Publications

July 2000
Background Note

Industry Transformation

By: Michael E. Porter and Jan W. Rivkin

One of the steepest challenges a strategist faces is to navigate his or her company through a period of industry transformation--an era of rapid and wholesale changes in industry structure. This note considers how periods of transformation typically unfold. It then... View Details

Keywords: Technological Innovation; Management; Management Practices and Processes; Industry Growth; Industry Structures; Strategy; Competitive Strategy; Corporate Strategy; Consulting Industry; Consulting Industry

30 Nov 2021
In Practice

What's the Role of Business in Confronting Climate Change?

The 26th annual United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties, also known as COP26, ended with a hard-fought pact that called on businesses and governments to meet their climate change goals faster. The event followed an August report by the Intergovernmental... View Details

Keywords: by Lynn Schenk and Dina Gerdeman

13 May 2008
First Look

First Look: May 13, 2008

http://www.hbsp.harvard.edu/b01/en/common/item_detail.jhtml?id=308052 Monitor's Opportunities in India (B): Grail Research Harvard Business School Supplement 708-483 Supplements the (A) case. Describes the decision by leaders of a View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

07 Feb 2012
First Look

First Look: February 7

that will deliver corporate performance. Finally, I conclude that the field will ultimately require a framework that puts firms at its center. Benefiting from Location: Knowledge Retrieval Authors:Juan Alcácer and Wilbur Chung Publication:Global View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

14 Mar 2017
First Look

First Look at New Research, March 14

Cross-Boundary Teaming for Innovation: Integrating Research on Teams and Knowledge in Organizations By: Edmondson, Amy C., and Jean-François Harvey Abstract—Cross-boundary teaming, within and across organizations, is an increasingly popular View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

31 Mar 2022
Op-Ed

Navigating the ‘Bermuda Triangle’ in Professional Services

particularly valued Linklaters’ ability to work on cross-jurisdictional matters. Learning economies. Major strategy consulting firms, such as McKinsey and Boston Consulting... View Details

Keywords: by Ashish Nanda

29 Jan 2018
Book

How 'Teaming' Saved 33 Lives in the Chilean Mining Disaster

trapped men (enough food for two men for 10 days) combined to make the possibility of rescue appear all but impossible to consulted experts. A mining rescue in the United States just a few years earlier, in which nine men were trapped 240... View Details

Keywords: by Amy C. Edmondson; Mining

October 2007
Case

The AtekPC Project Management Office

By: F. Warren McFarlan, Mark Keil and John Hupp

Presents one company's efforts to implement a project management organization, or PMO, and the challenges they faced in doing so. Issues brought out in the case include defining the PMO's purpose and mission, the structure and governance of the PMO, and how to... View Details

Keywords: Projects; Goals and Objectives; Technological Innovation; Information Technology; Business Strategy; Mathematical Methods; Consulting Industry

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

May 2013 (Revised March 2014)
Case

Gap, Inc., 2012

By: John R. Wells and Galen Danskin

Between 2000 and 2012, Gap, Inc. (Gap) ceded its world leadership position in specialty fashion retailing to Inditex of Spain and H&M of Sweden. These two companies, each less than a quarter of Gap's size in 2000, were now setting the pace in the global mass fashion... View Details

Keywords: Strategic Change; Fashion; Multinational; Brands; Competition; Multinational Firms and Management; Performance Improvement; Strategy; Brands and Branding; Change Management; Retail Industry; Fashion Industry; Apparel and Accessories Industry; Sweden; Spain; United States

30 May 2005
Research & Ideas

Six Steps for Making Your Threat Credible

made its threat credible. This may be more than enough of an incentive for you to decide not to bid after all. As the CEO's strategy illustrates, increasing the costs you will incur by not following through on your threats can persuade... View Details

Keywords: by Deepak Malhotra

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

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

Find at Harvard

03 Jan 2023
Book

Confront Workplace Inequity in 2023: Dig Deep, Build Bridges, Take Collective Action

that really differentiate the most effective leaders,” says Opie. Exposing inequities in the workplace Opie uses many of the strategies in the book as a consultant to corporations struggling with racial and... View Details

Keywords: by Pamela Reynolds

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