Skip to Main Content
HBS Home
  • About
  • Academic Programs
  • Alumni
  • Faculty & Research
  • Baker Library
  • Giving
  • Harvard Business Review
  • Initiatives
  • News
  • Recruit
  • Map / Directions
Faculty & Research
  • Faculty
  • Research
  • Featured Topics
  • Academic Units
  • …→
  • Harvard Business School→
  • Faculty & Research→
Publications
Publications
  • September 2010
  • Case
  • HBS Case Collection

Quanta Research Institute: Rainforest or Hothouse?

By: Willy C. Shih, Jyun-Cheng Wang and Ho Howard Yu
  • Format:Print
  • | Pages:20
ShareBar

Abstract

Barry Lam, the CEO and founder of Quanta Computer (the largest notebook computer manufacturer worldwide), has recognized for many years that he had to transform the company to decrease its dependence on producing commodity hardware for other global brands and move the firm into areas of higher value-added products and services. But how could he transform an organization that was rooted in low cost manufacturing and supply chain management into one that creates innovative new products and commands premium prices? The existing organization was built to operate in a highly constrained innovation space, and the internal resistance to change often seemed insurmountable. Meanwhile, the firm had to continue delivering predictable revenues. Lam launched the Quanta Research Institute (QRI), a targeted effort to foster industrial research, as a vehicle for organizational transformation and to build differentiation in a commodity world. The case examines how QRI sources ideas and discusses how Quanta will use China as a test market for new products and services.

Keywords

Change Management; Leading Change; Growth and Development Strategy; Product Development; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Research and Development; Computer Industry; Taiwan

Citation

Shih, Willy C., Jyun-Cheng Wang, and Ho Howard Yu. "Quanta Research Institute: Rainforest or Hothouse?" Harvard Business School Case 611-024, September 2010.
  • Educators
  • Purchase

About The Author

Willy C. Shih

Technology and Operations Management
→More Publications

More from the Authors

    • January 2025
    • Faculty Research

    Knowledge Transfer: Toyota, NUMMI, and GM

    By: Willy Shih
    • January 2025 (Revised February 2025)
    • Faculty Research

    Vanguard Retail Operations

    By: Antonio Moreno, Willy C. Shih and Margaret Underwood
    • January 2025 (Revised January 2025)
    • Faculty Research

    U.S. Steel: Proposed Acquisition by Nippon Steel

    By: Willy C. Shih
More from the Authors
  • Knowledge Transfer: Toyota, NUMMI, and GM By: Willy Shih
  • Vanguard Retail Operations By: Antonio Moreno, Willy C. Shih and Margaret Underwood
  • U.S. Steel: Proposed Acquisition by Nippon Steel By: Willy C. Shih
ǁ
Campus Map
Harvard Business School
Soldiers Field
Boston, MA 02163
→Map & Directions
→More Contact Information
  • Make a Gift
  • Site Map
  • Jobs
  • Harvard University
  • Trademarks
  • Policies
  • Accessibility
  • Digital Accessibility
Copyright © President & Fellows of Harvard College.