Publications

21 Nov 2016
Research & Ideas

It Matters That Your CEO Doesn't Know Much About Sales

senior executives specializing in everything except sales. “The number of executives reporting to the CEO in the average S&P 500 company has doubled in the last 20 years,” says Frank V. Cespedes, a senior lecturer in the View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

2014
Working Paper

The Contract Year Phenomenon in the Corner Office: An Analysis of Firm Behavior During CEO Contract Renewals

By: Ping Liu and Yuhai Xuan

This paper investigates how executive employment contracts influence corporate financial policies during the final year of the contract term, using a new, hand-collected data set of CEO employment agreements. On the one hand, the impending expiration of fixed-term... View Details

Keywords: Management Style; Contracts; Behavior; Employment

Read Now

01 Oct 1996
News

At HBS Workshop, New CEOs Tune Up for the Top

Last spring, a small, select group of new CEOs and CEO-designates from corporations with revenues of $1 billion or more came to Soldiers Field to participate in the second session of the New CEO Workshop, an... View Details

Keywords: Jon Prestage

February 2018 (Revised May 2018)
Case

Haier: Incubating Entrepreneurs in a Chinese Giant

By: Rosabeth Moss Kanter and Nancy Hua Dai

CEO Zhang Ruimin must plan how to accelerate the growth of self-managed microenterprises. Platforms were Haier’s business platforms operating in five major sectors: white goods transformation, investment and incubation, financial holdings, real estate, and cultural... View Details

Keywords: China; Microenterprise; Appliances; Platform; Change; Innovation; Opportunities; Entrepreneurship; Digital Platforms; Transformation; Innovation and Invention; Leadership; Growth and Development Strategy; China

18 Jun 2014
Research & Ideas

Leading Innovation is the Art of Creating ‘Collective Genius’

As Harvard Business School Professor Linda A. Hill began to dig into the scholarship around leadership and innovation, she soon realized there was a lot of research on both. What she didn't find, however, was work linking the two. Specifically, what is the role of the... View Details

Keywords: by Kim Girard

Web

Video Clips & Discussion Questions - Creating Emerging Markets

trying to establish the first hospital in the 1980s, as well as the motivations that helped him persevere. Jaithirth (Jerry) Rao Jaithirth (Jerry) Rao Founder of MphasiS and Value and Budget Housing Corporation, explains how years of View Details

19 Apr 2024
News

Alumni Host Energy CEO Summit in Houston; Austin Club Co-Hosts SXSW Reception

Clubs News Clubs News Houston Alumni Host Annual Energy CEO Summit The HBS Club of Houston presented its fourth annual Energy CEO Summit on April 3, which featured four of the industry’s top CEOs discussing trends and challenges around the theme of “Energy Security and... View Details

Keywords: Margie Kelley

Research Summary

Searching for a Corporate Savior: The Irrational Quest for Charismatic CEOs ( Princeton University Press, October 2002)

By: Rakesh Khurana

In this book, I argue that the external CEO labor market was born in a burst of rhetoric about wresting control of corporations away from a group of self-interested insiders, as senior managers in the era of managerial capitalism had come to be portrayed. The rationale... View Details

September 2019
Teaching Note

Boxed

By: Laura Huang and Andy Wu

Boxed.com (“Boxed”) is an ambitious e-commerce retailer start-up, founded by visionary CEO Chieh Huang in 2013. From starting in Huang’s garage in 2013, to winning Emerging E-Retailer of the Year in 2016, to having 4 operational distribution centers in 2018, Boxed used... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurial Management; Business Startups; Leadership; Strategy; Success; E-commerce; Retail Industry

17 Nov 2022
Blog Post

Creating Emerging Markets Sustainability Series - The Future of Green Building

Creating Emerging Markets Sustainability Series – The Future of Green Building Cover image features Christoph Schiess (left) and Jim Damalas (right). Over the course of the 2022 UN Climate Change Conference (COP27) held in Sharm... View Details

October 2019 (Revised January 2020)
Case

Dulcie Madden (A)—Growth or Exit?

By: Shikhar Ghosh, Christopher Payton and Shweta Bagai

This is part of a three-case series that follows Dulcie Madden's journey as a founder over five years. Case (A) is about managing growth and cash flow; Case (B) is about the exit decision and conditions on a sale; Case (C) shows Madden dealing with adversity and the... View Details

07 Nov 2022
Blog Post

Creating Emerging Markets Sustainability Series - COP27 and the Climate Crisis

Creating Emerging Markets Sustainability Series – COP27 and the Climate Crisis Cover image features Helmy Abouleish (left) and Runa Khan (right). In recognition of the 2022 UN Climate Change Conference (COP27) in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt... View Details

August 2014 (Revised March 2016)
Case

Thomas Cook Group on the Brink (A)

By: Benjamin C. Esty, Stuart C. Gilson and Aldo Sesia

Harriett Green, the newly appointed CEO of Thomas Cook Group, faces a daunting set of business and financial challenges at the 171-year old UK travel services company. The company has lost almost £600 million in the last three quarters; has seen its stock price fall... View Details

Keywords: Turnaround; Corporate Restructuring; Change Leadership; Female Ceo; Change Management; Communication Strategy; Borrowing and Debt; Cash Flow; Cost Management; Financial Liquidity; Financial Management; Executive Compensation; Leading Change; Crisis Management; Value Creation; Travel Industry; United Kingdom

February 2017
Article

The Throne vs. the Kingdom: Founder Control and Value Creation in Startups

By: Noam Wasserman

Does the degree to which founders keep control of their startups affect company value? I argue that founders face a "control dilemma" in which a startup's resource dependence drives a wedge between the startup's value and the founder's ability to retain control of... View Details

Keywords: Founders; Entrepreneurial Management; Value Creation; Governing and Advisory Boards; Entrepreneurship; Business Startups

Find at Harvard

10 Aug 2015
News

Creating a Pipeline of Talent to Address the World’s Challenges

Monisha Kapila (MBA 2005) is founder and CEO of ProInspire, a nonprofit that develops leaders for the social sector. The Chronicle of Philanthropy recently named ProInspire, which gives paid fellowships to highly qualified professionals,... View Details

28 May 2012
Research & Ideas

A Pragmatic Alternative for Creating a Corporate Social Responsibility Strategy

Associates. A social responsibility strategy should fulfill two goals: create a positive social impact, and enhance the company's brand, reputation, employee morale, and/or its bottom line, Rangan says. "But it does not have to be totally... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

13 Dec 2019
News

She Sued Tinder, Founded Bumble and Now, At 30, Is The CEO Of a $3 Billion Dating Empire

August 2011
Supplement

An Interview with John Fahey, President and CEO of National Geographic Society

By: David Garvin

In January 2010, John Fahey, president, CEO, and chairman of the board of trustees' executive committee of the Washington, D.C.-based National Geographic Society (NGS), must decide how best to organize the 121-year old mission-driven organization for a world of... View Details

Keywords: Transformation; Leadership Style; Business or Company Management; Brands and Branding; Problems and Challenges; Sales; Natural Environment; Business Strategy; Web Sites