Publications

May 2016
Case

Should I Stay or Should I Go? (A)

By: Boris Groysberg, George Serafeim, Eric Lin and Robin Abrahams

Financial executive Alexi is considering a job change. Will his long-ago association with a company currently embroiled in a scandal hurt his chances in the job market? In the (A) case, Alexi and executive search consultant Marguerite strategize about career... View Details

Keywords: Personal Development and Career; Financial Services Industry

October 1996 (Revised April 1997)
Case

Vandelay Industries, Inc.

An ICS consultant considers issues at the start of a full-scale implementation of SAP software for a large client. The enterprise resource planning (ERP) software will integrate previously fragmented business processes and so must be supported by the entire client... View Details

Keywords: Change Management; Software; Business Processes; Information Technology Industry

Video

Anu Aga

Anu Aga, former head of Thermax, an engineering and energy company in India, describes her decision to hire a consultant company in response to operational losses at the company, and of the skepticism she faced... View Details

August 2017
Case

Wake Up Call

By: David G. Fubini and Christine Snively

In 1993, three consultants at different stages in their careers must decide how to respond to what they considered to be unethical behavior from a partner at their firm. They each considered the potential consequences of reporting a senior colleague and the impact it... View Details

Keywords: Decision Making; Judgments; Leadership Style; Ethics; Consulting Industry; United States

Ashley V. Whillans

Ashley Whillans is the Volpert Family Associate Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School, where she teaches the Motivation and Incentives course to MBA students. Professor Whillans earned her PhD in Social Psychology from the University of... View Details

February 2022 (Revised January 2024)
Supplement

Winning Business at Russell Reynolds (C)

By: Ethan Bernstein and Cara Mazzucco

In an effort to make compensation drive collaboration, Russell Reynolds Associates’ (RRA) CEO Clarke Murphy sought to re-engineer the bonus system for his executive search consultants in 2016. As his HR analytics guru, Kelly Smith, points out, that risks upsetting—and... View Details

Keywords: Restructuring; Talent and Talent Management; Compensation and Benefits; Growth and Development Strategy; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Culture; Performance Evaluation; Motivation and Incentives; Consulting Industry

04 Feb 2013
News

The 5 Questions Every Company Should Ask Itself

July 2000
Case

Aerospace Technologies, Inc.

By: Paul M. Healy and Jacob Cohen

Ben Galil's privately held engineering consulting firm represents aerospace products manufacturers in Israeli government biddings. The company incurs expenses for years before getting paid. This case deals with the alternative methods for booking revenues and expenses... View Details

Keywords: Accrual Accounting; Accounting; Revenue; Cost; Business or Company Management; Profit; Engineering; Bids and Bidding; Government and Politics; Private Ownership; Consulting Industry; Israel

Find at Harvard

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

Karim R. Lakhani

Karim R. Lakhani is the Dorothy & Michael Hintze Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School. He specializes in technology management, innovation, digital transformation and artificial... View Details

Keywords: biotechnology; communications; computer; health care; high technology; information technology industry; internet; pharmaceuticals; software; video games

2021
Working Paper

Diagnosing Quality: Learning, Amenities, and the Demand for Health Care

By: Achyuta Adhvaryu, Emilio Gutierrez, Anant Nyshadham and Jorge Tamayo

We study the role of amenities in increasing demand for underutilized healthcare services. We evaluate the offer of a high-amenity diagnostic consultation for cataracts with a randomized price and find that a lower price for the high-amenity consultation increases... View Details

Keywords: Health Care Demand; Amenities; Health Care Quality; Cataracts; Surgery; Health Care and Treatment; Demand and Consumers; Quality; Learning; Mexico

Read Now

December 2012 (Revised August 2020)
Case

Rodan + Fields Dermatologists

By: Das Narayandas, Michael Roberts and Liz Kind

The case focuses on issues involved in managing the direct multilevel marketing sales consultants who sell R+F skin care products. The company is trying to better manage the inconsistent and highly variable recruitment behavior of the sales force i.e., the degree to... View Details

Keywords: Marketing; Salesforce Management; Recruitment; Compensation and Benefits; Consumer Products Industry; Beauty and Cosmetics Industry; California

14 May 2012
Research & Ideas

Breaking the Smartphone Addiction

work, no matter where they are. "Let's face it," writes HBS Professor Leslie Perlow. "When that phone buzzes, few of us have the mental fortitude to ignore it." In her new book, Sleeping With Your Smartphone, Perlow explains how a small group of... View Details

Keywords: by Leslie A. Perlow

16 Jun 2015
News

Michael Porter on America's Historic Energy Opportunity

28 Oct 2010
News

Lose manufacturing and you lose capacity for innovation

24 Jun 2020
News

Silicon Valley can no longer 'tinker around the edges' to fix its diversity problem

2017
Blitz Discussions

The Structured World and the Self

March 1997 (Revised January 1999)
Case

Cambridge Technology Partners: Corporate Venturing (August 1996)

By: Paul A. Gompers and Catherine M. Conneely

Concerns the decision of Jim Sims, president and CEO of Cambridge Technology Partners (CTP) to form a corporate venture capital subsidiary. CTP is a fast-growing information technology consulting firm that has been presented with many investment opportunities from... View Details

Keywords: Decisions; Venture Capital; Leadership; Information Technology; Investment; Opportunities; Customer Focus and Relationships; Business Startups; Business Subsidiaries; Consulting Industry; Consulting Industry; Cambridge