Publications

19 Apr 2011
First Look

First Look: April 19

the right questions. The challenge lies in being able to step back, reflect, and ask the key questions that are critical to your performance and your organization's effectiveness. In What to Ask the Person in the Mirror, HBS professor and business leader View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

November 2016 (Revised December 2016)
Module Note

Strategy Execution Module 14: Managing Strategic Risk

This module reading provides an overview of the business conduct boundaries, strategic boundaries, and internal control systems used to manage risk. Boundary systems—linked to clear, enforceable sanctions—are essential whenever demanding performance goals are set and... View Details

Keywords: Management Control Systems; Implementing Strategy; Strategy Execution; Boundary Systems; Innovation; Internal Controls; Fraud; Human Behavior; Staff Experts; Strategy; Risk Management; Behavior; Governance Controls; Management Practices and Processes; Boundaries; Employees; Business Strategy; Innovation and Invention

06 May 2008
First Look

First Look: May 6, 2008

Working PapersHighbrow Films Gather Dust: A Study of Dynamic Inconsistency and Online DVD Rentals Authors:Katherine L. Milkman, Todd Rogers, and Max H. Bazerman Abstract We report on a field study demonstrating systematic differences... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

Web

2022 Reunion Presentations - Alumni

Professor Laura Alfaro + More Info – Less Info Fueled by a series of recent political events and actors, anti-globalization has been growing. From the rise of political platforms pinning blame on openness to imports and immigration to the... View Details

August 2016 (Revised May 2018)
Module Note

Strategy Execution Module 1: Managing Organizational Tensions

This module reading lays the foundation for executing strategy using performance measurement and control systems. Properly applied, these systems can overcome the organizational blocks that impede the potential of all people who work in modern organizations. This... View Details

Keywords: Management Control Systems; Implementing Strategy; Strategy Execution; Performance Measurement; Profit Planning; Organization Design; Profitable Growth; Management Attention; Organizational Conflict; Human Behavior; Strategy; Ethics; Goals and Objectives; Organizational Design; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Performance; Measurement and Metrics

25 Apr 2017
First Look

First Look at New Research, April 25

of $191 million. Media entrepreneur L. Lowry Mays (MBA 1962) had built Clear Channel through a concerted campaign of acquisitions over 30 years by consolidating fragmented media businesses, delighting... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

November 2016 (Revised December 2016)
Module Note

Strategy Execution Module 8: Linking Performance to Markets

This module reading shows how to link profit plans and other performance measurement systems to both internal and external markets. Starting with the transfer of goods and services within a firm, the module discusses the different methods of designing transfer pricing... View Details

Keywords: Management Control Systems; Implementing Strategy; Execution; Transfer Pricing; Activity Based Costing; Return On Investment; Residual Income; EVA; Strategy; Cost Accounting; Activity Based Costing and Management; Markets; Investment Return

March 2024
Case

Katharine Graham: Changing the World

By: Robert Simons and Shirley Sun

This case traces the life of Katharine Graham from housewife to publisher of the Washington Post. Born into a family of wealth, Graham described herself as a “doormat wife” after she married Phil Graham and stayed at home to raise their children. His unexpected death... View Details

Keywords: Mission and Purpose; Values and Beliefs; Power and Influence; Personal Characteristics; Leadership Style; Success; Work-Life Balance; News; Newspapers; Media; Gender; Publishing Industry

Educators

10 Apr 2012
First Look

First Look: April 10

Direct Reports? Authors:Gary L. Neilson and Julie Wulf Publication:Harvard Business Review 90, no. 4 (April 2012) Abstract If senior executives are feeling ever more pressed for time, why would they add more to their plates? It might... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

20 Jul 2010
First Look

First Look: July 20

Chairman (B) Robert L. Simons and Kathryn RosenbergHarvard Business School Supplement 110-004 This case continues the story begun in "Pfizer: A Letter from the... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

July 2009 (Revised May 2010)
Case

Pfizer: Letter from the Chairman (A)

By: Robert L. Simons and Natalie Kindred

This case explores maximizing shareholder value as a goal in executive decision making. Over a period of nine years, three different Pfizer CEOs make critical decisions intended to increase shareholder value. But the results are disappointing. To allow students to... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Corporate Accountability; Corporate Governance; Annual Reports; Business and Shareholder Relations; Value Creation; Pharmaceutical Industry; United States

Educators

Research Summary

Changing the World: Life Choices of Influential Leaders

This project studies the life choices made by a variety of people who have left a lasting legacy. Using biographical data, we are examining the choices that high-impact individuals faced in their lives and the paths they chose to follow. The leaders we study come... View Details

Keywords: Leadership Style; Personal Characteristics; Work-life Balance; Entrepreneurship; Business Startups; Success

24 Mar 2009
First Look

First Look: March 24, 2009

Liberal Self-Government in an Age of Uncertainty, edited by Faulkner Robert and Susan Shell. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, forthcoming Abstract Chapter excerpt: "Most American occupations of... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

21 Dec 2010
First Look

First Look: December 21

article reviews recent research conducted by the authors that finds that intellectual property rights reform increases technology transfers, foreign direct investment inflows, and industrial development. It also places the findings of... View Details

31 May 2016
First Look

May 31, 2016

have a higher probability of walking by the clinic for reasons other than vaccination. Method: We obtained data from an employer with a free workplace influenza vaccination clinic. Using each employee’s building entry/exit swipe card... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

Article

Market Integration in Developed and Emerging Markets: Evidence from the CAPM

By: Robert Bruner, Wei Li, Mark Kritzman, Simon Myrgren and Sebastien Page

Beta, as measured by the Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM), is widely used for pricing stocks, determining the cost of capital, and gauging the extent to which markets are integrated. The CAPM model assumes that equilibrium conditions prevail. The choice of which... View Details