Publications

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03 Jun 2014
First Look

First Look: June 3

quite limited. The best path forward involves extensive experimentation and careful evaluation. Publisher's link: http://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/distributed/I/bo18508109.html August 2013 Advances in Strategic Management The... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

November 2, 2015
Article

The Best Ways to Hire Salespeople

By: Frank V. Cespedes and Daniel Weinfurter

Companies typically spend more on hiring in sales than they do anywhere else in the firm. Average annual turnover in sales is 25% to 30%, while direct replacement costs for a telesales employee ranges from $75,000 to $90,000 and other sales positions cost as much as... View Details

Keywords: Selection and Staffing; Salesforce Management; Retention

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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

Educators

June 2004
Article

Market Liquidity as a Sentiment Indicator

By: Malcolm Baker and Jeremy Stein

We build a model that helps to explain why increases in liquidity-such as lower bid-ask spreads, a lower price impact of trade, or higher turnover-predict lower subsequent returns in both firm-level and aggregate data. The model features a class of irrational... View Details

Keywords: Markets; Financial Liquidity; Price; Trade; Sales; Equity; Information; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Accounting Industry

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April 2021 (Revised April 2021)
Teaching Plan

Nehemiah Mfg. Co.: Providing a Second Chance

By: Brian Trelstad and John Masko

Teaching Plan for HBS Case No. 320-008. In 2009, Dan Meyer and Richard Palmer, two veterans of the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) industry, founded Nehemiah Manufacturing to build FMCG brands while providing jobs to Cincinnati, Ohio’s beleaguered urban core. Two... View Details

Keywords: Social Entrepreneurship; Retention; Selection and Staffing; Employment; Human Capital; Growth Management; Brands and Branding; Social Marketing; Mission and Purpose; Prejudice and Bias; City; Urban Scope; Consumer Products Industry; Manufacturing Industry; Ohio; United States

February 1990 (Revised July 1990)
Case

Internal Revenue Service: Automated Collection System

By: Nitin Nohria

Describes how the IRS's collection operations changed from a largely manual system (COF) to an automated system (ACS). A central aspect of ACS was the electronic scheduling and maintaining of work. While with ACS the IRS accomplished significant improvements in the... View Details

Keywords: Sovereign Finance; Revenue; Information Technology; Taxation; Change Management; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Design; Human Resources; Public Administration Industry; United States

Educators

August 2013 (Revised December 2014)
Case

Taking Dell Private

By: David J. Collis, David B. Yoffie and Matthew Shaffer

In July 2012, Michael Dell, CEO and founder of Dell, Inc., met with a representative of Silver Lake Partners to explore taking his company private. The company, which he had founded in his dorm room as a college freshman and which had made him the youngest Fortune 500... View Details

Keywords: Strategy; Going Private; The PC Market; Market For Corporate Control; Corporate Strategy; Leveraged Buyouts; Change Management; Private Equity; Market Entry and Exit; Private Ownership; Information Infrastructure; Applications and Software; Internet and the Web; Computer Industry; Technology Industry; United States

Educators

December 2006 (Revised September 2007)
Case

Ponsse: From Finland to Global

By: David E. Bell and Mary L. Shelman

Finland-based Ponsse Oyj, with 2005 turnover of $250 million, is the only dedicated forest equipment company of size that remained in a consolidating industry. Competitors included global giants such as John Deere and Komatsu. Since his arrival at Ponsse in 2004, CEO... View Details

Keywords: Globalized Firms and Management; Globalized Markets and Industries; Growth and Development Strategy; Performance Capacity; Expansion; Forest Products Industry; Forestry Industry; Russia; Finland; United States; Brazil

2010
Working Paper

Corporate Governance When Founders Are Directors

By: Feng Li and Suraj Srinivasan

We examine CEO compensation, CEO retention policies, and M&A decisions in firms where founders serve as a director with a non-founder CEO (founder-director firms). We find that founder-director firms offer a different mix of incentives to their CEOs than other firms.... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Governing and Advisory Boards; Executive Compensation; Retention; Managerial Roles; United States

SSRN

2017
Article

Affective, Cognitive and Behavioral Trajectories of Change Recipients in Global Organizations

By: B. S. Reiche, T. B. Neeley and N. Overmeyer

Research rarely addresses how change recipients respond to radical change across affective, cognitive, and behavioral dimensions over time. We examined a radical change in a recently acquired subsidiary of a U.S.-based global organization over a two-year period. With... View Details

Keywords: Change; Spoken Communication; Globalized Firms and Management; Behavior; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues

July 2016
Article

Under New Management: Equity Issues and the Attribution of Past Returns

By: Malcolm Baker and Yuhai Xuan

There is a strong link between measures of stock market performance, such as changes in Tobin's Q or past stock returns, and equity issues. Typically, this performance is thought to be a characteristic of the firm, not the CEO who happens to run the firm. In contrast... View Details

Keywords: Performance; Management Teams; Equity

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28 Apr 2015
First Look

First Look: April 28

principles, and skills of three of the most successful and influential figures in business-Bill Gates, Andy Grove, and Steve Jobs-offering lessons for all managers and entrepreneurs on leadership, strategy, and execution. In less than a... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

19 Aug 2021
Op-Ed

Don't Ignore Your Employees' Misery—TAKE Control

profitability in many instances. So why are so many employers pushing so forcefully for all employees to return to the office, even as employee turnover across industries is increasing? It’s a pattern not isolated to the corporate world.... View Details

Keywords: by Hise O. Gibson and MaShon Wilson

September 2011
Article

What Drives Sell-Side Analyst Compensation at High-Status Investment Banks?

By: Boris Groysberg, Paul M. Healy and David A. Maber

We use proprietary data from a major investment bank to investigate factors associated with analysts' annual compensation. We find compensation to be positively related to "All-Star" recognition, investment-banking contributions, the size of analysts' portfolios, and... View Details

Keywords: Investment Banking; Research; Compensation and Benefits; Investment Portfolio; Forecasting and Prediction; Resource Allocation; Status and Position; Business Earnings; Quality; Revenue; Stocks; Voting

27 Feb 2018
First Look

First Look at New Research and Ideas, February 27, 2018

Review Firm Turnover and the Return of Racial Establishment Segregation By: Ferguson, John-Paul, and Rembrand Koning Abstract—Racial segregation between American workplaces is greater today than it was a generation ago. This increase has... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

October 2013
Article

Consulting on the Cusp of Disruption

By: Clayton M. Christensen, Dina Wang and Derek C. M. van Bever

Consulting fundamental business model has not changed in more than 100 years: very smart outsiders go into organizations for a finite period of time and recommend solutions for the most difficult problems confronting their clients. But at traditional... View Details

Keywords: Disruptive Innovation; Consulting Industry

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11 May 2009
Research & Ideas

The IT Leader’s Hero Quest

careers at the Harvard Business School, we discovered that the turnover of CIOs ran at around 30 to 40 percent per year. As a result of our research, we described the driving cause as the rapid change of IT through the operation of... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

January 2009
Supplement

KPMG (B): Risk and Reform

By: Robert G. Eccles and Eliot Sherman

Under the leadership of Tim Flynn, Chairman and CEO of KPMG, the firm made a number of changes in compensation, governance, and culture in order to address the underlying reasons for actions that occurred prior to him becoming CEO that led to the accounting giant... View Details

Keywords: Communication Strategy; Ethics; Corporate Governance; Governance Compliance; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Governing and Advisory Boards; Compensation and Benefits; Employee Relationship Management; Organizational Change and Adaptation