Publications

9 AM – 10 AM EDT, 07 Aug 2019
HBS Online

HBS Online Management Essentials

Maximize your managerial effectiveness by shaping and influencing processes in the critically important treetop level between 50,000 feet (strategy) and ground level (daily tasks and activities). Program Dates: August 7, 2019 - October 2, 2019 View Details

05 Feb 2008
First Look

First Look: February 5, 2008

perspective, organizational ecology, presents evidence suggesting that most organizations are largely inert and ultimately fail. A second perspective argues that some firms do learn View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

February 2023
Supplement

Grupo Sancor Seguros: Facing the Digital Transformation of Insurance in Argentina (B)

By: Jorge Tamayo, Jenyfeer Martínez Buitrago and Mariana Cal

In 2021, Alejandro Simón, CEO of Sancor Seguros Group, had to reassess the Group’s digital transformation strategy. View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Culture; Cooperative Ownership; Strategy; Business Strategy; Adaptation; Technology Adoption; Insurance Industry; Latin America; South America; Argentina

22 Jul 2002
Research & Ideas

How Business Strategy Tamed the “Invisible Hand”

presumably based on its distinctive competence, rather than consciously serving the customer. Levitt thus argued that when companies fail, "it usually means that the product fails to adapt to the constantly View Details

Keywords: by Pankaj Ghemawat

26 Apr 2004
Research & Ideas

A Clear Eye for Innovation

well. Most successful enterprises are adept at refining their current offerings, but they falter when it comes to pioneering radically new products and services. Kodak and Boeing are just two of the more... View Details

Keywords: by Charles A. O'Reilly III & Michael L. Tushman

2006
Chapter

The Corporation's Evolving Personality

By: Lynn S. Paine

Keywords: Business Ventures; Organizational Culture; Organizational Change and Adaptation

October 1997 (Revised July 1998)
Case

Cultivating Capabilities to Innovate: Booz.Allen & Hamilton

By: Clayton M. Christensen and Bret J. Baird

Describes the efforts of the president of Booz.Allen, a major consulting firm, to understand and improve the way that products, services, and processes are developed and deployed throughout the firm. Proactive management of these processes proves very difficult because... View Details

Keywords: Change Management; Innovation and Management; Management Teams; Service Operations; Organizational Culture; Customer Focus and Relationships; Decision Making; Consulting Industry

December 2001 (Revised November 2002)
Case

John Smithers

By: Nitin Nohria and Todd Jick

Describes an ill-fated effort to institute a total quality program. Using the vantage point of one of the managers selected to be a quality instructor, the case traces the rise and fall of the quality effort during its very brief existence over the course of six... View Details

Keywords: Quality; Change Management; Mission and Purpose; Organizational Culture; Failure

August 2001 (Revised June 2002)
Case

IBM Software Solutions (A)

By: Michael L. Tushman, Charles A. O'Reilly III and Robert Chapman Wood

Executives and managers of key IBM software units struggle to make IBM a top player in the post-mainframe era. When one software unit introduces a visionary product with potential to create a new leadership position for the firm, the result is an epic conflict in the... View Details

Keywords: Business Units; Leadership Style; Leading Change; Managerial Roles; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Conflict Management; Information Technology Industry

Find at Harvard

16 Jul 2024
Op-Ed

Corporate Boards Are Failing in Their No. 1 Duty

thought to the challenges the company will face in the years ahead. While it is impossible to completely predict the future business environment, boards should be looking for leaders who are visionary as well as adaptable to View Details

Keywords: by Bill George

01 Mar 2018
What Do You Think?

Two Decades Later, is the 'New Economy' Finally Here?

kinwun Summing Up: What are the Earmarks of a “New Economy?” Responses to this month’s column rightly focused on the need for measures and standards before deciding whether we are entering an era of social View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

July 2025
Case

ICARE: Frontline Leadership at Michelin

By: Hubert Joly and Emilie Billaud

In 2025, Michelin CEO Florent Menegaux reflected on the company’s transformation since taking the helm in 2019. Amid a volatile global landscape marked by inflation, rising competition, and geopolitical and sustainability pressures, Michelin had achieved strong... View Details

April 2008 (Revised July 2011)
Module Note

Strategic Renewal

By: David J. Collis and Jan W. Rivkin

While it is relatively easy to identify why strategies fail, it is much harder to explain how to fix a failing strategy or build an organization that can continuously renew its strategy. This note identifies some patterns that distinguish companies whose renewal... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Culture; Failure; Strategy

April 2018
Case

Globalizing Japan's Dream Machine: Recruit Holdings Co., Ltd.

By: Sandra J. Sucher and Shalene Gupta

Recruit Holdings, an advertising media, staffing, and business support conglomerate was founded in 1960 by Hiromasa Ezoe. Recruit was built on the principle that the company should add value to society. To do this, it hired young and talented employees and created a... View Details

Keywords: Business Conglomerates; Mission and Purpose; Organizational Culture; Crime and Corruption; Transition; Globalization; Japan

March 2024 (Revised April 2024)
Supplement

From "BIG" Ideas to Sustainable Impact at ICL Group (B)

By: Linda A. Hill and Lydia Begag

In August 2023, Raviv Zoller, CEO of ICL Group, discussed his upcoming business trip to St. Louis with Eduard Croitoru, VP of ICL Corporate Initiatives, to commemorate the construction of ICL's new $400 million advanced manufacturing facility. In preparation for the... View Details

January 1994 (Revised March 1995)
Case

NovaCare, Inc.: Living the Vision

By: Lynn S. Paine

NovaCare's CEO is considering how further to institutionalize the company's espoused values and beliefs. One challenge is integrating two newly acquired businesses; another is better aligning the values of the company's managers with those of its front-line... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Health Care and Treatment; Labor and Management Relations; Management Teams; Values and Beliefs; Mergers and Acquisitions; Mission and Purpose; Health Industry

2013
Organizational Change

Leslie Perlow Speaks at the 2013 Gender & Work Symposium

31 Jan 2012
First Look

First Look: Jan. 31

hospital emergency room and focuses on the effects of a new organizational structure, which we call a team scaffold, on teaming effectiveness and performance outcomes. Using a... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne & Carmen Nobel

September 2018
Teaching Note

City Year at 30: Toward Long-Term Impact

By: Rosabeth Moss Kanter and Jonathan Cohen

This teaching note assists in the classroom instruction of the HBS No. 318-089, “City Year at 30: Toward Long-Term Impact.” It offers to instructors a case summary and analysis, along with student preparation questions and a guide for classroom discussion of the case.... View Details