Publications

October 1993 (Revised December 1998)
Supplement

Erik Peterson (D)

By: John J. Gabarro

Implicitly raises the question of what Peterson should do to extricate himself from his difficulties. Should he consider resignation, go directly to the company's president to seek relief, or clarify the situation within the company? A redisguised version of an earlier... View Details

Keywords: Employee Relationship Management; Resignation and Termination; Leadership

August 1996 (Revised October 1996)
Case

Howard, Shea & Chan Asset Management(C): Recruiting and Selecting a Salesperson

By: Benson P. Shapiro

Goes to the heart of the sales strategy issues by asking discussion participants to: 1) develop a salesperson recruiting process, 2) choose among four resumes, and 3) develop a sales compensation approach. View Details

Keywords: Compensation and Benefits; Recruitment; Salesforce Management; Strategy

March 1992 (Revised June 1992)
Case

AT&T Productos de Consumo de Mexico

By: Joseph L. Badaracco Jr.

Describes in detail the decisions AT&T made in designing and staffing their Mexican telephone answering machine plant. Allows students to evaluate a company's detailed implementation decisions on a plant in a developed country--involving wages, benefits, waste... View Details

Keywords: Decision Making; Executive Compensation; Selection and Staffing; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Management Systems; Mexico

August 1993
Case

You've Just Got to Fire Him (A)

A CEO has decided to fire his head of sales, but stumbles over the question of when and how? This case describes the background and the resolution that it had to be done in June of 1992 in a particular way. View Details

Keywords: Business or Company Management; Resignation and Termination

12 Oct 1999
Research & Ideas

Spirit at Work: The Search for Deeper Meaning in the Workplace

times," he observes. Richard C. Whiteley (MBA '68), a management consultant and author who is writing a book titled "ReSpiriting Work," notes, "Another important factor is the aging of the American population. The baby... View Details

Keywords: by Marguerite Rigoglioso

Research Summary

Overview

By: Andy Wu

How can technology entrepreneurs build competitive advantage from the ground up? Professor Andy Wu conducts scholarly research and develops course materials that document how technology entrepreneurs can (1) organize for innovation to create new market opportunities... View Details

Keywords: Strategy; Entrepreneurship; Venture Capital; Growth Management; Organizational Design; Organizational Structure; Technology Platform; Technological Innovation; Information Technology Industry; Retail Industry; Pharmaceutical Industry; Video Game Industry; Media and Broadcasting Industry; United States; China; Southeast Asia; South Asia

February 2020
Case

Drift: The First Sales Hire

By: Mark Roberge

David Cancel and Elias Torres, the co-founders of Drift, scaled their business to thousands of users and hundreds of thousands in revenue. However, they were falling short of the annual revenue target they communicated to the board of directors. Having scaled the... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Growth Management; Salesforce Management; Selection and Staffing

22 Mar 2017
Research & Ideas

What's the Ideal Frequency for a Sales Quota?

spend more than $800 billion annually on those efforts. Sales compensation plans are at the center of all this activity, the primary tool managers use to motivate and incentivize salespeople. Sales reps feed on two forms of compensation:... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

11 Dec 2018
Research & Ideas

Free Trade Needs Nurturing—and Other Lessons from History

explosion of trade and capital flows created a world that looked in many ways like ours. Yet even in the early 20th century, there remained tensions of increasing inequality and wage competition in a context of ruthless international... View Details

Keywords: by Staff; Auto; Aerospace; Chemical; Consumer Products; Electronics; Energy; Industrial Products; Manufacturing; Shipping; Transportation

March 1985 (Revised July 1986)
Case

Springs Industries: Textile Manufacturing--1983 (B)

By: Kim B. Clark

Keywords: Buildings and Facilities; Planning; Human Resources; Management

May 2004
Article

Underwater Options and the Dynamics of Executive Pay-to-Performance Sensitivities

By: Brian J. Hall and Thomas A. Knox

Keywords: Management; Compensation and Benefits; Performance

October 2015
Article

The Value of Bosses

By: Edward P. Lazear, Kathryn L. Shaw and Christopher Stanton

How and by how much do supervisors enhance worker productivity? Using a company-based data set on the productivity of technology-based services workers, supervisor effects are estimated and found to be large. Replacing a boss who is in the lower 10% of boss quality... View Details

Keywords: Supervisors; Management Skills; Employees; Performance Productivity

Read Now

April 1984 (Revised May 2004)
Case

Waltham Motors Division

By: William J. Bruns Jr.

Loss of a major contract has reduced production volume below the level expected when budget and standard costs were determined. Apparently favorable results for monthly operations result from reduced volume rather than operating efficiency. Rewritten version of a case... View Details

Keywords: Capital Budgeting; Cost Management; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Activity Based Costing and Management; Business Growth and Maturation; Accounting Industry; Industrial Products Industry

05 Jun 2014
Research & Ideas

Fixing the ‘I Hate Work’ Blues

everyone focused on mission through regular engagement with employees—much more so than CEOs in my generation. So if CEOs are focused on the mission, why aren't these messages getting through to employees? “Instead of managers who... View Details

Keywords: by Bill George

01 May 2020
In Practice

COVID-19’s Hard Lessons Might Prepare Business for Climate Change

of Management Practice in Environmental Management, Retired. THE CORONAVIRUS CRISIS More Business-Related Pandemic Coverage from Around Harvard and Beyond COVID-19 Business Impact Center (Harvard Business School) How to Make Furloughs... View Details

Keywords: by Danielle Kost

January 2004
Supplement

Jack Welch General Electric-The People Factory at work: Picking My Successor at GE

By: Joseph L. Bower

Jack Welch describes the process by which Jeff Immelt was chosen. In doing so, he describes General Electric's People Factory. View Details

Keywords: Human Resources; Leadership Development; Management; Management Succession

23 May 2011
Op-Ed

Leading and Lagging Countries in Contributing to a Sustainable Society

Editor's note: Please see related story, Corporate Sustainability Reporting: It's Effective. To what extent companies contribute to a sustainable society is a question increasingly important, not only to the companies themselves, but also to investors, the countries... View Details

Keywords: by Robert G. Eccles & George Serafeim

October 2011 (Revised March 2013)
Case

Yale University Investments Office: February 2011

By: Josh Lerner and Ann Leamon

David Swensen and the Investments Office staff must decide whether to continue to allocate the bulk of the university's endowment to illiquid investments—hedge funds, private equity, real estate—given the impact of the recent market turmoil. The case explores the risks... View Details

Keywords: Asset Management; Resource Allocation; Investment; Venture Capital; Investment Funds; Property; Private Equity