Publications

July 1976 (Revised April 1983)
Case

Corning Glass Works: The Electronic Products Division (A)

By: Michael Beer

Describes a division of Corning Glass Works that finds itself with deep financial and organizational problems. Severe conflict and lack of coordination exist between functional groups. Employees do not have a sense of direction and morale is low. Provides sufficient... View Details

Keywords: Business Divisions; Change Management; Transformation; Employees; Working Conditions; Business or Company Management; Organizational Change and Adaptation

March 2019
Supplement

KITEA (C): A Surprise Delay

By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell and Gamze Yucaoglu

This case describes the delay of IKEA’s store opening in Morocco in 2015. After Sweden ordered an internal review of its position on the independence of Western Sahara, a territory Morocco regarded as part of its own, the Moroccan government declared that IKEA did not... View Details

Keywords: Private Sector; For-Profit Firms; Business Strategy; Strategic Planning; Competitive Strategy; Competitive Advantage; Adaptation; Corporate Strategy; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Retail Industry; Africa; North Africa; Morocco

January 2009 (Revised June 2010)
Case

Cisco Business Councils (2007): Unifying a Functional Enterprise with an Internal Governance System

By: Ranjay Gulati

In response to the 2001 market downturn, Cisco Systems implemented a major restructuring that transformed the company from a decentralized to centralized organization. While recognizing that a centralized, functional structure was necessary to avoid product and... View Details

Keywords: Restructuring; Customer Focus and Relationships; Governing and Advisory Boards; Resource Allocation; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Structure; Corporate Strategy; Technology Industry

May 2008 (Revised August 2009)
Case

Intel NBI: MXP Digital Media Processor

By: Willy C. Shih and Thomas Thurston

"Gila" was a high-performance image processor project housed in Intel's New Business Initiatives (NBI) group. NBI was an incubator for corporate entrepreneurs, and it had an established methodology for ensuring a degree of autonomy while these ventures got started. But... View Details

Keywords: Business Divisions; Business Growth and Maturation; Business Startups; Change Management; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Integration; Semiconductor Industry; United States

April 2008
Case

Chunghwa Telecom Co., Ltd. (A)

By: Paul W. Marshall, Michael Shih-ta Chen and Keith Chi-ho Wong

In late November 2000, Chunghwa Telecom Co., Ltd., the once-monopolized telecom operator owned by the Taiwanese government, was on its way to privatization. Mr. C.K. Mao, Chairman of the company, who headed the job only three months earlier, after its prior chairman... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Employee Relationship Management; Leading Change; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Privatization; Competition; Telecommunications Industry; Taiwan

Find at Harvard

25 Feb 2020
News

The Past Informs the Future of Work

“Number, please” was the oft-repeated request made by the more than 100,000 mostly female switchboard operators in the early 20th century. Anyone who had a telephone grew to know the familiar voices that connected them to the outside world. But in 1917, when AT&T began... View Details

Keywords: Jennifer Gillespie; Telecommunications; Information

03 Aug 2009
Research & Ideas

Corporate Social Responsibility in a Downturn

Is the economic downturn affecting the willingness and readiness of companies to look at the economic, social, and environmental impact of their business practices? Or is this a perfect time to reassess current programs and adapt them to... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

15 May 2015
Blog Post

Tips for Applying to Business School

chose recommenders who had seen me take on responsibility, struggle at times, and adapt to reach my goals. I think this matters much more than having recommenders with a particular job title or connection with HBS. Get to know HBS and... View Details

01 Apr 1998
News

Plunging Into the Net

it is the way people will adapt to and use that technology and the way firms will mobilize it to do smart business. As Rayport points out, "Internet-based businesses encounter the same management and marketing challenges that traditional... View Details

23 Jul 2001
Research & Ideas

How One Center of Innovation Lost its Spark

adaptation and argue that organizations suffer inertia when they fail to change as quickly as the environment. Although the tire firms delayed closing redundant capacity, they responded fairly quickly to the introduction of radial tires... View Details

Keywords: by Donald Sull; Manufacturing; Transportation; Auto

16 Apr 2001
Research & Ideas

Depression or Euphoria? Navigating the Market’s Mood Swings

success. You try to enshrine your success. You build up bureaucratic processes to make sure you do things the same way next time," he said, adding that bureaucracy is the enemy of small companies that need to change quickly. Small companies, he said, need to be... View Details

Keywords: by Carrie Levine

26 Jul 2022
Blog Post

Driving Change in Education-to-Employment

balance sheet. I like working in the social sector for the inverse reason: social change is complex, hard to measure, and often involves adaptive change, i.e., shifting mindsets rather than numbers on a spreadsheet. I get excited about... View Details

25 Aug 2022
News

A New Platform for Alumni Engagement

sprints. The alumni and practitioners joined virtually, from what Professor Karim R. Lakhani has taken to calling “the universe deck.” In the classroom and in the online chat for this short intensive program (SIP), participants debated how business leaders can best... View Details

Keywords: April White

20 May 2020
Blog Post

Jeff Surette and Mike Peters: A Winning Team at TB12

when Surette joined TB12 he was focused on bringing in adaptable and talented business leaders who could develop a strategy for growth and execute on that strategy. Peters was a key addition to a team that started with 5 employees and has... View Details

October 2008 (Revised December 2008)
Supplement

Gillette Company (E): Procter & Gamble

By: Rosabeth M. Kanter and Matthew Bird

After arriving in 2001 as the first outsider Chairman and CEO in Gillette history, Jim Kilts led a remarkable turnaround. But by late 2004 he had to make a difficult decision. To better position the 104-year-old, Boston-based company, he opted to sell it to... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Decision Choices and Conditions; Leading Change; Growth and Development Strategy; Managerial Roles; Organizational Change and Adaptation

October 2020 (Revised February 2025)
Technical Note

Reinvention

By: Ryan Raffaelli

This note is designed to introduce students to the fundamental concepts of leading innovation in established organizations. Reinvention is a process whereby organizations respond to changes in the environment that threaten their core business model, technologies,... View Details

Keywords: Innovation And Strategy; Leadership And Change Management; Organizational Ambidexterity; Exploration And Exploitation; Innovation and Management; Innovation Leadership; Leading Change; Technology Adoption; Change Management; Organizational Change and Adaptation

June 2019 (Revised October 2019)
Technical Note

Note on the Future of Commerce

By: William R. Kerr, Daniel O'Connor and Nathaniel Schwalb

In 2019, the retail and consumer product industries were undergoing a significant transformation. Over the past 50 years, what was once a highly fragmented industry began to consolidate, digitize, and increase convenience while lowering costs. The winning enterprises... View Details

Keywords: Trade; Demand and Consumers; Demographics; Transformation; Global Range; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Business Model; Leading Change; Retail Industry; Consumer Products Industry

9 May 2011 - 11 May 2011
Conference Presentation

How Firms Respond to Mandatory Information Disclosure

By: Anil Doshi, Michael Toffel and Glen W. S. Dowell

When new institutional pressures arise, which organizations are particularly likely to resist or acquiesce? When subjected to new information disclosure mandates, an increasingly popular form of market-based government regulation, which types of organizations are... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Disclosure; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Environmental Regulation; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Organizational Change and Adaptation