EE353 (now EE204)
Assignments

Spring 2009

 

All assignments are listed in the following table.  Cases, Required Readings, and Recommended Readings can be purchased directly from Harvard Business School.  Students are responsible for preparing both the cases and the readings listed for each class.  Web links lead to the actual assignments and supplemental readings for each date.  Assignments list specific questions which students should be prepared to answer

For those of you visiting this website who wishes to read the cases or articles, they can be purchased online at Harvard Business School Publishing

 


Scheduled Course Meetings and Topics

Date

Case

Required Readings

Recommended Readings

Amusing Links

 

Introduction

 

 

 

 

3/31/09

1)   Netflix Battle with Blockbuster gets ugly

  Will be handed out in class.

 

 

 

 

Strategy

 

 

 

 

4/02/09

2) Apple 2008

1. What Is Strategy

2. Price/Features matrix

Let Me Go Back.

Apple “1984” Commercial

Microsoft Vista Commercial (2006)

Windows Laptop Hunters (2008)

Steve Jobs Video

SNL Weekend Update IPhone

4/07/09

3) LinkedIn Corp., 2008

1.The Five Competitive Forces That Shape Strategy

2. Product Lifecycle 

Camels and Rubber Duckies

Reid Hoffman / Charlie Rose

Why I Invested in LinkedIn

Reagan / Tear Down This Wall

4/09/09

4) MySQL Open Source Database

 

  

1. The Innovator’s Dilemma:

When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail

(and start-ups to win)

 

2. Order of Magnitude Analysis

 

 

 

4/14/09

 

5) Oracle vs. Salesforce

 

1. Marketing Myopia

2. The Rule of 72

 

 

Product Development

 

 

 

 

4/16/09

6) Teradyne Corporation: The Jaguar Project

1. Customer Value Propositions in Business Markets

 

2. Is your Product Development Process Helping or Hindering Innovation

 

 

 

 

4/21/09

 7) Electronic Arts: The Blockbuster Strategy

 

1. How Pixar Fosters Creativity

 

2. Basic Quantitative Analysis for Marketing

 

Product Development Takes Ten Years.  Get Used to It!

Gamasutra History of EA

4/23/09

 8) Flextronics: A Focus on Design Leads to India

 

1. The New Practice of Global Product Development

 

 

 

Group written assignment

 

 

 

 

4/28/09

9) Hewlett-Packard: The Flight of the Kittyhawk (A)

Group Assignment on Hewlett Packard is due at beginning of class (8am)

 

1. A Note on Team Process

2. Match Your Innovation Strategy to Your Innovation Ecosystem

   

Debugging Your Product

Measurement

Evidenced Based Scheduling

 

 

Accounting

and

Finance

 

 

 

 

4/30/09

10) The Case of the Unidentified Industries

1. The Balance Sheet

2. The Income Statement

3. Introduction to Financial Ratios and Financial Statement Analysis

Text Book Recommendation:

Essentials of Accounting

By Robert Anthony & Leslie Pearlman, available on Amazon; Self-paced study of accounting. 10-15 hours to complete.

 

5/05/09

11) Google & Microsoft Financial Performance and Competitive Analysis

1. SEC Filings & Forms (EDGAR)

 

The "Internet Thing"

Steve Balmer Video #1

Selection-based Search

5/07/09

12) Juniper Networks

1. New Venture Financing

2. Funding New Ventures: Valuation, Financing and Capitalization Tables

3. Alternate Sources of Financing 

 

Fund Raising - Israeli Style 

 

Student Researched Case

 

 

 

 

5/12/09

13) Apple Inc. and the eBook

 

 

 

Marketing

 

 

 

 

5/14/09

14) Research in Motion Ltd. (A)

 

1. Introduction to Marketing

2. Basic Quantitative Analysis for Marketing

3. Marketing Strategy 

 

 

5/19/09

15) Cisco Systems: Managing the Go-to-Market Evolution

 

1. Designing Channels of Distribution

 

 

5/21/09

16)  Siebel Systems: Anatomy of a Sale Part 1

Siebel Systems: Anatomy of a Sale Part 2

Siebel Systems: Anatomy of a Sale Part 3 (Handed out in class)

1. Selling as a Systematic Process

 

 

5/26/09

17) Lenovo:Building a Global Brand

1. Brands and Branding

 

2. Product Lifecycle

 

Microsoft Designs the iPod Package

TRS-80 Commercial (circa 1982)

 

Individual Written Assignment

 

 

 

 

5/28/09

18)  AMD: A Customer-Centric Approach to Innovation

Individual written assignment on AMD is due at beginning of class (8am)

 1. Industrial Marketing Strategy – An Overview

Mouth Wide Shut

 

 

Career Planning  

& Responsibilities of Leadership

 

 

 

 

6/02/09

19) Meg Whitman at eBay, Inc. (A)

 

1. What Really Works

2. Skill Set of the CEO 

 

Ebay by Weird Al Yankovich

6/02/09

(4:30-6:30 pm)

 

Meeting at California Café (Stanford Barn) 700 Welch Road, Corner of Welch and Quarry Roads, on Campus, 325-2233

 

 

Drinks (beer, wine, soft drinks)

 

Appetizers

 

 

The Graduate (1967 Academy Award Winner)

Plastics