense, analytical approach. The case closes by outlining some of the challenges facing the Tata group amidst the changing political and regulatory environment of the 1990s.

  Keywords: Indian economy; international business; government and business; Government Regulation; Synergy; conglomerates; Business Conglomerates; Developing Countries and Economies; Business and Government Relations; Business History; Steel Industry; Electronics Industry; Chemical Industry; Insurance Industry; Air Transportation Industry; India;

  Citation:

  Austin, James E., and Ashish Nanda. "The House of Tata." Harvard Business School Case 792-065, February 1992. (Revised September 2019.)  View Details

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• Article | Social Enterprise Journal | 2019

  Reflections on 25 Years of Building Social Enterprise Education

  James E. Austin and V. Kasturi Rangan

  Purpose—This paper aims to reflect on 25 years of the Social Enterprise Initiative at the Harvard Business School, examining the processes and thinking involved at key stages of this pioneering Initiative’s implementation and institutionalization.
  Design/methodology/approach—The authors adopt an auto-ethnographical approach, reflexively considering the impact of our actions at key stages.
  Findings – Reflecting on the experiences, the authors offer their thoughts on the challenges involved in establishing an educational program. They consider that there were give stages in the development of the program, which ensured its longevity, institutionalization and success: giving birth; starting an experiment; gaining acceptability; being embraced and achieving irreversibility.
  Findings—Reflecting on the experiences, the authors offer their thoughts on the challenges involved in establishing an educational program. They consider that there were give stages in the development of the program, which ensured its longevity, institutionalization and success: giving birth, starting an experiment, gaining acceptability, being embraced and achieving irreversibility.
  Practical implications—The multiple challenges faced, as well as the successes that the authors had over the years, are set out. Awareness of the challenges that the authors faced will support educators to be prepared to overcome the same or similar challenges to implementing and embedding a social enterprise program.
  Originality/value—This is the first time that the authors’ reflections on the history of the Social Enterprise Initiative have been brought together. As well as distinctive in their own right, the authors consider that the lessons learned from the work over such a long period could provide valuable insights to those who wish to integrate social enterprise teaching into their settings.

  Keywords: Social Enterprise Initiative; Harvard Business School; Social Enterprise; Education; Programs;

  Citation:

  Austin, James E., and V. Kasturi Rangan. "Reflections on 25 Years of Building Social Enterprise Education." Social Enterprise Journal 15, no. 1 (2019): 2–21.  View Details

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