Publications

14 Dec 2010
First Look

First Look: Dec. 14

Abstract An organization's compensation strategy plays a critical role in motivating workers and attracting high-performing employees. Most of the research linking compensation to strategy relies on the... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

2025
Working Paper

Management and Firm Dynamism

By: Nicholas Bloom, Jonathan S. Hartley, Raffaella Sadun, Rachel Schuh and John Van Reenen

We show better-managed firms are more dynamic in plant acquisitions, disposals, openings and closings in U.S. Census and international data. Better-managed firms also birth better-managed plants, and improve the performance of the plants they acquire. To explain these... View Details

Keywords: Management Practices; Productivity; Management Practices and Processes; Mergers and Acquisitions; Competition; Business or Company Management; Performance Productivity

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29 Apr 2008
First Look

First Look: April 29, 2008

http://www.hbsp.harvard.edu/b01/en/common/item_detail.jhtml?id=208102 Monitor's Opportunities in India (A) Harvard Business School Case 708-482 The CEO of a strategy consulting firm must decide which of the... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

June 2021
Case

One Family Textiles: Stepping Back to Move Forward?

By: V.G. Narayanan, Alpana Thapar and Fares Khrais

This case explores how a family business builds a board that includes independent directors that helps to professionalize and strengthen governance in the company. The case relates to One Family Textiles, an Abu Dhabi-headquartered manufacturer of garments. The company... View Details

Keywords: Governance; Growth and Development Strategy; Operations; Governing and Advisory Boards; Business History; Decision Making; Accounting

April 2014 (Revised July 2017)
Case

The Park Hotels: Revitalizing an Iconic Indian Brand

By: Jill Avery and Chekitan S. Dev

Priya Paul, chairperson of The Park Hotels, an award-winning portfolio of thirteen boutique hotels scattered across India, was in the midst of a brand revitalization program. Landor Associates, a leading brand consultancy had identified three areas of concern: the... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Product Positioning; Competition; Brands and Branding; Accommodations Industry; India

06 Mar 2007
First Look

First Look: March 6, 2007

growth without undermining the progress achieved in reducing inequality and poverty. Can the Brazilian government reverse inequality and grow at the same time? What development strategy should Lula follow in his second term? Does Brazil... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

24 Apr 2023
HBS Case

What Does It Take to Build as Much Buzz as Booze? Inside the Epic Challenge of Cannabis-Infused Drinks

while working as consultants at Bain & Company in 2018. Alcohol alternative with a social mission Considered one of the first cannabis beverage firms, Cann has sold more than 10 million cans of low-calorie flavored seltzer infused... View Details

Keywords: by Jay Fitzgerald; Consumer Products; Food & Beverage

23 Nov 2021
Book

What It Takes to Build an Organizational Culture That Wins

that a culture limits the kinds of strategies that can be executed. As Edgar H. Schein has put it, “More and more management consultants are recognizing ... that, because culture constrains strategy, a... View Details

Keywords: by Avery Forman

25 Jun 2024
Research & Ideas

Rapport: The Hidden Advantage That Women Managers Bring to Teams

dwindles, mistakes happen, and a customer’s fries go missing. “You could have a great strategy on paper, but why isn’t it working? Lack of rapport can kill performance,” says Harvard Business School Assistant Professor Jorge Tamayo. “The... View Details

Keywords: by Kara Baskin; Food & Beverage

November 2002 (Revised October 2003)
Case

Circles: Series D Financing

By: Paul W. Marshall and Kristin Lieb

Circles, a corporate concierge company on the verge of profitability, must make a decision whether to take a D-round venture capital despite ever-changing and ever-worsening terms. A four-year-old company with several major clients, it has met its business plan... View Details

Keywords: Cost vs Benefits; Financing and Loans; Management Teams; Growth and Development Strategy; Negotiation Process; Venture Capital; Governing and Advisory Boards; Entrepreneurship; Consulting Industry; Consulting Industry; Massachusetts

09 Jun 2022
HBS Case

From Truck Driver to Manager: US Foods’ Novel Approach to Staff Shortages

the company was able to maintain its position as one of the top three food distribution companies in the US among rivals Sysco and Performance Food Group, capturing 10 percent of market share. US Foods’ strategy provides valuable lessons... View Details

Keywords: by Pamela Reynolds

2002
Book

Searching for a Corporate Savior: The Irrational Quest for Charismatic CEOs

By: Rakesh Khurana

Corporate CEOs are headline news. Stock prices rise and fall at word of their hiring and firing. Business media debate their merits and defects as if individual leaders determined the health of the economy. Yet we know surprisingly little about how CEOs are selected... View Details

Keywords: Managerial Roles; Selection and Staffing; Personal Characteristics; Experience and Expertise; Investment Activism; Corporate Strategy

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07 Feb 2022
Research & Ideas

Digital Transformation: A New Roadmap for Success

challenges these leaders confronted and strategies for how to address them. Organizational change is never easy, but our roundtable discussions made clear that achieving digital maturity can be an especially arduous journey, even for... View Details

Keywords: by Linda A. Hill, Ann Le Cam, Sunand Menon, and Emily Tedards

31 Aug 2021
Book

Feeling Powerless at Work? Time to Agitate, Innovate, and Orchestrate

doctor turned social entrepreneur, a Bangladeshi policeman, an American business consultant trying to create change, and a Polish Holocaust survivor—and included both historical examples and contemporary anecdotes about how people have... View Details

Keywords: by Jay Fitzgerald

20 Jun 2005
Research & Ideas

Creating a Positive Professional Image

consulting firm. Similarly, female medical students and residents are often mistaken for nurses or orderlies and challenged by patients who do not believe they are legitimate physicians. Q: What is impression management and what are its... View Details

Keywords: by Mallory Stark

18 Jan 2016
Research & Ideas

Hazard Warning: The Unacceptable Cost of Toxic Workers

Toxic workers aren’t just a pain in the rear; they’re also a pain in the bottom line, according to a new Harvard Business School working paper. Dylan Minor, visiting assistant professor of business administration in the HBS Strategy unit,... View Details

Keywords: by Roberta Holland

April 2006
Article

Competitive Advantage and the Value Network Configuration: Making Decisions at a Swedish Life Insurance Company

By: Øystein D. Fjeldstad and Christian H.M. Ketels

When the Swedish Life Insurers Förenade Liv found themselves in difficulties in a rapidly changing market, their response was to call in the consultants. And one of the consultant's first suggestions was to use the Value Network, not the Value Chain, as a new... View Details

Keywords: Competitive Advantage; Fluctuation; Networks; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Value; Quality; Decision Making; Market Transactions; Performance Effectiveness; Customers; Insurance Industry; Sweden

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2010
Working Paper

Disagreement about the Team's Status Hierarchy: An Insidious Obstacle to Coordination and Performance

By: Heidi K. Gardner

Hierarchies are pervasive in groups, generally providing clear guidelines for the dominance and deference behaviors that members are expected to show based on their relative ranks. But what happens when team members disagree about where each member ranks on the... View Details

Keywords: Performance Effectiveness; Groups and Teams; Behavior; Conflict and Resolution; Perception; Status and Position; Cooperation