Publications

September 2017 (Revised March 2019)
Supplement

Henry Kissinger: Negotiating Black Majority Rule in Rhodesia (B)

By: James K. Sebenius and Laurence A. Green

In 1976, United States Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger conducted a series of intricate, multiparty negotiations in Southern Africa to persuade white Rhodesian leader Ian Smith to accede to black majority rule. Conducted near the end of President Gerald Ford’s... View Details

Keywords: Equality and Inequality; Race; Negotiation Process; Negotiation Participants; Negotiation Deal; Government and Politics; Africa; United States

Program

Driving Corporate Performance

Summary Corporate performance is about much more than financial results. How can your organization align its structures, systems, talent, and processes to execute a winning strategy? In Driving Corporate Performance, you will consider the... View Details

October 2001 (Revised August 2005)
Case

Zipcar

By: Myra M. Hart and Wendy Carter

Provides a detailed description of the processes and tasks associated with creating a new venture in an emerging industry (subscription car-sharing for urban dwellers). Chronicles the entrepreneur's concept development, industry analysis, market research, identity... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Financing and Loans; Leadership Development; Venture Capital; Business Strategy; Growth and Development Strategy; Business Plan; Budgets and Budgeting; Management Teams; Partners and Partnerships; Marketing Strategy; Brands and Branding; Auto Industry; Service Industry

10 Jan 2013
Working Paper Summaries

The Novelty Paradox & Bias for Normal Science: Evidence from Randomized Medical Grant Proposal Evaluations

Keywords: by Kevin J. Boudreau, Eva C. Guinan, Karim R. Lakhani & Christoph Riedl; Health

28 Dec 2010
Working Paper Summaries

The Psychological Costs of Pay-for-Performance: Implications for Strategic Compensation

Keywords: by Ian Larkin, Lamar Pierce & Francesca Gino

19 Apr 2011
First Look

First Look: April 19

these organizational processes can account for the high clustering and short-path distance between nodes that are characteristic of the endemic small-world network structure. Furthermore, the study shows... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

2010
Book

Seven Strategy Questions: A Simple Approach for Better Execution

By: Robert L. Simons

To stay ahead of the pack, you must translate your organization's competitive strategy into day-to-day actions that will enable your company to win in the marketplace. This means channeling resources into the right efforts, striking a balance between innovation and... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Innovation and Management; Resource Allocation; Business Processes; Organizational Culture; Competitive Strategy

Find at Harvard

Article

The Inpatient Discharge Lounge as a Potential Mechanism to Mitigate Emergency Department Boarding and Crowding

By: Brian Franklin, Sharif Vakili, Robert S. Huckman, Sarah Hosein, Nicholas Falk, Katherine Cheng, Maria Murray, Sheila Harris, Charles A. Morris and Eric Goralnick

Delayed access to inpatient beds for admitted patients contributes significantly to emergency department (ED) boarding and crowding, which have been associated with deleterious patient safety effects. To expedite inpatient bed availability, some hospitals have... View Details

Keywords: Health Care Delivery; Emergency Room; Operations Improvement; Operations Management; Health Care and Treatment; Service Delivery; Operations; Management; Performance Improvement; Service Operations

Find at Harvard

Research Summary

Overview

Pushing decision authority downward and increasing employee autonomy have become watchwords for the modern organization. Leaders of contemporary organizations view efforts to replace “command and control” systems with less-hierarchical approaches to organizing as... View Details

Keywords: Formalization; Teams; Decentralization; Hierarchy; Organizational Design; Organizational Structure; Self-managing Organizations; Future Of Work; Flat Organization

Producing Prosperity: Why America Needs a Manufacturing Renaissance

Companies compete on the decisions they make. For years—even decades—in response to intensifying global competition, companies decided to outsource their manufacturing operations in order to reduce costs. But we are now seeing the alarming long-term effect of those... View Details

September 2013
Case

Boston Children's Hospital: Measuring Patient Costs (Abridged)

By: Robert S. Kaplan

The case describes a pilot project on applying activity-based costing to measure the cost of treating patients. After an overview of Boston Children's Hospital and its local health care market environment, the case presents process maps and financial data relating to... View Details

Keywords: Health Care; Time-Driven Activity-Based Costing; Costing; Hospitals; Activity Based Costing and Management

28 Jul 2010
Working Paper Summaries

Disagreement about the Team’s Status Hierarchy: An Insidious Obstacle to Coordination and Performance

Keywords: by Heidi K. Gardner

Web

Admissions & Financial Aid - MBA

Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (GSAS). To simplify the process, required elements to apply to both the MBA and the Master of Science will be hosted in the HBS application system. 1 Written Application Create an HBS account... View Details

03 Nov 2015
First Look

November 3, 2015

employment regulation. Publisher's link: https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=50041 November 2015 Accounting Review The Effect of Target Difficulty on Target Completion: The Case of Reducing Carbon Emissions By: Ioannou,... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

17 May 2017
Research & Ideas

Minorities Who 'Whiten' Job Resumes Get More Interviews

the resume screening process at companies throughout the United States, says Katherine A. DeCelles, the James M. Collins Visiting Associate Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School. “Discrimination still exists in... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

2019
Chapter

The Consequences of Mandatory Corporate Sustainability Reporting

By: Ioannis Ioannou and George Serafeim

A key aspect of the governance process inside organizations and markets is the measurement and disclosure of important metrics and information. In this chapter, we examine the effect of sustainability disclosure regulations on firms’ disclosure practices and... View Details

SSRN

March 1995 (Revised April 1997)
Case

Co-operative Bank, The

By: Robert S. Kaplan and Srikant M. Datar

A British bank with strong roots in the cooperative movement encounters declining profitability in an increasingly competitive and deregulated financial services industry. It attempts to grow by broadening its customer base and increasing the range of products and... View Details

Keywords: Product; Competition; Expansion; Cost Management; Activity Based Costing and Management; Profit; Banking Industry; Financial Services Industry

Web

Cross-Registration - MBA

Cross-Registration Course Planning Resources The HBS Classroom Experience: Inside the HBS Case Method Cross-Registration Policies and FAQ Cross-Registration Petition Process Determine Your Eligibility MBA Program Elective Curriculum... View Details

December 1998
Background Note

Cash Management Practices in Small Companies

By: H. Kent Bowen, Andrew R. Jassy, Laurence E. Katz, Kevin E. Kelly and Baltej Kochar

Most small business managers claim that cash management is their leading concern. Often walking a tightrope between growth and illiquidity, small business managers face different cash management challenges than their counterparts in larger companies. Compared to larger... View Details

Keywords: Motivation and Incentives; Working Capital; Management Practices and Processes; Organizational Design; Cash; Forecasting and Prediction; Policy; Business Strategy