Publications

Find at Harvard

May 2014
Case

Gunfire at Sea (multi-media case)

By: Michael Tushman and Tom Ryder

This short video illustrates the challenges of leading innovation and change. This classic case (one of the oldest in the HBS system) retains its timeliness. The case describes how Lt. Sims develops a new form of gunfire at sea—continuous aim gunfire. While 3,000% more... View Details

Keywords: Organization Behavior; Change; Innovation; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Leading Change; Innovation Leadership; United States

November 2021 (Revised January 2022)
Case

Nicole M. Jones and The Hangar℠: Delta Air Lines' Global Innovation Center

By: Linda A. Hill and Emily Tedards

In 2016, Nicole M. Jones was hired to lead The Hangar, Delta Air Lines’ new innovation center in Atlanta, Georgia. Delta’s leadership had intended for The Hangar to catalyze a new approach to innovation at the company. After conducting three months of research on... View Details

Keywords: Innovation Lab; Breakthrough Innovation; Biometric Technology; Innovation and Invention; Leadership; Innovation and Management; Collaborative Innovation and Invention; Innovation Strategy; Technological Innovation; Georgia (state, US)

October 2009
Case

Don Soderquist: Negotiating the Wal-Mart-P&G Relationship (A)

By: James K. Sebenius and Ellen Knebel

This case describes the negotiations and strategic choices of Don Soderquist, who as Chief Operating Officer of Wal-Mart, helped to forge a major partnership with P&G in the 1980s and 1990s. The case chronicles the challenging barriers to success along with several of... View Details

Keywords: Negotiation Style; Partners and Partnerships; Leadership; Value Creation; Problems and Challenges; Management Teams; Retail Industry

26 Oct 2021
Research & Ideas

What Companies Want Most in a CEO: A Good Listener

For a better shot at landing the top job at today’s companies, aspiring CEOs should set aside their slide presentations and work on their listening skills instead, new research suggests. Companies are increasingly seeking socially adept leaders—not charismatic... View Details

Keywords: by Jay Fitzgerald

03 May 2010
Research & Ideas

What Is the Future of MBA Education?

heard was about the value added of an MBA degree. In every interview, deans and executives returned repeatedly to that question, as well as to a large set of unmet needs that they identified in areas such as View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Education

31 May 2023
HBS Case

From Prison Cell to Nike’s C-Suite: The Journey of Larry Miller

View Video Editor's note: Watch the video in "full screen" mode for the best viewing experience. Before shaping one of the world’s largest sports brands, Nike executive Larry Miller spent years of his youth and early adulthood behind bars... View Details

Keywords: by Jamal Meneide; Entertainment & Recreation; Consumer Products

October 2009
Supplement

Don Soderquist: Negotiating the Wal-Mart-P&G Relationship (B)

By: James K. Sebenius and Ellen Knebel

This case follows the A case and describes the negotiations and strategic choices of Don Soderquist, who as Chief Operating Officer of Wal-Mart, helped to forge a major partnership with P&G in the 1980s and 1990s. The case chronicles the challenging barriers to success... View Details

Keywords: Negotiation Style; Partners and Partnerships; Leadership; Value Creation; Problems and Challenges; Distribution Channels; Distribution Industry

September 2005
Case

Whitbread PLC (A)

By: Michael Beer and James Weber

Describes the change process Whitbread employed in transforming its organization and culture from a single underperforming business operating in a relatively stable environment to a multibusiness, high-commitment, and high-performance corporation operating in more... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Change Management; Growth and Development Strategy; Growth Management; Business Growth and Maturation; Business or Company Management; Leadership; Diversification

06 Jul 2011
Research & Ideas

Are You a Level-Six Leader?

several options)? “Opportunists are the people who always ask, 'What's in it for me?'” Asking the question whom do you serve? is a powerful vector on which to build a useful typology of leadership. Based on this idea, I have constructed a six-level Purpose-Driven Model... View Details

Keywords: by Mitch Maidique

23 Sep 2015
Research & Ideas

Men Want Powerful Jobs More Than Women Do

believe they are equally able to attain high-level leadership positions, men want that power more than women do. Published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, their study is entitled Compared to Men, Women... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

04 Nov 2015
What Do You Think?

Why Does Gender Diversity Improve Financial Performance?

answer is obvious. "Women executives have to be at least twice as good as their male counterparts to get to that level.” And Hugh Quick asked the possibly rhetorical question, “Could it be that some women are good at running things?”... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

31 Aug 2020
What Do You Think?

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

“many of our existing leaders have not had the experience of not being included in their companies’ cultures because of factors related to their race or gender.” That observation probably applies to many in the lower ranks of leadership... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

January 2015 (Revised July 2015)
Case

Jimmy Choo

By: Anat Keinan and Sandrine Crener

Jimmy Choo is a British luxury accessories brand, specializing in shoes, handbags, accessories, and fragrances. Founded in 1996 in London by couture shoe designer Jimmy Choo and Vogue accessories editor Tamara Mellon OBE, the brand enjoyed immediate success and rapidly... View Details

May 2011
Article

The Wise Leader

By: Ikujiro Nonaka and Hirotaka Takeuchi

In an era of increasing discontinuity, wise leadership has nearly vanished. Many leaders find it difficult to reinvent their corporations rapidly enough to cope with new technologies, demographic shifts, and consumption trends. They can't develop truly global... View Details

Keywords: Communication Intention and Meaning; Interpersonal Communication; Experience and Expertise; Values and Beliefs; Knowledge Sharing; Knowledge Use and Leverage; Leadership; Leadership Development; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Personal Characteristics; Power and Influence

Find at Harvard

16 Jun 2015
First Look

First Look: June 16, 2015

of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner. Emphasis is on executive leadership and firm strategy in coordinating across a global network of partners in the production of a new aircraft. Purchase this case:... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

2015
Chapter

Leading Proactive Punctuated Change

By: Michael Tushman, Charles O'Reilly and Bruce Harreld

This chapter focuses on leading proactive punctuated change. Based on the institutional and organizational change literatures and our extended involvement with IBM between 1999 and 2008, we suggest that proactive punctuated change can be effectively managed through an... View Details

19 Dec 2023
Research & Ideas

15 Podcast Episodes That Grabbed Listeners in 2023

needed to take decisive steps to succeed against the major opposition to his leadership from both inside and outside the company. Twitter employees circulated an open letter protesting expected layoffs, advertising agencies advised their... View Details

Keywords: by Danielle Kost

May 2014
Article

From Purpose to Impact: Figure Out Your Passion and Put It to Work

By: Nick Craig and Scott Snook

We offer opinions on leadership. A need is seen for executives to have a strong belief in the purpose of their lives as individuals and within an organization to be effective leaders and to accomplish their personal goals. Executives are urged to examine their lives to... View Details

Keywords: Leadership