Publications

16 Jul 2020
Research & Ideas

Restaurant Revolution: How the Industry Is Fighting to Stay Alive

inside The future of the restaurant industry is especially of concern to us. We collectively share 35 years of restaurant and food industry experience, navigating our way through as waitstaff and bartenders, as managers and senior leaders... View Details

Keywords: by Michael S. Kaufman, Lena G. Goldberg, and Jill Avery; Food & Beverage

August 2001 (Revised June 2002)
Case

IBM Software Solutions (A)

By: Michael L. Tushman, Charles A. O'Reilly III and Robert Chapman Wood

Executives and managers of key IBM software units struggle to make IBM a top player in the post-mainframe era. When one software unit introduces a visionary product with potential to create a new leadership position for the firm, the result is an epic conflict in the... View Details

Keywords: Business Units; Leadership Style; Leading Change; Managerial Roles; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Conflict Management; Information Technology Industry

Find at Harvard

09 Jul 2020
Research & Ideas

It’s Time to Reset Decision-Making in Your Organization

James Lemoine, an assistant professor in the Organization and Human Resources Department of the School of Management at the University at Buffalo, have written extensively on VUCA, and argue, “If VUCA is seen as general, unavoidable, and... View Details

Keywords: by Boris Groysberg and Sarah Abbott

October 2024
Case

Edizione

By: Cynthia A. Montgomery, Dante Roscini, Elena Corsi and Hugo Etchegoyhen

This case study examines the diversification and transformation of Edizione, the Benetton family's holding company originally established to reinvest dividends from the Benetton clothing brand. Edizione expanded significantly in the late 1990s and early 2000s,... View Details

March 2000 (Revised July 2000)
Case

Jeanne Lewis at Staples, Inc. (A) (Abridged)

By: Linda A. Hill and Jennifer Suesse

Jeanne Lewis, after six years with Staples, Inc., is promoted to senior vice president of marketing. She is to work for fifteen months alongside her predecessor, a legacy in the organization, "learning the ropes" before he moves on. This case is set nine months after... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Management Style; Change Management; Marketing Strategy; Management Succession; Competitive Advantage; Problems and Challenges; Management Teams; Retail Industry; United States

04 Apr 2011
HBS Case

Reinventing the National Geographic Society

and management style had changed or stayed the same. Slow To Change When Garvin and Knoop flew to NGS headquarters in Washington D.C., in the summer of 2009, Fahey was heading what appeared to be a steady... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Publishing

July 2007
Case

Kroger Union Negotiations 2005

By: Dennis A. Yao and Mary L. Shelman

A stylized version of the negotiations between Kroger Company and its local unions during 2005. Management faces a sequence of individual negotiations with local unions in addition to meeting the new competitive challenges presented by Wal-Mart's expansion in the... View Details

Keywords: Labor and Management Relations; Labor Unions; Reputation; Wages; Management; Negotiation Participants; Negotiation Style; Competitive Strategy; Retail Industry

25 Oct 2010
HBS Case

Tesco’s Stumble into the US Market

eliminated discount coupons, and decorated in a spare style more suited to a hospital than a food retailer. Five years later, Fresh & Easy has not made a dime, and analysts are wondering whether the company should pack up and go home,... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Retail

16 Oct 2017
Research & Ideas

The Most Successful Startups Have Hands-On Founders

Source: iPhoto Startup founders with a hands-on management style are more likely to retain employees and see their firms thrive, new research shows. The results are particularly applicable to... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

September 1993 (Revised January 1997)
Case

Serengeti Eyewear: Entrepreneurship Within Corning, Inc.

By: David A. Garvin and Jonathan West

An entrepreneurial division within Corning, Serengeti Eyewear, has grown rapidly in its brief 10-year history. Now it must decide whether to launch a new line of sunglasses and take on the industry leader. The company has prospered by developing and cultivating... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Design; Management Style; Competitive Strategy; Customer Relationship Management; Employee Relationship Management; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Talent and Talent Management; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Manufacturing Industry

19 Apr 2010
Research & Ideas

The History of Beauty

disinclined to conform to assumed gender stereotypes by working on beauty. The fashion industry, which is also huge, suffers from the same lack of attention from management researchers. Q: You write, "Beauty emerges as an industry which... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Beauty & Cosmetics

05 Jul 2006
What Do You Think?

How Important Is “Executive Intelligence” for Leaders?

and Street expectations I'll take the manager with his nose deep in a book any day." Akram Boutros, along with many others, argued for balance in our assessment of the importance of EI, pointing out that "both executive... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

June 1997
Teaching Note

Innovation in Action: Product Development Projects and Action-Based Learning, Instructor's Note

By: Marco Iansiti

As a project-based course, Managing Product Development has been carefully designed so that classroom discussion and students' project team activities infuse each other: learning from course materials enhances project activities, which in turn enrich subsequent... View Details

Keywords: Management Practices and Processes; Management Style; Product Development; Projects; Groups and Teams

06 Aug 2021
Book

Steve Jobs and the Rise of the Celebrity CEO

In the 1950s, most Americans probably couldn’t name the CEOs of the largest companies in the United States, including General Motors, United States Steel, and Standard Oil. But these days, some of the most successful businesses have shifted from being faceless... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

15 Sep 2009
First Look

First Look: September 15

competence—expertise in technology—and its skilled people to accomplish what government and relief agencies could not: an information system and supply chain that tracked and managed the flow of relief supplies. Its efforts were crucial... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

October 2003
Case

Henry Tam and the MGI Team

By: Jeffrey T. Polzer, Ingrid Vargas and Hillary Anger Elfenbein

Within a short time frame, seven diverse team members assemble to write a business plan for a new company and struggle to define their roles, make decisions together, and resolve conflict. Henry Tam, a second-year Harvard MBA student, who joins an aspiring start-up... View Details

Keywords: Interpersonal Communication; Business Plan; Groups and Teams; Decision Making; Jobs and Positions; Leadership Style; Human Resources; Management Teams; Conflict and Resolution; Diversity