Publications

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05 Jul 2012
News

Africa: Management Education for the Masses

September 2015 (Revised February 2020)
Case

Managing Consumer Touchpoints at Nissan Japan

By: Thales Teixeira, Nobuo Sato and Akiko Kanno

In 2015, Nissan was third place in the Japanese auto market, behind Toyota and Honda. The challenge of increasing market share was that 80% of car shoppers who were non-Nissan owners did not consider Nissan during their purchase process. This process involved three... View Details

Keywords: Nissan; Automobiles; Cars; Touch Points; Digital Marketing; Internet and the Web; Marketing Channels; Advertising; Auto Industry; Japan

May 2025
Background Note

Skills-First Talent Management: The Importance of Managers

By: Boris Groysberg, Nicole Zelazko, Tom Quinn, Robin Abrahams, Izzy Yeoh and Colleen Ammerman

This note supplements a 2025 series on skills-first talent management in organizations, comprising “Skills-First Talent Management: Hiring” (HBS No. 425-019), “Skills-First Talent Management: Onboarding, Development, and Performance Management” (HBS No. 425-020), and... View Details

Keywords: Competency and Skills; Talent and Talent Management; Experience and Expertise; Job Design and Levels; Employment; Human Capital; Management Practices and Processes; United States

September 2010
Case

Freddie Mac: Managing in Conservatorship

By: Robert Steven Kaplan, Nitin Nohria and Ben Creo

Ed Haldeman has recently become CEO of Freddie Mac, one of three major government sponsored enterprises (GSEs) charged with supporting U.S. residential mortgage finance. The company was placed into conservatorship by the U.S. treasury on September 7, 2008.... View Details

Keywords: Change Management; Financial Crisis; Mortgages; Leadership; Organizational Culture; Business and Government Relations; Financial Services Industry; United States

12 PM – 1 PM EST, 09 Feb 2017
Webinars: Career

Leading Diversity: What Top Managers Need to Know

Workforce diversity is a reality. If you are not addressing the challenges of a diverse workforce today, then demographic change, globalization, the purchasing power and demands of diversity markets, as well as the advantages of a diverse workforce mean that you will... View Details

December 2004 (Revised April 2006)
Case

Managing a Public Image: Rob Thomas

By: Robin J. Ely and Ingrid Vargas

Rob Thomas describes some of the challenges he has faced as a white, middle-aged man who is managing director of a mid-size consulting firm where he is committed to increasing staff gender and racial diversity. Unwilling to risk the disapproval of any constituency,... View Details

Keywords: Leadership; Age; Race; Identity; Failure; Gender; Consulting Industry

Web

Challenges and Opportunities in the Restaurant Industry - Course Catalog

franchising, institutional investment and leverage. We will consider the challenge of scale – how to achieve it and how to manage it once achieved. In addition, how founders consider a partial or complete... View Details

December 1993 (Revised April 1994)
Case

Polaroid: Managing Environmental Responsibilities and Their Costs

Costs relating to companies' impact on the environment are increasing at a dramatic rate. Thus, managing, measuring, and reporting of these costs has become an important issue for managers. Accounting for environmental responsibilities is one of the largest and most... View Details

Keywords: Cost; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Accounting; Environmental Sustainability

October 2009
Article

Managing Risk in the New World

By: Robert S. Kaplan, Anette Mikes, Robert Simons, Peter Tufano and Michael Hofmann Jr.

Five experts gathered recently to discuss the future of enterprise risk management: Kaplan, the Baker Foundation Professor at Harvard Business School, who with his colleague David Norton developed the balanced scorecard; Mikes, an assistant professor at HBS who studies... View Details

Keywords: Forecasting and Prediction; Financial Crisis; Capital Structure; Job Cuts and Outsourcing; Risk Management

April 2006 (Revised April 2008)
Course Overview Note

Managing Service Operations: Understanding the Customer Operating Role

By: Frances X. Frei

Describes Managing Service Operations: Understanding the Customer Operating Role, a second-year MBA course that consists of three modules. The first module, Conceptualizing the Customer Operating, explores the operational challenges and opportunites of managing... View Details

Keywords: Service Operations

05 Feb 2024
Research & Ideas

The Middle Manager of the Future: More Coaching, Less Commanding

Middle managers aren’t going extinct. They’re evolving. Once a wasteland where careers stalled or abruptly ended in layoffs, middle management has adapted and is thriving, seeing double-digit growth in some... View Details

Keywords: by Ben Rand

April 2023 (Revised September 2023)
Case

Levels: The Remote, Asynchronous, Deep Work Management System

By: Joseph B. Fuller and George Gonzalez

Levels is a highly innovative startup in the health care space. They intend to revolutionize health by linking behavior—eating, exercise, sleeping, etc.—to changes in metabolism. They believe metabolic health can be managed through careful monitoring of changes in... View Details

Keywords: Applications and Software; Business Startups; Organizational Culture; Management Style; Technology Industry; United States

December 5, 2010
Article

Gregg Steinhafel Has Faced Up to Many Challenges as Target CEO

By: Bill George

Keywords: Problems and Challenges; Management

Read Now

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

04 Sep 2012
Working Paper Summaries

Level II Negotiations: Helping the Other Side Meet Its ‘Behind the Table’ Challenges

Keywords: by James Sebenius

28 Nov 2023
News

ChatGPT makes job applications a breeze — that’s the challenge

1990
Chapter

New Challenges for Japanese Multinationals: Is Organizational Adaptation Their Achilles Heel?

By: C. A. Bartlett and H. Yoshihara

Keywords: Multinational Firms and Management; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Problems and Challenges; Japan