Publications

March 2018 (Revised September 2018)
Case

Gene Lee Navigates the Darden Takeover

By: Joshua D. Margolis, H. Lawrence Culp, James Barnett and Aldo Sesia

Following a full takeover of Darden Restaurant’s Board of Directors, Darden COO Gene Lee is weighing an offer to become interim CEO. View Details

Keywords: Shareholder Activism; Investment Activism; Crisis Management; Personal Development and Career; Decision Choices and Conditions; Food and Beverage Industry; United States

August 2020
Case

Gerald Chertavian

By: Leslie Perlow and Matthew Preble

Gerald Chertavian (HBS 1992) finds himself at a personal crossroads. It is 1999--the height of the dot com-bubble--and Chertavian and his business partners have just sold their Internet-based business for $83 million. His share of the sale’s proceeds means that he has... View Details

Keywords: Social Enterprise; Personal Development and Career; Decision Choices and Conditions

July 1996
Case

Craig Parks (A)

By: David A. Thomas and Lisa J. Chadderdon

Craig Parks is a 1992 HBS graduate who, without much deliberation, returns to work for his former employer, Taylor Burton on Wall Street. The choice proves to be a poor fit for Craig. The case documents his decision-making process, personal history, and the dilemma he... View Details

Keywords: Personal Development and Career; Decision Choices and Conditions; Problems and Challenges

16 Jan 2019
Research & Ideas

What Football Firings Teach Managers About Staying Relevant

pace due to the increased rate at which we now exchange information. That’s why it is more important than ever for managers to make increased efforts to stay relevant and protect against skill obsolescence. Might they learn something about the trajectories of their own... View Details

Keywords: by Boris Groysberg, Evan M.S. Hecht, and Abhijit Naik; Sports

September 1985
Background Note

Finding a Job with a Small Company

By: Howard H. Stevenson

Describes a process of self-evaluation for working in small companies, discusses small company issues, focuses on some basic search techniques, and ends with a little how-to section. The goal is to facilitate the process of securing a job in a small company and to show... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Higher Education; Recruitment; Work-Life Balance; Interests

Find at Harvard

Article

Raiffa Transformed the Field of Negotiation—and Me

By: Max Bazerman

Howard Raiffa was a role model, friend, and inspiration. He transformed the field of negotiation, and he transformed my career. This brief article provides a recollection of how Howard revolutionized the field of negotiation and how those insights are now affecting... View Details

Keywords: Negotiation; Decision Making; Analysis; Game Theory; Personal Development and Career

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Read Now

09 Jan 2006
What Do You Think?

Should More Transparency Extend to Education for Management?

this fall. At Harvard Business School, 87 percent of the MBA student body, according to one poll, opposed the administration's decision to allow the voluntary disclosure of their grades by individual students, presumably to organizations... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett; Education

September 2008 (Revised April 2009)
Supplement

Martha Goldberg Aronson: Challenges at Mid-Career (B)

By: William W. George

Martha Goldberg Aronson of Medtronic is trying to decide whether to accept the offer from Medtronic CEO Bill Hawkins to become senior vice president and chief talent officer. Aronson returned from an executive role in Europe just 18 months before as vice president,... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Job Design and Levels; Leadership; Managerial Roles; Work-Life Balance

07 Nov 2005
Research & Ideas

Exit Interview: HBS Dean Kim Clark

won't be able to do this job. Q: What was the toughest part of the job? A: It always comes down to people. The hardest decisions are about who to promote and who not to. The toughest situations are dealing with real-life human problems... View Details

Keywords: by HBS Alumni Bulletin Staff

17 Apr 2006
Research & Ideas

Resisting the Seductions of Success

In his novel I Come as a Thief, Louis Auchincloss introduces us to Tony Lowder, a lawyer in his early forties. Tony and his wife have two children. He works for the New York office of the Securities and Exchange Commission, but his job is just a resting spot. Tony has... View Details

Keywords: by Joseph L. Badaracco Jr.; Entertainment & Recreation; Information; Publishing

04 Sep 2001
Research & Ideas

Five Questions for Max Bazerman

Max Bazerman, co-author of "You Can't Enlarge the Pie," discussed the flaws in government decision making in an email interview with HBS Working Knowledge Editor Sean Silverthorne. Bazerman is Jesse Isidor Straus Professor of... View Details

Keywords: Re: Max H. Bazerman

December 2004 (Revised November 2006)
Case

Esrey & LeMay Sprint Options, The

By: Henry B. Reiling and Kevin Wall

Sprint's outside auditor simultaneously provided tax advice--including the recommendation of tax shelters related to Sprint options--to senior Sprint officers. These tax structures were called into question amid circumstances that raise a variety of conflicting issues... View Details

Keywords: Taxation; Conflict of Interests; Governing and Advisory Boards; Decision Choices and Conditions; Personal Development and Career; Telecommunications Industry

01 Nov 2012
Research & Ideas

Book Excerpt: Judgment Calls

Editor's note. Organizations are living, growing, learning things, but this depth of experience and knowledge can be difficult to tap into. The secret, according to the authors of Judgment Calls: Twelve Stories of Big Decisions and the... View Details

Keywords: by Thomas H. Davenport & Brook Manville; Consumer Products

March 2015
Case

Tim Keller at Katzenbach Partners LLC (A) (Abridged)

By: Boris Groysberg and James Weber

Tracks the first six months of a recent MBA grad, Tim Keller, at Katzenbach Partners, a boutique consulting firm focused on organizational change and strategy. Covers how Keller initially struggles with his assignment and ends with a question of whether or not he... View Details

Keywords: Interpersonal Relations; Organization Behavior; Superior ＆ Subordinate; Managing Projects; Informal Organization; Consulting; Professional Services; Leadership; Work-Life Balance; Decision Choices and Conditions; Organizations; Rank and Position; Product Development; Service Industry; Consulting Industry

2011
Chapter

How Does Simplified Disclosure Affect Individuals' Mutual Fund Choices?

By: John Beshears, James J. Choi, David Laibson and Brigitte C. Madrian

We use an experiment to estimate the effect of the SEC's Summary Prospectus, which simplifies mutual fund disclosure. Our subjects chose an equity portfolio and a bond portfolio. Subjects received either statutory prospectuses or Summary Prospectuses. We find no... View Details

Keywords: Information; Corporate Disclosure; Decision Choices and Conditions; Consumer Behavior; Retirement; Personal Finance; Investment Funds; Microeconomics

2007
Working Paper

Irving Fisher, Economic Forecasting, and the Myth of the Business Cycle

By: Walter A. Friedman

A premier economist of the twentieth century and a founder of neoclassical thought, Irving Fisher was also an active participant in the field of economic forecasting. Fisher made theoretical contributions to the understanding of economic fluctuations, popularized the... View Details

Keywords: Forecasting and Prediction; Economics; Business Cycles; Business History; Newspapers; Personal Development and Career

September 1996
Case

Craig Parks (B)

By: David A. Thomas and Lisa J. Chadderdon

Supplements the (A) case. View Details

Keywords: Personal Development and Career; Decision Making; Decision Choices and Conditions; Moral Sensibility

October 14, 2019
Article

The CEO's Guide to Retirement

By: Bill George

Some CEOs remain in the role too long, hurting investors, employees, and their own legacy. The author sees a frequent reason for that: CEOs don’t know how to identify the optimal time to retire, and they procrastinate because they can’t imagine what they will do after... View Details

Keywords: CEO; Executive Retirement; Retirement; Decision Making; Planning