Publications

June 2020
Case

Recovering Trust After Corporate Misconduct at Wells Fargo

By: Suraj Srinivasan and Jonah S. Goldberg

The case describes widespread misconduct at Wells Fargo Community Bank in the period leading up to 2017 and the company’s subsequent attempts to improve internal controls, company culture, and corporate governance. The case examines the potential causes of large scale... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Misconduct; Internal Controls; Banks and Banking; Crime and Corruption; Corporate Governance; Organizational Culture; Governance Compliance; Management Systems; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Performance Improvement; Governing and Advisory Boards

04 Jul 2005
What Do You Think?

How Can Business Schools Be Made More Relevant?

of the graduates." Lisa Marks Dolan, a business school dean, feels that much of the problem lies in the way teachers are trained. She writes, "We're being asked to produce graduates who can integrate, adapt, manage global... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

09 Feb 2015
Research & Ideas

Professional Networking Makes People Feel Dirty

School of Management at Northwestern University.) "From an academic perspective, we thought we could advance the theory of networks by looking at the psychological consequences of networking." Previous psychology research has shown that... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

January 22, 2020
Article

Making Honest Conversations the Norm

By: Michael Beer

Much admired companies like Boeing and Wells Fargo sacrifice their competitive advantage. Some make huge ethical blunders. As a result, shareholders suffer huge losses in value while employees, customers, and society lose trust and confidence in the institution. Based... View Details

Keywords: Honesty; Interpersonal Communication; Framework; Organizational Culture; Trust; Performance Effectiveness

Read Now

12 Nov 2010
Research & Ideas

One Report: Integrated Reporting for a Sustainable Strategy

What a company externally reports shapes how it behaves internally. The key question is, "What should companies report?" A new reporting practice--"integrated reporting," which integrates measures of financial and non-financial View Details

Keywords: by Robert Eccles; Accounting

01 Nov 2021
Op-Ed

Team Success Starts with the Individual—and with Love

at it a bit differently. Remembering that any team is comprised of individuals, he focuses on helping each individual reach their highest potential not just as performers but as people. Do this, and the best collective results will emerge... View Details

Keywords: by Ranjay Gulati; Sports

17 Mar 2008
Research & Ideas

The Lessons of Business History: A Handbook

Confined to specialist journals and books, business history research too often lacks the impact it should have on the research and practice of business management and the social sciences, according to the editors of the newly published... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

November 2010
Article

Which of These People Is Your Future CEO?

By: Boris Groysberg, Andrew Hill and Toby Johnson

Americans have long believed that U.S. military officers-trained for high-stakes positions, resilience, and mental agility-make excellent CEOs. That belief is sound, but the authors' analysis of the performance of 45 companies led by CEOs with military experience... View Details

Keywords: Experience and Expertise; Training; Leadership Style; Managerial Roles; Situation or Environment; United States

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July 2021
Article

Material Sustainability Information and Stock Price Informativeness

By: Jody Grewal, Clarissa Hauptmann and George Serafeim

As part of the SEC’s revision of Regulation S-K, many investors proposed the mandatory disclosure of sustainability information in the form of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) data. However, progress is contingent on collecting evidence regarding which... View Details

Keywords: Voluntary Disclosure; Accounting Standards; Sustainability; Nonfinancial Information; Corporate Social Responsibility; Stock Price Informativeness; Synchronicity; Environmental Sustainability; Corporate Disclosure; Corporate Accountability; Stocks; Price; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Accounting; Standards

SSRN

Find at Harvard

17 Feb 2022
Book

When Employees Feel a Sense of Purpose, Companies Succeed

many took as the key to their business success. More recently, the limitations of “strong” cultures have come into focus. As important as conformity is, leaders and companies have recognized that organizational performance hinges on the... View Details

Keywords: by Ranjay Gulati

November 1998 (Revised November 2001)
Case

BMW AG: The Digital Car Project (A)

By: Stefan H. Thomke and Ashok Nimgade

Describes how the German automotive firm BMW is trying to reduce its development time by half with the aid of computer-aided technologies. To leverage these technologies fully in the very competitive automotive industry, BMW is faced with the challenge of changing its... View Details

Keywords: Change; Competency and Skills; Management; Time Management; Product Positioning; Product Development; Business Processes; Performance; Problems and Challenges; Technology; Auto Industry

06 Oct 2003
Research & Ideas

The Problem with Hedge Funds

investment management themselves. Sensing this demand, which is what they do best, investment banks are now creating funds, which then are invested in other funds. This is the big new thing, the fund of funds. People who View Details

Keywords: by D. Quinn Mills

01 Dec 2019
News

Remix

running throughout—you have to page back to an earlier chapter of Dixon’s life, in 2017. That’s when the bottom dropped out. That fall, she was raising money for a tech/beauty startup called EverythingDid, designed to help women and girls of color View Details

Keywords: Jen McFarland Flint; photographed by Chris Sorensen; #MeToo; DefJam; Arts, Entertainment

01 Dec 2022
News

My First Job

Edited by Jen McFarland Flint; illustrations by Ross MacDonald Here’s the humbling truth: no matter how high your career soars, how many awards you win or companies you sell or differences you make in this world, everyone has to start somewhere. And in those first... View Details

Keywords: Business Schools & Computer & Management Training; Educational Services

August 2019 (Revised April 2020)
Case

Transforming Hindustan Unilever

By: Krishna G. Palepu and Rachna Tahilyani

In October 2013, when Sanjiv Mehta had taken over the reins of Unilever’s business in India and the larger South Asia region, Hindustan Unilever (HUL) had been going through a difficult time. Caught in the midst of a weakening economy, falling consumer spending, and... View Details

Keywords: Change Management; Transformation; Leading Change; Performance Improvement; Consumer Products Industry; India

03 May 2011
First Look

First Look: May 3

achieved something, however small. If the person drags out of the office disengaged and joyless, a setback is likely to blame. This progress principle suggests that managers have more influence than they may realize over employees'... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

January 2020
Case

Ureed.com: The Marketplace for Language

By: Ashley V. Whillans, Esel Çekin and Alpana Thapar

Jordanian entrepreneur, Nour Al Hassan, founded Tarjama in 2008, tapping into an underserved and high demand need: Arabic translation service. Its lean model comprised of hiring full-time employees, mainly women, who worked from home. It steadily grew over the... View Details

Keywords: Language Translation; Freelancers; Entrepreneurship; Human Resources; Management; Expansion; Quality; Growth and Development Strategy

November 2022
Case

Arcos Dorados’ Quest for the Digitalization of Last-Mile Delivery in Colombia

By: Jorge Tamayo, Jenyfeer Martinez Buitrago and Mariana Cal

In 2018, Francisco Staton, Managing Director of Arcos Dorados in Colombia had to decide on the company’s strategy to expand its food ordering and delivery business in the country. Arcos Dorados stood as McDonald’s largest independent franchisee, and Colombia was one of... View Details

July–August 2016
Article

Beyond the Holacracy Hype: The Overwrought Claims—and Actual Promise—of the Next Generation of Self-Managed Teams

By: Ethan Bernstein, John Bunch, Niko Canner and Michael Lee

Holacracy and other forms of self-organization have been getting a lot of press. Proponents hail them as "flat" environments that foster flexibility, engagement, productivity, and efficiency. Critics say they're naive, unrealistic experiments. We argue, using evidence... View Details