Publications

Program

Ascending the Peak: Finding the Leader Within—Virtual

Management Excellence. Learn More Key Benefits Ascending the Peak: Finding the Leader Within—Virtual is for mid-career professionals ready to advance their organization—and career—with greater purpose and focus. By concentrating on eight... View Details

2011
Case

Wrapitup

By: W. Earl Sasser

A restaurant chain based in California offers made-to-order sandwich wraps using fresh, healthy ingredients. The founders of the company take a very active role in day-to-day business and tightly control every aspect of the restaurant operation from hiring store... View Details

Keywords: Service Operations; Governance Controls; Revenue; Employee Relationship Management; Planning; Customer Satisfaction; Problems and Challenges; Profit; Change Management; Compensation and Benefits; Leadership Style; Service Industry; California

October 1984 (Revised March 1999)
Case

NIKE (E)

Provides the background for a discussion of Nike (E1), (E2), and (E3). Outlines Nike's senior management group's early program to deal with the company's increasingly difficult competitive circumstance. View Details

Keywords: Management Style; Competition; Situation or Environment; Management Teams; Apparel and Accessories Industry; Sports Industry

November 2005 (Revised March 2006)
Case

Genentech - Capacity Planning

By: Daniel C. Snow, Steven C. Wheelwright and Alison Berkley Wagonfeld

While facilitating a complex clinical approval process over the next two to three years for a family of new cancer drugs, Genentech must develop a long-term capacity plan for a major class of new cancer products. Adding to the complexity and uncertainty is the fact... View Details

Keywords: Factories, Labs, and Plants; Growth and Development Strategy; Management Style; Management Teams; Time Management; Product; Product Development; Business Processes; Performance Capacity; Planning; Risk and Uncertainty; Complexity; Pharmaceutical Industry

July 2010 (Revised November 2011)
Supplement

Zensar: The Future of Vision Communities (B)

By: David A. Garvin and Rachna Tahilyani

Zensar is a rapidly growing, mid-sized Indian IT services company with a collaborative management philosophy and innovative HR policies. One of its practices, Vision Communities, is an inclusive forum for innovation and strategy formulation. As the company grows,... View Details

Keywords: Strategic Planning; Leadership Style; Employee Relationship Management; Decision Choices and Conditions; Information Technology; Collaborative Innovation and Invention; Business or Company Management; Expansion; Information Technology Industry; India

December 2014 (Revised January 2018)
Background Note

Troubled Marriages

By: Rosabeth Moss Kanter and Daniel Fox

Compilation of articles looking at merger integration strategies: "business marriages." Problems of culture, management style, and business goals are revealed. View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Goals and Objectives; Management Style; Mission and Purpose; Organizational Culture; Problems and Challenges

September 2019
Case

JTC: Stronger Together with Shared Ownership

By: Ethan Bernstein and Daniela Beyersdorfer

Nigel Le Quesne, CEO of Jersey-based financial services firm JTC, firmly believed that "shared ownership" was at the heart of his company’s successful track record. The firm had seen its revenues, profits, and number of clients and staff grow steadily throughout its... View Details

Keywords: Ownership; Employee Ownership; Leadership Style; Compensation and Benefits; Organizational Culture; Employee Stock Ownership Plan; Going Public; Mission and Purpose; Management Practices and Processes; Human Resources; Financial Services Industry; Channel Islands; Europe; United States

January 1990 (Revised March 1991)
Case

American Red Cross Blood Services: Northeast Region

By: Robert L. Simons

Recounts the financial difficulties and management changes experienced by American Red Cross Blood Services: Northeast Region (NER) during the 1980s. After summarizing industry-wide changes in the collection, testing, and distribution of blood and blood products, the... View Details

Keywords: Change Management; Budgets and Budgeting; Financial Management; Restructuring; Health; SWOT Analysis; Social Enterprise; Marketplace Matching; Management Style; Organizational Culture; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry; Health Industry; North and Central America

September 2001 (Revised June 2005)
Case

Stevenson Industries (A)

By: John A. Davis and Kacie LaChapelle

Simon Carlson, chairman of the board of his family's fourth-generation industrial company, must decide how to deal with his conflict with the company's nonfamily CEO. Hired by the board just 15 months earlier to pursue growth more aggressively, CEO Paul Steel has upset... View Details

Keywords: Family Business; Management Succession; Management Style; Governing and Advisory Boards; Management Teams; Rank and Position; Organizational Culture; Decision Making; Manufacturing Industry

March 1995
Background Note

Gender Differences in Managerial Behavior: The Ongoing Debate

Do men and women have distinct leadership styles? Do they approach management differently? This note summarizes the two perspectives that have dominated the ongoing debate on gender differences in organizational leadership and management behavior. Psychological... View Details

Keywords: Leadership Style; Gender

June 2010 (Revised November 2011)
Case

Zensar: The Future of Vision Communities (A)

By: David A. Garvin and Rachna Tahilyani

Zensar is a rapidly growing, mid-sized Indian IT services company with a collaborative management philosophy and innovative HR policies. One of its practices, Vision Communities, is an inclusive forum for innovation and strategy formulation. As the company grows,... View Details

Keywords: Human Resources; Collaborative Innovation and Invention; Leadership Style; Growth and Development Strategy; Management Practices and Processes; Organizational Culture; Cooperation; Information Technology Industry; India

01 Dec 2023
News

The Imposter Among Us

Edited by Jen McFarland Flint; Illustrations by Peter Arkle It was their rst day at Harvard and like the rest of his cohort, Edgar Wallner (PMD 22, 1971) will never forget meeting Robert Gaines-Cooper. Frankly, it would have been difficult to miss the Englishman, who... View Details

Keywords: Business Schools & Computer & Management Training; Educational Services

February 1992 (Revised October 1996)
Case

CUC International, Inc. (A)

By: Krishna G. Palepu and Paul M. Healy

The case series examines the role of financial reporting and corporate finance policies as vehicles for communication between managers and outside investors. This case describes management's concern that the company's stock is undervalued because analysts viewed the... View Details

Keywords: Financial Reporting; Stocks; Financial Management; Decisions; Economic Slowdown and Stagnation; Management Style; Management Practices and Processes; Business and Shareholder Relations; Value; Financial Services Industry

23 Nov 2021
Book

What It Takes to Build an Organizational Culture That Wins

track A or track B. Both can produce strategic success. But track A is a successful strategy owing little to an effective culture. The culture itself is characterized by an authoritarian management style... View Details

Keywords: by Avery Forman

August 1998 (Revised October 1998)
Case

Lark International Entertainment Ltd. (A)

By: Linda A. Hill and Jennifer Suesse

Two HBS MBA's leave McKinsey and Morgan Stanley to become entrepreneurs in Hong Kong. Together they start up a cinema chain throughout Asia. This case describes the experiences of managing a team in their Wuhan, China cinema. Looks at the challenges of managing growth... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Problems and Challenges; Business Growth and Maturation; Business Startups; Emerging Markets; Leadership Style; Leadership; Groups and Teams; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; Hong Kong; China; Asia

July 1999 (Revised October 2001)
Case

Corbin-Pacific

By: John A. Davis and Christina L. Darwall

Reviews the history of Mike Corbin's entrepreneurial career and describes in detail the successful organization he has created. Explores his management philosophy and leadership. Explores the usefulness of continuing family involvement in this business. View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Leadership Style; Business or Company Management; Management Practices and Processes; Management Teams; Success; Family Ownership; Business Strategy; Manufacturing Industry; Motorcycle Industry

24 Apr 2017
Op-Ed

Op-Ed: Courage: The Defining Characteristic of Great Leaders

decisions to build great global companies. If businesses are managed without courageous leadership, then R&D programs, product pipelines, investments in emerging markets, and employees’ commitment to the company’s mission all wither.... View Details

Keywords: by Bill George; Auto; Food & Beverage

28 Aug 2007
First Look

First Look: August 28, 2007

management style on the performance of her team. In the spring of 2005, Leslie must decide whether to re-design the firm and/or change her management View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

March 2001 (Revised February 2009)
Case

HDFC (A)

By: Lynn S. Paine, Carin-Isabel Knoop and Suma Raju

The top management team at India's leading home finance company must decide how to deal with the emergence of intense competition at the end of the 1990s. Having founded the industry and dominated it for nearly 20 years, the well-respected company faces a bevy of new... View Details

Keywords: Values and Beliefs; Management Style; Management Teams; Competition; Financial Services Industry; India