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14 Feb 2023
HBS Case

Is Sweden Still 'Sweden'? A Liberal Utopia Grapples with an Identity Crisis

country is shifting away from the liberal Social Democratic Party that has been the benchmark of its system. Fewer young Swedes are joining unions, and American-style private schools and medical care have taken root. “Americans, myself... View Details

Keywords: by Lane Lambert

04 Jan 2017
What Do You Think?

How Much Bureaucracy is a Good Thing in Government and Business?

Summing Up: Are Bureaucracies Worth Improving? Several messages emerge from responses to this month’s column on the worthiness of bureaucracies. In general, there is a wide range of thinking about the value... View Details

Keywords: by James L. Heskett

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; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry; North and Central America

26 Aug 2002
Research & Ideas

High-Stakes Decision Making: The Lessons of Mount Everest

making, insuring that the process is fair and legitimate, and minimizing the level of interpersonal conflict that emerges during the deliberations. Without strong buy-in, they risk numerous delays including efforts to re-open the decision... View Details

Keywords: by Michael A. Roberto

02 Sep 2015
What Do You Think?

What's Wrong With Amazon’s Low-Retention HR Strategy?

employer. That’s the general message that comes through in responses to this month’s column. Some respondents suggested that it is only natural to find different strategies depending on the nature of the business. As Himanshu Pant pointed... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett; Web Services; Retail; Apparel & Accessories; Consumer Products; Fashion

02 Apr 2020
What Do You Think?

What Are Lessons for Leaders from This Black Swan Crisis?

years The greatest COVID-19 failure was clearly the failure to adapt in time to an emerging threat.” Bill Wallace said, “I’m calling the COVID-19 pandemic a White Swan: inevitable through global mobility and the absence of safeguards,... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

November 2017
Case

The 'Wonder Drug' That Killed Babies

By: Joshua Lev Krieger, Tom Nicholas and Matthew Preble

In the early 1960s, a popular drug taken by patients worldwide for a range of maladies was found to cause severe birth defects and other health problems in babies born to mothers who had taken it during a certain stage of fetal development. As many as 10,000 children... View Details

Keywords: Regulation; Business and Government Relations; Business and Community Relations; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Product Marketing; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Business History; Health; Government Legislation; Corporate Accountability; Ethics; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Pharmaceutical Industry; Public Administration Industry; United States; United Kingdom; Australia; Germany; Europe

03 Nov 2009
First Look

First Look: Nov. 3

of progressive policies and programs. There was increasing flexibility in how people were employed, including alumni. But in its quest to become a globally integrated enterprise, IBM needed to continue to develop new ways of working. The company's View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

01 Jun 2023
HBS Case

A Nike Executive Hid His Criminal Past to Turn His Life Around. What If He Didn't Have To?

and loved reading, often devouring two books a week. He was a responsible child who eagerly volunteered for the school’s safety patrol to guide young students across the street. But Miller’s surroundings would change for the worse—and so... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Apparel & Accessories

2022
Chapter

Sustainability for People and the Planet: Placing Workers at the Center of Sustainability Research

By: Julie Yen, Julie Battilana and Emilie Aguirre

Though workers face a series of critical challenges in contemporary work organizations, they are often overlooked in conversations about sustainable business. In this chapter, we argue that prioritizing the rights and well-being of workers is a core dimension of... View Details

Keywords: Environmental Sustainability; Employees; Well-being; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Organizational Structure; Social Issues

07 Mar 2023
HBS Case

ChatGPT: Did Big Tech Set Up the World for an AI Bias Disaster?

disruption. While hindsight may be 20/20, the emergence of ChatGPT makes it clear that Google, in failing to give Gebru the independence to do her job, might have sacrificed an opportunity to become a global leader in View Details

Keywords: by Scott Van Voorhis; Technology

April 2009 (Revised May 2010)
Case

Partners In Health: HIV Care in Rwanda

By: Michael E. Porter, Scott S. Lee, Joseph Rhatigan and Jim Yong Kim

In 2005, Partners in Health (PIH) was invited by the Rwandan Ministry of Health to assume responsibility for the management of public health care in two rural districts in Eastern Rwanda and create an HIV treatment program at these sites. PIH successfully implemented a... View Details

Keywords: Developing Countries and Economies; Health Care and Treatment; Health Testing and Trials; Medical Specialties; Service Delivery; Nonprofit Organizations; Expansion; Health Industry; Rwanda

02 Mar 2007
What Do You Think?

What Is the Government’s Role in US Health Care?

free-market capitalist who realizes capitalism has no place in healthcare provision." But Tery Tennant asks what is perhaps the ultimate philosophical question: " when did an individual's medical needs become an inalienable right that the... View Details

Keywords: by Jim Heskett; Health

21 May 2007
Research & Ideas

Fixing the Marketing-CEO Disconnect

decisions, but no one is singularly accountable for the results. Second, responsibility for brand equity still resides in the marketing function, yet brand equity has never been more volatile and important. Today, powerful brands can... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

28 Aug 2007
First Look

First Look: August 28, 2007

suppliers and reselling them, in the process absorbing all the risk of platform failure. In stage two, the firm shifts risk and control back to some or all of its suppliers, giving them more responsibility for managing inventory, pricing,... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

July 2020
Case

King's College Hospital in Crisis

By: John R. Wells and Benjamin Weinstock

On December 11, 2017, King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust (King’s), one of London’s leading teaching hospital groups, was put into “special measures” by NHS Improvement (NHSI), the financial regulator of England’s National Health Service (NHS). The future of... View Details

Keywords: Hospitals; Financing; Health Care and Treatment; Financial Condition; Crisis Management; Organizational Structure; Transformation; Strategic Planning; United Kingdom