Publications

Have you ever been in a team meeting and wondered something like, "Why did the boss gave Jamie that assignment? I think Susan is a better match for the job." Or observed a colleague asking another for help and thought, "It never occurred to me to... View Details

03 Jun 2020
Blog Post

Jeff Surette and Mike Peters: A Winning Team at TB12

Neither Jeff Surette (MBA 2010) nor Mike Peters (MBA 2017) expected to be drafted onto a team with Tom Brady after business school. However, the perspectives, experience, and skills they each brought to the table were exactly what Tom... View Details

Keywords: Consumer Products / Retail

2008
Working Paper

Variation in Experience and Team Familiarity: Addressing the Knowledge Acquisition-Application Problem

By: Robert S. Huckman and Bradley R. Staats

Prior work in organizational learning has failed to find a consistent effect of variation in experience on performance. While some studies find a positive relationship between these two variables, others find no effect or even a negative relationship. In this paper, we... View Details

Keywords: Experience and Expertise; Learning; Knowledge Acquisition; Knowledge Use and Leverage; Organizational Culture; Performance Improvement; Groups and Teams; Familiarity; India

Read Now

07 Mar 2022
Research & Ideas

Effective Leaders Share the Spotlight with Their Teams

pandemic that has upended typical team communication. “Inclusive leaders are becoming really important as companies get bigger and more complex,” says Zou, whose research defines “inclusive” to mean managers... View Details

Keywords: by Pamela Reynolds

June 1995
Case

Northern Telecom and Netas (A): Turkey's Telecommunications Team

By: Rosabeth M. Kanter, Kalman D. Applbaum and Pamela A. Yatsko

The Turkish general manager of a successful telecommunications equipment-manufacturing joint venture between the Canadian company Northern Telecom and local partners in Turkey reviews the solutions to a crisis in 1989 and wonders whether the company will be able to... View Details

Keywords: Joint Ventures; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Crisis Management; Problems and Challenges; Change Management; Developing Countries and Economies; Political Elections; Telecommunications Industry; Manufacturing Industry; Turkey; Canada

Educators

December 2019
Case

Small-Market Teams and Big Stars: The Milwaukee Bucks and Giannis Antetokounmpo

By: Anita Elberse and Melcolm Ruffin

In October 2019, National Basketball Association (NBA) team the Milwaukee Bucks are about to tip off their first home game in the 2019–2020 NBA season. Peter Feigin, president of the Milwaukee Bucks, and Jon Horst, the league’s youngest general manager, could look back... View Details

Keywords: Superstars; Talent and Talent Management; Sports; Strategy; Sports Industry

Educators

Teaching Interest

Owner/President Management Progam (Executive Education)

By: Josh Lerner

As business owners and entrepreneurs prepare to take their companies to the next level in a highly competitive global arena, they must be fully equipped to master a range of skills—from strategy development to financial management to team... View Details

Web

Online Dynamic Teaming Course | HBS Online

This course is part of the Leadership & Management track. Introduction to Dynamic Teaming ENROLL NOW No application needed for our certificate programs. Start your journey today! New Dynamic View Details

08 Sep 2014
Research & Ideas

The Strategic Way To Hire a Sales Team

Cespedes explains a strategic process for hiring and managing an effective salesforce: book excerpt Build your Team: Recruitment And Selection From Aligning Strategy and Sales By Frank Cespedes Putting the right View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

18 Nov 2013
News

Pulpit Bullies: Why Dominating Leaders Kill Teams

Keywords: Management

August 22, 2017
Article

Find the Right Metrics for Your Sales Team

By: Frank V. Cespedes and Robert Marsh

This article reports the results of a survey of key performance indicators (KPIs) used by more than 800 sales groups across industries. The most common KPIs are closed deals and salesperson performance against quota, which, on average, firms measure monthly. But a... View Details

Keywords: Sales; Performance Evaluation; Measurement and Metrics; Salesforce Management

Register to Read

May 2019
Background Note

Founders' Agreements

By: Shikhar Ghosh, Shweta Bagai and Sanchali Pal

Crafting a Founders’ Agreement is an important component of startup infrastructure as it documents a complex set of decisions that build a company’s roots. Its four key elements are: roles and responsibilities, rights (decision rights, rewards, position on board),... View Details

Keywords: Founders' Agreements; Team Management; Contingency Planning; Business Startups; Equity; Entrepreneurship

Educators

07 Jan 2013
News

Culture Changers: Managing High-Impact Entrepreneurs

January–February 2019
Article

Case Study: When Two Leaders on the Senior Team Hate Each Other

By: Boris Groysberg and Katherine Connolly Baden

In this fictional case, the CEO of a sports apparel manufacturer is faced with an ongoing conflict between two of his top executives. Specifically, the head of sales and the CFO are at each other’s throats and the tension is having a ripple effect on their teams and... View Details

Keywords: Interpersonal Conflict; Management Teams; Conflict Management

Register to Read

21 Jun 2022
HBS Case

Free Isn’t Always Better: How Slack Holds Its Own Against Microsoft Teams

who are accustomed to team messaging. “It’s early in the game,” Yoffie says. “We’re in the second or third inning. There’s plenty of time to develop the competition and for new outcomes to emerge.” Microsoft plays catch up to Slack... View Details

Keywords: by Lane Lambert; Information Technology; Technology

March 2001 (Revised April 2001)
Case

MiCRUS: Activity-Based Management for Business Turnaround

By: Robert S. Kaplan, Jonathan B. Schiff and Stanley Abraham

MiCRUS is a new company, spun off from IBM as a joint venture between IBM and Cirrus Logic to produce semiconductor wafers at world-class costs for its two parent companies. The senior management team needs to overcome the bureaucratic, internally focused culture that... View Details

Keywords: Activity Based Costing and Management; Cost Management; Semiconductor Industry

Web

Leadership Team | Harvard Business School Online

HBS Online Leadership Team V.G. Narayanan Senior Associate Dean, HBS Online and Executive Education; Thomas D. Casserly, Jr. Professor of Business Administration, Harvard Business School Simeen Mohsen Senior View Details

August 2012
Article

Dynamically Integrating Knowledge in Teams: A Resource-based View of Team Performance

By: H. K. Gardner, F. Gino and B. Staats

In knowledge-based environments, teams must develop a systematic approach to integrating knowledge resources throughout the course of projects in order to perform effectively. Yet, many teams fail to do so. Drawing on the resource-based view of the firm, we examine how... View Details

Keywords: Groups and Teams; Projects; Performance Effectiveness; Knowledge Sharing; Employees; Theory; Framework; Management Practices and Processes; Research