Publications

June 2007
Case

Buddy March

Entrepreneurial general manager (GM) ignores specific directives from his boss (GVP) to discontinue a new venture that the GM is championing. View Details

Keywords: Leadership; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Rank and Position; Management Teams

Find at Harvard

27 Jun 2019
Research & Ideas

Rituals Strengthen Couples. Here’s Why They’re Good for Business, Too

night. Unlike the routine habits or obligations people feel they must get done, relationship rituals are pleasurable experiences that hold significance, acting as symbolically meaningful signs of a solid and happy partnership. Couples who... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

01 Sep 2023
News

Solving for Z

With nearly 20 years of experience as a senior human resources executive, Matthew Breitfelder (MBA 2002) has seen a lot of change in the corporate talent space. But what’s happening now looks like a tectonic generational shift. From his perch as global head of human... View Details

Keywords: Alexander Gelfand; Illustrations by Doug Chayka; Administration of Human Resource Programs; Government

21 May 2001
Research & Ideas

From Tigers to Kaleidoscopes: Thinking About Future Leadership

Global Leadership, have a better strategy in mind for leaders. In their essay, "Value Creation: The New Millenium Management Manifesto," they make the case that leadership for the 21st century demands that companies forge a different... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

August 2003 (Revised November 2003)
Background Note

Working Effectively with Counsel

Popular stereotypes of lawyers include "overhead," "Dr. No," "internal cop," "keep us out of trouble!" and "get us out of trouble!" Focus groups of business leaders queried in a survey by the Case Western Reserve University Law School associated the word "lawyer" with... View Details

Keywords: Law; Partners and Partnerships; Management Teams; Legal Services Industry

31 Oct 2022
Research & Ideas

Why the Largest Minority Group Faces the Most Hate—and How to Push Back

relationship between the majority group and all other groups in the society.” This is exactly what they found. As minority groups dropped in rank, they were substantially less likely to be targeted with hate crimes. Tabellini points to a... View Details

Keywords: by Pamela Reynolds

2022
Working Paper

A Conceptualization of Sub-Living Wages: Liabilities, Leverage, and Risk

By: Drew Keller, Katie Panella and George Serafeim

Currently the accounting system records employee wages as an expense in the income statement. However, paying below living wages can expose an organization to reputational and operational risks. In this paper, we offer an alternative conceptualization of the issue of... View Details

Keywords: Accounting; Impact Accounting; Leverage; Wages; Compensation and Benefits; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Business and Government Relations; Social Issues; Human Capital

SSRN

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May 2013 (Revised October 2014)
Case

Novartis: Leading a Global Enterprise

By: William W. George, Krishna G. Palepu and Carin-Isabel Knoop

Novartis, the world's leading healthcare company, was formed in 1996 out of a merger of two very different, mid-tier Switzerland-based pharma companies. The case traces the company's evolution over the past 17 years, as it transformed into a truly global enterprise... View Details

Keywords: Multinational Firms and Management; Talent and Talent Management; Organizational Structure; Organizational Culture; Success; Globalized Markets and Industries; Management Teams; Change Management; Business History; Mergers and Acquisitions; Global Strategy; Health Care and Treatment; Pharmaceutical Industry; Health Industry; Switzerland

23 May 2023
Research & Ideas

Face Value: Do Certain Physical Features Help People Get Ahead?

empirically predicted with a machine learning model, suggests work by Shunyuan Zhang, an assistant professor at Harvard Business School, and collaborators. “Our research represents the first empirical attempt to characterize the View Details

Keywords: by Kara Baskin

07 Feb 2022
Research & Ideas

Digital Transformation: A New Roadmap for Success

customer or employee experiences. Some might consider the use of AI in "people decisions" dehumanizing. Again, leaders should prepare to manage the emotions associated with learning to use data to make... View Details

Keywords: by Linda A. Hill, Ann Le Cam, Sunand Menon, and Emily Tedards

June 24, 2020
Article

Wolfgang Puck on Leading His Restaurants Through the Pandemic

By: Boris Groysberg

Chef Wolfgang Puck shares his experience leading his restaurants and other businesses through the pandemic crisis. He explains how his company has pivoted to find new sources of revenue and how he has become a vocal advocate for the restaurant industry. He also... View Details

Keywords: Coronavirus Pandemic; Restaurants; Restaurant Industry; Reopening; Health Pandemics; Crisis Management; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Safety

Register to Read

05 May 2014
Research & Ideas

Reflecting on Work Improves Job Performance

day than the other groups, who had spent that time reflecting and sharing instead. Gino hopes that the research will provide food for thought to overworked managers and employees alike. "I don't see a lot of... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

August 2011 (Revised October 2015)
Case

Boardroom Battle Behind Bars: Gome Electrical Appliances Holdings—A Corporate Governance Drama

By: William C. Kirby and Tracy Yuen Manty

Despite widespread news of the incarceration of Gome Electronics' CEO, Huang Guangyu, Bain Capital felt they carefully undertook due diligence before making a significant investment in the company. The venture capital firm was confident that it and the current... View Details

Keywords: China; Legal Aspects Of Business; Corruption; Risk; Corporate Governance; Crime and Corruption; Power and Influence; Risk Management; Business and Shareholder Relations; Venture Capital; Ethics; Governing and Advisory Boards; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Values and Beliefs; Private Equity; China

Web

Podcast - Business & Environment

2025 | Climate Rising Alexia Kelly, Managing Director of the Carbon Policy and Markets Initiative (CPMI) at theHigh Tide Foundation, joins host Mike Toffel for the fifth episode in our series on voluntarycarbon markets. Alexia has worked... View Details

25 Oct 2012
Research & Ideas

Developing the Global Leader

development," says Professor of Management Practice William George, the former chairman and chief executive officer of Medtronic. “We're looking to companies to create a global cadre of people who are comfortable operating anywhere... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna

12 Nov 2009
Working Paper Summaries

Walking Through Jelly: Language Proficiency, Emotions, and Disrupted Collaboration in Global Work

Keywords: by Tsedal Neeley, Pamela J. Hinds & Catherine Durnell Cramton

04 May 2021
Book

Best Buy: How Human Connection Saved a Failing Retailer

“But, do you think that was standard operating procedure? No! What happened that day is that the two blue shirts found it in their hearts to do this, and felt they had the latitude to do it.” Stopping Best Buy’s freefall Creating such a human-centered connection among... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Retail

April 2006 (Revised April 2020)
Case

"The Case of Leadership Inertia"

By: Rosabeth Moss Kanter

The CEO of an international bank has raised the bank's performance by emphasizing a new culture of leadership that empowers people at all levels. Managers are rated both on their business results and their leadership—how they model new behaviors—but 12 senior managers... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Culture; Leadership Style; Leading Change; Performance Evaluation; Employee Relationship Management