Publications

04 Sep 2001
Research & Ideas

Governing the Family-Run Business

right people in a timely way to discuss and decide the big issues facing your organization—then your governance system is flawed, should be improved, and probably needs to be made more formal. Given how difficult it is for most people to... View Details

May 1992 (Revised August 1996)
Case

NIKE in Transition (A): The Ascendancy of Bob Woodell

By: Christopher A. Bartlett

Explores Bob Woodell's tenure as Nike's first COO. Describes development of Woodell's management style, his attempts to develop the organization, and his responses to unforeseen business problems. Changing market forces, new competitors, a build-up of low-end... View Details

Keywords: Conferences; Crisis Management; Management Style; Marketing Strategy; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Performance Evaluation; Competition

2012
Working Paper

Relational Contracts and Organizational Capabilities

By: R. Gibbons and R. Henderson

A large literature identifies unique organizational capabilities as a potent source of competitive advantage, yet our knowledge of why capabilities fail to diffuse more rapidly-particularly in situations in which competitors apparently have strong incentives to adopt... View Details

Keywords: Competitive Advantage; Motivation and Incentives; Management Practices and Processes; Contracts; Competency and Skills; Relationships; Complexity

Read Now

February 2000 (Revised August 2000)
Case

Microsoft Latin America

By: Robert S. Kaplan, Alberto Ballve and Antonio Davila

Mauricio Santillan, regional vice president for the Latin American division of Microsoft, has introduced a new performance measurement system to help his country managers formulate and control strategy. Microsoft Latin America's priorities are rolling out of an... View Details

Keywords: Balanced Scorecard; Applications and Software; Emerging Markets; Crime and Corruption; Motivation and Incentives; Management Skills; Global Strategy; Strategy; Information Technology Industry; Latin America

05 Dec 2022
What Do You Think?

How Would Jack Welch’s Leadership Style Fare in Today’s World?

years into his tenure, GE became the most valuable company in the world. Gelles and Cohan cite everything from failed acquisitions and strategies to brutal downsizing, forced ranking of managers, a poor environmental record, legal accounting practices designed to View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett; Industrial Products; Media & Broadcasting; Medical Devices & Supplies; Manufacturing

21 Oct 2015
Research & Ideas

How to Predict if a New Business Idea is Any Good

Operations Management unit at Harvard Business School. “They didn’t know it would turn out to be a multibillion dollar industry.” “By definition, when an investor makes an investment, it changes the probability of success” In a new... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Accommodations; Financial Services

September–October 2012
Article

Relational Contracts and Organizational Capabilities

By: Robert Gibbons and Rebecca Henderson

A large literature identifies unique organizational capabilities as a potent source of competitive advantage, yet our knowledge of why capabilities fail to diffuse more rapidly—particularly in situations in which competitors apparently have strong incentives to adopt... View Details

Keywords: Competitive Advantage; Organizations

April 1999
Case

Trexel

Describes an interesting plastics technology and an entrepreneur's attempts to build a business around it. Highlights issues around managing technical and market risk. Teaching purpose: Highlights difficult decisions around building a business off of an unproven... View Details

Keywords: Business or Company Management; Business Startups; Risk Management; Risk and Uncertainty; Information Technology; Corporate Entrepreneurship

Research Summary

Overview

By: Ayelet Israeli

Professor Israeli utilizes econometric methods and field experiments to study data driven decision making in marketing context. Her research focuses on data-driven marketing, with an emphasis on how businesses can leverage their own data, customer data, and market data... View Details

Keywords: Channel Management; Pricing; Pricing Policies; Online Marketing; E-commerce; Analytics; Econometrics; Field Experiments; Data Analytics; Artificial Intelligence; Value Of Data

2011
Book

Being the Boss: The 3 Imperatives for Becoming a Great Leader

By: Linda A. Hill and Kent Lineback

You never dreamed being the boss would be so hard. You're caught in a web of conflicting expectations from subordinates, your supervisor, peers, and customers. You're constantly fighting fires. You're mired in office politics. You end each day exhausted and... View Details

Keywords: Management; Leadership; Management Skills; Employee Relationship Management; Personal Development and Career; Groups and Teams; Social and Collaborative Networks

Find at Harvard

21 Aug 2013
Research & Ideas

What Went Wrong at J.C. Penney?

home goods. It was particularly well known for home goods and children's ware. And once the family went there, they also shopped for men's and women's apparel, which accounted for almost half of sales. They had a very strong private label program, and to their credit,... View Details

Keywords: by Jim Aisner; Retail

October 2013 (Revised January 2015)
Case

Americhem: The Gaylord Division (A-1)

By: David A. Garvin

The Gaylord Division of Americhem, a large chemical company, is in the midst of the first use of a new zero-base budgeting system. The general manager of the division leading the process is experiencing disagreement and conflict among the members of the senior... View Details

Keywords: Budgets and Budgeting; Leadership; Management Practices and Processes; Strategic Planning; Problems and Challenges

January 1996 (Revised October 1997)
Case

Americhem: The Gaylord Division (A)

By: David A. Garvin

The Gaylord Division of Americhem, a large chemical company, is in the midst of the first use of a new zero-base budgeting system. The general manager of the division leading the process is experiencing disagreement and conflict among the members of the senior... View Details

Keywords: Budgets and Budgeting; Leadership; Management Practices and Processes; Strategic Planning; Problems and Challenges

Find at Harvard

28 May 2019
Research & Ideas

Investor Lawsuits Against Auditors Are Falling, and That's Bad News for Capital Markets

when big scandals happen, like Enron and WorldCom, the weak link often turns out to be auditors. Managers are mostly truth-tellers but have incentives to embellish and sometimes commit fraud. So we rely on auditors to mitigate that... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Financial Services; Accounting

11 Jan 2011
First Look

First Look: Jan. 11

painful, difficult journey. It's trial and error, endless effort, and slowly acquired personal insight. Many managers never complete the journey. At best, they just learn to get by. At worst, they become... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

27 Jan 2012
Working Paper Summaries

Discretion Within the Constraints of Opportunity: Gender Homophily and Structure in a Formal Organization

Keywords: by Adam M. Kleinbaum, Toby E. Stuart & Michael L. Tushman

16 Dec 2002
Research & Ideas

Mentoring—Using the Voice of Experience

research, started in the year 2000, was aimed at understanding how an innovative team working together in a creative act managed the process of knowledge transfer between the more experienced and less experienced members of that team. The... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

December 1999 (Revised October 2003)
Case

BRL Hardy: Globalizing an Australian Wine Company

By: Christopher A. Bartlett

Two new product launch decisions face Christopher Carson, managing director of BRL Hardy, Europe. Responsible for the European operations of a major Australian wine company, Carson has begun to globalize his strategy beyond selling the parent company's wines. After a... View Details

Keywords: Global Strategy; Joint Ventures; Product Launch; Brands and Branding; Competitive Strategy; Business Subsidiaries; Negotiation Style; Food and Beverage Industry

June 2002 (Revised January 2010)
Case

Delphi Corporation (A)

By: Jay W. Lorsch, Rakesh Khurana and Sonya Sanchez

The Delphi Corp.'s board of directors faces a transition as lead director Thomas Wyman approaches mandatory retirement. Chairman and CEO J.T. Battenberg reflects on Delphi's history and its successful reinvention by Wyman and Battenberg when it separated from its... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Governance; Governing and Advisory Boards; Leadership; Management Succession; Management Teams; Relationships; Corporate Strategy