Publications

April 16, 2019
Article

Research Confirms: When Receiving Bad News, We Shoot the Messenger

By: Leslie John, Hayley Blunden and Heidi Liu

Most jobs require us at some point to deliver bad news—whether it be a minor revelation such as a recruiter telling a prospective employee that there’s no wiggle room in salary, or something major, like when a manager must fire an employee. We dread such discussions... View Details

Keywords: Interpersonal Communication; Perception; Judgments

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20 Oct 2008
Research & Ideas

The Seven Things That Surprise New CEOs

connected to the company. Implications For Ceo Leadership Taken together, the seven surprises carry some important and subtle implications for how a new CEO should define his job. First, the CEO must learn... View Details

Keywords: by Michael E. Porter, Jay W. Lorsch & Nitin Nohria

08 Aug 2005
Research & Ideas

Decision Rights: Who Gives the Green Light?

"happens all too often," says Michael Jensen, professor emeritus at Harvard Business School and managing director of Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Monitor Group's organizational strategy practice.... View Details

Keywords: by Peter Jacobs

January 2003 (Revised October 2003)
Case

Satera Team at Imatron Systems, Inc. (A), The

By: Teresa M. Amabile and Elizabeth Schatzel

Escalating conflict has erupted within the Satera product development team, resulting from the conflicting cognitive styles of the two senior mechanical engineers. The conflict has taken a toll on both project progress and team morale, endangering one of the most... View Details

Keywords: Decision Making; Entrepreneurship; Human Resources; Management; Business or Company Management; Groups and Teams; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry

July 2020
Article

Who Should Select New Employees, Headquarters or the Unit Manager? Consequences of Centralizing Hiring at a Retail Chain

By: Carolyn Deller and Tatiana Sandino

We examine how changing the allocation of hiring decision rights in a multiunit organization affects employee-firm match quality, contingent on a unit’s circumstances. Our research site, a U.S. retail chain, switched from a decentralized hiring model (hiring by... View Details

Keywords: Control; Selection; Decentralization; Company Values; Retail Chains; Employees; Selection and Staffing; Local Range; Business Headquarters; Decision Making

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16 Feb 2023
HBS Case

ESG Activists Met the Moment at ExxonMobil, But Did They Succeed?

The impact-investment hedge fund Engine No. 1 made a big splash in May 2021 when it managed to get three nominees elected to the ExxonMobil board of directors. It was an open effort to prod the oil giant toward renewable energy and test whether activist investing could... View Details

Keywords: by Lane Lambert; Financial Services

February 2009
Case

HP: The Computer is Personal Again

By: Rajiv Lal and Cathy Ross

In September 2008, Todd Bradley, executive vice president of Hewlett-Packard Company's Personal Systems Group (PSG), gathered his thoughts before a meeting with his top executives and managers for product design and marketing. On the agenda was a discussion of... View Details

Keywords: Revenue; Product Positioning; Corporate Strategy; Computer Industry; Retail Industry

30 Apr 2022
News

The Easy Way To Become Fluent In The Language Of Digital

February 2015 (Revised April 2018)
Supplement

Dalian Wanda Group: The AMC Entertainment Acquisition (B)

By: Willy Shih

When Dalian Wanda Group of China announced its plan to acquire the AMC Entertainment theatrical exhibition chain in the United States, many people in the U.S were mystified. Unlike China where theatrical exhibition was experiencing rapid growth, the U.S. market was... View Details

Keywords: AMC Entertainment; Wanda Group; Wang Jianlin; Theater Entertainment; Film Entertainment; Acquisition; Mergers and Acquisitions; Foreign Direct Investment; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Growth and Development Strategy; Business Strategy; Expansion; Motion Pictures and Video Industry; China; United States

December 2010
Article

Organising Response to Extreme Emergencies: The Victorian Bushfires of 2009

By: Dutch Leonard and Arnold M. Howitt

How can people and organisations best respond to emergency events that are significantly beyond the boundaries of what they had generally anticipated, expected, prepared for-or even imagined? What forms of organisations are likely to be best able to cope with such... View Details

Keywords: Organizations; Management Practices and Processes; Natural Disasters; Crisis Management; Boundaries; United States

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August 2011 (Revised May 2012)
Supplement

Narayana Hrudayalaya Heart Hospital: Cardiac Care for the Poor (B)

By: Tarun Khanna and Tanya Bijlani

Narayana Hrudayalaya (NH) has expanded into a multi-specialty health city in Bangalore and has grown to twelve locations across India. The hospital plans to build 300-bed secondary-care hospitals in smaller cities across India, with a goal to operate 30,000 beds in... View Details

Keywords: Emerging Markets; Growth and Development Strategy; Goals and Objectives; Social Enterprise; Health Care and Treatment; Poverty; Welfare; Health Industry; Bangalore; Cayman Islands; Africa

Jeffrey F Rayport is a faculty member in the Entrepreneurial Management Unit at Harvard Business School, where he teaches in the School’s MBA and Executive Education Programs and on HBS Online. His primary focus in teaching and research is growth-stage technology... View Details

April 2017
Article

How Sales Can Wield Its Most Effective Weapon: Pricing

By: Frank V. Cespedes

This article discusses certain core ways that sales people can use, but sometimes abuse, pricing authority and the implications for effective sales management. View Details

Keywords: Sales; Price; Salesforce Management

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January 2008 (Revised May 2011)
Case

Cognizant Technology Solutions

By: Robert G. Eccles, David Lane and Prabakar 'PK' Kothandaraman

In the highly competitive information technology outsourcing industry, Cognizant Technology Solutions has developed a strategy to differentiate itself by emphasizing building very close client relationships through its "Two-in-a-box" (TIB) model. This model is based on... View Details

Keywords: Customer Relationship Management; Knowledge Sharing; Resource Allocation; Competitive Advantage; Information Technology; Information Technology Industry