Publications

April 2011 (Revised April 2011)
Supplement

Fleet Oil Company: An Exercise

The exercise, which adapts a famous experiment by experimental psychologist Thomas Gilovich, is designed to show both the ubiquity of analogy or associative thinking more generally and its potential perils. Students are presented with a scenario in which an oil company... View Details

Keywords: Business Headquarters; Crime and Corruption; Decisions; Non-Renewable Energy; Cost; Production; Performance Productivity; Research and Development; Energy Industry; Atlanta; Houston

Web

Understanding Africa: Business, Entrepreneurship, Political Economy and the Complexities of a Continent - Course Catalog

Africa – economic, sociological, and historical – and the ways in which these Africa-specific trends impact the opportunities and challenges in... View Details

18 Jun 2024
Blog Post

Alumni Career Journey: Ben Schutzman (MBA 2016) - Driving Positive Impact on Community and Climate

in my career journey. When you applied to HBS, did you know that you wanted to pursue a career in climate? I knew I wanted to be engaged in solving problems on the ground and that I wanted to be involved in... View Details

06 Mar 2025
Blog Post

IFC India 2025: Sustainability in Action: Inside Hindustan Unilever’s Public Sanitation and Plastic Recycling Facilities

underutilization. HUL set out nearly a decade ago to challenge this broken model through Suvidha Centers – community-focused sanitation solutions in urban slums. True to its name, meaning “convenience” in Hindi, the Suvidha Center we... View Details

December 2016 (Revised November 2024)
Case

Rajat Gupta

By: Paul Healy and Eugene Soltes

Rajat Gupta, former managing director of McKinsey & Company; a director of Goldman Sachs, Procter & Gamble, and AMR; and a well-known philanthropist, was convicted of engaging in insider trading. The case explores Gupta’s rise and the later legal problems he faced. View Details

Keywords: Insider Trading; McKinsey; Ethics; Crime and Corruption; United States

23 May 2023
Research & Ideas

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

matters and well-applied filters, makeup, or hairstyles could optimize the visual aspect of charisma. However, knowing a potential employee’s “charisma score”—a measure the researchers created—could also uncover hidden bias View Details

Keywords: by Kara Baskin

06 Sep 2011
Research & Ideas

Cheese Moving: Effecting Change Rather Than Accepting It

innovators, problem solvers, entrepreneurs, and leaders that instead of wasting their time wondering why things are the way they are, they should simply accept their world as given” "I Moved Your Cheese... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

June 2007
Tutorial

Congruence Model Tutorial

By: Christopher Marquis and Alison Comings

Utilizes Beer & Tushman's SMA: Microelectronic Products Division (A) case to explore O'Reilly and Tushman's congruence model. Participants learn about the model through a series of video presentations and become familar with the problems facing SMA through an... View Details

Keywords: Problems and Challenges; Mathematical Methods; Electronics Industry

November 2017
Case

Loss Prevention at Mac's Convenience Stores (A)

By: Francesca Gino, Katherine DeCelles and Olivia Hull

Faced with a persistent robbery problem at his convenience store company, Sean Sportun, security and loss prevention manager at Mac’s of Central Canada, looked to standardize safety measures and devise a new way of preventing employee injury. But as a 32-year old with... View Details

Keywords: Public Relations; Community Relations; Change Management; Working Conditions; Leading Change; Training; Knowledge Dissemination; Crime and Corruption; Law Enforcement; Legal Liability; Business and Community Relations; Retail Industry; Canada

April 2011 (Revised April 2011)
Exercise

Raptor Oil Company: An Exercise

The exercise, which adapts a famous experiment by experimental psychologist Thomas Gilovich, is designed to show both the ubiquity of analogy or associative thinking more generally and its potential perils. Students are presented with a scenario in which an oil company... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Cognition and Thinking; Prejudice and Bias; Strategy

January 2015 (Revised July 2019)
Case

Rebranding Godiva: The Yıldız Strategy

By: Rohit Deshpande and Esel Çekin

This case concerns Yıldız Holding’s acquisition of Godiva Chocolatier from its previous owner, Campbell Soup, and its salient strategy in preserving Godiva’s “made in Belgian” brand position. Provenance Paradox, a problem faced by companies in emerging countries trying... View Details

Keywords: Branding; Internationalization; Provenance Paradox; Acquisitions; Positioning; Innovation; Customer-centricity; Brands and Branding; Marketing Strategy; Emerging Markets; Product Positioning; Change Management; Innovation and Management; Customer Focus and Relationships; Food and Beverage Industry; North America; Turkey; Japan

May 2011
Case

The Morrison Company

By: Steven C. Wheelwright and Paul Meyers

The Morrison Company develops and manufactures radio frequency identification tags (RFID) known as smart labels for the retail and pharmaceutical industries. RFID technology is a fast-growing and increasingly competitive industry. Sales have risen dramatically over the... View Details

Keywords: Quantitative Analysis; Technology; Operations Management; Product Lines; Manufacturing; Capacity Planning; Production Planning; Information Technology; Strategy; Production; Organizational Structure; Infrastructure; Product Development; Information Infrastructure; Manufacturing Industry; Retail Industry; Pharmaceutical Industry; Electronics Industry

March 2018 (Revised September 2023)
Case

X: The Foghorn Decision

By: Robert S. Huckman, Karim R. Lakhani and Kyle R. Myers

In February 2016, Kathy Hannun—a project leader at X, Alphabet Inc.'s so-called "moonshot factory"—had to prepare a recommendation for the senior leadership of X regarding the future of Foghorn, a project she was leading to develop a carbon-neutral process for... View Details

Keywords: Innovation; R＆D Project Management; Radical Innovation; Clean Technology; Innovation and Management; Technological Innovation; Energy; Research and Development; Projects; Management; Decision Choices and Conditions; Technology Industry; Energy Industry; Green Technology Industry; California

11 May 2021
Blog Post

Q+A on the Socioeconomic Inclusion Task Force with Holly Fetter (MBA 2020) and Alexxis Isaac (MBA 2020)

campus around people's access to finances. Were there any challenges in the process?Alexxis: Holly and I were very pleased by how many different offices were attentive to engaging with us on this topic. In... View Details

June 1995 (Revised June 1995)
Case

Ernst & Young United Kingdom (A)

By: John J. Gabarro and Samantha Graff

Intended to be a robust example of the challenges encountered during the early stages of a large-scale organizational transformation effort in a professional service firm. Describes a massive change program initiated and led by the new managing partner along with a... View Details

Keywords: Restructuring; Change Management; Leading Change; Management Teams; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Problems and Challenges; United Kingdom; London

12 Sep 2023
Research & Ideas

How Can Financial Advisors Thrive in Shifting Markets? Diversify, Diversify, Diversify

collaborated with Dimensional Fund researchers Wei Dai, Kaitlin Hendrix, Wiebke Lamping, Savina Rizova, and Trey Roberts. To understand the growth drivers, the researchers compared firms’ service offerings, practices aimed at expanding... View Details

Keywords: by Ben Rand; Financial Services

May 2006
Exercise

Improving Performance: Boat Building Exercise

By: Steven C. Wheelwright and Kerry Herman

Provides a framework for team problem solving and process improvement following concepts widely attributed to Toyota Motor Co. View Details

Keywords: Framework; Management Practices and Processes; Problems and Challenges; Groups and Teams