Publications

January 2006 (Revised October 2009)
Case

Negotiating Star Compensation at the USAWBL (A-1): Confidential Instructions for Jesse J.

By: Ian Larkin, James K. Sebenius and Guhan Subramanian

In this three-party negotiation exercise, Jesse J, star center in the U.S.A. Women's Basketball League, with her agent, is negotiating a possible compensation package with the Boston Sharks involving a base salary, a possible share of team merchandising profits, and a... View Details

Keywords: Compensation and Benefits; Contracts; Negotiation Process; Negotiation Tactics; Conflict and Resolution; Sports; Sports Industry; United States

29 Nov 2006
Research & Ideas

Rich or Royal: What Do Founders Want?

equity for themselves) versus giving potential co-founders a large share of the equity to come on board. The choices were: taking money from angel investors, who would let the entrepreneur continue controlling the board; taking money from... View Details

Keywords: by Sarah Jane Gilbert; Financial Services

19 Dec 2023
Research & Ideas

$15 Billion in Five Years: What Data Tells Us About MacKenzie Scott’s Philanthropy

million, almost quadruple the $12 million average for the sector. Why would Scott seek out larger organizations that arguably have more resources and funding streams? There are many possible interpretations, but perhaps Yield Giving... View Details

Keywords: by Matthew Lee, Brian Trelstad, and Ethan Tran

December 8, 2022
Article

What Companies Still Get Wrong about Layoffs

By: Sandra J. Sucher and Marilyn Morgan Westner

Research has long shown that layoffs have a detrimental effect on individuals and on corporate performance. The short-term cost savings provided by a layoff are often overshadowed by bad publicity, loss of knowledge, weakened engagement, higher voluntary turnover, and... View Details

Keywords: Resignation and Termination; Employment; Selection and Staffing; Performance

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March 25, 2022
Article

Leading an Exhausted Workforce

By: Robin Abrahams and Boris Groysberg

Everyone is exhausted. People are coping with collective grief and trauma on a global scale, which means leaders have to learn and exercise new skills. The authors share steps you can take to foster healthy coping mechanisms and discourage unhealthy ones; help ward off... View Details

Keywords: Burnout; Workplace; Exhaustion; Emotions; Employees; Well-being

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05 Feb 2024
Research & Ideas

The Middle Manager of the Future: More Coaching, Less Commanding

from 9.2 percent in 1983, according to the study. Their share has continued to grow in recent years, jumping 23 percent between 2005 and 2020. During the same period, wages for managers also increased proportionally compared to those of... View Details

Keywords: by Ben Rand

Forthcoming
Article

Achieving Epilepsy Care for All: Ecosystem-Based Transformation

By: Susanna Gallani, Bernice Martin Lee and Lidia M. V. R. Moura

Epilepsy exemplifies many of the systemic challenges of modern health care— fragmented care delivery, inequitable access, financial strain, and so on. The current “system of systems” (SoS) structure of U.S. health care fosters siloed operations among its member systems... View Details

Keywords: Healthcare Delivery; Epilepsy; Seizures; Health Care and Treatment; Health Disorders; Equality and Inequality; Framework; Service Delivery

September 2019
Case

Shell: A Company of Opportunity?

By: Joseph B. Fuller and Emer Moloney

The Opportunity Hub was a cloud-based platform that enabled managers to market projects they were working on and associated resourcing needs as “Opportunity Owners” and employees, or “Opportunity Seekers,” to browse these statements of need and engage when they had... View Details

Keywords: Business Divisions; Change Management; Competency and Skills; Experience and Expertise; Talent and Talent Management; Energy; Energy Sources; Non-Renewable Energy; Renewable Energy; Human Resources; Employees; Retention; Collaborative Innovation and Invention; Innovation and Management; Innovation Strategy; Technological Innovation; Jobs and Positions; Job Design and Levels; Knowledge Sharing; Knowledge; Knowledge Use and Leverage; Labor; Human Capital; Labor Unions; Leading Change; Resource Allocation; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Performance Evaluation; Performance Productivity; Strategic Planning; Projects; Motivation and Incentives; Business Strategy; Social and Collaborative Networks; Technology Platform; Chemical Industry; Energy Industry; Information Technology Industry; Technology Industry; United Kingdom; Netherlands

March 2002 (Revised October 2002)
Case

Akamai's Underwater Options (A)

By: Brian J. Hall, Houston Lane and Jonathan Lim

Akamai's stock price declines dramatically with the NASDAQ in 2000, causing virtually all employee options to go underwater. Ownership and retention incentives are largely destroyed, and employee morale falls sharply. Management weighs the pros and cons of various... View Details

Keywords: Motivation and Incentives; Stock Options; Attitudes; Compensation and Benefits

11 Sep 2017
Research & Ideas

Why Employers Favor Men

evidence of “in-group” favoritism and “out-group” bias, meaning that employers were more willing to hire a member from the lower-performing group if the employers shared the same gender or birth month. In the gender experiment, female... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

09 Apr 2024
Book

Why Work Rituals Bring Teams Together and Create More Meaning

rituals, like carving out time for coffee with colleagues once a week or kicking off team meetings by sharing weekend plans before jumping into work talk, report finding more meaning in their work, he says. After all, Norton says, rituals... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

01 Feb 2011
First Look

First Look: Feb. 1

decomposition approach of Campbell and Vuolteenaho (2004) and Campbell, Polk, and Vuolteenaho (2010) to test for capital market integration and find robust evidence of increased capital market integration in the euro zone and, consequently, improved risk View Details

29 Feb 2024
HBS Case

Beyond Goals: David Beckham's Playbook for Mobilizing Star Talent

force for quite some time.” Beckham (right) and Authentic Brands CEO Jamie Salter (middle), pictured walking with Elberse, shared business insights with MBA students during a visit in October. (Image credit: Evgenia Eliseeva) Authentic... View Details

Keywords: by Avery Forman; Sports

16 Jul 2013
Working Paper Summaries

Visualizing and Measuring Enterprise Architecture: An Exploratory BioPharma Case

Keywords: by Robert Lagerstrom, Carliss Baldwin, Alan MacCormack & David Dreyfus

February 1991 (Revised June 1993)
Case

Ross Perot and General Motors

By: Jay W. Lorsch

In December, 1986 the General Motors Board of Directors must decide whether to accept the buyout agreement between GM and Ross Perot, a director of GM and its largest stockholder. The agreement called for GM to purchase all of Perot's GM shares in exchange for his... View Details

Keywords: Leveraged Buyouts; Mergers and Acquisitions; Stock Shares; Resignation and Termination; Business or Company Management; Agreements and Arrangements

2013
Tool

Harvard Business Review's Go to Market Tools: Customer Lifetime Value

By: Thomas Steenburgh and Jill Avery

How much are your customers worth? Has your marketing budget been slashed? Need to figure out the best place to invest your time and effort to reach your growth target? HBR's Go to Market Tool helps calculate your customer's lifetime value, allowing you to prioritize... View Details

Keywords: Quantitative Analysis; Tools; Customer Lifetime Value; Customer Defection; CRM; Customer Relationship Management; Marketing; Marketing Strategy; Customer Focus and Relationships

Research Summary

Overview

Grant uses a combination of laboratory and field experiments to harness consumers' cognitive and affective resources to increase their well-being. Consumers make countless daily decisions in the pursuit of happiness -- whether and how to spend or save their money, what... View Details

Keywords: Well-being; Judgment And Decision Making; Health; Prosocial Behavior

October 2023 (Revised January 2024)
Case

McDonald's Board of Directors (A)

By: Lynn S. Paine and Will Hurwitz

In October 2019, the McDonald’s Corporation board of directors, chaired by Enrique Hernandez, Jr., gathered to learn the results of their outside counsel’s investigation into the conduct of the CEO. On the surface, the iconic fast-food chain was thriving as growing... View Details