Publications

14 Jan 2019
Op-Ed

These 4 CEOs Created a New Standard of Leadership

the World Economic Forum, and the next day he’s demanding improved performance from Unilever’s senior executives. In my view, Polman isn’t an enigma at all, but a world statesman who exemplifies all the qualities CEOs require in this era.... View Details

Keywords: by Bill George; Health; Banking; Food & Beverage; Consumer Products

08 Aug 2005
Research & Ideas

A Balanced Scorecard Approach To Measure Customer Profitability

The Balanced Scorecard introduced customer metrics into performance management systems. Scorecards feature all manner of wonderful objectives relating to the customer value proposition and customer outcome... View Details

Keywords: by Robert S. Kaplan

2000
Other Unpublished Work

Career Concerns and Staged Investment: Evidence from the Venture Capital Industry

By: Malcolm Baker

I develop a model in which career concerns lead to inefficient reinvestment decisions. Managers have incentives to inflate interim returns by continuing bad projects and delaying write-offs. In the venture capital industry, the syndication of follow-on investments can... View Details

Keywords: Performance Efficiency; Valuation; Venture Capital; Investment; Decisions; Motivation and Incentives; Quality

Read Now

26 May 2003
Research & Ideas

When Silence Spells Trouble at Work

every interaction, shut down creativity, and undermine productivity. Take the case of Jeff, a team leader at a Fortune 100 company who was working on a large, long-term, high-pressure project. Each Tuesday, Jeff and his peers had a project View Details

Keywords: by Leslie A. Perlow

March 2004
Case

L.L. Bean: A Search for Growth

By: Rajiv Lal, Walter J. Salmon and James Weber

In mid-2003, CEO Chris McCormick felt L.L. Bean was in a good position to begin to grow again. For nearly 90 years, the company sold clothing and gear for outdoor enthusiasts through its catalogs and a single retail store in Freeport, Maine. In the three decades prior... View Details

Keywords: Business History; Restructuring; Growth and Development Strategy; Cost Management; Sales; Performance Improvement; Diversification; Distribution Channels; Resignation and Termination; Retail Industry; Web Services Industry

28 Jul 2020
Research & Ideas

Racism and Digital Design: How Online Platforms Can Thwart Discrimination

Having uncovered the scope of discrimination taking place against Black guests and hosts on Airbnb, researcher Michael Luca and his colleagues put together a toolkit to aid managers in recognizing and mitigating discrimination on online... View Details

Keywords: by Kristen Senz; Travel; Entertainment & Recreation; Service

16 Apr 2007
Research & Ideas

Delivering the Digital Goods: iTunes vs. Peer-to-Peer

in their competition against p2p. Other differences are related to the "packaging" of content. Digital rights management (DRM) technologies, for example, are used to limit the playback of music purchased on iTunes, while music... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Music

July 2023
Article

Managerial Quality and Productivity Dynamics

By: Achyuta Adhvaryu, Anant Nyshadham and Jorge Tamayo

Do productivity and managerial quality vary within the firm? If so which managerial traits and practices matter most for team productivity? Combining granular garment production data with survey data on managers across 120 production lines in India, we document... View Details

Keywords: Productivity; Non-cognitive Skills; Learning By Doing; Ready-made Garments; Management; Management Practices and Processes; Management Skills; Performance Productivity; Fashion Industry; Manufacturing Industry; India

Find at Harvard

Read Now

21 Dec 2010
First Look

First Look: December 21

the period from 1996 to 2005 to test the hypothesized relationships. How Managers Use Multiple Media: Discrepant Events, Power and Timing in Redundant Communication Authors:P.M. Leonardi, T.B. Neeley, and E.M. Gerber... View Details

01 Feb 2011
First Look

First Look: Feb. 1

clamor for accountability, it is tempting to accept the popular normative view that more accountability is better. But is it feasible, or even desirable, for nonprofit organizations to be accountable to everyone for everything? The challenge for leadership and View Details

Article

Overcoming the Outcome Bias: Making Intentions Matter

By: Ovul Sezer, Ting Zhang, Francesca Gino and Max Bazerman

People often make the well-documented mistake of paying too much attention to the outcomes of others’ actions while neglecting information about the original intentions leading to those outcomes. In five experiments, we examine interventions aimed at reducing this... View Details

Keywords: Outcome Bias; Intentions; Joint Evaluation; Judgment; Separate Evaluation; Goals and Objectives; Prejudice and Bias; Judgments; Performance Evaluation; Outcome or Result

Find at Harvard

October 1991 (Revised April 1992)
Case

Honda Today

By: Marco Iansiti

Describes a situation in which the manager in charge of a major development project at Honda needs to make a decision about the technical specification of the product. The decision has profound implications for the product concept and strategy, as well as for the... View Details

Keywords: Decisions; Product Design; Organizational Design; Performance Consistency; Projects; Auto Industry

01 Dec 2018
News

Digital Transformation

going forward,” he notes. Since founding Broad Peak Investment in Singapore 11 years ago, Ahmad has seen firsthand the effects. “We now have much better data around how businesses are performing and, in some cases, we can analyze the data... View Details

15 Oct 2020
Research & Ideas

IT Job Wages Are No Longer 'Exceptional'

engineering, and mathematics) labor market trends. And in geographic regions where competition is fiercest for IT talent, superstar performers do not earn the same high premium they once did over their average-performing peers. In short,... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne; Information Technology

17 Jun 2011
HBS Case

KFC’s Explosive Growth in China

restaurants in China differ markedly in many ways from their Western counterparts. And while Pizza Hut has done very well for itself with nearly 500 restaurants in 120 cities (as of December 2010), KFC's performance has been... View Details

Keywords: by Maggie Starvish; Food & Beverage

Research Summary

The Value of Family Ownership, Control, and Management

In collaboration with Professor Raphael Amit of Wharton, Belén Villalonga is investigating how family ownership, control, and management affect firm value. Their forthcoming Journal of Financial... View Details

September 2019 (Revised July 2021)
Case

Gap, Inc., 2019

By: John R. Wells and Benjamin Weinstock

In 2000, The Gap, Inc. (Gap) was the world’s largest player in specialty fashion retailing, and companies such as Inditex of Spain, H&M of Sweden, and Fast Retailing of Japan were less than a quarter of Gap’s size. But after two decades of growth, Gap’s progress... View Details

Keywords: Strategic Change; Fashion; Multinational; Brands; Fast Fashion; Competition; Multinational Firms and Management; Performance Improvement; Management Teams; Brands and Branding; Change Management; Strategy; Retail Industry; Fashion Industry; Apparel and Accessories Industry; Sweden; Spain; United States

October 2015
Teaching Note

Clef Company: Turnover

By: Frank V. Cespedes

Clef Company sells keys and other products to retail outlets, which then sell these products to consumers. The case concerns turnover in Clef's sales force in the context of company strategy, financial performance, and a day in the life of a Clef salesperson. Among... View Details

Keywords: Sales; Marketing; Strategy; Marketing Strategy; Performance Evaluation; Retail Industry; Consumer Products Industry; United States