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Agility
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- February 2021
- Case
Enterprise Agility at Komerční Banka
By: Euvin Naidoo, Suraj Srinivasan and Sarah Gulick
In 2017, Jan Juchelka, the new CEO of Komerční Banka, identified the need for the bank to start an enterprise wide agile transformation. He started by working to create a sense of urgency to kick-start a process to enable the level of service delivery to customers he... View Details
- February 2021
- Tutorial
What are Agile Teams?
By: Tsedal Neeley
This video explores the elements that constitute agile teams. From its history in the "Agile Manifesto," this philosophy for organizational behavior prioritizes working software over comprehensive documentation, customer collaboration over contract negotiation, and... View Details
- January–February 2021
- Other Article
Stand-up Meetings Inhibit Innovation
By: Andy Wu and Dagny Dukach
An interview with Harvard Business School professor Andy Wu is presented. Wu discusses the usefulness of stand-up meetings, their role in agile management practices, and their impact on innovations and creativity by the participants. View Details
- December 2020
- Article
What Has Changed? The Impact of COVID Pandemic on the Technology and Innovation Management Research Agenda
By: Gerard George, Karim R. Lakhani and Phanish Puranam
Whereas the pandemic has tested the agility and resilience of organizations, it forces a deeper look at the assumptions underlying theoretical frameworks that guide managerial decisions and organizational practices. In this commentary, we explore the impact of the... View Details
- 2020
- Working Paper
Nonprofit Boards: It Is time to Lift Your Gaze and See the System
By: Shamal Dass, Kristy Muir and V. Kasturi Rangan
Nonprofits the world over have faced significant crises in 2020, leaving them and their constituents in precarious positions. Responses to these crises have demonstrated incredible agility. However, they have also demonstrated that the first two levels of governance... View Details
- September 2020
- Case
&pizza: Leading an ‘Employee-First’ Company During a Period of Societal Challenges
By: Francesca Gino and Jeffrey Huizinga
&Pizza is a pizza chain that in the spring of 2020 finds its business completely up-ended by the COVID-19 crisis and shut-down. Many companies in the restaurant and hospitality sector responded to the crisis by shutting down their operations and laying off employees.... View Details
- September 2, 2020
- Article
What Really Prevents Companies from Thriving in a Recession
By: Ranjay Gulati and Mark Wiedman
Even in the best of times, many companies fail to fund and staff new opportunities. As decades of research have shown, leaders fear threats to their status and power and so become attached to existing businesses and budgets, regarding them as entitlements and as a... View Details
- July 2020
- Case
Steve Kerr: Coaching the Golden State Warriors to Joy, Compassion, Competition, and Mindfulness
By: Francesca Gino and Jeffrey Huizinga
Steve Kerr, coach of the 3-time NBA champion Golden State Warriors, reflects on his values-driven leadership style in the wake of a challenging season. View Details
Keywords: Coaching; Values; Basketball; Agility; Leadership; Values and Beliefs; Diversity; Leadership Style; Sports
- June 2020
- Case
Agile Consumer Product Innovation with Alibaba's Tmall Innovation Center
By: William R. Kerr, Daniel O'Connor and James Palano
Consumer products companies were beset by changes on all sides during the 2010s. Customers were increasingly turning to ecommerce platforms rather than shopping in-store. Meanwhile, nimble, digitally-savvy competitors were gaining market share by capitalizing on the... View Details
- June 2020
- Teaching Note
Catalant's Operating System for the Future of Work
By: Christopher Stanton, William R. Kerr, James Palano and Kendall Smith
This case touches on the topics of project-based work, agile methodology, and skill and talent management through Catalant's evolution as a company. Catalant’s journey to becoming a software platform and talent marketplace provides context for students to explore new... View Details
- 2020
- Other Unpublished Work
An Operating Model for the Next Normal: Lessons from Agile Organizations in the Crisis
By: Christopher Handscomb, Deepak Mahadevan, Lars Schor, Marcus Sieberer, Euvin Naidoo and Suraj Srinivasan
Companies with agile practices embedded in their operating models have managed the impact of the COVID-19 crisis better than their peers. Here’s what helped them cope. View Details
- 2020
- Working Paper
Iterative Coordination and Innovation
By: Sourobh Ghosh and Andy Wu
Agile management practices from the software industry continue to transform the way organizations innovate across industries, yet they remain understudied in the organizations literature. We investigate the widespread Agile practice of iterative coordination: frequent... View Details
- April 2020 (Revised October 2020)
- Case
Unilever's Response to the Future of Work
By: William R. Kerr, Emilie Billaud and Mette Fuglsang Hjortshoej
In February 2020, Nick Dalton, executive vice president HR business transformation at Unilever, reflected on the changing nature of work marked by rapid advances in artificial intelligence, machine learning, and automation. Launched in 2016, Unilever’s Future of Work... View Details
- February 2020 (Revised August 2020)
- Case
Catalant's Operating System for the Future of Work
By: Christopher Stanton, William R. Kerr, James Palano and Kendall Smith
This case touches on the topics of project-based work, agile methodology, and skill and talent management through Catalant's evolution as a company. Catalant’s journey to becoming a software platform and talent marketplace provides context for students to explore new... View Details
- November 2019
- Case
The Genesis Lab at Novartis
By: Amy C. Edmondson, Ranjay Gulati, Patrick J. Healy and Kerry Herman
Novartis' Genesis Labs program, launched in 2016 as part of Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research (NIBR), hosted pitch competitions where teams of NIBR scientists proposed ideas to explore that aimed to revolutionize drug discovery. The goal was to break down... View Details
- October 2019
- Case
Agility Africa
By: Juan Alcacer, Caroline M. Elkins and Esel Çekin
This case illustrates the challenge and opportunities that firms face when developing and executing new business models in high-risk, low-infrastructure, low-trust countries. It features a global logistics group, Agility, that aimed to become the leader in supplying... View Details
- September 2019
- Case
Netflix: A Creative Approach to Culture and Agility
By: Ranjay Gulati, Allison Ciechanover and Jeff Huizinga
By 2018, Netflix had been credited for revolutionizing how viewers consumed entertainment—shifting from ad-fueled linear network programming to a highly personalized, on-demand, all-you-can-consume, ad-free model. The company was riding a long wave of revenue and... View Details
Keywords: Digital Technologies; Streaming; Video On Demand; International Expansion; Leadership; Information Technology; Entrepreneurship; Innovation and Management; Innovation Strategy; Leadership Style; Management Style; Organizational Culture; Entertainment; Media; Change Management; Expansion; Technology Industry; United States
- September 2019
- Case
Teaming Up to Win the Rail Deal at GE (A)
By: Amy Edmondson, Ranjay Gulati and Rachna Tahilyani
In 2012, Nalin Jain, then head of GE aviation for South Asia, was given the added responsibility for GE’s transportation business in India, including bidding for a $2.5 billion contract to manufacture, service and maintain 1,000 diesel locomotives for state owned... View Details
- June 2019 (Revised February 2020)
- Case
Eric Hawkins Leading Agile Teams @ Digitally-Born AppFolio (A)
By: Tsedal Neeley, Paul Leonardi and Michael Norris
Eric Hawkins, director of engineering at AppFolio—a digital technology firm that offered cloud-based business software to small and medium sized companies—was shocked by an unusual request from his senior leadership team. Could Hawkins and one of his agile teams build... View Details