Publications

November 1989
Case

NYNEX: An Executive Development Process

By: D. Quinn Mills and G. Bruce Friesen

Keywords: Executive Education; Leadership Development; Telecommunications Industry

June 1995
Course Overview Note

Superior New Product Development Executive Course

By: Dorothy Leonard-Barton and Steven C. Wheelwright

Keywords: Product Development

March–April 2019
Article

The Future of Leadership Development

By: Das Narayandas and Mihnea Moldoveanu

The need for leadership development has never been more urgent. Companies of all sorts realize that to survive in today’s volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous environment, they need different leadership skills and organizational capabilities from those that... View Details

Keywords: Talent Management; Executive Education; Leadership Development; Business Education; Management Skills; Learning; Online Technology

1985
Book

Harvard Business Review: Essentials of Executive Development

By: L. A. Hill

Keywords: Higher Education; Management; Growth and Development

03 Oct 2016
Working Paper Summaries

Executive Development Programs Enter the Digital Vortex: I. Disrupting the Demand Landscape

Keywords: by Mihnea Moldoveanu and Das Narayandas; Education

2018
Working Paper

Executive Development Programs Enter the Digital Matrix: I. Disrupting the Demand Landscape

By: Das Narayandas and Mihnea C. Moldoveanu

Executive development programs have entered a period of disruption catalyzed by the digitalization of content, connectivity, and communication and are driven by renewed demand for high-level executive and managerial skills. Unlike other segments of higher education,... View Details

Keywords: Executive Education; Internet and the Web; Disruption; Management Skills; Leadership Development

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2016
Working Paper

The Skills Gap and the Near-Far Problem in Executive Education and Leadership Development

By: Mihnea Moldoveanu and Das Narayandas

Executive development programs have entered a period of rapid transformation, driven on one side by the proliferation of a new technological, cultural, and economic landscape commonly referred to as “digital disruption” and on the other by a widening gap between the... View Details

Keywords: Information Technology; Executive Education; Disruption; Management Skills

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March 2009 (Revised May 2009)
Background Note

Executing Strategy

By: J. Bruce Harreld

This is a note to introduce the principles for effectively implementing a new strategy. It emphasizes the interdependence of strategy and execution in developing and sustaining superior competitive performance. Primarily based on the notion that strategy should be a... View Details

Keywords: Alignment; Competitive Strategy; Management Teams

Educators

03 Oct 2016
Working Paper Summaries

The Skills Gap and the Near-Far Problem in Executive Education and Leadership Development

Keywords: by Das Narayandas and Mihnea Moldoveanu; Education

Teaching Interest

Executive Education

By: Shawn A. Cole

Shawn Cole regularly teaches executive education. He has taught in the ACCION microfinance in the HBS-ACCION Microfinance Program on Strategic Leadership, View Details

2006
Article

Executive Development for Services: A Report from the Front Lines

By: Roger Hallowell

2022
Working Paper

Passing the Mic: Career and Firm Outcomes of Executive Interactions

By: Wei Cai, Ethan Rouen and Yuan Zou

We exploit a unique feature of conference calls to study one type of interaction among executives—directly inviting colleagues to respond to analysts’ questions. We find that the frequency of initiating interaction is positively associated with an executive’s ability,... View Details

Keywords: Conference Calls; CEO Succession; Executive Interactions; Promotion; Interpersonal Communication; Personal Development and Career; Retention

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Teaching Interest

Strategy Execution

By: Dennis Campbell

This course takes strategy as given and teaches what students need to know to execute and win in highly competitive markets. Using fundamental building blocks based on accountability systems and structures, this course is divided into seven modules:

1.... View Details

Research Summary

Leadership Development

Professor George has completed his research study on leadership development, based on in-person, in-depth interviews with 125 business and non-profit leaders, over half of whom are chief executive officers. They range in age from 23 to 93, with thirty per cent... View Details

August 1996 (Revised July 2008)
Exercise

Network Assessment Exercise: Executive Version

Designed to help executives identify patterns in their approaches to developing networks of relationships. A "network" refers to the set of relationships that help people to advance professionally, get things done, and more generally, develop professionally and... View Details

Keywords: Networks

October 2016 (Revised February 2019)
Module Note

Strategy Execution Module 5: Building a Profit Plan

By: Robert Simons

This module reading describes how to build a profit plan to reflect the strategy of a business in economic terms. After introducing the profit wheel, cash wheel, and ROE wheel, the module illustrates how to use a profit plan to assess the viability of different... View Details

Keywords: Management Control Systems; Implementing Strategy; Execution; Profit Planning; Cash Flow Analysis; Asset Utilization; Return On Equity; Business Planning; Testing Strategy; Analyzing Strategic Alternative; Strategy; Asset Management; Cash Flow; Investment Return; Management Systems; Profit

October 2018
Article

Strategy and the Strategist: How it Matters Who Develops the Strategy

By: Eric J. Van den Steen

This paper addresses primarily two questions. First, when (and why) should a company’s strategy be developed by its CEO versus by some outside analyst or other insider? Second, how does strategy interact with vision (in the sense of a strong belief about the right... View Details

Keywords: Strategy And Leadership; Strategy And Execution; Strategy; Leadership

November 2003 (Revised May 2005)
Case

Beverly Stern: Retail Executive

By: H. Kent Bowen and Alison Berkley Wagonfeld

Beverly Stern has been a successful operating manager in three prominent retail chains: GAP, Pottery Barn, and Williams-Sonoma. Stern's last job at a start-up did not meet her expectations, and she must now decide what to do next. She has an offer to start a new retail... View Details

Keywords: Personal Development and Career; Experience and Expertise; Personal Characteristics; Jobs and Positions; Decisions; Retail Industry