Publications

March 1997 (Revised November 2013)
Case

Purity Steel Corporation, 2012

By: Robert L. Simons and Antonio Davila

Managers introduce a new performance evaluation system based on sales growth and return-on-investment (ROI). A branch manager wonders whether his new warehouse should be leased to mitigate the impact on ROI. Formulas and performance calculations are provided. A... View Details

Keywords: Investment Return; Judgments; Motivation and Incentives; Performance Efficiency; Compensation and Benefits; Salesforce Management; Performance Consistency; Performance Productivity; Steel Industry

23 Jun 2008
Research & Ideas

Innovative Ways to Encourage Personal Savings

have too little income. In addition, there is a whole host of reasons why people put off savings, especially in the context of an economy where consumerism is common. A variety of levers can be used to support people who want to save (not to View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Financial Services

September 2006 (Revised May 2008)
Supplement

Corporate Responsibility & Community Engagement at the Tintaya Copper Mine (B)

By: V. Kasturi Rangan, Brooke Barton and Ezequiel Reficco

Engaging local stakeholders and building strong relations has become a strategic imperative for multinational firms in the often politically charged mining, oil, and gas sectors. For BHP Billiton, the world's second largest mining company, its Tintaya copper mine in... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Mining Industry

December 2022 (Revised June 2023)
Case

KKR at CHI Overhead Doors (A)

By: Dennis Campbell and Ethan Rouen

This case examines the decision by private equity firm KKR to grant equity to every employee at portfolio company CHI Overhead Doors upon purchasing the company in 2015. The case explores whether this initiative will create shared value, growing profits through better... View Details

Keywords: Performance Improvement; Profit Sharing; Compensation and Benefits; Organizational Culture

Ashish Nanda is Senior Lecturer and C. Roland Christensen Distinguished Management Educator at Harvard Business School. From 2018 to 2021, he was course head for the MBA Required Curriculum course in Strategy. Beginning in 2022, he is teaching an MBA Elective... View Details

February 2013 (Revised February 2013)
Case

Wayne Ferrari: iAutomation at a Crossroads

By: Jim Sharpe and Michael Norris

Wayne Ferrari has bridged the gap between being an independent entrepreneur and a "professional manager." After selling his business to a Private Equity (PE) firm, Ferrari takes on the role of CEO and with their support implements a roll-up strategy to attain growth... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurial Management; Entrepreneurial Organizations; Leveraged Buyouts; Roll-up; Career Planning; Acquisitions; Pricing; Pricing Policies; Pricing Strategy; Pricing Structure; Acquisition; Entrepreneurship; Private Equity; Distribution; Integration; System; Electronics Industry; Distribution Industry; United States

March 1999
Case

MotivAction plc (A)

By: William J. Bruns Jr.

The owner/manager of MotivAction is developing a package of incentives and bonuses that he hopes will stimulate sales growth, encourage development of new autonomous teams, and increase profitability. If they are adopted, these new incentives will replace others... View Details

Keywords: Employee Relationship Management; Compensation and Benefits; Motivation and Incentives; Performance Improvement; Growth and Development Strategy; Decisions; Profit; Organizational Culture

Find at Harvard

07 Jun 2016
First Look

June 7, 2016

Uncharted Play (A) No abstract available. Purchase this case: https://cb.hbsp.harvard.edu/cbmp/product/816018-PDF-ENG Harvard Business School Case 816-039 Yesware (A) Matthew Bellows founded Yesware, a Boston-based tech startup, to solve a problem that he'd encountered... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

November 2021 (Revised March 2022)
Case

AppHarvest: Rebuilding the Appalachian Economy Through Agriculture

By: Joshua Lev Krieger, William R. Kerr and Christian Godwin

In 2021, AppHarvest completed construction of a 60-acre indoor farming facility, one of the world’s largest, recorded its first sales, and went public in a multi-billion dollar IPO. Described as “a force of nature,” Jonathan Webb founded the company to bring jobs back... View Details

Keywords: Agricultural; Entrepreneur; Business Startups; Development Economics; Sales; Goals and Objectives; Going Public; Growth Management; Buildings and Facilities; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; North America

22 Jun 2010
First Look

First Look: June 22

of 1938 was the first large-scale non-Communist expropriation of foreign-owned natural resource assets. The literature generally makes three assertions: the U.S. government did not fully back the companies, Mexico did not fully compensate... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

September 2004 (Revised October 2004)
Case

Pat Anderson

By: Leslie A. Perlow and Daisy Wademan

Patten Bank's pending sale jeopardizes Pat Anderson's prospect of receiving an expected year-end bonus. What to do now? This problem follows several earlier conflicts that Anderson has confronted during the past four-and-one-half years spent working as an analyst and... View Details

Keywords: Change Management; Organizational Culture; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Conflict Management; Power and Influence; Executive Compensation; Banking Industry; Financial Services Industry; United States

Find at Harvard

16 Oct 2007
First Look

First Look: October 16, 2007

School Note 808-021 Explores the core issues involved in compensating family employees in a family business. Explains family interests and other factors that shape family employee compensation practices.... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

September 2023 (Revised July 2024)
Case

Going Mobile-First? The Digital Transformation of Davivienda Bank in Colombia

By: Jorge Tamayo and Jenyfeer Martinez Buitrago

Set in 2017, this case describes the digital transformation strategy of Davivienda—a leading player in Colombia’s commercial banking and one of the companies belonging to Grupo Bolívar, a major Colombian financial conglomerate. The case also describes the pioneer role... View Details

Keywords: Change Management; Transformation; Decision Choices and Conditions; Information Technology; Digital Strategy; Digital Transformation; Internet and the Web; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Innovation and Management; Innovation Strategy; Growth and Development Strategy; Business Strategy; Banking Industry; Latin America; Central America; South America; Colombia

19 Sep 2017
First Look

First Look at New Research and Ideas, September 19

September 2017 Management Science Channel Integration, Sales Dispersion, and Inventory Management By: Gallino, Santiago, Antonio Moreno, and Ioannis Stamatopoulos Abstract—We study the effects of the introduction of cross-channel... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

10 Oct 2017
First Look

First Look at New Research and Ideas, October 10, 2017

https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=53251 August 22, 2017 Harvard Business Review Find the Right Metrics for Your Sales Team By: Cespedes, Frank V., and Robert Marsh Abstract—This article reports the results of a survey of key... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

September 2021 (Revised December 2023)
Case

On the Bubble: Startup Bootstrapping

By: Jeffrey J. Bussgang, Tom Quinn and Annelena Lobb

Bubble was a software company in the low-code/no-code market, making tools that allowed users without traditional programming backgrounds or technical skills to build software. The case covers cofounder Joshua Haas’s engineering background, as he experienced a high... View Details

January 2009 (Revised June 2010)
Case

Cisco Systems (2001): Building and Sustaining a Customer-Centric Culture

By: Ranjay Gulati

Customer centricity has been an important part of the culture at Cisco Systems since its inception. While part of this is attributable to values put in place by the founders and retained by subsequent management, it is also closely interwoven with its organizational... View Details

Keywords: Customer Satisfaction; Organizational Design; Organizational Structure; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Change Management; Organizational Culture; Research and Development; Job Cuts and Outsourcing; Employees; Brands and Branding; Customer Relationship Management; Business Units

March 2001 (Revised February 2005)
Case

Venture Capital Vignettes

By: G. Felda Hardymon

Presents three fictionalized but realistic situations in which a venture capitalist may find himself. One situation requires crisis intervention to quell a dispute between a vice president of sales and a CEO; another poses the problem of working out the composition of... View Details

Keywords: Venture Capital; Crisis Management; Governing and Advisory Boards; Management Teams; Executive Compensation; Situation or Environment; Employee Relationship Management; Problems and Challenges; Financial Services Industry