Publications

01 Aug 2005
What Do You Think?

Is There an “Efficient Market” in CEO Compensation?

market value of all CEOs is driven by companies hiring leadership from the outside rather than promoting it from within. In other words, there is a market premium paid for outside hires. Hiring from outside often occurs either in organizations with little View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

May 1994
Case

Laura Ashley (D)

By: Richard L. Nolan

Describes the resignation of the CEO hired three years earlier to transform the company. View Details

Keywords: Transformation; Resignation and Termination; Management Succession; Performance Evaluation

01 Oct 2020
What Do You Think?

Are CEOs the Wrong Leaders for Stakeholder Capitalism?

Interorganizational management in a channel of distribution is a complex matter. But it doesn’t hold a candle to the complexity of stakeholder capitalism, as suggested by responses to this month’s column on the subject. Reading them, it’s... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

12 Feb 2001
Research & Ideas

Creating Value Across Borders

Business sat down with HBS associate professor Walter Kuemmerle to discuss the entrepreneurial process in an international setting. Kuemmerle, a Novartis Fellow, holds a joint appointment in Entrepreneurial and Service Management and... View Details

Keywords: by Staff

November 2000 (Revised December 2000)
Case

Loewen Group Inc., The

By: Stuart C. Gilson and Jose Camacho

A publiclytraded funeral home and cemetery consolidator faces imminent financial distress. The company has aggressively grown through use of debt. Restructuring the debt is potentially very costly to creditors, shareholders, suppliers, and other corporate stakeholders.... View Details

Keywords: International Accounting; Restructuring; Capital Structure; Cost of Capital; Debt Securities; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Crisis Management; Business and Shareholder Relations; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Service Industry

13 May 2014
Op-Ed

The Alibaba Effect

American reasons: to "raise capital and maintain management control," which they couldn't do in Hong Kong. Hong Kong believes in the principle that each share of stock is entitled to one vote. The... View Details

Keywords: by Bill Kirby & Warren McFarlan; Retail

October 2004
Case

Sales Force Training at Arrow Electronics (A)

By: Jason R. Barro, Brian J. Hall and Aaron Zimmerman

In the mid-1980s, Arrow, the world's largest electronics distributor, implemented a college recruiting program to hire salespeople. The program was part of an effort to increase the professionalism and skill set of the sales force in an industry where few salespeople... View Details

Keywords: Human Resources; Compensation and Benefits; Recruitment; Retention; Selection and Staffing; Salesforce Management; Competition

July 2009
Teaching Note

TH!NK: The Norwegian Electric Car Company (TN)

By: Joseph B. Lassiter III

Teaching Note for [808070]. View Details

Keywords: Venture Capital; Market Entry and Exit; Brands and Branding; Environmental Sustainability; Product Launch; Auto Industry; Norway

27 May 2014
First Look

First Look: May 27

Jones, G. Abstract—This article highlights the role of business enterprises as influences on ideals of human beauty. The homogenization of such ideals has been one of the most noteworthy features of globalization over the last two... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

March 2019 (Revised June 2019)
Supplement

Gender and Free Speech at Google (C)

By: Nien-hê Hsieh and Sarah Mehta

This case reveals Google’s response to a list of employee demands aiming to combat sexual misconduct in the workplace. This case should accompany the (A) and (B) cases, “Gender and Free Speech at Google” (318-085) and (319-085). View Details

Keywords: Free Speech; Ethnicity; Gender; Race; Employees; Employee Relationship Management; Recruitment; Labor; Employment; Lawsuits and Litigation; Technology Industry; United States; California

February 2014
Article

Governance and CEO Turnover: Do Something or Do the Right Thing?

By: Ray Fisman, Rakesh Khurana, Matthew Rhodes-Kropf and Soojin Yim

We study how corporate governance affects firm value through the decision of whether to fire or retain the CEO. We present a model in which weak governance—which prevents shareholders from controlling the board—protects inferior CEOs from dismissal, while at the same... View Details

Keywords: Governing and Advisory Boards; Value; Retention; Resignation and Termination; Corporate Governance; Management Teams; Business and Shareholder Relations

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14 Jun 2004
Research & Ideas

The Big Money for Big Projects

managers to distribute these cash flows to capital providers, both debt and equity holders, rather than reinvesting it in the firm. As I mentioned before, project finance resembles LBOs in this respect.... View Details

Keywords: by Ann Cullen; Financial Services

01 May 2020
In Practice

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

The coronavirus pandemic caught the business world by surprise, but the catastrophe might force companies to face a crisis that has been unfolding in plain sight: climate change. We asked faculty members affiliated with the Business and Environment Initiative at... View Details

Keywords: by Danielle Kost

January 2001 (Revised August 2003)
Case

Diageo plc

A major U.K.-based multinational is reevaluating its leverage policy as it restructures its business. The treasury team models the tradeoffs between the benefits and costs of debt financing, using Monte Carlo simulation to estimate the savings from the interest tax... View Details

Keywords: Cost vs Benefits; Multinational Firms and Management; Capital Structure; Restructuring; United Kingdom

May 2008
Article

Working in the Gray Zone

By: Michel Anteby

Supervisors often turn a blind eye when employees use company resources and time to work on personal projects. They realize that stamping out such behavior may do more harm than good. View Details

Keywords: Employee Relationship Management; Management Practices and Processes; Performance Effectiveness; Behavior

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November 2, 2015
Article

The Best Ways to Hire Salespeople

By: Frank V. Cespedes and Daniel Weinfurter

Companies typically spend more on hiring in sales than they do anywhere else in the firm. Average annual turnover in sales is 25% to 30%, while direct replacement costs for a telesales employee ranges from $75,000 to $90,000 and other sales positions cost as much as... View Details

Keywords: Selection and Staffing; Salesforce Management; Retention

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29 May 2006
Research & Ideas

Why CEOs Are Not Plug-and-Play

investment against cash flow to survive in a highly cyclical business. Such skills are usually transferable to new environments—and are the most portable type of human capital other than general View Details

Keywords: by Boris Groysberg, Andrew N. McLean & Nitin Nohria; Employment

01 Dec 2003
Research & Ideas

Sometimes Success Begins at Failure

that eventually resulted in a historic windfall for the drug maker soon after it began marketing UK-92,480 under the brand name Viagra. Pfizer was able to develop and launch a wildly successful and profitable new drug because it effectively View Details

Keywords: by Henry Chesbrough; Health; Pharmaceutical

January 16, 2023
Article

40 Ideas to Shake Up Your Hiring Process

By: Joseph Fuller, Nithya Vaduganathan, Allison Bailey and Manjari Raman

Many companies today are struggling to hire and retain talent, but more often than not the problem is self-inflicted: They’re simply not using a broad enough array of tools, sometimes because they don’t even know the tools exist. In this article, the authors list 40... View Details

Keywords: Talent and Talent Management; Retention; Recruitment; Selection and Staffing