Publications

Read Now

2012
Dictionary Entry

Learning from Failure

By: Mark D. Cannon and Amy C. Edmondson

Failure is defined as an outcome that deviates from expected and desired results. Learning from failure describes processes and behaviors through which individuals, groups and organizations gain accurate and useful insights from failures and modify future behaviors,... View Details

Keywords: Learning From Failure; Failure; Learning; Behavior; Organizational Change and Adaptation

01 Aug 2004
Conference Presentation

Achieving Flexibility in NPD: New Processes and New Ways of Organizing

By: Alan MacCormack

Keywords: Product Development; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Management Practices and Processes

November 1987 (Revised June 1988)
Case

ServiceMaster Industries, Inc.

By: James L. Heskett

The CEO of ServiceMaster Industries has convened an internal task force to come up with ideas for reorganizing the company to accommodate unusually fast growth. In developing both alternatives and criteria for appraising them, the task force has to keep in mind the... View Details

Keywords: Restructuring; Leading Change; Growth and Development Strategy; Organizational Culture

April 2000 (Revised November 2003)
Case

H. E. Butt Grocery Company: The New Digital Strategy (A)

By: F. Warren McFarlan and Melissa Dailey

Shows how the company's IT priorities have moved from primary supply chain restructuring to e-commerce. Shows the new organization structure created by the company. View Details

Keywords: Internet and the Web; Organizational Structure; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Supply Chain; Technology Adoption; Information Technology; Retail Industry

Find at Harvard

15 May 2017
Working Paper Summaries

Flexing the Frame: TMT Framing and the Adoption of Non-Incremental Innovations in Incumbent Firms

Keywords: by Ryan Raffaelli, Mary Ann Glynn, and Michael Tushman

June 2010 (Revised October 2011)
Case

ProPublica

By: Michel Anteby, Philippe Bertreau and Charlotte Newman

Stephen Engelberg, ProPublica's managing editor, entered the organization's newsroom located in lower Manhattan on September 16, 2008. He knew a historical financial debacle was happening at his doorstep, yet none of his journalists were covering that beat. It would... View Details

Keywords: Employee Relationship Management; Leadership; Leading Change; Resource Allocation; Organizational Culture; Motivation and Incentives; Journalism and News Industry; Publishing Industry; New York (city, NY)

August 2006 (Revised September 2007)
Supplement

Istituto Clinico Humanitas (C): Pronto Soccorso

By: Richard M.J. Bohmer

Follows on from the cases Istituto Clinico Humanitas (A) and (B). Describes the design and running of the new Humanitas Emergency Department. Istituto Clinico Humanitas has developed a very efficient operating system for dealing with elective (largely surgical)... View Details

Keywords: Health Care and Treatment; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Service Operations; Service Delivery; Customer Focus and Relationships; Health Industry; Italy

April 2015 (Revised June 2016)
Case

The Transformation of NCR

By: David Collis, Raffaella Sadun and Matthew Shaffer

During his tenure as CEO since 2005, Bill Nuti had moved NCR Corporation (originally National Cash Register) from its historical competence in hardware to become a provider of hardware and software for managing transactions across a range of industries and payments... View Details

Keywords: NCR; Hardware; Software; Acquisitions; Financial Services; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Expansion; Information Infrastructure; Applications and Software; Transformation; Acquisition; Financial Services Industry; Technology Industry

March 2011 (Revised December 2012)
Teaching Note

Bono and U2 (TN)

By: Nancy F. Koehn, Nora N. Khan and Elizabeth Legris

Teaching Note for 809148. View Details

Keywords: Growth and Development Strategy; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Transformation; Information Technology; Business Model; Arts; Entrepreneurship; Leadership; Music Industry

14 Feb 2018
News

A ‘Hopeaholic’ Promotes Diversity, Inclusion, and Equality in the Workplace

Ina Coleman (MBA 1986) found her professional calling by empowering others to take action for gender equality, inclusion, and diversity in their work environments. An organizational development consultant at Sirenia Partners, Coleman... View Details

11 Dec 2007
First Look

First Look: December 11, 2007

conceptualize an overarching model of how communities influence organizations. We suggest that because organizations are simultaneously embedded in communities and organizational fields, by accounting for both of these different levels,... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

Career Coach

Sarah Bua

Executive Leadership Program - China (SELP-China), Owner President Manager Program (OPM) and Leading Change through Organizational Renewal (LCOR) executive education offerings. She has worked... View Details

Keywords: Consulting; Entrepreneurship; Investment Banking; Financial Services (All); Investment Management; Financial Services (All); Private Equity; Financial Services (All); Venture Capital; Financial Services (All); Government; Health Care; Clean Technology; Energy

16 Dec 2002
Research & Ideas

Mentoring—Using the Voice of Experience

2.94; so they did learn. And they certainly gave their coaches a lot of credit for helping them both in the start-up period and throughout the extraordinary change that occurred in that period. We were witness to a sea View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

16 Nov 2010
Lessons from the Classroom

Data.gov: Matching Government Data with Rapid Innovation

and other top executives representing fields as diverse as telecommunications, financial services, and pharmaceuticals, as well as government entities in the US and overseas-debated the pluses and minuses of Data.gov's decisions, its View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Technology

19 Dec 2005
Research & Ideas

Public Education Goes to School

organizational coherence in support of the strategy Developing and managing human capital Allocating resources in alignment with the strategy Using performance data for decision making and accountability Here's how these play out on the... View Details

Keywords: by Mallory Stark; Education

September 2004 (Revised June 2005)
Case

Otis Elevator: Accelerating Business Transformation with IT

By: F. Warren McFarlan and Brian DeLacey

Focuses on a major transformation of Otis Elevator's infrastructure. Led by the CEO, this transformation represents a remarkable long-term reengineering of all the processes of the firm to drive its operating costs down and service image up. The transformation is the... View Details

Keywords: Transformation; Cost Management; Infrastructure; Business Processes; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Information Technology

Web

Leadership, Ethics, and Corporate Accountability Course | HBS Online

style and managing the conditions that drive team performance. 6 weeks, 7-9 hrs/week Pay by July 7 $1,850 Certificate Management Essentials Professors Joseph Fuller & David Garvin Master four vital managerial processes: decision-making, implementation, View Details

01 Aug 2001
News

Cleveland Global Alumni Conference a Sold-Out Success

announced as the 2001 conference site. After two days packed with dynamic breakout sessions and inspiring keynote addresses by HBS faculty and some of the world's leading business executives, however, no one was laughing. The conference, "Leading in a View Details

Keywords: Hanna, Julia; Frank Batten (MBA '52); Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools; Educational Services

14 Jan 2022
Interview

Why We Need to Think of the Office as a Tool, with Very Specific Uses, Interview with Adi Ignatius

By: Tsedal Neeley and Adi Ignatius

HBR professor Tsedal Neeley has focused for years on a pair of essential business imperatives: how to go global, and how to become truly digital. More recently she has established herself as an expert in the nitty gritty aspects of the new workplace – how to hire and... View Details

Keywords: Technology Adoption; Buildings and Facilities; Organizational Change and Adaptation