Publications

02 Apr 2024
What Do You Think?

What's Enough to Make Us Happy?

who fail to have this conversation with ourselves run the risk of chasing and acquiring things that are never enough. These matters are highly personal. I like to think that how we make decisions on these matters determines, as the old... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

September 2024
Case

Topaz: Navigating Governance, Legacy, and Change

By: Christina R. Wing and Carla Larangeira

Since its founding in 2011, the Garza Sada brothers and their father positioned Topaz among leading family offices in Monterrey, Mexico, with several assets under management. Topaz aspired to have a transformative impact across multiple Mexican industries. An industry... View Details

Keywords: Business Conglomerates; Family Business; Governing and Advisory Boards; Managerial Roles; Management Succession; Family Ownership; Corporate Governance; Organizational Structure; Adoption; Financial Services Industry; Real Estate Industry; Education Industry; Energy Industry; Latin America; Mexico

March 2020 (Revised January 2023)
Case

Nadine Vogel: Transforming the Marketplace, Workplace, and Workforce for People with Disabilities

By: Lakshmi Ramarajan, Hannah Riley-Bowles and Michael Norris

In 2019, Nadine Vogel, founder and CEO of Springboard Consulting, a firm that worked with Fortune 500 companies on issues related to disability and their workforce, faced the decision of the best path forward to grow her small company. Should she build more and better... View Details

Keywords: Diversity; Entrepreneurship; Personal Development and Career; Decision Choices and Conditions; Growth and Development Strategy; Product Development; Market Entry and Exit; Consulting Industry; United States; Florida; New York (state, US)

January 1998 (Revised September 1998)
Case

Staples (A)

By: Myra M. Hart, Marco Iansiti and Barbara Feinberg

Chronicles development of a new business concept. Starts with Stemberg's search for a new employment opportunity, then provides details of his decision to launch a new venture concept through careful matching of personal capabilities and experience against a variety of... View Details

Keywords: Marketing; Personal Development and Career; Entrepreneurship; Management Skills; Retail Industry

2016
Working Paper

Consequences to Directors of Shareholder Activism

By: Ian D. Gow, Sa-Pyung Sean Shin and Suraj Srinivasan

Using a comprehensive sample for 2004–2012, we examine the impact of shareholder activist campaigns on the careers of directors of targeted firms. We find that activism is associated with directors being almost twice as likely to leave—and performance-sensitivity of... View Details

Keywords: Shareholder Activism; Hedge Funds; Independent Directors; Director Reputation; Accountability; Shareholder Voting; Voting; Retention; Investment Funds; Management Teams; Investment Activism

Read Now

31 Oct 2023
HBS Case

Checking Your Ethics: Would You Speak Up in These 3 Sticky Situations?

making a big presentation to the client, and he made the uncomfortable decision to tell a partner. “I’ll never forget. He turned to me and said, ‘Does this change the modeled outcome?’ and I said no. He said, ‘Good, we’ll tell them about... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Consulting

04 Mar 2024
What Do You Think?

Do People Want to Work Anymore?

while the partners are able to more than double the percentage of revenue brought to the bottom line. The decision in the case has to do with how best to go to a four-day workweek with three-day weekends and paid vacations for everyone.... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

August 2013 (Revised November 2015)
Case

Prudential Financial - General Motors Pension Risk Transfer: Back to the Future?

By: Luis M. Viceira and Emily A. Chien

In November 2012, Prudential Financial and General Motors closed on a $25.1B pension risk transfer (PRT) transaction, the largest of its kind to date by an order of magnitude both in the U.S. market and globally. In exchange for an in-kind transfer of $25.1B in... View Details

Keywords: Risk Management; Asset Management; Insurance; Retirement; Financial Services Industry; Insurance Industry

30 Apr 2021
Research & Ideas

Why Anger Makes a Wrongly Accused Person Look Guilty

whether an accused person has committed the offense, based on the emotions he or she expresses. Such an unfair judgment can have grave consequences, affecting the accused person’s career and even leading to job loss. "People who are... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

April 2025
Case

Giving Up on a Passion: Elizabeth Rowe at the Boston Symphony Orchestra

By: Jon M. Jachimowicz, Maisie Wiltshire-Gordon and Alexis Lefort

For 20 years, Elizabeth Rowe was a world-renowned principal flutist with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. But in 2024, Rowe decided to leave her position to pursue a new full-time career as a leadership coach. At 50, Rowe was well under the typical retirement age, and,... View Details

March 2008 (Revised August 2020)
Case

Lisa Sherman (A)

By: Bill George and Jens Audenaert

Lisa Sherman is a successful executive at Verizon who is struggling with the decision to reveal her sexual orientation. After attending a diversity training workshop in which participants expressed extremely negative views about people in her community, Sherman wonders... View Details

Keywords: Diversity; Identity; Personal Development and Career; Decision Choices and Conditions; Leadership; Organizational Culture

11 Sep 2017
Research & Ideas

Why Employers Favor Men

decisions about job candidates. ”Statistical discrimination is thornier and is particularly difficult to root out” “We can all agree that taste-based discrimination is a really bad thing if you’re prejudiced against women and don’t want... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

17 Jul 2023
Research & Ideas

Money Isn’t Everything: The Dos and Don’ts of Motivating Employees

play in these internal markets, Hall argues. “If you try to put water into a hose, it’s going to squirt out somewhere. No matter what decision you make, there will be something that needs to be controlled,” Hall says. “Every kink creates... View Details

Keywords: by Avery Forman

11 Jun 2024
In Practice

The Harvard Business School Faculty Summer Reader 2024

As the vacation season looms, Harvard Business School faculty members share recommendations for a little light reading. Spoiler alert: Lessons in Chemistry tops two of their beach-read lists. For those whose brains can’t—or won’t—turn off, HBS faculty also suggest some... View Details

Keywords: by Avery Forman

29 Feb 2024
HBS Case

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

Superstar talent brings the kind of wattage that can power a business to the next level, as recent high-stakes decisions facing soccer legend David Beckham show. Two new Harvard Business School case studies examine the questions Beckham... View Details

Keywords: by Avery Forman; Sports

November 1994
Case

Spectrum Equity Investors, L.P.

Brion Applegate and Bill Collatos had already started a fund-raising campaign for their new venture-capital fund when the principals of a prestigious Wall Street investment bank asked them to become the two senior partners of an in-house $150 million fund. The case... View Details

Keywords: Venture Capital; Personal Development and Career; Entrepreneurship

17 Aug 2020
Research & Ideas

What the Stockdale Paradox Tells Us About Crisis Leadership

his career studying survival. “We are all day-to-day survivors. We are alive today because from childbirth our behaviour has adapted to our own particular environment,” Leach writes. “The danger arises when we are forced outside of our... View Details

Keywords: by Boris Groysberg and Robin Abrahams

November 2021 (Revised March 2022)
Case

Kwame Spearman at Tattered Cover: Reinventing Brick-and-Mortar Retail

By: Ryan Raffaelli and Kerry Herman

The case spotlights Kwame Spearman’s career-shifting decision to leave a NYC-based consulting job to return to his hometown of Denver, Colorado, and take over an iconic independent bookstore, The Tattered Cover. The case lays out ways Spearman envisions a new approach... View Details

Keywords: Retail; Leadership; Leading Change; Competitive Strategy; Personal Development and Career; Publishing Industry; Retail Industry; United States

November 2006 (Revised May 2014)
Case

Li Ka-Shing and the Growth of Cheung Kong

By: Nitin Nohria, Anthony J. Mayo and Mark Benson

Events in the history of Cheung Kong's growth reveal how Li Ka-Shing applied his skills as a "first-class noticer" to complex political and socioeconomic environments. While Li's determination to succeed is legendary, so are his skills in reading and responding to the... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Competency and Skills; Decision Choices and Conditions; Investment Portfolio; Business History; Leadership; Personal Development and Career; Hong Kong