Publications

April 2020
Supplement

Oaktree: Pierre Foods Investment

By: Victoria Ivashina and Terrence Shu

This case is a setting to discuss “loan to own” investment strategy that is often pursued by distressed investors. The aftermath of the 2007 financial crisis left many companies with poor liquidity and limited ability to obtain credit. One of these companies was Pierre... View Details

Keywords: Distress Investing; Investment; Debt Securities; Strategy; Restructuring

2015
Working Paper

Are CEOs Born Leaders? Lessons from Traits of a Million Individuals

By: Renée Adams, Matti Keloharju and Samuli Knüpfer

What makes a CEO? We merge data on the traits of more than one million Swedish males, measured at age 18 in a mandatory military enlistment test, with data on their service as a CEO of any Swedish company decades later. CEOs have higher cognitive and non-cognitive... View Details

Keywords: Personal Characteristics; Management Teams

SSRN

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2009
Working Paper

Do Analysts Follow Managers Who Switch Companies? An Analysis of Relationships in the Capital Markets.

By: Francois Brochet, Gregory S. Miller and Suraj Srinivasan

We examine the importance of professional relationships developed between analysts and managers by investigating analyst coverage decisions in the context of CEO and CFO moves between publicly listed firms. We find that top executive moves from an origin firm to a... View Details

Keywords: Business and Stakeholder Relations; Capital Markets; Decisions; Managerial Roles; Financial Institutions; Investment; Market Participation; Public Ownership; Relationships

SSRN

2010
Working Paper

A New Model of Integrity: The Missing Factor Of Production (PDF file of Keynote and PowerPoint Slides)

By: Michael C. Jensen, Kari L. Granger and Werner Erhard

An Actionable Pathway To Dramatic Increases In Individual And Organizational Performance.

Full Day Executive Program Seminar taught at Olin Business School, Washington University, St. Louis, MO.

Workshop Objectives:

To provide you and your... View Details

Keywords: Performance Improvement; Programs; Trust; Competitive Advantage; Value Creation; Washington (state, US)

SSRN

December 2008 (Revised January 2011)
Case

Arcadia Biosciences: Seeds of Change

By: Arthur A. Daemmrich, Forest L. Reinhardt and Mary Louise Shelman

Arcadia Biosciences is an entrepreneurial California agricultural biotech company seeking to earn carbon credits by modifying commodity crops for use in China and India. Eric Rey, Arcadia's CEO, faced a strategic inflection point in early September 2008. The company... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Entrepreneurship; Growth and Development Strategy; Environmental Sustainability; Science-Based Business; Climate Change; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Biotechnology Industry; China; India; California

December 2005 (Revised April 2011)
Case

General Electric's 20th Century CEOs

By: Nitin Nohria, Anthony Mayo and Mark Benson

General Electric thrived in every decade of the 20th century. Since its founding in 1892, GE has placed a high value on picking and training the best people. Staff members worked with other scientists in the company's research lab to design and manufacture new and... View Details

Keywords: Business History; Leadership Style; Growth and Development Strategy; Management Style

In the fast-moving digital world, even experts have a hard time assessing new ideas. Case in point: At Bing a small headline change an employee proposed was deemed a low priority and shelved for months until one engineer decided to do a quick online controlled... View Details

Web

Leadership Transitions | Baker Library | Bloomberg Center | Harvard Business School

center, 2001. Prints & Photographs Division, Library of Congress, LC-DIG-highsm-15224. Vartan, Vartanig G. "Peterson Is Named Chief Executive by Lehman: Former Commerce Secretery to Take Ehrman's Post." The New York Times , July 27, 1973.... View Details

02 Nov 2016
Blog Post

The Benefits of a Residential Campus

in closet (this wasn’t me, but I’ve heard some classmates joke about this), know that there are many on campus housing options — everything from three bedroom apartments with kitchens, to dorms designed with the executive education... View Details

11 Apr 2022
Research & Ideas

A World of Difference: What Keeps Companies from Becoming More Inclusive

Francesca Gino: We can divide leaders out there into three buckets. The first bucket is executives who say, I want to bring more diversity into the organization and think about equity and inclusion, but this is not at the top of my... View Details

Keywords: by Jen McFarland Flint

14 Jan 2019
Op-Ed

These 4 CEOs Created a New Standard of Leadership

for the multi-stakeholder approach. In 2011, he told shareholders, “My job is not to serve shareholders, but to serve Unilever’s customers and consumers.” He then suspended quarterly earnings reporting, enabling executives to concentrate... View Details

Keywords: by Bill George; Health; Banking; Food & Beverage; Consumer Products

Web

Credential of Leadership, Impact, and Management in Business | HBS Online

Senior Lecturer of Business Administration and C. Roland Christensen Distinguished Management Educator Introduction to Personal Branding Show Hide Details Modules Develop Your Personal Brand Engage Your Personal Brand and Influence 40-45 hrs Term 4 Course - 6 Modules... View Details

23 Oct 2019
Blog Post

How to Talk Gooder in Business and Life

sharpen conversation skills is through practice, experimentation, feedback, reflection and more practice. “How to talk gooder in business and life” will help Elective Curriculum (EC) students hone their conversational skills—so they can continue improving and View Details

16 Nov 2023
News

Dean Datar Meets with Alumni in Boston

Association of Boston’s (HBSAB) centennial, and connect with each other. John I. Williams, Jr. (MBA 1978), co-president of the HBSAB, welcomed the assembled alumni, which was followed by a fireside chat with the dean and Angela Crispi (MBA 1990), the View Details

June 2024
Teaching Note

Dirk Nowitzki: Changing the Game

By: Boris Groysberg, Katherine Connolly Baden and Robin Abrahams

Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 420-031. NBA Superstar Dirk Nowitzki was unsure whether the 2018-19 season would be his last as an NBA player. He had not faced such uncertainty since 1998, when he had navigated a difficult decision regarding the timing of his move to... View Details

Keywords: Problems and Challenges; Practice; Retirement; Work-Life Balance; Success; Knowledge Acquisition; Knowledge Sharing; Knowledge Use and Leverage; Growth and Development; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Performance; Sports Industry; United States

October 2018
Case

African Bank Investments Limited (A)

By: Lynn S. Paine and Will Hurwitz

Less than a year after joining the board of African Bank Investments Limited (ABIL), the newest director finds himself in difficult discussions with other directors about removing the struggling company’s CEO. The case is set in South Africa in mid-2014 as shares in... View Details

Keywords: Ethics; Personal Finance; Corporate Accountability; Governing and Advisory Boards; Corporate Governance; Crisis Management; Insurance; Leadership; Management; Risk Management; Banking Industry; Financial Services Industry; Insurance Industry; Africa; South Africa

2018
Working Paper

When to Take the Leap: The Antecedents and Consequences of Leapfrog CEOs

By: J. Yo-Jud Cheng

Much of the prior research on CEO successions focuses on differences between CEOs appointed from within the firm and those appointed from outside; however, this dichotomy neglects significant heterogeneity in CEOs’ career trajectories. In this study, I examine the... View Details

Keywords: Management Succession; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Innovation and Management

January 2016 (Revised January 2017)
Case

Rumie: Bringing Digital Education to the Underserved

By: John J-H Kim and Amram Migdal

In fall of 2015, the Toronto, Canada–based education technology nonprofit Rumie had distributed thousands of computer tablets preloaded with collections of thousands of pieces of curated educational content to nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in some of the most... View Details

Keywords: Edtech; Education Technology; Social Enterprise; Nonprofit; Education Startup; Technological Innovation; Nonprofit Organizations; Social Entrepreneurship; Education; Business Startups; Education Industry; Canada; Africa

March 2011 (Revised December 2012)
Case

Demand Media

By: John Deighton and Leora Kornfeld

Google search had helped Demand Media grow to be a $1.9 billion online publisher. Then, social media and smartphone apps began to change the way people navigated the Internet. How should Demand Media respond? The business ran on a radically new model in which a stable... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Information Publishing; Consumer Behavior; Customization and Personalization; Internet and the Web; Publishing Industry