Publications

09 Jan 2006
Research & Ideas

Rebuilding Commercial Real Estate

time MBAs pile into a field, it's a good contrarian indicator. Gallows humor aside, market pros see parallels, but no repeat of the 1989 crash. That optimism rests on the knowledge that the industry today bears little resemblance to the... View Details

Keywords: by Roger Thompson; Construction; Real Estate

March 2020 (Revised August 2020)
Case

Last Mile Health (A)

By: Brian Trelstad and V. Kasturi Rangan

As the Ebola outbreak threatens the fragile health system of Liberia, Raj Panjabi, the founder of Last Mile Health, faces a dilemma: should he expand beyond the organizaton's core mission to help the country build emergency health care capacity, or should he stick to... View Details

Keywords: Healthcare; Ebola; Nonprofit Organizations; Health Care and Treatment; Rural Scope; Health Pandemics; Growth and Development; Decisions; Health Industry; Africa

July 2002 (Revised August 2002)
Case

Washington Hospital Center (A): Rescuing Emergency Medicine

By: Rosabeth M. Kanter and Michelle Heskett

Dr. Craig Feied and Dr. Mark Smith, recruited to turn around the Washington Hospital Center Emergency Department, prepare to roll out their most revolutionary change yet--an information system that could radically improve the practice of emergency medicine. A review of... View Details

Keywords: Change Management; Health Care and Treatment; Nonprofit Organizations; Medical Specialties; Organizational Culture; Crisis Management; Technological Innovation; Higher Education; Health Industry; District of Columbia

September 1996 (Revised November 1999)
Case

GLSTN 1996

By: James E. Austin, Willis M. Emmons III and David Maue

The Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Teachers Network (GLSTN), which aims to create respect for all within schools regardless of sexual orientation, faces significant challenges stemming from its rapid growth into a 30-chapter national organization. Issues include... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Culture; Problems and Challenges; Leadership; Networks; Policy; Change Management; Nonprofit Organizations; Leadership Development; Growth Management; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Education Industry

Find at Harvard

September 2003 (Revised October 2005)
Case

Performance Pay for MGOA Physicians (A)

Examines the transition of an orthopedic surgical group at a premier teaching and research hospital from a system in which the surgeons are compensated with flat salaries to a system where they are compensated based on profitability. Allows for an examination of... View Details

Keywords: Value Creation; Motivation and Incentives; Nonprofit Organizations; Health Care and Treatment; Compensation and Benefits; Health Industry

March 2022 (Revised July 2022)
Case

Nexleaf Analytics: Saving the World Using the Internet of Things

By: Frank Nagle

In 2019, a decade after co-founding Nexleaf Analytics, CEO Nithya Ramanathan faced an important decision that would impact the ability of the small, but growing, not-for-profit organization to thrive for another decade. Their sensor technologies and big data analytics... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Strategy; Collaborative Innovation and Invention; Technological Innovation; Nonprofit Organizations; Competitive Strategy; Patents; Expansion; Information Technology; Health Industry; Information Industry; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry; Technology Industry

March 2009 (Revised August 2010)
Case

The Posse Foundation: Implementing a Growth Strategy

The Posse Foundation selected high-potential, non-traditional students to attend selective colleges as part of a group of 10 from the same city. The organization had developed an ambitious growth plan, but because it focused on the most selective colleges, the pool of... View Details

Keywords: Diversity; Higher Education; Social Entrepreneurship; Growth and Development Strategy; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Personal Development and Career; Partners and Partnerships; Nonprofit Organizations; Education Industry

Find at Harvard

July 2002 (Revised August 2002)
Case

Washington Hospital Center (B): The Power of Insight

By: Rosabeth M. Kanter and Michelle Heskett

Dr. Craig Feied considers how to take a major technical innovation beyond his own department into a large hospital system. Reviews how proprietary information systems became indispensable in the department of emergency medicine and what it took to introduce the change... View Details

Keywords: Change Management; Health Care and Treatment; Nonprofit Organizations; Medical Specialties; Organizational Culture; Crisis Management; Technological Innovation; Higher Education; Adoption; Health Industry; District of Columbia

01 May 2007
First Look

First Look: May 1, 2007

possibility that the effects of FDI differ by sector. Second, we differentiate FDI based on objective qualitative industry characteristics including the average skill intensity and reliance on external capital. Third, we use a new dataset... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

October 1997 (Revised March 1998)
Case

Appalachian Mountain Club: Transforming Governance

By: Walter J. Salmon and Jaan Elias

Starting in 1988, the Appalachian Mountain Club (AMC) began a controversial transformation in management and governance. For its first 112 years, the AMC's structure had resembled that of a country club--volunteer leaders directed the club's operations and its small,... View Details

Keywords: Budgets and Budgeting; Transformation; Corporate Governance; Employee Relationship Management; Recruitment; Leading Change; Organizational Culture; Labor and Management Relations; Nonprofit Organizations; Education Industry; Education Industry

19 Oct 2015
Research & Ideas

Business Research that Makes for Smarter Public Policy

academic circles; others are working more quietly behind the scenes to effect change. “The university is a nonprofit institution. It has a charter from the state, and it exists in large part to serve society,” says David A. Moss, the Paul... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

September 2022
Case

HPP: Tapping the Netherlands’ Potential

By: Brian Trelstad and Idelès Kaandorp

Stichting Het Potentieel Pakken (HPP) was launched to solve a systemic problem in the Dutch Labor Market: gender inequity that was leading to a large number of women to work part-time in fields that were in desperately short supply of labor, like health care, child... View Details

Keywords: COVID-19 Pandemic; Grants; Scaling And Growth; Nonprofit Organizations; Opportunities; Gender; Income; Employment; Health Care and Treatment; Human Capital; Mission and Purpose; Motivation and Incentives; Growth and Development Strategy; Employment Industry; Employment Industry; Employment Industry; Employment Industry; Europe; Netherlands

05 Nov 2021
Op-Ed

How to Tap the Talent Automated HR Platforms Miss

As the global staffing shortage grinds on, corporate recruiters everywhere are relying on their online hiring platforms and automated systems to deliver the candidates they need. Too often, these tools will fail them, sidelining many qualified workers in the process.... View Details

Keywords: by Joseph B. Fuller

06 Jan 2012
Op-Ed

Where Green Corporate Ratings Fail

News Corporation—a multinational media conglomerate that includes BSKYB, Dow Jones, Fox News, 20th Century Fox and Star, among other units—announced earlier this year that it has become climate neutral, meaning that its operations have no net impact on global climate... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Toffel & Auden Schendler; Information; Publishing

10 Aug 2015
Research & Ideas

Why a Federal Rule on CEO Pay Disclosure May Get You In Trouble With Customers

Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), which conducts an annual analysis of available labor data. Presumably, the Dodd-Frank rule, once it's mandated, will make more data available for such analyses. The Security and Exchange... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Retail

October 2011 (Revised May 2015)
Case

The American Repertory Theater

By: Rohit Deshpande, Allen S. Grossman and Ryan Johnson

When Diane Paulus, artistic director and CEO of the American Repertory Theater (A.R.T.) first started in 2008, she attracted media coverage around an aesthetic that aimed to give the audience more ownership over the theater experience, excited theatergoers by... View Details

Keywords: Advertising Campaigns; Arts; Business Model; Leading Change; Media; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Nonprofit Organizations; Competitive Strategy; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; North and Central America

26 Feb 2008
First Look

First Look: February 26, 2008

pioneered shipbuilding techniques that not only allowed him to build ships at unprecedented rates, but he also spurred the whole shipbuilding industry to do the same. His fame made him the object of envy and scorn for shipbuilders all... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

November 2005 (Revised January 2006)
Case

Commercialization at the Garvan Institute for Medical Research (A)

A large and successful not-for-profit medical research institute must decide strategy to commercialize its discoveries. In the process, it must balance multiple conflicting demands from its stakeholders. View Details

Keywords: Decisions; Public Sector; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Nonprofit Organizations; Conflict and Resolution; Commercialization; Balance and Stability; Health Industry