Publications

May 2016 (Revised June 2016)
Case

A Succession as the Engine for Success

By: Jay Lorsch, Emily McTague and Rosa Maria Fite

Francisco J. Riberas sat in his office reflecting on his first summer working at the family business, in 1989. Growing up, Francisco Riberas had learned about the company through conversations with his father, Francisco Riberas Pampliega, over the dinner table and in... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Alignment; Organizational Behavior; Corporate Governance; Family Business; Family-owned Business; Succession; CEO Mentoring; Spain; Family and Family Relationships; Management; Leadership; Auto Industry; Europe; Spain

20 Mar 2022
News

Some Traits for Leadership That Could Equal More Success

July 2014
Teaching Note

Rebecca S. Halstead: Steadfast Leadership

By: Boris Groysberg and Deborah Bell

The case reviews Rebecca Halstead's career history, detailing how, through her personal attributes, skills, experiences, challenges, and organizational practices she developed into a successful leader and commander in the U.S. Army. The teaching note discusses... View Details

Keywords: Strategy And Leadership; Leadership And Managing People; Working Conditions; Groups and Teams; Competitive Strategy; Personal Development and Career; Organizational Culture; Personal Characteristics; Leadership Style; Gender; Power and Influence

February 2015
Case

BlackRock: Diversity as a Driver for Success

By: Boris Groysberg and Katherine Connolly

In July 2014, the Global Executive Committee (GEC) for BlackRock, the world's largest asset manager, held a two-day offsite to discuss the state of talent within the firm. A year prior, in 2013, Chairman and CEO Laurence (Larry) Fink had asked Global Head of HR Jeff... View Details

Keywords: Women And Leadership; Diversity; General Management; Leadership; Change Management; Human Capital; Leading Change; Management Practices and Processes; Organizational Culture; Financial Services Industry; United States

September 2013 (Revised August 2015)
Background Note

Leadership and Teaming

By: Ethan Bernstein

Small differences in the leadership of teams can have large consequences for the success of their efforts. Many initiatives fail not because of a fatal error in judgment or insufficient ideas, knowledge, motivation, or capabilities to deliver a solution. They fail... View Details

Keywords: Teams; Teaming; Leadership And Managing People; Leadership; Team Effectiveness; Team Performance; Team Design; Team Leadership; Teamwork; Team Process; Team Function; Team Launch; 60/30/10 Rule; Team Boundary; Distribution Of Leadership Authority; Self-Managed Teams; Virtual Teams; Unbounded Teams; Acts Of Leadership; Execution Teams; Decision Making Teams; Creativity Teams; Team Size; Task Design; Team Timeline; Team Roles; Team Representation; Diversity; Team Familiarity; Collective Intelligence; Team Stages Of Development; Team Coaching; Performance Pressure; X-Teams; Team Focus; Interaction; Management Teams; Managerial Roles; Management Systems; Management Style; Management Skills; Management Practices and Processes; Organizational Design; Organizational Structure; Performance Effectiveness; Performance Efficiency; Performance Productivity; Groups and Teams; Networks; Social Psychology; Behavior; Conflict and Resolution; Creativity; Social and Collaborative Networks; Satisfaction; Prejudice and Bias; Power and Influence; Personal Characteristics; Familiarity; Cognition and Thinking; Attitudes; Projects; Organizational Culture; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Leadership Development; Leadership Style; Leading Change; Knowledge Use and Leverage; Knowledge Sharing; Collaborative Innovation and Invention; Innovation and Management; Innovation Leadership; Design; Interpersonal Communication; Accommodations Industry; Accounting Industry; Advertising Industry; Aerospace Industry; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Air Transportation Industry; Apparel and Accessories Industry; Auto Industry; Banking Industry; Battery Industry; Beauty and Cosmetics Industry; Bicycle Industry; Biotechnology Industry; Chemical Industry; Communications Industry; Computer Industry; Construction Industry; Consulting Industry; Consumer Products Industry; Distribution Industry; Education Industry; Electronics Industry; Employment Industry; Energy Industry; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; Fashion Industry; Financial Services Industry; Fine Arts Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; Forest Products Industry; Forestry Industry; Green Technology Industry; Health Industry; Industrial Products Industry; Information Industry; Information Technology Industry; Insurance Industry; Journalism and News Industry; Legal Services Industry; Manufacturing Industry; Media and Broadcasting Industry; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry; Mining Industry; Motion Pictures and Video Industry; Motorcycle Industry; Music Industry; Pharmaceutical Industry; Public Administration Industry; Public Relations Industry; Publishing Industry; Pulp and Paper Industry; Rail Industry; Real Estate Industry; Retail Industry; Rubber Industry; Semiconductor Industry; Service Industry; Shipping Industry; Sports Industry; Steel Industry; Technology Industry; Telecommunications Industry; Tourism Industry; Transportation Industry; Travel Industry; Utilities Industry; Video Game Industry; Web Services Industry; Asia; North and Central America; South America; Atlantic Ocean; Central Asia; Europe; Latin America; Middle East; Oceania; West Indies

04 Feb 2025
Blog Post

Leadership with Purpose: Redefining Success & Impact with Satpal Singh (SELP—India 4, 2019)

Learn about the career resources available to HBS alumni through HBS Career & Professional Development When I joined the Senior Executive Leadership Program—India (SELP—India) at Harvard Business School, I wasn’t entirely sure how it... View Details

2019
Chapter

Succession Management

By: Joseph L. Bower

Although often described as an event, if succession is managed properly it is the culmination of a development process that takes place over a number of years, led by the CEO working with the board of directors. In the ideal situation several candidates will have been... View Details

Keywords: Leadership Development; Management Succession

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June 2013
Case

The World Economic Forum's Global Leadership Fellows Program

By: Rakesh Khurana and Eric Baldwin

This case examines a distinctive leadership development program within the World Economic Forum. The program, born out of the conviction that the complexity of global challenges at the beginning of the 21st century required a new generation of global leaders, recruited... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Behavior; Leadership Skills; Training; Global Organizations; Global Leadership; World Economic Forum; Globalization; Leadership; Leadership Development; Leadership Style; Leading Change

05 Feb 2025
Blog Post

Leadership with purpose: Redefining success and impact with Satpal Singh (SELP—India 4, 2019)

When I joined the Senior Executive Leadership Program—India (SELP—India) at Harvard Business School, I wasn’t entirely sure how it would impact my career. I was already leading Business Transformation at Legrand India and had spent years... View Details

Keywords: All Industries

Article

Success Comes From Affirming Your Potential

By: Laura Morgan Roberts and Anthony Mayo

Keywords: Inclusion; Black Leadership; African Americans; Diversity

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July 2024
Case

Board Director Dilemmas: Strategic Leadership

By: David G. Fubini and Patrick Sanguineti

Professor John Michaels, a distinguished scholar of corporate strategy, has served on the Board of OmniCo, a diversified industrial giant, for four years. Three months ago, the Board appointed a new CEO, Andrew Bennett, to lead growth, develop a more cooperative... View Details

Keywords: Board; Board Dynamics; Strategic Leadership; Governing and Advisory Boards; Corporate Strategy; Organizational Culture; Leadership Style; Management Succession

September 2016 (Revised May 2018)
Case

Zurich Insurance: Talent Pipeline

By: Boris Groysberg and Katherine Connolly

Zurich Insurance was undergoing organizational change after implementing five new people practices focused on manager development, diversity and inclusion, job model and data analytics, recruitment, and talent pipeline. The case “Zurich Insurance: Fostering Key People... View Details

Keywords: Managing Change; Leadership; Organizational Behavior; Succession; Organizational Culture; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Leading Change; Leadership Development; Human Capital; Human Resources; Insurance; Management Succession; Insurance Industry

March 2015
Case

Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corp: Redefining Success in the U.S. (A)

By: Gautam Mukunda, Thomas DeLong and Aldo Sesia

Over the course of a tumultuous weekend in April 2010, André Wyss was put in charge of Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation (NPC), the U.S. sales and marketing subsidiary of Novartis Pharma AG. He was brought in at a critical point in the organization's evolution with... View Details

Keywords: LEAD; Talent Management; Leadership And Change Management; Change Management; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Restructuring; Pharmaceutical Industry; United States

18 Apr 2016
News

Copy Success

(Xerox Corp.) (Xerox Corp.) Joe Wilson (MBA 1933) made Xerox a brand so recognizable its name is also an everyday verb. In the process Wilson, who passed away in 1971, turned around a dying company and left a legacy of leadership that... View Details

November 2017 (Revised September 2020)
Supplement

Miami's Tech Future (D): Developing New Leadership

By: Rosabeth Moss Kanter

Traditional establishment leadership of Miami is increasingly challenged by a rising millennial generation that is more diverse and brings more innovative and entrepreneurial “outside-the-building” approaches, including impatience for change. Leadership succession is... View Details

Keywords: Leaders; Civic Innovation; Change; Change Leadership; Startup; Scaling And Growth; Jurisdictional Disputes; Communication; Community Impact; Community Relations; Leading Change; Leadership; Diversity; Demographics; Entrepreneurship; Business and Community Relations; Miami; Florida