Publications

June 2005 (Revised January 2008)
Case

Corey Robinson at Sprint Corporation (A)

By: Linda A. Hill, Anthony Mayo and Lisa Pode

Corey Robinson is promoted to a new position at Sprint during a time of much internal change within the company. Asks readers to consider how he sets the tone to his new management team and how effective he is in building credibility in his new leadership role. A... View Details

Keywords: Leadership Style; Management Skills; Management Teams; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Performance Effectiveness; Personal Development and Career; Power and Influence; Telecommunications Industry

March, 2023
Article

Academic Entrepreneurship: Entrepreneurial Advisors and Their Advisees' Outcomes

By: Maria P. Roche

The transfer of complex knowledge and skills is difficult, often requiring intensive interaction and extensive periods of co-working between a mentor and mentee, which is particularly true in apprenticeship-like settings and on-the-job training. This paper studies a... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Higher Education; Training; Personal Development and Career; Knowledge Dissemination

04 Mar 2024
What Do You Think?

Do People Want to Work Anymore?

month’s column How Do You Hire for Attitude? Hiring for attitude, training for skills is an important and winning strategy. But too many applicants experience what Caroline Hickey, in an email to me, described: “As a career coach, I... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

Teaching Interest

Digital Marketing Strategy

By: John A. Deighton

When the tools of marketing change, strategies change too. The focus of this course is on firms trying to navigate the transition from offline to online market-making and strategy development. Our concern is primarily with corporations that have products and... View Details

May 2025
Case

The Micro-Family Office: Aamir Rehman

By: Lauren Cohen and Sophia Pan

With a successful career and strong academic credentials, Aamir Rehman sought to design a life grounded in autonomy. For him, this meant serving on boards, continuing his professorship, and ensuring a secure and comfortable life for his family. While he didn’t possess... View Details

07 Jan 2015
Research & Ideas

The Quest for Better Layoffs

were convinced that their classmates had no idea what it would be like to be in a small town in New England, and to no longer have a source of employment." “We want to change the way layoffs are done” Those emails have led to a... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Manufacturing

15 Mar 2024
HBS Case

Let's Talk: Why It's Time to Stop Avoiding Taboo Topics at Work

You feel your career stalling, with no clear path for advancement or a raise. You know the right conversation, artfully navigated, with the right individual at the right time is necessary—but approaching that moment requires ingenuity and... View Details

Keywords: by Avery Forman

January 1989 (Revised February 1993)
Case

Warner Cable (A)

The new general manager of Warner Cable's Medford, Massachusetts complex faces a number of turnaround challenges in 1985, including service deficiencies, customer complaints, high turnover, and low employee morale. By 1988 he has turned the situation around, but some... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Management Style; Human Resources; Telecommunications Industry; Massachusetts

09 Jun 2009
First Look

First Look: June 9

Working PapersSocial Influence Given (Partially) Deliberate Matching: Career Imprints in the Creation of Academic Entrepreneurs Authors:Pierre Azoulay, Christopher C. Liu, and Toby E. Stuart Abstract Actors often match with associates... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

02 Apr 2024
What Do You Think?

What's Enough to Make Us Happy?

The result is measured in terms of outcomes that may be more or less than we expected, just as customer satisfaction is measured in terms of whether our expectations were met or exceeded. But how many of us take time out periodically to map out our View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

June 2006 (Revised March 2007)
Case

Jack Carlisle, CIO

An experienced CIO hired to professionalize IT in a growing financial services firm struggles with the turmoil that follows sudden replacement of the company's CEO. Jack Carlisle must assess the changes, both actual and prospective, in an environment in which IT has... View Details

Keywords: Change Management; Information Technology; Personal Development and Career; Management Teams; Financial Services Industry

November 2018 (Revised March 2019)
Case

Mellody Hobson at Ariel Investments

By: Francesca Gino and Lakshmi Ramarajan

In 2018, Mellody Hobson, President of Ariel Investments, the largest minority-owned investment firm in the United States, was considering how best to divide her time and use her position and personal characteristics to push for positive change at her firm and in... View Details

Keywords: Female Protagonist; African-American Protagonist; Investment Management; Leadership; Personal Development and Career; Work-Life Balance; Financial Services Industry; Chicago

31 Oct 2023
HBS Case

Checking Your Ethics: Would You Speak Up in These 3 Sticky Situations?

making a big presentation to the client, and he made the uncomfortable decision to tell a partner. “I’ll never forget. He turned to me and said, ‘Does this change the modeled outcome?’ and I said no. He said, ‘Good, we’ll tell them about... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Consulting

11 Jun 2024
In Practice

The Harvard Business School Faculty Summer Reader 2024

As the vacation season looms, Harvard Business School faculty members share recommendations for a little light reading. Spoiler alert: Lessons in Chemistry tops two of their beach-read lists. For those whose brains can’t—or won’t—turn off, HBS faculty also suggest some... View Details

Keywords: by Avery Forman

09 Aug 2010
Research & Ideas

How to Speed Up Energy Innovation

Is there a special sauce for stimulating innovation in the energy sector, a concoction to spur cost-effective developments toward solving the climate change problem? HBS professor Rebecca Henderson doesn't claim to know all the... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Energy; Utilities

February 2016
Article

Unearned Status Gain: Evidence from a Global Language Mandate

By: Tsedal Neeley and Tracy Dumas

Theories of status rarely address unearned status gain—an unexpected and unsolicited increase in relative standing, prestige, or worth, attained not through individual effort or achievement, but from a shift in organizationally valued characteristics. We build theory... View Details

Keywords: Status and Position; Equality and Inequality; Spoken Communication; Organizations; Japan; United States

Find at Harvard

2014
Book

Own Your Future: How to Think Like an Entrepreneur and Thrive in an Unpredictable Economy

By: Paul B. Brown, Charles F. Kiefer and Leonard A. Schlesinger

It used to be that if you studied and worked hard, you could be assured of an extremely satisfying career. But in a world of constant layoffs and dying industries, it has become increasingly difficult to "plan" your way to success. So what is the solution? Well, when... View Details

Find at Harvard