Publications

2011
Working Paper

Managerial Practices That Promote Voice and Taking Charge among Frontline Workers

By: Julia Adler-Milstein, Sara J. Singer and Michael W. Toffel

Process-improvement ideas often come from frontline workers who speak up by voicing concerns about problems and by taking charge to resolve them. We hypothesize that organization-wide process-improvement campaigns encourage both forms of speaking up, especially voicing... View Details

Keywords: Communication; Employees; Knowledge Sharing; Knowledge Use and Leverage; Management Practices and Processes; Operations; Business Processes; Performance Improvement

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October 2016
Case

Malenti Strings: Intrapreneurship within FLG, Inc.

By: David A. Garvin and Rachel Gordon

This case follows Jenica Fletcher as she rebuilds her company's guitar strings division from the ground up. Convinced that she could turn the division around if given complete independence from corporate headquarters, Fletcher relocated the group, rebranded it as... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Management Style; Management Practices and Processes; Restructuring; Business Divisions; Consumer Products Industry

November 2000 (Revised September 2014)
Case

J. Perez Foods (A)

By: John A. Davis and Kacie LaChapelle

Examines the tensions that occur in family shareholder groups and how to prepare for them and manage them. View Details

Keywords: Family Business; Entrepreneurship; Business or Company Management; Management Practices and Processes; Family Ownership; Problems and Challenges; Business and Shareholder Relations; Family and Family Relationships; Strategy; Food and Beverage Industry

08 Dec 2008
Research & Ideas

Thinking Twice About Supply-Chain Layoffs

"Someone asked me why I'm interested in labor in the supply chain. The answer from my head is that we have evidence of how important people are to the total equation. So my future research will definitely focus on identifying better View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Retail

September 2002 (Revised May 2003)
Case

X-IT and Kidde (A)

By: Constance E. Bagley and David Lane

Involves a start-up, X-IT Products LLC, whose founders had designed an innovative, lightweight, and easy-to-use--yet strong--escape ladder. After X-IT had filed a patent application for the ladder in the United States, X-IT was approached by Kidde PLC, one of the... View Details

Keywords: Patents; Negotiation Process; Agreements and Arrangements; Ethics; Lawsuits and Litigation; Business Startups; Consumer Products Industry

01 Jun 2023
News

Action Plan: Net Proceeds

“I’m a root-cause kind of guy,” says Robert Goodwin (GMP 3, 2007), reflecting on a military, government, and civilian career that has taken him from counterdrug operations in Colombia to assisting with the peace process in Sudan to... View Details

Keywords: April White; recycling; corporate social responsibility; waste management; water; Waste Management and Remediation Services; Corporate Services

October 2008
Case

Tegan c.c.c.

Examines a struggling IT outsourcing project from the perspective of the customer--Tegan. It should be used in conjunction with Hrad Technika (9-609-039), which illustrates the supplier's point of view. When Tegan, a Welsh toy distributor, outsources the development of... View Details

Keywords: Job Cuts and Outsourcing; Information Technology; Service Operations; Business Processes; Information Technology Industry; Wales; Czech Republic

March 1998 (Revised June 1998)
Case

BCI Growth III: November 1993

By: Josh Lerner

Supplements BCI Growth III: May 1993. View Details

Keywords: Private Equity; Business Growth and Maturation; Consolidation; Acquisition; Wastes and Waste Processing; Service Industry; United States

March 1998 (Revised December 1998)
Case

BCI Growth III: May 1993

By: Josh Lerner

A Vermont solid-waste company seeks mezzanine financing to finance its strategy of acquiring and consolidating local competitors. The mezzanine private equity group must decide whether this investment offers an attractive risk-return tradeoff. View Details

Keywords: Private Equity; Business Growth and Maturation; Consolidation; Wastes and Waste Processing; Acquisition; Service Industry; Vermont

February 2017 (Revised August 2018)
Case

Sarah Powers at Automated Precision Products

By: Jeffrey T. Polzer, Michael Norris, Julia Kelley and Kristina Tobio

In 2017, Sarah Powers, VP of Sales at an automation hardware firm, is trying to understand why some members of her sales team have been underperforming. She is tasked with analyzing her firm’s email and calendar data to try to find relationships between communications... View Details

Keywords: People Analytics; Sales Attainment; Communication Networks; Data; Human Resources; Business Processes; Sales; Communication; Analytics and Data Science; Analysis; Industrial Products Industry; Manufacturing Industry; United States

January 1990 (Revised June 1995)
Case

Colliers International Property Consultants

By: Nitin Nohria

Describes the origins, organizational structure, management practices, and use of information technology (IT) in Colliers, a real estate network. Colliers provides local firms with a way to maintain local autonomy while gaining national and international coverage.... View Details

Keywords: Property; Organizational Structure; Information Technology; Management Practices and Processes; Partners and Partnerships; Business Model; Mission and Purpose; Business Growth and Maturation; Conflict and Resolution; Quality; Real Estate Industry

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Privacy Statement (English) - Global

data controller, and also as a data processor for Harvard Business School, a part of Harvard University, Boston, Massachusetts USA. The purposes for which HBS ERC may process data as data controller or data... View Details

10 Apr 2019
HBS Case

How Entrepreneurs Can Turn Lead Into Gold

capital is often related to a lack of those other resources.” Coming up short Wu and his coauthors identified three areas in which most entrepreneurs come up short in the process of developing a new business... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Financial Services

July 2007 (Revised May 2008)
Case

Cable & Wireless America

By: Guhan Subramanian and Eliot Sherman

Describes the auction of Cable & Wireless America (CWA), a bankrupt subsidiary of the British telecommunications company Cable & Wireless. While an initial "stalking-horse" bid valued the assets at $125 million, after a long day and night of bidding between eight... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Auctions; Bids and Bidding; Negotiation Process

01 Dec 2009
News

Faculty Books

Leadership by Anthony J. Mayo, Nitin Nohria, and Mark Rennella (Palgrave Macmillan) This book examines the evolution of leadership through the story of the American airline industry. Early airline entrepreneurs searched for a viable View Details

Keywords: Air Transportation; Transportation

June 2021
Teaching Note

Wolfgang Puck: Setting the Table for the Future

By: Boris Groysberg and Robin Abrahams

Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 419-001. View Details

Keywords: Brands and Branding; Growth and Development; Management Systems; Business Processes; Leadership; Transition; Food and Beverage Industry; Consumer Products Industry

February 2011 (Revised May 2011)
Case

Marlin & Associates and the Sale of Riverview Technologies

By: Richard S. Ruback and Royce Yudkoff

Riverview Technologies was a Stockholm, Sweden-based company that had developed software hedge funds. After spending more than a year in an organized sale process, the winning bidder had become increasingly difficult to work with and the closing had been substantially... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Entrepreneurship; Negotiation Deal; Negotiation Offer; Negotiation Process; Business and Shareholder Relations; Financial Services Industry

December 2004 (Revised March 2007)
Case

Cutlass Capital, L.P.

By: Richard G. Hamermesh and Brian DeLacey

David Hetz and Jon Osgood are forming a new venture capital fund in 2001 to invest in health care start-ups. Describes their fundraising activities at a time when venture capital investing has reached an all-time high. Although their background skills and experiences... View Details

Keywords: Venture Capital; Negotiation Process; Entrepreneurship; Investment Funds; Health Care and Treatment; Business Startups; Health Industry; United States