Publications

16 Jan 2019
Research & Ideas

What Football Firings Teach Managers About Staying Relevant

unique to sports, of course. Based on our surveys with executives from a wide range of fields, the rate at which managers lose relevance has increased dramatically, even over just the last decade. The world is changing faster than ever... View Details

Keywords: by Boris Groysberg, Evan M.S. Hecht, and Abhijit Naik; Sports

06 Aug 2020
Research & Ideas

Who Will Give You the Best Professional Guidance?

growth. Being self-aware and asking for help is a super power, and no time is too soon to get started. About the Author Julia B. Austin is an Executive Fellow at Harvard Business School. [Image: FatCamera] Other stories by Julia Austin Making the Right Technical Hire... View Details

Keywords: by Julia B. Austin

November 2021 (Revised March 2022)
Case

Kwame Spearman at Tattered Cover: Reinventing Brick-and-Mortar Retail

By: Ryan Raffaelli and Kerry Herman

The case spotlights Kwame Spearman’s career-shifting decision to leave a NYC-based consulting job to return to his hometown of Denver, Colorado, and take over an iconic independent bookstore, The Tattered Cover. The case lays out ways Spearman envisions a new approach... View Details

Keywords: Retail; Leadership; Leading Change; Competitive Strategy; Personal Development and Career; Publishing Industry; Retail Industry; United States

May 24, 2016
Article

Build a Culture of Health

By: John A. Quelch

Every company, large and small, has an impact on health. It does so in four ways: first, through the healthfulness and safety of the products and services it sells; second, through its attention to employee health and well-being in its work practices and benefits;... View Details

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2016
Blog

Building A Culture of Health - John A. Quelch: Creating A Culture of Health

By: John A. Quelch

All American companies are in the health business whether they like it or not. The private sector directly pays for one-fifth of the whopping 17.5% of GDP spent on healthcare in the United States. Rather than viewing health merely as an insurance expense to be... View Details

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October 1998
Case

CRA Managed Care, Inc. (C)

By: Myra M. Hart and Susan Harmeling

Chronicles an entrepreneur's transition from chairman/CEO of a large privately held company, to chairman of a public company, to board member, to president of several major nonprofit boards, to founder of a new nonprofit for women business owners and founder of a new... View Details

Keywords: Transition; Leadership; Nonprofit Organizations; Governing and Advisory Boards; Entrepreneurship; Personal Development and Career; Gender; Management Skills; United States

May 2024
Teaching Note

Making Progress at Progress Software (A) and (B)

By: Katherine Baldiga Coffman, Hannah Riley Bowles, Emma Ronzetti and Alexis Lefort

Teaching Note for HBS Case Nos. 924-010 and 924-011. View Details

Keywords: Leading Change; Organizational Culture; Performance Evaluation; Prejudice and Bias; Employee Relationship Management; Personal Development and Career; Technology Industry

06 Jun 2012
What Do You Think?

Is Something Wrong with the Way We Work?

mobile devices experience "phantom vibration syndrome," when one's pocket buzzes and there's no phone there.) The second book, Sleeping With Your Smartphone: How to Break the 24/7 Habit and Change the Way You Work, by Harvard... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett; Consulting

02 Dec 2015
What Do You Think?

What Will It Take to Achieve Gender Equality in Leadership?

make it happen? There are several kinds of responses to this question. The first is the “do it yourself” response, characterized by Sheryl Sandberg’s now-famous argument in her book, Lean In. Among other things, she challenges women to View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

June 2020 (Revised September 2020)
Case

Shellye Archambeau: Becoming a CEO (A)

By: Tsedal Neeley and John Masko

With the economy in a freefall, MetricStream is losing customers, hemorrhaging cash and struggling to make payroll. Several board members are threatening to quit. Others are pressing to sell the company even at dismally low valuations. It’s 2008 and lightning has... View Details

Keywords: Leadership; Race; Gender; Leadership Style; Risk and Uncertainty; Change; Prejudice and Bias; Decision Making; Personal Development and Career; Technology Industry; California

10 Mar 2011
What Do You Think?

To What Degree Does the Job Make the Person?

retired." This led Illysa to comment, "One more reason we must choose not only our careers but our work places carefully: who do we want to become?" Heidi Olson wondered "if the change in... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

01 May 2006
Research & Ideas

What Companies Lose from Forced Disclosure

additional career risk from the disclosure. Disclosures inform the labor market about ability, but management may be able to do relatively little to change the outcome of those disclosures. For example, a... View Details

Keywords: by Ann Cullen; Financial Services

June 1999
Case

PDQ Manufacturing, Inc.

By: William J. Bruns Jr.

A small manufacturer of car wash facilities has been unable to develop management systems because of rapid growth. Now size dictates the need for such systems because the current personal management style is proving inadequate. View Details

Keywords: Management Practices and Processes; Organizational Design; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Personal Development and Career; Growth Management; Manufacturing Industry

15 Sep 2008
Research & Ideas

The Coming Transformation of Social Enterprise

Jim Austin, picked by Dean John McArthur to lead the new initiative, saw the potential for research, curriculum, and career development around the challenges of social enterprises, including both nonprofit and for-profit organizations.... View Details

Keywords: by Roger Thompson

09 Jun 2014
Research & Ideas

The Manager in Red Sneakers

have a few implications for companies. For one thing, brands should take note that the way in which consumers signal status has changed in the last century, and many people these days applaud original products over mainstream choices.... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Consumer Products; Apparel & Accessories; Fashion

2010
Chapter

Identity-Based Leader Development

By: Scott Snook, Herminia Ibarra and Laura Ramo

Despite the wealth of managerial and scholarly attention paid to leadership development, only recently has a new perspective emerged that explicitly links leadership and identity. Research and theorizing on leadership development have yet to specify the processes that... View Details

Keywords: Leadership Development; Identity; Transition; Transformation; Perspective; Managerial Roles; Business Processes; Personal Development and Career

03 Oct 2018
What Do You Think?

How Should Managers Deal with the Challenges of Building an Inclusive Workplace?

column about how best to foster a climate of inclusion in an organization. Dianne Jacobs made the case for inclusion succinctly when she said: “Those that manage diversity and inclusion well tend to manage change well.” MarufSalmon added,... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

January 2021
Teaching Note

Shellye Archambeau: Becoming a CEO

By: Tsedal Neeley

Teaching Note for HBS Nos. 420-071 and 420-073. View Details

Keywords: Leadership; Race; Gender; Leadership Style; Risk and Uncertainty; Change; Prejudice and Bias; Decision Making; Personal Development and Career; Technology Industry; California