Publications

07 Aug 2013
What Do You Think?

Is There Still a Role for Judgment in Decision-Making?

and provide accurate feedback . Most situations, especially in the business world, have poor validity, in which case intuition is a poor guide. Vance Kirklin appeared to disagree with this, saying that, "Transformative decisions (strategic decisions that View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

November 1991 (Revised October 1995)
Case

Calyx & Corolla

By: Walter J. Salmon and David Wylie

Describes a new entry into the $8 billion flower industry in the United States. Combining the use of overnight air freight (Federal Express), information technology, an 800 number, and a catalog, Calyx & Corolla was changing the way flowers had traditionally been... View Details

Keywords: Market Entry and Exit; Transformation; Distribution Channels; Business Startups; Problems and Challenges; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; United States

January 2021
Case

Saham Group: It's In the Genes

By: Christina R. Wing and Gamze Yucaoglu

The case opens in August 2020 as Moulay Mhamed Elalamy (Mhamed), CEO of the Saham Group (the Group), a pan-African investment company that operates a variety of businesses out of Morocco, contemplates the Group’s identity, its investment strategy, and how to navigate... View Details

Keywords: Family and Family Relationships; Family Business; For-Profit Firms; Transformation; Transition; Emerging Markets; Change Management; Private Equity; Investment; Strategy; Insurance Industry; Real Estate Industry; Education Industry; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Morocco; Africa

23 Jun 2023
News

Highlights from the Spring 2023 Alumni Board Meeting

that has defined the transformational experience of an HBS MBA. "Will we continue to get the most promising young students and future leaders and attract the most remarkable faculty and staff that creates this View Details

Web

Courses by Faculty Unit - Course Catalog

Operations Management) Suraj Srinivasan Spring 2026 Q4 1.5 Strategy Execution Robert Simons Spring 2026 Q4 1.5 Systems for Scaling Ventures (SSV) (also listed under Entrepreneurial Management) Tatiana Sandino Spring 2026 Q3Q4 3.0 View Details

June 2020
Case

What IKEA Do We Want?

By: Juan Alcácer, Cynthia A. Montgomery, Emilie Billaud and Vincent Dessain

In 2018, Swedish furniture maker IKEA was undergoing a significant transformation. Challenged by the rise of online shopping and changing consumer behavior, and mourning the death of its founder, the Company's top executives knew they had to step out of their comfort... View Details

Keywords: Business Strategy; Transformation; Leading Change; Mission and Purpose; Business Model; Emerging Markets; Customer Focus and Relationships; Organizational Culture; Disruption; Consumer Products Industry; Retail Industry; Europe; Netherlands; Sweden; China; India; United States

01 Jun 2024
News

Leveraging Generative AI

Four decades after HBS became the first business school in the country to require the use of personal computers in the MBA Program, the School is undergoing a different kind of technological transformation, one that leverages generative artificial intelligence (GenAI)... View Details

Keywords: Jennifer Gillespie

25 Nov 2013
Working Paper Summaries

Standard-Essential Patents

Keywords: by Josh Lerner & Jean Tirole; Legal Services

20 Aug 2009
Working Paper Summaries

A Decision-Making Perspective to Negotiation: A Review of the Past and a Look into the Future

Keywords: by Chia-Jung Tsay & Max H. Bazerman

2008
Working Paper

From Social Control to Financial Economics: The Linked Ecologies of Economics and Business in Twentieth Century America

By: Marion Fourcade and Rakesh Khurana

As the main producers of managerial elites, business schools represent strategic research sites for understanding the formation of economic practices and representations. This article draws on historical material to analyze the changing place of economics in American... View Details

Keywords: Economics; Business Education; Finance; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Business History; Chicago

17 Sep 2021
Research & Ideas

The Trial of Elizabeth Holmes: Visionary, Criminal, or Both?

vision. By all accounts, she and the others at Theranos, all of them wanted Theranos to succeed. Their vision was incredible; it would have been transformative. The question is, at what point does that wishfulness and enthusiasm go from optimism to fraud? The leaders... View Details

Keywords: by Christina Pazzanese, Harvard Gazette; Biotechnology; Technology; Medical Devices & Supplies

31 Aug 2020
What Do You Think?

Why Don’t More Organizations Understand the Power of Diversity and Inclusion?

few at the top who have already made it. Transformation has to take place on the front lines and the middle levels as well. This takes effort and time, perhaps more than many organizations are willing to invest. Inclusion may present too... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

31 May 2023
News

Alumni Achievement Awards 2023

perspective, and I really enjoyed that.” Pivot: “A few years after medical school, I was teaching, seeing patients, and researching interesting science problems, but I wasn’t transforming human disease. I realized that what I wanted to do... View Details

Keywords: leadership; management; work-life balance

January 2009 (Revised June 2010)
Case

Cisco Systems (2001): Building and Sustaining a Customer-Centric Culture

By: Ranjay Gulati

Customer centricity has been an important part of the culture at Cisco Systems since its inception. While part of this is attributable to values put in place by the founders and retained by subsequent management, it is also closely interwoven with its organizational... View Details

Keywords: Customer Satisfaction; Organizational Design; Organizational Structure; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Change Management; Organizational Culture; Research and Development; Job Cuts and Outsourcing; Employees; Brands and Branding; Customer Relationship Management; Business Units

23 May 2018
News

Abigail P. Johnson, MBA 1988

two daughters—Johnson conquered every challenge that came her way and methodically set about transforming the company. In 2014 she was appointed CEO and in 2016, she took on the role of chairman. Her stellar track record includes... View Details

Keywords: Susan Young

01 Dec 2019
News

Developing Leaders Who Bridge Business and Engineering

Nunnelly and Dupré gift will dramatically increase innovation and the commercialization of new technologies and make it possible to efficiently take transformative ideas to the marketplace. Specifically, it will enable Harvard to attract... View Details

2012
Book

Producing Prosperity: Why America Needs a Manufacturing Renaissance

By: Gary P. Pisano and Willy Shih

For years—even decades—in response to intensifying global competition, American companies decided to outsource their manufacturing operations in order to reduce costs. But we are now seeing the alarming long-term effect of those choices: in many cases, once... View Details

Keywords: Job Cuts and Outsourcing; Production; Competitive Advantage; Transformation; Innovation and Invention; Manufacturing Industry; United States