Publications

August 2007 (Revised May 2008)
Case

Rebuilding the New Orleans Public Schools: Turning the Tide? (Abridged)

After Hurricane Katrina, the New Orleans Public School System is faced with rebuilding from the ground up. The challenge is enormous, as is the opportunity to remake the lowest-performing public school system in Louisiana and one of the lowest-performing in the nation.... View Details

Keywords: Change Management; Transformation; Entrepreneurship; Business and Community Relations; Business and Government Relations; Natural Disasters; Conflict and Resolution; Education Industry; New Orleans

February 2012 (Revised August 2014)
Case

Poles Apart on PZU (A)

By: Francesca Gino, Vincent Dessain, Karol Misztal and Michael Khayyat

In October 2008, Andrzej Klesyk, CEO of Poland's largest insurer PZU, reflected on possible ways of resolving a decade-long cross-border shareholder conflict at his company. Owned 55% by the Polish State Treasury and 33% by the Dutch insurer Eureko as of October 2008,... View Details

Keywords: Negotiation; Trust; Conflict and Resolution; Business and Shareholder Relations; Poland

Article

Drive Innovation with Better Decision-Making

By: Linda A. Hill, Emily Tedards and Taran Swan

Despite their embrace of agile methods, many firms striving to innovate are struggling to produce breakthrough ideas. A key culprit, according to the authors, is an outdated, inefficient approach to decision-making. Today’s discovery-driven innovation processes involve... View Details

Keywords: Innovation and Invention; Decision Making; Decision Choices and Conditions; Organizational Change and Adaptation

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June 2008
Case

Treadway Tire Company: Job Dissatisfaction and High Turnover at the Lima Plant

By: C. Wickham Skinner and Heather Beckham

Treadway Tire's plant in Lima, Ohio must confront strong job dissatisfaction and high turnover among its line foremen. The foremen are caught in the middle of an adversarial relationship between the union and management, and they must cope with the needs and interests... View Details

Keywords: Superior ＆ Subordinate; Labor Relations; Work Force Management; Human Resource Management; Hiring; Job Satisfaction; Management; Leadership; Retention; Rank and Position; Organizational Culture; Change Management; Selection and Staffing; Satisfaction; Personal Development and Career; Labor and Management Relations; Manufacturing Industry; Auto Industry; Ohio

October 2008 (Revised September 2009)
Case

Consumer Lending in Japan: Citi CFJ (A)

By: J. Gunnar Trumbull and Akiko Kanno

Despite a tradition of high household savings, Japan has supported a dynamic and technically sophisticated consumer-lending sector. The high profitability of the sector has periodically attracted interest from domestic banks as well as international investors. Most... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Financing and Loans; Foreign Direct Investment; Personal Finance; Courts and Trials; Business and Government Relations; Banking Industry; Japan

January 1987 (Revised May 1989)
Case

Merck-Banyu

By: Timothy A. Luehrman

Merck acquired control of Banyu in 1983. This was the first acquisition by outsiders of a major publicly traded Japanese company. This case is focused on valuing strategic investments in an environment of global competition. The case is complex because of the... View Details

Keywords: Acquisition; Investment; Globalization; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Industry Structures; Negotiation Deal; Public Ownership; Competition; Valuation; Japan

Tomomichi Amano is an Assistant Professor of Business Administration in the Marketing Unit at HBS. He teaches the Marketing course in the MBA required curriculum.

Professor Amano draws on economic theories to understand novel mechanisms by which new... View Details

2007
Book

When Professionals Have to Lead: A New Model for High Performance

By: Thomas J. DeLong, John J. Gabarro and Robert Lees

For too long, professional services firms (PSFs) have relied on the "producer-manager" model, which works well in uncomplicated business environments. However, today's managing directors must balance conflicting roles, more demanding clients, tougher competitors, and... View Details

Keywords: Leadership; Management Practices and Processes; Service Operations; Performance Effectiveness; Strategy

November 2005 (Revised July 2009)
Case

Trolltech (Norway) - Will Cenapio Steal Christmas?

Describes the creation of an open source software venture in Norway, Australia, and the United States that lands a strategic OEM deal with a leading Japanese manufacturer of embedded devices (PDAs in this instance). Details the evolution of the two companies'... View Details

Keywords: Applications and Software; Conflict and Resolution; Strategy; Partners and Partnerships; Open Source Distribution; Information Infrastructure; Entrepreneurship; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Information Technology Industry; Australia; Japan; Norway; United States

September 2012 (Revised December 2013)
Case

Roxbury Technology Corporation

By: Richard S. Ruback and Royce Yudkoff

Roxbury Technology is a Boston-based re-manufacturer of ink and toner cartridges. In early 2012 RTC was re-evaluating its approach to the company's two most important goals: reducing customer concentration and increasing profitability. RTC's largest customer accounted... View Details

Keywords: Social Enterprise; Social Entrepreneurship; Financial Management; Customers; Diversification; Green Technology Industry; Manufacturing Industry; Boston

Randolph B. (Randy) Cohen is the MBA Class of 1975 Senior Lecturer of Entrepreneurial Management in the Finance Unit at Harvard Business School. Cohen’s main research focus has been the identification of top investment managers and the prediction of manager... View Details

Keywords: financial services; investment banking industry

February 2012 (Revised October 2012)
Case

Caijing Magazine (A)

By: Karthik Ramanna and G.A. Donovan

In late 2009, Wang Boming, publisher of Caijing Magazine, widely regarded as China's most independent newsmagazine, gathered his core team for an urgent meeting. His pioneering editor Hu Shuli, described for her fiercely independent journalism as "the most dangerous... View Details

Keywords: Journals and Magazines; Publishing Industry; China

Web

Advice on Switching Careers While at HBS - MBA

Blog Blog MBA Voices Filter Results Arrow Down Arrow Up Read posts from Author Alumni Author Career and Professional Development Staff Author HBS Community Author HBS Faculty Author MBA Admissions Author MBA Students Topics Topics 1st Year (RC) 2+2 Program 2nd Year... View Details

January 1994 (Revised July 1994)
Case

Dell Computer Corporation

By: Peter Tufano

Tina Chen, chief investment officer of a large insurance company, hears accusations by a Kidder Peabody equity research analyst that Dell Computer Corp. might be improperly accounting for what he suspects are large foreign exchange losses resulting from speculation.... View Details

Keywords: International Accounting; Financial Instruments; Ethics; Financial Statements; Computer Industry; United States