Publications

November 2024
Case

FedEx Cyberattack (A): Navigating the NotPetya Storm

By: Hise Gibson, Frank Nagle, Alicia Dadlani and Martha Hostetter

In 2017, FedEx’s European division — acquired the year before for $5 billion — was hit by a devastating cyberattack that destroyed thousands of computers and business systems across several countries. Corporate Chief Information Officer Rob Carter put the company’s... View Details

Keywords: Cybersecurity; Crisis Management; Disruption; Planning; Transportation Industry; United States; Europe

May 1992 (Revised June 1993)
Case

Jan Carlzon: CEO at SAS (A)

By: Christopher A. Bartlett

Describes Jan Carlzon's actions on assuming the CEO's responsibility at SAS in a time of financial and organizational difficulty. After tracing Carlzon's development as a manager, it focuses on the way in which he developed, then communicated a clear and motivating... View Details

Keywords: Communication; Financial Crisis; Employee Relationship Management; Knowledge; Leadership Development; Crisis Management; Motivation and Incentives; Business Strategy; Aerospace Industry

May 2015 (Revised March 2016)
Supplement

Thomas Cook Group on the Brink (C): Transformation Year 2 Results

By: Benjamin C. Esty

Analyzes the results of the Thomas Cook turnaround plan after the second year under Harriet Green's leadership (November 2014). View Details

Keywords: Turnaround; Corporate Restructuring; Female Ceo; Transformation; Change Management; Communication Strategy; Cost Management; Financial Liquidity; Financial Management; Management Succession; Leading Change; Crisis Management; Value Creation; Leadership; Travel Industry; United Kingdom

20 Apr 2011
Research & Ideas

Blind Spots: We’re Not as Ethical as We Think

interest to remain, the leaders are responsible for the boundedly unethical actions that follow. Q: How do you become aware of your blind spots? A: By looking at the data. If you firmly believe that you want to give women and minorities... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

05 Dec 2012
What Do You Think?

Should Managers Bother Listening to Predictions?

highly reliable sources, are generally not believed unless they fit the company agenda." Others maintained that planning without prediction is impossible. After all, a plan is a prediction. As Vishu put... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

May 2010 (Revised November 2010)
Case

Investment Technology Group

By: Clayton S. Rose and David Lane

Investment Technology Group (ITG) CEO Robert Gasser wondered if the financial crisis had permanently affected the firm's business model. A leader in trade analytics and execution for institutional equity investors, ITG had grown since its establishment in 1987 in step... View Details

Keywords: Customer Relationship Management; Financial Crisis; Investment; Resignation and Termination; Crisis Management; Product Positioning; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Financial Services Industry; Information Technology Industry; New York (city, NY)

2021
White Paper

The Future of Boston's Workforce: The Path Forward from COVID-19

By: Will Dorsey Eden, Joseph B. Fuller and Rachel Lipson

In response to the unprecedented disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic on Greater Boston’s economy and workforce, the Boston Foundation, Skillworks, and the Project on Workforce at Harvard partnered to convene workforce leaders from across the region to address how might... View Details

Keywords: COVID; COVID-19; Workforce; Pandemic; Labor Market; Health Pandemics; Labor; Employment; Organizations; Cooperation; Strategic Planning; Boston

August 2006 (Revised June 2010)
Case

SUN Brewing (A)

The Khemka family of India, founders, managers, and majority owners of Russia-based SUN Brewing, faces a difficult decision in 1998. Following the rouble's massive devaluation in August 1998, the stock price of SUN Brewing, which is publicly listed on the Luxemburg... View Details

Keywords: Family Business; Decision Choices and Conditions; Capital Markets; Financing and Loans; Emerging Markets; India; Russia

June 2020 (Revised October 2020)
Case

What Went Wrong with Boeing's 737 Max?

By: William W. George and Amram Migdal

This case describes the development of the Boeing 737 Max airplane model and the events leading up to two tragic plane crashes, in which a total of 346 people died: the crash of Lion Air flight 610 on October 29, 2018, in Indonesia, and the crash of Ethiopian Airlines... View Details

Keywords: Communication; Communication Intention and Meaning; Communication Strategy; Forms of Communication; Announcements; Decision Making; Decision Choices and Conditions; Judgments; Ethics; Moral Sensibility; Values and Beliefs; Globalization; Global Strategy; Governance; Corporate Accountability; Governance Controls; Human Resources; Resignation and Termination; Leadership; Leadership Style; Management; Business or Company Management; Crisis Management; Management Practices and Processes; Management Skills; Management Style; Management Systems; Risk Management; Time Management; Markets; Demand and Consumers; Digital Platforms; Supply and Industry; Duopoly and Oligopoly; Industry Structures; Operations; Product Development; Organizations; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Culture; Outcome or Result; Failure; Success; Planning; Strategic Planning; Problems and Challenges; Relationships; Business and Community Relations; Business and Government Relations; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Risk and Uncertainty; Safety; Strategy; Transportation; Air Transportation; Aerospace Industry; Air Transportation Industry; Africa; Ethiopia; Asia; Indonesia; North and Central America; United States; Seattle; Chicago

Article

Predictions, Prophets, and Restarting Your Business

By: Frank V. Cespedes

The first task of crisis management is a reasonably accurate view of the current situation and how it might evolve. There are many predictions about so-called “new normal” as a result of the semi-enforced social distancing necessitated by the coronavirus. But most are... View Details

Keywords: Health Pandemics; Crisis Management; Strategic Planning

Read Now

August 2020 (Revised December 2020)
Case

General Dennis L. Via: People First, Mission Always

By: Boris Groysberg, Susan Seligson, Katherine Connolly Baden and Robin Abrahams

Dennis L. Via, was a retired four-star U.S. Army general and one of the world’s foremost experts on logistics, crisis management, supply chains, and maintaining a state of readiness at all times. As he reflected back on his career and leadership experience during the... View Details

Keywords: Leadership; Crisis Management; Planning; Health Pandemics; United States

06 Sep 2005
What Do You Think?

What are the Lessons of New Orleans?

Summing Up Management is a complex process. Good plans executed poorly may be worse than poor plans executed well. This is never truer than at times of disaster, in which plans... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

06 Dec 2004
What Do You Think?

Why Do Managers Fail to Act on Their Predictions?

assessment of, and response to, predictions, particularly those involving substantial future risks? What role should corporate boards play in this process? Is such assessment the first step toward the ultimate test of true leadership,... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

April 2011
Case

Designs by Kate: The Power of Direct Sales

By: John A. Deighton and Sarah Abbott

The sales representatives at Designs by Kate (DBK) sell private label jewelry at hosted parties and through online social media channels. They are also responsible for recruiting, training, and managing new sales reps. CEO and founder Kate Creevey designed the... View Details

Keywords: Direct Sales; Consumer Marketing; Marketing Management; Personal Selling; Sales Compensation; Sales Organization; Motivation and Incentives; Marketing Strategy; Salesforce Management; Performance; Compensation and Benefits; Apparel and Accessories Industry

06 Apr 2007
What Do You Think?

Will Market Forces Stop Global Warming?

Clearly, my effort to frame the discussion around just the third question failed. As George Olsen said, "A lot of the people posting to this discussion appear to have missed the point." But responses have prompted me to wonder... View Details

Keywords: by Jim Heskett; Energy; Utilities

30 Nov 2016
Op-Ed

Where Could More Regulation Help Small Businesses? Online Lending.

the depth of problems in small business lending, and find and measure solutions. In the advent of another credit crisis this could prove disastrous. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is empowered within Section 1071 of... View Details

Keywords: by Karen Mills and Brayden McCarthy; Financial Services

April 2021 (Revised December 2023)
Case

The Mahindra Group: Leading with Purpose

By: Ranjay Gulati and Rachna Tahilyani

India headquartered Mahindra Group is a multibillion-dollar federation of companies operating across the globe. It is ahead of its time in articulating its purpose and mapping its values, something it had first done at inception and then refreshed yet again as ‘Rise’... View Details

Keywords: Mission and Purpose; Organizational Culture; Change Management; Communication Strategy; Family Ownership; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Revenue; Auto Industry; Financial Services Industry; Manufacturing Industry; Technology Industry; Asia; India; Mumbai; South Korea; Italy; United States

May 1992 (Revised August 1996)
Case

NIKE in Transition (A): The Ascendancy of Bob Woodell

By: Christopher A. Bartlett

Explores Bob Woodell's tenure as Nike's first COO. Describes development of Woodell's management style, his attempts to develop the organization, and his responses to unforeseen business problems. Changing market forces, new competitors, a build-up of low-end... View Details

Keywords: Conferences; Crisis Management; Management Style; Marketing Strategy; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Performance Evaluation; Competition

2015
Case

Fine Harvest Restaurant Group (cases A and B)

By: Clara (Xiaoling) Chen, Kenneth A. Merchant, Tatiana Sandino and Wim A. Van der Stede

The Fine Harvest Restaurant Group cases A and B examine a company's design of a new system to evaluate the performance (and determine the bonuses) for its restaurant managers. Fine Harvest had traditionally evaluated restaurant managers based on store margins and had... View Details

Keywords: Incentive Systems; Relative Performance Evaluation; Restaurant Industry; Accounting; Economics; Human Resources; Measurement and Metrics; Labor; Performance; Salesforce Management; Retail Industry; North and Central America