Publications

November 1992 (Revised May 1993)
Case

BW/IP International, Inc.

By: Timothy A. Luehrman and Andrew D. Regan

Less than a year after completing a leveraged buyout of their own company, the managers of BW/IP International were presented with an attractive acquisition candidate. To buy the target company, however, BW/IP would have to borrow more money and take on more... View Details

Keywords: Leveraged Buyouts; Leadership Style; Valuation; Resource Allocation; Capital; Public Ownership

Article

Five Ways to Bungle a Job Change

By: Boris Groysberg and Robin Abrahams

The article focuses on career development and job change. The challenges, transaction costs, and risks associated with job moves are discussed. The authors' research with executives is noted. The mistakes in career development that job hunters make are not doing enough... View Details

Keywords: Change; Resignation and Termination; Job Search; Managerial Roles; Personal Development and Career; Strategic Planning

September–October 2018
Article

The Paradox of Responsive Authoritarianism: How Civic Activism Spurs Environmental Penalties in China

By: Christopher Marquis and Yanhua Bird

Recognizing the need to better understand institutional change processes in authoritarian states, which play an increasingly prominent role in the world economy, we examine the efficacy of civic activism aimed at spurring governmental action concerning the... View Details

Keywords: Civic Activism; Authoritarianism; Regulation; Corporate Sustainability; Environmental Sustainability; Government and Politics; Business and Government Relations; Social Issues; Change; China

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March 2010
Article

The Role of Independent Invention in U.S. Technological Development, 1880-1930

By: Tom Nicholas

Why did independent inventors account for over half of US patents by 1930 and more than three times the number granted to R&D firms? Using new data on patents and historical patent citations, I show that independents supplied high quality innovations to a... View Details

Keywords: History; Technological Innovation; Patents; Urban Scope; Independent Innovation and Invention; Research and Development; United States

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June 2, 2020
Article

How to 'Re-engineer' Your Business for Safety

By: Hubert Joly

Process reengineering was a massive trend in the 1990s. By focusing on improving either cost, quality, or service, a company could gain benefits in all three categories. Today, the principles that underpin process reengineering can be applied anew, with safety as a... View Details

Keywords: Re-engineering; COVID; Safety; Performance Improvement; Organizational Change and Adaptation

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December 2003 (Revised April 2004)
Case

Dragon's Teeth Vineyards

By: Alan D. MacCormack, Marius Leibold, Sven Voelpel and Kerry Herman

Dragon's Teeth Vineyards (DTV) is a South African wine producer that is considering whether to use genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in its wine-making process. GMOs promise to lower the costs of wine production significantly through increased yields and reduced... View Details

Keywords: Technological Innovation; Growth and Development Strategy; Genetics; Transition; Brands and Branding; Product Development; Product Design; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Technology Adoption; Food and Beverage Industry; Biotechnology Industry; South Africa

February 2025
Article

Innovations in Evaluating Ambulatory Costs of Cystic Fibrosis Care: A Comparative Study Across Multidisciplinary Care Centers in Ireland and the United States

By: Emma Brady, Ryan C. Perkins, Kate Cullen, Gregory S. Sawicki, Robert S. Kaplan and Gerardine Doyle

Lead clinicians at two large pediatric cystic fibrosis (CF) centers in the United States and Ireland measured and compared their ambulatory care costs. The clinicians selected three strata of patients (0–11 months, 1–5 years, and 6–17 years of age). Process maps were... View Details

Keywords: Health Care and Treatment; Cost; Service Delivery; Resource Allocation; Health Industry

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14 May 2012
Research & Ideas

Breaking the Smartphone Addiction

concerted effort to disconnect from their devices for a few predetermined hours every week—and how they became more productive as a result. The following excerpt from the book describes how the scheduled disconnecting process, dubbed "predictable View Details

Keywords: by Leslie A. Perlow

August 23, 2018
Article

Using a New EHR System to Increase Patient Engagement, Improve Efficiency, and Decrease Cost

By: Katy French, Barbra Bryce Speer, Alexis B. Guzman, Tayab Andrabi, Iris Recinos, Keith A. Shook, James R. Incalcaterra, John C. Frenzel and Thomas W. Feeley

Patients and providers are frustrated with seemingly endless data entry. We used our patients’ vested interest in their own health care by actively engaging them in the entry of their own medical information into the EHR. Prior to the implementation of the new EHR we... View Details

Keywords: Health Care and Treatment; Analytics and Data Science; Performance Efficiency; Cost Management

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January 2005 (Revised November 2009)
Case

Tata Consultancy Services

By: Rohit Deshpande and Seth Schulman

As CEO of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), S. "Ram" Ramadorai had grown the company into an emerging IT services powerhouse, with marquee clients such as General Electric, offices in 32 countries, and revenues of nearly $2 billion dollars. Now, he was about to steer... View Details

Keywords: Initial Public Offering; Job Cuts and Outsourcing; Labor; Competitive Strategy; Information Technology; Consulting Industry; India; United States

17 Jan 2023
Book

Good Companies Commit Crimes, But Great Leaders Can Prevent Them

leaders of companies, they are rightly interested in strategy, marketing, operation—they don’t want to be spending many hours and millions of dollars on external counsel and advisors to resolve misconduct issues. The best way of making sure of that is, again, by... View Details

Keywords: by Lane Lambert

12 Apr 2016
First Look

April 12, 2016

"the right environment" to promote accountability and head off future disasters. The corporate leaders we have interviewed say that culture isn't something you "fix." Rather cultural change is what you get after you've put new View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

2022
Article

Reversible Power-to-Gas Systems for Energy Conversion and Storage

By: Gunther Glenk and Stefan Reichelstein

In the transition to decarbonized energy systems, Power-to-Gas (PtG) processes have the potential to connect the existing markets for electricity and hydrogen. Specifically, reversible PtG systems can convert electricity to hydrogen at times of ample power supply, yet... View Details