Publications

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

04 May 2021
Book

Best Buy: How Human Connection Saved a Failing Retailer

the core of the near-miraculous turnaround Joly spearheaded at the company during the 2010s. Joly stepped in as CEO of Best Buy in 2012, just after its quarterly profits plummeted by 91 percent and its stock price hit a nine-year low.... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Retail

02 Oct 2014
News

Philosopher kings

22 Mar 2022
Cold Call Podcast

How Etsy Found Its Purpose and Crafted a Turnaround

Keywords: Re: Ranjay Gulati; Technology; Retail

October 2018 (Revised February 2018)
Case

Masayoshi Son and the Vision Fund

By: Tom Nicholas, Ramana Nanda and Benjamin N. Roth

In October 2016, SoftBank Group Corp., the Japanese conglomerate giant caused a significant shock to the worldwide market for venture capital and private equity by announcing the Vision Fund, the largest tech investment fund in the world at close to $100 billion. The... View Details

Keywords: Strategy; Venture Capital; Private Equity; Entrepreneurship; Competitive Strategy

September 1995
Case

Benjamin Rosen and Compaq

By: William A. Sahlman and Jason Green

Addresses the challenges faced by Ben Rosen and the company board of directors as continuing problems force it to make a decision about the ongoing governance of the firm. The issues are complicated by the current CEO and founder, Rod Canion, who has had, until... View Details

Keywords: Governing and Advisory Boards; Management Teams; Business or Company Management; Corporate Governance; Problems and Challenges; Decision Making; Information Technology Industry

26 Oct 2011
News

Boards are Key to Fixing the System

November 2009
Case

Dawn Stokes: The View from the Driver's Seat

By: Boris Groysberg and Lindsay Tanne

Dawn Stokes founded and was successful as CEO of Texas Driving Experience, a company that provided driving lessons, both safety-based for teens, and high-performance racecar driving for individual thrill seekers and corporate events. Although the company had done well,... View Details

Keywords: Economic Slowdown and Stagnation; Training; Entrepreneurship; Growth and Development Strategy; Expansion; Auto Industry; Service Industry; Texas

Find at Harvard

October 2021
Case

(180) Days of Quibi

By: David J. Collis and Terrence Shu

Mobile streaming app Quibi was ready to take the entertainment world by storm at its April 2020 launch. Backed by $1.75 billion, influential investors from Hollywood to Wall Street eagerly anticipated early success for this brainchild of Meg Whitman, former CEO of... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Strategy; Strategy; Business Model; Business Startups; Mobile Technology

01 Oct 2021
Research & Ideas

Dying to Lead: How Reaching the Top Can Kill You Sooner

A warning to CEOs and other top executives in high-pressure positions: Job stress could shave years off your life, causing you to die younger than lower-level workers, new research suggests. After all, modern View Details

Keywords: by Jay Fitzgerald

September 2020 (Revised December 2021)
Case

Building India's 2.0: PayNearby

By: Lauren Cohen and Spencer C. N. Hagist

Headquartered in Mumbai, India, FinTech startup Nearby Technologies has seen its flagship brand, PayNearby, rapidly flourish across most of its target market within just four years. The unprecedented success of its payment app, which allows users to access banking... View Details

Keywords: Fintech; Developing Markets; Payments; Financial Inclusion; Finance; Entrepreneurship; Emerging Markets; Competitive Strategy; Banking Industry; India

2019
Working Paper

Why Has Strategy Become Irrelevant? Understanding the Complete Strategy Landscape

By: David J. Collis

Developing the firm’s strategy was once seen as the most important task facing a CEO. Yet in the last 20 years, the practice of strategy has been relegated to a routinized function—part of the annual planning process, like performance management and succession planning... View Details

Keywords: Strategy; Value Creation; Organizational Change and Adaptation

SSRN

Read Now

July 2018
Teaching Note

Ron Johnson: A Career in Retail

By: Ryan Raffaelli

In April 2013, Ron Johnson (HBS '84) stepped down after just 18 months as CEO of J.C. Penney. In his brief tenure, Johnson, an acclaimed retailer respected for his innovation and success in shaping the retail image at Target and Apple, introduced dramatic departures... View Details

Keywords: Leadership; Leadership Development; Legal Industry; Procurement; Professional Service Firms; Pricing; Competition; Organizational Behavior; Change Management; Innovation Leadership; Situation or Environment; Failure; Management Teams; Brands and Branding; Retail Industry; United States

October 2001 (Revised June 2004)
Case

Harrah's Entertainment Inc.

By: Rajiv Lal and Patricia Carrolo

Describes a situation facing Philip Satre, chairman and CEO of Harrah's Entertainment, Inc. Satre was reading a May 2000 Wall Street Journal story that discussed the company's marketing success in targeting low rollers, the 100% growth in stock price and profits in the... View Details

Keywords: Budgets and Budgeting; Marketing; Marketing Reference Programs; Performance Evaluation; Motivation and Incentives; Competitive Strategy

February 1999 (Revised November 2009)
Case

Michael Brown: Negotiating Slots at Foxwoods (A)

By: James K. Sebenius

The issues of the impending negotiation between the CEO of Foxwoods and the governor of Connecticut over lifting the ban on slot machines at Foxwoods are presented. Reviews the gaming business in the United States, the special history of Indian gaming, the Pequot... View Details

Keywords: Financial Crisis; Games, Gaming, and Gambling; Policy; Negotiation Deal; Business and Government Relations; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; Connecticut

20 Dec 2018
News

Using Fintech to Disrupt Eastern Bank from Within

May 2010
Case

Clayton Industries, Inc.: Peter Arnell, Country Manager for Italy

By: Christopher A. Bartlett and Benjamin H. Barlow

Clayton Industries, a sixty-year-old U.S.-based firm in the HVAC industry (heating, ventilation, and air conditioning), with nearly $1 billion in revenues, has gradually built a presence in a number of countries, including several in Europe. Peter Arnell, previously... View Details

Keywords: Business Subsidiaries; Multinational Firms and Management; Organizational Structure; Corporate Strategy; Problems and Challenges; Conflict and Resolution; Sales; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Manufacturing Industry; Consumer Products Industry; Wisconsin; Italy; United Kingdom

16 Oct 2023
HBS Case

Advancing Black Talent: From the Flight Ramp to 'Family-Sustaining' Careers at Delta

At the end of 2020—seven months after COVID-19 had sent the airline industry into a tailspin and five months after George Floyd’s murder by Minneapolis police provoked nationwide protests for racial justice—Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian... View Details

Keywords: by Lane Lambert; Air Transportation

July 2008 (Revised June 2011)
Case

mixi (A)

By: Mikolaj Jan Piskorski, Masaru Nomura and Kanako Miyoshi

Kasahara, the founder and CEO of mixi, the most successful Japanese on-line social network, is deciding between two strategic options: (i) B2C or (ii) C2C to leverage the power of the social network. In the B2C option, mixi would become a portal for on-line shopping... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Digital Platforms; Social and Collaborative Networks; Business Strategy; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Internet and the Web; Japan