Publications

06 Sep 2011
Research & Ideas

The Power of Leadership Groups for Staying on Track

developing leaders effective in collaborative, global organizations. True North Groups is also the title of the new book I have written with coauthor Doug Baker, a pioneer in the small-group movement. Having... View Details

Keywords: by Bill George

November 2009
Case

METRO Cash & Carry in China, 2008

By: Tarun Khanna

In April 2008, the country head for METRO AG's Cash & Carry wholesaling operations is considering the most appropriate model for expansion in China, where METRO has operated stores for small business professionals for eight years. In addition, METRO is actively... View Details

Keywords: Developing Countries and Economies; Emerging Markets; Distribution Channels; Partners and Partnerships; Competitive Strategy; Expansion; Retail Industry; China

16 Sep 2015
News

Faculty Q&A: The Working World

November 2005 (Revised May 2007)
Case

Leading Change at Simmons (A)

By: Tiziana E. Casciaro, Amy C. Edmondson, Stacy McManus and Kate Roloff

Explores the challenge of managing large-scale organizational change at Simmons, an old and established company that manufactures and distributes mattresses. The new CEO, Charlie Eitel, hired to turn the organization's performance around, considers whether to implement... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Motivation and Incentives; Leading Change; Employee Relationship Management; Consumer Products Industry; Consumer Products Industry; United States

06 Dec 2016
Working Paper Summaries

Assortment Rotation and the Value of Concealment

Keywords: by Kris Johnson Ferreira and Joel Goh; Retail

September 2016 (Revised September 2017)
Case

Collage.com: Scaling a Distributed Organization

By: Christopher Stanton and Shikhar Ghosh

Kevin Borders and Joe Golden, co-founders and co-CEOs of Collage.com, must decide how to grow their custom photo-products startup in the face of fierce competition. From 2011 through 2016, the business evolved from a hobby to a startup with $22 million in revenue and... View Details

Keywords: Remote Work; Internet and the Web; Organizational Structure; Competitive Strategy; Employees; Business Startups; Growth and Development Strategy; Consumer Products Industry; Consumer Products Industry

22 Nov 2022
Research & Ideas

When Agreeing to Disagree Is a Good Beginning

Disagreements don’t have to end discussions. In fact, as researchers from the Harvard Kennedy School and Harvard Business School discussed at a recent event, engaging with those who hold opposing views can be constructive and lead to new... View Details

Keywords: by Clea Simon, Harvard Gazette

18 Oct 2016
First Look

October 18, 2016

innovation from a game of chance to one in which they develop products and services that customers want to buy and are willing to purchase at a premium price. How do companies know how to grow? How can they... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

John D. Macomber

John Macomber is a Senior Lecturer in the Finance unit at Harvard Business School. His professional background includes leadership of real estate, construction, and information technology businesses. At HBS, Mr. Macomber's work focuses on climate adaptation and the... View Details

Keywords: building materials; construction; energy; green technology; infrastructure industry; real estate; transportation; utilities; waste management; insurance industry

August 1993
Case

USAA: Business Process Review for the Great Lakes Region

By: James L. Heskett and Roger H. Hallowell

USAA proposes to develop a new set of processes for its property and casualty division. The case focuses on processes used in automobile claims. View Details

Keywords: Business Processes; Insurance Industry; United States

Find at Harvard

17 Apr 2007
First Look

First Look: April 17, 2007

policies that promote localism. Download the paper: http://www.hbs.edu/research/pdf/07-062.pdf The Speed of New Ideas: Trust, Institutions and the Diffusion of New Products... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

05 May 2020
Research & Ideas

China Tariffs and Coronavirus a Double Hit to American Retailers

from the Bureau of Labor Statistics that is more detailed than the US Census data economists typically examine. In addition, they relied on a database called the Billion Prices Project, which Cavallo first developed as a Ph.D. student at... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

June 1991 (Revised July 1992)
Case

Standard Oil Co.: Combination, Consolidation, and Integration (Abridged) (A)

By: Thomas K. McCraw

The rise of Standard Oil and its relation to the development of the American oil industry and new form of business organization. View Details

Keywords: Business Organization; Business History; Industry Growth; Energy Sources; Mining Industry; Energy Industry; United States

June 1991 (Revised June 1993)
Case

Standard Oil Co.: Combination, Consolidation, and Integration (Abridged) (B)

By: Thomas K. McCraw

The rise of Standard Oil and its relation to the development of the American oil industry and new form of business organization. View Details

Keywords: Business Organization; Business History; Industry Growth; Energy Sources; Mining Industry; Energy Industry; United States

Richard S. Ruback is a Baker Foundation Professor and the Willard Prescott Smith Professor of Corporate Finance, Emeritus at the Harvard Business School. He is currently focusing his research in applied corporate finance, especially... View Details

August 2011 (Revised May 2012)
Case

Haier: Taking a Chinese Company Global in 2011

By: Tarun Khanna, Krishna G. Palepu and Phillip Andrews

In 2011, Haier, China's leading appliance manufacturer, had over $20 billion in worldwide sales and had just been named the leading refrigerator manufacturer worldwide. Describes Haier's rise over three decades from a defunct refrigerator factory in China's Qingdao... View Details

Keywords: Business Growth and Maturation; Global Strategy; Expansion; Diversification; Emerging Markets; Consumer Products Industry; Consumer Products Industry; China

November 2000 (Revised October 2005)
Case

TiVo

TiVo is a digital video recorder that allows viewers to watch what they want, when they want to watch it. Fourteen months into the launch, sales are very disappointing. Brodie Keast, VP of marketing and sales, wants to combine a catchy communications campaign, product... View Details

Keywords: Marketing Communications; Product Launch; Television Entertainment; Innovation and Invention; Electronics Industry

March 2021 (Revised August 2021)
Supplement

Wendell Weeks at Corning Inc. (B): Valor Glass and the COVID-19 Pandemic

By: Ryan Raffaelli and Aldo Sesia

The (B) case offers a detailed account of Wendell Weeks’s innovation strategy at Corning, and how his approach played a critical role in the COVID-19 pandemic. It illustrates the company’s philosophy of making long-term investments in promising new technologies and... View Details

Keywords: Innovation and Invention; Innovation Strategy; Technological Innovation; Disruptive Innovation; Information Technology; Leadership; Health Pandemics; Technology Industry; United States; New York (city, NY)

December 2020 (Revised January 2022)
Supplement

Michael Ku and Global Clinical Supply at Pfizer Inc.: Bringing Hope to Patients (B)

By: Linda A. Hill and Emily Tedards

In 2011, Michael Ku became Pfizer’s Vice President of Global Clinical Supply (GCS) after the company had undergone three large-scale mergers and acquisitions. As Ku and his new leadership team set out to build a proactive, end-to-end, digital and physical clinical... View Details

Keywords: Digital Technology; Customer-centricity; Innovation; Customer Focus; Talent; Talent Management; Leadership; Innovation and Invention; Transformation; Organizational Culture; Customer Focus and Relationships; Change Management; Talent and Talent Management; Supply Chain; Mission and Purpose