Publications

May 2022
Article

Complex Disclosure

By: Ginger Zhe Jin, Michael Luca and Daniel Martin

We present evidence that unnecessarily complex disclosure can result from strategic incentives to shroud information. In our lab experiment, senders are required to report their private information truthfully, but can choose how complex to make their reports. We find... View Details

Keywords: Disclosure; Experiments; Naiveté; Overconfidence; Corporate Disclosure; Policy; Information; Complexity; Strategy; Consumer Behavior

February 2020
Case

Klöckner & Co: Steeling for a Digital World

By: Scott Duke Kominers and Carin-Isabel Knoop

Hoping to get ahead of potential digital disruption at Klöckner & Co.—one of the world’s largest steel and metal distributors—CEO Gisbert Rühl set up both kloeckner.i (KCI), an internal transformation arm, and XOM Materials (XOM), an independent industry platform. KCI... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Entrepreneurship; Market Design; Digital Platforms; Markets; Industry Structures; Supply and Industry; Technology Adoption; Transformation; Digital Transformation; Steel Industry; Information Technology Industry; Europe; Germany

October 14, 2019
Article

The CEO's Guide to Retirement

By: Bill George

Some CEOs remain in the role too long, hurting investors, employees, and their own legacy. The author sees a frequent reason for that: CEOs don’t know how to identify the optimal time to retire, and they procrastinate because they can’t imagine what they will do after... View Details

Keywords: CEO; Executive Retirement; Retirement; Decision Making; Planning

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June 2014 (Revised March 2017)
Teaching Note

Chorus and Telecom: Building the Boards

By: Boris Groysberg and Sarah L. Abbott

In 2011, Telecom, the largest telecom provider in New Zealand, was being divided into two publicly traded companies. In connection with this split, Sarah Naudé and Matt Stanley worked with the chairman of Telecom New Zealand, Wayne Boyd, to create two new boards of... View Details

Keywords: Board Of Directors; Women's Empowerment; Governance; Leadership; Selection and Staffing; Organizational Structure; Decision Making; Human Resources; Diversity; Telecommunications Industry; New Zealand

February 1991 (Revised November 2010)
Case

Tennessee Controls: The Strategic Ranking Problem

By: Robert L. Simons and Dale Geiger

Tennessee Controls has instituted a new formal asset acquisition process to rank competing proposals. Judy Starnes, the new division manager, is asked to rank three proposals by using techniques to quantify economic returns, risk, as well as the credibility of the... View Details

Keywords: Capital Budgeting; Governance Controls; Management Systems; Strategic Planning; Mathematical Methods; Electronics Industry

January 2009 (Revised June 2014)
Supplement

CityCenter (B): Economics and Delivery

By: A. Eugene Kohn, John D. Macomber and Ben Creo

Bill Smith is informed by his general contractor that a key component of the Aria Resort is going to be delayed. Aria is the centerpiece of CityCenter: a $9 billion complex and a bet-the-firm decision for MGM Mirage. Smith must make a decision as to whether to force... View Details

Keywords: Buildings and Facilities; Decision Choices and Conditions; Construction; Finance; Organizational Structure; Projects; Complexity

2009
Book

High Commitment, High Performance: How to Build a Resilient Organization for Sustained Advantage

By: Michael Beer

Integrating knowledge from strategic management, performance management, and organization design, strategic human resource expert and Harvard Business School Professor Michael Beer outlines what the high-commitment, high-performance organization looks like and provides... View Details

Keywords: Human Resources; Leadership; Management; Goals and Objectives; Organizational Culture; Organizational Design; Organizational Structure; Performance; Practice; Business Strategy; System

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February 1986 (Revised November 1989)
Case

Copeland Corp.: Evolution of a Manufacturing Strategy--1975-82 (A)

By: David A. Garvin

Describes the evolution of a company's manufacturing strategy over an eight-year period. Copeland had pursued a strategy of building freestanding focused plants devoted to single processes or product lines, and then moving products from the home plant at Sidney, Ohio... View Details

Keywords: Factories, Labs, and Plants; Product; Production; Strategy; Restructuring; Geographic Location; Manufacturing Industry; Ohio

17 Jun 2014
News

Disruptive Genius

08 Mar 2018
News

Could a New Business Model Make Clinical Drug Trials More Accessible to Patients?

Rosabeth M. Kanter

Rosabeth Moss Kanter holds the Ernest L. Arbuckle Professorship at Harvard Business School, specializing in strategy, innovation, and leadership for change. Her strategic and practical insights guide leaders worldwide through teaching, writing, and direct... View Details

Web

Podcast - Business & Environment

Battery Innovation with AI: A Conversation with Argonne’s Logan Ward 01 JAN 2025 | Climate Rising Logan Ward, Deputy Scientist at Argonne National Laboratory, joins host Mike Toffel to discuss how AI is transforming the discovery process... View Details

Research Summary

THEME #2: BUILDING CAPABILITIES THROUGH VARIATION

Prior work has yet to establish definitively the role that variation (e.g. in individuals' activities or organizational processes) plays in the development of capabilities. Variation is usually either not considered (e.g., the learning curve examines... View Details

August 2018
Case

BlackBuck (A)

By: Shikhar Ghosh and Shweta Bagai

The case presents the challenges of scaling an asset-heavy company (that relies on its operations). It highlights how decisions on the early team impact a company’s ability to scale, linkage between growth and cash flows, as well the organizational impact of high... View Details

Keywords: Founders; Entrepreneurship; Growth and Development Strategy; Service Delivery; Cash Flow; Growth Management; Truck Transportation; Online Technology; India

15 Nov 2016
Working Paper Summaries

Algorithmic Foundations for Business Strategy

Keywords: by Mihnea Moldoveanu

TeachingInterests

Managing Health Care Delivery - Executive Education

By: Robert S. Huckman

While delivering patient care has always been a primary goal of health care organizations, financial outcomes have long been the metric by which success is measured. Increasingly, however, health care leaders are being held accountable for... View Details

Research Summary

Quality in Service Operations

Rogelio Oliva is interested in understanding how the operational characteristics of service delivery processes interact with human resource and marketing policies to determine the long term productivity, quality, and profitability of a service operation. Specifically,... View Details

Research Summary

Globalization and the Family Business

As business becomes more global and competitive, many family companies are extending their operations through various means to remain competitive in their industries. Professor Davis is teaming with Professor Jon Martinez of Universidad de los Andes and Florence Tsai... View Details

August 1970
Case

Hawthorne Plastics

An "imperfect tester" problem involving the decision of how to produce batches of plastic strapping, given uncertainty about the length of the molecular chain in the raw material. A decision on whether to test the raw material and a choice of production process must be... View Details

Keywords: Decision Making; Mathematical Methods