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Case | HBS Case Collection | February 2004

The Making of Verizon

by Rosabeth M. Kanter, Douglas A Raymond and Ryan Raffaelli

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Abstract

Through a series of mergers, Ivan Seidenberg, Verizon chairman and CEO, successfully shared the co-CEO title twice while building the largest telecom company in the United States. The strong and complementary cultures of the companies that Seidenberg and a key group of executives had merged was a major factor in their success. However, in the steps leading up to this, decreased revenues in their traditional wireline business intensified their dependence on the growth of wireless and broadband services. As Verizon moved into this less familiar territory, the culture that had sustained them through change would have to be evaluated as they embarked on a new wave of growth. As the future of Verizon become more dependent on business in areas that bore little resemblance to the Baby Bells, were the lessons from past successful mergers less applicable?

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Change Management; Transition; Leading Change; Organizational Culture; Risk Management; Telecommunications Industry; United States;

Language: English Format: Print 28 pages EducatorsPurchase

Citation:

Kanter, Rosabeth M., Douglas A Raymond, and Ryan Raffaelli. "The Making of Verizon." Harvard Business School Case 303-131, February 2004.

About the Authors

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Rosabeth M. Kanter
Ernest L. Arbuckle Professor of Business Administration
General Management

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Ryan L. Raffaelli
Assistant Professor of Business Administration
Organizational Behavior

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More from these Authors

  • Case | HBS Case Collection | September 2019

    Gun Safety in America: Three Leaders Propose Innovative Solutions

    Rosabeth M. Kanter and Joseph Paul

    Gun violence was a significant problem in America. Three Harvard Advanced Leadership Initiative Fellows Christy Wood, Russell Sternlicht, and Gareth Glaser each decided to do something about gun safety. They each used their professional and leadership experience to identify their own solutions to the issue. Wood created a set of principles for investments funds to pressure gun manufacturers and gun sellers within their portfolios to adopt safety standards. Sternlicht designed a membership-based lobbying and advocacy group in order to harness the power of mass movements to create positive change. And Glaser founded a smart-gun company whose product could help reduce certain types of deaths and injuries. Would any of these three innovations move beyond the historical gridlock on gun safety?

    Keywords: gun violence; guns; advanced leadership; Advanced Leadership Initiative; innovation; innovation & entrepreneurship; social change; social responsibility; Leadership; Change Management; Experience and Expertise; Social Entrepreneurship; Values and Beliefs; Policy; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Leading Change; Non-Governmental Organizations; Social Issues; Innovation and Invention; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; United States;

    Citation:

    Kanter, Rosabeth M., and Joseph Paul. "Gun Safety in America: Three Leaders Propose Innovative Solutions." Harvard Business School Case 320-004, September 2019.  View Details
    CiteView DetailsEducators Related
  • Teaching Note | HBS Case Collection | September 2019

    Gun Safety in America: Three Leaders Propose Innovative Solutions

    Rosabeth Moss Kanter and Joseph Paul

    This is a teaching note to the original case: Gun violence was a significant problem in America. Three Harvard Advanced Leadership Initiative Fellows Christy Wood, Russell Sternlicht, and Gareth Glaser each decided to do something about gun safety. They each used their professional and leadership experience to identify their own solutions to the issue. Wood created a set of principles for investments funds to pressure gun manufacturers and gun sellers within their portfolios to adopt safety standards. Sternlicht designed a membership-based lobbying and advocacy group in order to harness the power of mass movements to create positive change. And Glaser founded a smart-gun company whose product could help reduce certain types of deaths and injuries. Would any of these three innovations move beyond the historical gridlock on gun safety?

    Keywords: gun violence; guns; advanced leadership; Advanced Leadership Initiative; innovation; innovation & entrepreneurship; social change; social responsibility; Leadership; Change Management; Experience and Expertise; Social Entrepreneurship; Values and Beliefs; Policy; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Leading Change; Non-Governmental Organizations; Social Issues; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; United States;

    Citation:

    Kanter, Rosabeth Moss, and Joseph Paul. "Gun Safety in America: Three Leaders Propose Innovative Solutions." Harvard Business School Teaching Note 320-005, September 2019.  View Details
    CiteView Details Related
  • Article | Administrative Science Quarterly | September 2019

    Technology Reemergence: Creating New Value for Old Technologies in Swiss Mechanical Watchmaking, 1970-2008

    Ryan Raffaelli

    In 1983, 14 years after the introduction of the battery-powered quartz watch, mechanical watches and the Swiss watchmakers who built them were predicted to be obsolete (Landes, 1983). Unexpectedly, however, by 2008 the Swiss mechanical watchmaking industry had rematerialized to become the world’s leading exporter (in monetary value) of watches. This study reveals the process and mechanisms associated with technology reemergence, i.e., the resurgence of substantive and sustained demand for an old (legacy) technology following the introduction of a new dominant design. Drawing on the case of mechanical watchmaking, it reveals how technology reemergence is a decidedly cognitive process, unfolding in two phases: a first phase marked by a redefinition of the meanings and values associated with the legacy technology and facilitated by mechanisms of value recombining, temporal distancing, identity marking, and conceptual bridging and a second phase marked by a redefinition of market boundaries and facilitated by mechanisms of competitive set reclaiming and enthusiast consumer mobilizing. For mechanical watchmakers, the process culminated in competitive and consumer differentiation that ushered in innovation reinvestment and a period of substantive and sustained demand growth for mechanical watches. This paper contributes to research on technology cycles, cognition, and incumbent responses to discontinuous change.

    Keywords: technology reemergence; technology cycles; cognition and market redefinition; legacy technology trajectories; Technology; Demand and Consumers; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Identity; Change; Consumer Products Industry; Switzerland;

    Citation:

    Raffaelli, Ryan. "Technology Reemergence: Creating New Value for Old Technologies in Swiss Mechanical Watchmaking, 1970-2008." Administrative Science Quarterly 64, no. 3 (September 2019): 576–618.  View Details
    CiteView DetailsFind at Harvard Read Now Related
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