Nitin Nohria

Nitin Nohria

George Fisher Baker Jr. Professor of Business Administration
Harvard University Distinguished Service Professor

George Fisher Baker Jr. Professor of Business Administration
Harvard University Distinguished Service Professor

+1 (617) 495-6653
 
Nitin Nohria
Contact Information
(617) 495-6653
Publications Research Summary Awards & Honors
Advancing Leadership: Research and Teaching
Despite the fact that most business schools' mission statement proclaim their commitment to developing leaders who can contribute in a meaningful way to the betterment of their organizations and society, research and teaching on leadership remains a fragmented and often marginal enterprise in most schools. This project is designed to stimulate research on leadership that is rigorous and relevant--advancing theory, teaching, and practice.  It aims to mobilize a community of scholars and educators who are committed to advancing that state of research and teaching on leadership.
A Hippocratic Oath for Management

The conduct of doctors is guided by the Hippocratic Oath, which provides a normative framework that shapes their identity and orientation towards society.  In light of the diminished public trust in business managers, is it time for management to embrace its own hippocratic oath, that would spell out a common understanding of their role in society and the conduct expected of them?  Would such an oath be useful?  What would be the content of such an oath? How would it get institutionalized (become accepted and taken for granted)?  How would it be enforced?  These are the questions that animate this line of research.

Rakesh Khurana and I have been writing about making management a profession and the importance of such an oath. HBS students have now taken the lead in this area. See the oath they have formulated and its signatories here. Read about it in Wikipedia, too!

Leadership in Context
What can we learn from the great business leaders of the 20th century? To answer this question, we have assembled a unique database of 1000 American business leaders, each of whom has left an important legacy. Some of the initial insights we are gleaning from this database is that there is no single characteristic that defines great business leaders. There are many paths to success. We also find that leadership is context-sensitive; to be an effective leader in one era may be quite different from being an effective leader in another. This leads us to conclude that leaders need to have contextual intelligence--they must be able to sense changing contextual circumstances and the business opportunities and challenges they present.
Understanding Human Nature
Recent advances in biological sciences provide great insights into the workings of the human brain and thereby into human nature. Drawing upon this research, my colleague Paul Lawrence and I propose a neo-Darwinian theory of human motivation based on four basic human drives that stem from our common evolutionary heritage as a species. These drives are: D1: the drive to Acquire; D2: the drive to Bond; D3: the drive to Comprehend or make sense of the world; and D4: the drive to Defend. We are now trying to test this theory through experimental and survey research. We are also searching for ways to test the theory more directly using the latest brain imaging technology..
What Really Works: Fundamental Drivers of Corporate Performance
Based on a systematic examination of over 200 management practices that have been hypothesized to influence corporate performance, we identify eight management practices that appear to be the most robust drivers of long term corporate success. We are now trying to test if these fundamental drivers are recognized by investment analysts and if they can prospectively help us better predict future corporate performance.
Globalization & Corporate Transformation in India
Political and economic reforms in India, which started in 1992, have led to a dramatic transformation of Indian companies. The first decade of this transformation focused on improving operational efficiency to rival world class competitors. Having proved to themselves that they can survive in a globally competitive arena, Indian companies are looking to the future with a new optimism. Their goals are now to unleash the latent demand in the Indian market (both in the burgeoning middle class and the huge pool at the bottom of the pyramid). Equally, Indian firms are looking to grow abroad, as the wave of recent global acquisitions attests. This research project aims to understand this new phase of globalization and corporate transformation in India
Globalization of Human Capital
One of the most significant dimensions of the current wave of globalization is the globalization of human capital. Whether it is low cost, skilled manufacturing workers in China, software and customer service professionals in India, or highly skilled employees in Eastern Europe, companies now have the ability to access new pools of human capital across the globe that can have a profound influence on their strategy and structure. The availability of a global pool of human capital also presents new challenges on how firms should organize themselves to take advantage of this opportunity. This research project aims to examine the evolving human capital strategies of firms from different parts of the world to study how they are responding to this important dimension of globalization.  One aspect we are especially interested in studying is the mobility of talent across national boundaries within a company and the circumstances in which such mobility works more or less well.

Nitin Nohria served as the tenth dean of Harvard Business School from 2010-2020. He previously served as co-chair of the Leadership Initiative, Senior Associate Dean of Faculty Development, and Head of the Organizational Behavior unit.

As Dean, building on input from faculty, students, staff, and alumni, he identified five priorities for Harvard Business School:  innovation in the School's educational programs; intellectual ambition to advance ideas with impact in practice; continued internationalization, through building a global intellectual footprint; creating a culture of inclusion, where every member of the community could  do their best work in support of the School's mission; and fostering a culture of integration within HBS and across Harvard University.  Activities undertaken in support of these priorities included:

• A year-long course in the Required Curriculum of the MBA Program, Field Immersion Experiences for Leadership Development (FIELD), that provides students with intensive, immersive, small-group opportunities to develop the knowing, doing, and being of leadership.
• The U.S. Competitiveness Project, a multi-faculty research-led effort to understand and improve the competitiveness of the United States—that is, the ability of firms operating in the U.S. to compete successfully in the global economy while supporting high and rising living standards for Americans.
• The launch of the Harvard Innovation Lab, an initiative to foster team-based and entrepreneurial activities and deepen interactions among Harvard students, faculty, entrepreneurs, and members of the Allston and Greater Boston community; the i-lab ecosystem now includes the alumni Launch Lab X and the Pagliuca Harvard Life Lab.

• Harvard Business School Online, the School's digital platform—encompassing CORe, courses, and the Live Online Classroom—that brings the dynamism of the HBS classroom to online learning.

Nohria's intellectual interests center on human motivation, leadership, corporate transformation and accountability, and sustainable economic and human performance.  He is co-author or co-editor of 16 books.  The most recent, Handbook of Leadership Theory and Practice, is a compendium dedicated to advancing research on leadership based on a colloquium he organized during HBS’s centennial celebrations.  Nohria is also the author of over 50 journal articles, book chapters, cases, working papers, and notes.  He sits on the board of directors of Bridgespan and on the board of trustees of Massachusetts General Hospital.  In addition, he serves as an advisor to BDT Capital Partners, Piramal Enterprises, and Tata Sons, on the advisory board of Akshaya Patra and ShopX, and as a strategic advisor to Focusing Capital on the Long Term Global (FCLTGlobal).  He has been interviewed by ABC, CNN, and NPR; written for Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, Washington Post, Financial Times, and Boston Globe; and cited in Business Week, Economist, Financial Times, Fortune, New York Times, and Wall Street Journal.

Prior to joining the Harvard Business School faculty in July 1988, Nohria received his Ph.D. in Management from the Sloan School of Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a B. Tech. in Chemical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay (which honored him as a Distinguished Alumnus in 2007).  He was a visiting faculty member at the London Business School in 1996.

He and his wife live in the Boston area and have two daughters.

Books
Journal Articles
Book Chapters
  • Snook, Scott, Nitin Nohria, and Rakesh Khurana. "Teaching Leadership: Advancing the Field." Chap. 1 in The Handbook for Teaching Leadership: Knowing, Doing, and Being, edited by Scott Snook, Nitin Nohria, and Rakesh Khurana. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 2011. View Details
  • Wasserman, Noam, Nitin Nohria, and Bharat Anand. "When Does Leadership Matter? A Contingent Opportunities View of CEO Leadership." Chap. 2 in Handbook of Leadership Theory and Practice, edited by Nitin Nohria and Rakesh Khurana. Harvard Business Press, 2010. View Details
  • Porter, Michael E., and Nitin Nohria. "What Is Leadership: The CEO's Role in Large, Complex Organizations." Chap. 16 in Handbook of Leadership Theory and Practice, edited by Nitin Nohria and Rakesh Khurana. Harvard Business Press, 2010. View Details
  • Khurana, Rakesh, and Nitin Nohria. "Advancing Leadership Theory and Practice." Chap. 1 in Handbook of Leadership Theory and Practice, edited by Nitin Nohria and Rakesh Khurana. Harvard Business Press, 2010. View Details
  • Khurana, Rakesh, Nitin Nohria, and Daniel Penrice. "Management as a Profession." Chap. 3 in Restoring Trust in American Business, edited by Jay W. Lorsch, A. Zelleke, and Leslie Berlowitz. Cambridge: American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 2005. View Details
  • Hansen, Morten T., Nitin Nohria, and Thomas Tierney. "What's Your Strategy for Managing Knowledge?" In Harvard Business Review on Organizational Learning. Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 2001. View Details
  • Higgins, M. C., and N. Nohria. "The Sidekick Effect: Mentoring Relationships and the Development of Social Capital." In Corporate Social Capital and Liability, edited by S. Gabbay and R. Leenders. Boston: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1999. View Details
  • Sull, D., and N. Nohria. "Managing the Hidden Cost of Distrust in Downsizing." In Downsizing, edited by A. Raj Joshi and Greg Nelson. Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 1996. View Details
  • Nohria, N., and R. Gulati. "Firms and Their Environments." In Handbook of Economic Sociology, edited by N. Smelser and R. Swedberg. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1994. View Details
  • Nohria, N., and J. D. Berkley. "The Virtual Organization: Bureaucracy, Technology, and the Implosion of Control." In The Post-Bureaucratic Organization: New Perspectives on Organizational Change, edited by Anne Donnellon and Charles C Heckscher. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 1994. View Details
  • Nohria, N. "Information and Search in the Creation of New Ventures: The Case of the 128 Venture Group." In Networks and Organizations: Structure, Form and Action, edited by N. Nohria and R. C. Eccles. Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 1992. View Details
  • Nohria, N. "Is a Network Perspective a Useful Way of Studying Organizations?" In Networks and Organizations: Structure, Form and Action, edited by N. Nohria and R. C. Eccles. Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 1992. View Details
  • Nohria, N., and R. G. Eccles. "Face-to-Face: Making Network Organizations Work." In Networks and Organizations: Structure, Form and Action, edited by N. Nohria and R. C. Eccles. Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 1992. View Details
  • Lessard, D., and N. Nohria. "Rediscovering Functions in the MNC: The Role of Expertise in Firms' Response to Shifting Exchange Rates." In Managing the Global Firm, edited by Christopher A. Bartlett, Y. Doz, and G. Hedlund. London: Routledge, 1990. View Details
Working Papers
  • Piskorski, Mikolaj Jan, and Nitin Nohria. "Structural Closure and Exposure: Market Reactions to Announcements of Acquisitions and Divestitures." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 08-087, April 2008. View Details
  • Kanter, Rosabeth Moss, Rakesh Khurana, and Nitin Nohria. "Moving Higher Education to the Next Stage: A New Set of Societal Challenges, a New Stage of Life, and a Call to Action for Universities." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 06-021, November 2005. View Details
  • Wasserman, Noam, Bharat Anand, and Nitin Nohria. "When Does Leadership Matter? The Contingent Opportunities View of CEO Leadership." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 01-063, January 2001. ((Later published as Ch. 2 in The Handbook of Leadership Theory and Practice, 2010.)) View Details
  • Nohria, Nitin, and Rakesh Khurana. "The Effects of CEO Turnover in Large Industrial Corporations: A Study of the Fortune 200 From 1978 - 1993 (Revised)." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 96-056, December 1997. View Details
  • Nohria, Nitin. "From the M-form to the N-form: Taking Stock of Changes in the Large Industrial Corporation." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 96-054, October 1996. View Details
  • Nohria, Nitin, and Geoffrey Love. "Adaptive or Disruptive: When Does Downsizing Pay in Large Industrial Corporations?" Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 96-057, April 1996. View Details
  • Nohria, Nitin, and Sandy E. Green. "Efficiency and Legitimacy: The Adoption of TQM by Large Industrial Corporations." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 96-055, April 1996. View Details
  • Nohria, Nitin, and Mikolaj Jan Piskorski. "Focus and Diversification: The Effects of Changes in the Scope of Large Industrial Corporations." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 96-058, April 1996. View Details
  • Nohria, Nitin, and James D. Berkley. "From Structure to Structuring: A Pragmatic Perspective on Organizational Design." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 96-053, April 1996. View Details
  • Moldoveanu, Michael C., Nitin Nohria, and Howard H. Stevenson. "The Path-Dependent Evolution of Organizations." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 96-005, August 1995. View Details
Cases and Teaching Materials
Presentations
  • Khanna, T., R. Gulati, and N. Nohria. "Alliances as Learning Races." Paper presented at the Academy of Management Annual Meeting, January 01, 1994. View Details
  • Nohria, Nitin, and R. Gulati. "Mutually Assured Alliances." Academy of Management, January 1, 1992. View Details
Other Publications and Materials
Editorials
Research Summary
Advancing Leadership: Research and Teaching
Despite the fact that most business schools' mission statement proclaim their commitment to developing leaders who can contribute in a meaningful way to the betterment of their organizations and society, research and teaching on leadership remains a fragmented and often marginal enterprise in most schools. This project is designed to stimulate research on leadership that is rigorous and relevant--advancing theory, teaching, and practice.  It aims to mobilize a community of scholars and educators who are committed to advancing that state of research and teaching on leadership.
A Hippocratic Oath for Management

The conduct of doctors is guided by the Hippocratic Oath, which provides a normative framework that shapes their identity and orientation towards society.  In light of the diminished public trust in business managers, is it time for management to embrace its own hippocratic oath, that would spell out a common understanding of their role in society and the conduct expected of them?  Would such an oath be useful?  What would be the content of such an oath? How would it get institutionalized (become accepted and taken for granted)?  How would it be enforced?  These are the questions that animate this line of research.

Rakesh Khurana and I have been writing about making management a profession and the importance of such an oath. HBS students have now taken the lead in this area. See the oath they have formulated and its signatories here. Read about it in Wikipedia, too!

Leadership in Context
What can we learn from the great business leaders of the 20th century? To answer this question, we have assembled a unique database of 1000 American business leaders, each of whom has left an important legacy. Some of the initial insights we are gleaning from this database is that there is no single characteristic that defines great business leaders. There are many paths to success. We also find that leadership is context-sensitive; to be an effective leader in one era may be quite different from being an effective leader in another. This leads us to conclude that leaders need to have contextual intelligence--they must be able to sense changing contextual circumstances and the business opportunities and challenges they present.
Understanding Human Nature
Recent advances in biological sciences provide great insights into the workings of the human brain and thereby into human nature. Drawing upon this research, my colleague Paul Lawrence and I propose a neo-Darwinian theory of human motivation based on four basic human drives that stem from our common evolutionary heritage as a species. These drives are: D1: the drive to Acquire; D2: the drive to Bond; D3: the drive to Comprehend or make sense of the world; and D4: the drive to Defend. We are now trying to test this theory through experimental and survey research. We are also searching for ways to test the theory more directly using the latest brain imaging technology..
What Really Works: Fundamental Drivers of Corporate Performance
Based on a systematic examination of over 200 management practices that have been hypothesized to influence corporate performance, we identify eight management practices that appear to be the most robust drivers of long term corporate success. We are now trying to test if these fundamental drivers are recognized by investment analysts and if they can prospectively help us better predict future corporate performance.
Globalization & Corporate Transformation in India
Political and economic reforms in India, which started in 1992, have led to a dramatic transformation of Indian companies. The first decade of this transformation focused on improving operational efficiency to rival world class competitors. Having proved to themselves that they can survive in a globally competitive arena, Indian companies are looking to the future with a new optimism. Their goals are now to unleash the latent demand in the Indian market (both in the burgeoning middle class and the huge pool at the bottom of the pyramid). Equally, Indian firms are looking to grow abroad, as the wave of recent global acquisitions attests. This research project aims to understand this new phase of globalization and corporate transformation in India
Globalization of Human Capital
One of the most significant dimensions of the current wave of globalization is the globalization of human capital. Whether it is low cost, skilled manufacturing workers in China, software and customer service professionals in India, or highly skilled employees in Eastern Europe, companies now have the ability to access new pools of human capital across the globe that can have a profound influence on their strategy and structure. The availability of a global pool of human capital also presents new challenges on how firms should organize themselves to take advantage of this opportunity. This research project aims to examine the evolving human capital strategies of firms from different parts of the world to study how they are responding to this important dimension of globalization.  One aspect we are especially interested in studying is the mobility of talent across national boundaries within a company and the circumstances in which such mobility works more or less well.
Awards & Honors
Winner of the 2018 McKinsey Award for the best article in Harvard Business Review for "How Do CEOs Manage Their Time?" (July–August 2018) with Michael Porter.
Winner of the 2005 PricewaterhouseCoopers Best Article Award for "How to Build Collaborative Advantage" (with Morten T. Hansen, MIT Sloan Management Review, fall 2004).
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