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The Dell Deal Explained: What a Successful Turnaround Looks Like

Harvard Business Review

How Dell went from dorm room startup in 1984, to the world''s largest PC maker in 2005, and then saw its stock plummet precipitously the next year, is the subject of a lengthy Harvard Business School case study by HBS professor Jan Rivkin. There are two basic patterns to a successful turnaround, Rivkin told me in a recent interview.

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The 4 Types of Small Businesses, and Why Each One Matters

Harvard Business Review

As Harvard Business School’s Michael Porter and Jan Rivkin have noted, strong supply chains bring “low logistical costs, rapid problem solving and easier joint innovation.” They provide income to their owners, but by definition are not job creators.

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Can the U.S. Become a Base for Serving the Global Economy?

Harvard Business Review

businesses appear to be the result of both labor-saving technological changes and the outsourcing of parts of production to independent contractors in low-cost foreign locations. These concerns can be heard in many places: the sobering survey by Michael Porter and Jan Rivkin in HBR's special March issue on U.S. million workers, at U.S.

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How Companies Can Help Rebuild America’s Common Resources

Harvard Business Review

Every company needs infrastructure – roads, bridges, ports – and every company benefits from the new technologies made possible by basic scientific research. Starting around 1980, however, shifts in technology, geopolitics, and governance changed the game. Every company benefits from an educated populace.