Publications

June 2016
Case

Macy's Reinvents Its Millennial Business

By: Boris Groysberg and Sarah L. Abbott

Molly Langenstein, Macy’s executive vice president for fashion and new business development, and members of Macy’s senior team were rethinking the company’s approach to serving millennial customers, customers born between the years of 1980 and 2000. To tackle this... View Details

Keywords: Marketing; Marketing Strategy; Age; Organizational Structure; Organizational Culture; Business Processes; Fashion Industry; Retail Industry

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 Robert Kaplan... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

30 Nov 2009
Research & Ideas

Tracks of My Tears: Reconstructing Digital Music

albums—and because it is among the sectors most strongly affected by digital technology. So I reached out to Nielsen SoundScan, the company that tracks recorded-music sales in North America, to obtain data for a random sample of over 200... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Music

Research Summary

Corporate Restructuring and Business Insolvency: Economic Impact and Best Practices

By: Stuart C. Gilson

Stuart C. Gilson is studying how severe financial distress impacts corporate policies and economic resource allocation. He is also studying how managers can best respond to financial distress in order to preserve and grow value. He is undertaking this research... View Details

Program

Leading and Building a Culture of Innovation

chief technology officers, chief information officers, and chief HR executives Leaders from corporate strategy, finance, legal, human resources, marketing, manufacturing, customer service, and sales Individuals and teams are welcome to... View Details

Program

Transforming Customer Experiences

inside sales teams, or other functions central to service delivery Executives in marketing, data analysis, or operations management Human resources executives concerned with driving internal service culture While individuals are invited... View Details

February 1992 (Revised April 1993)
Case

Acid Rain: The Southern Co. (A)

By: Forest L. Reinhardt

The Southern Co., an electric utility, is planning its compliance with the 1990 amendments to the Clean Air Act. The Act established a system of tradeable permits for sulfur dioxide emissions. The company must decide whether to install pollution control equipment and... View Details

Keywords: Energy Generation; Business Strategy; Environmental Sustainability; Cost vs Benefits; Financial Management; Strategic Planning; Investment Return; Government Legislation; Wastes and Waste Processing; Utilities Industry; Energy Industry; United States

21 Nov 2023
Research & Ideas

Employee Negativity Is Like Wildfire. Manage It Before It Spreads.

spreading, Goldenberg says. Prior research has shown that people tend to express stronger emotions when they know other people are watching. And seeing people express intense emotions also tends to amplify the emotions of the watchers. Emotions also can spread through... View Details

Keywords: by Kristen Senz

June 1991 (Revised December 1997)
Case

Takeover of the Norton Co., The

By: Thomas R. Piper

After a decade of mediocre performance, the Norton Co. enters 1990 with the prospect of increased sales in the next few years. Yet Norton is pursuing slow growth industries, and a lower than expected earnings announcement at the beginning of 1990 has depressed earnings... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Business Conglomerates; Goals and Objectives; Forecasting and Prediction; Performance Evaluation; Revenue; Bids and Bidding; Business Processes; Ownership Stake

Rakesh Khurana is the Marvin Bower Professor of Leadership Development at the Harvard Business School. He is also Professor of Sociology at Harvard University, co-Master of Cabot House at Harvard College, and the Danoff Dean of Harvard College.

Professor... View Details

Keywords: executive search

Web

Courses - Entrepreneurship

under conditions of profound uncertainty and do so while balancing great risks against potentially attractive rewards. Moreover, they operate without the benefit of well-defined processes for making such choices and with few resources. As... View Details

26 Apr 2023
In Practice

Is AI Coming for Your Job?

irrelevant construct when considering how to harness generative AI’s capabilities. Processes ranging from negotiating contracts with vendors to developing marketing messages will be redesigned from the ground up in order to exploit the... View Details

Keywords: by Kristen Senz; Technology

01 Nov 2011
First Look

First Look: Nov. 1

capital. Download the paper: http://www.hbs.edu/research/pdf/12-028.pdf Cases & Course Materials"In a Pickle: Barclays Capital and the Sale of Del Monte Foods (A) John Coates, Clayton Rose, and David LaneHarvard Business School... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

14 Feb 2017
First Look

First Look at New Research: February 14

transactional media marketplace and hoped that two new marketing analytics products would give it a more predictable revenue stream. But sales were behind forecast. DataXu’s large brand and advertising agency clients found the new... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

30 Apr 2021
Research & Ideas

Why Anger Makes a Wrongly Accused Person Look Guilty

researchers were inspired to investigate the link between anger and guilt five years ago after discussing true crime documentaries and the dynamics of the falsely accused being interviewed by police. “As behavioral scientists, we wondered what faulty reasoning View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

November 2017 (Revised April 2019)
Case

Summa Equity: Building Purpose-Driven Organizations

By: George Serafeim and David Freiberg

In 2015, Reynir Indahl left top Nordic private equity firm Altor Equity Partners to found Summa Equity (Summa). After long contemplation following the financial crisis, Indahl was convinced the financial system was producing negative externalities and that the current... View Details