Publications

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May 2025
Background Note

Skills-First Talent Management: The Importance of Managers

By: Boris Groysberg, Nicole Zelazko, Tom Quinn, Robin Abrahams, Izzy Yeoh and Colleen Ammerman

This note supplements a 2025 series on skills-first talent management in organizations, comprising “Skills-First Talent Management: Hiring” (HBS No. 425-019), “Skills-First Talent Management: Onboarding, Development, and Performance Management” (HBS No. 425-020), and... View Details

Keywords: Competency and Skills; Talent and Talent Management; Experience and Expertise; Job Design and Levels; Employment; Human Capital; Management Practices and Processes; United States

February 1996 (Revised February 2008)
Case

Toshiba: Ome Works

By: H. Kent Bowen, Janice H. Hammond, Sylvie Ryckebusch and Hiroshi Uchikoga

In 1995, Toshiba was the market leader in portable computer sales worldwide. This case describes the assembly of portable notebook computers in Toshiba's Ome factory in Ome, Japan, providing insights into some of the reasons for Toshiba's success. In addition to... View Details

Keywords: Factories, Labs, and Plants; Employees; Job Design and Levels; Production; Hardware; Japan

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

14 Nov 2007
Research & Ideas

Growing CEOs from the Inside

who somehow have maintained enough detachment from the local traditions, ideologies, and shibboleths that they have retained the objectivity of an outsider," Bower writes. Think Anne Mulcahy, CEO of Xerox, who started out as a sales rep for the company in 1976 and... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Employment

November 1992
Case

Process Control at Polaroid (B)

By: H. Kent Bowen and Steven C. Wheelwright

The plant manager of a film production operation wants to create and implement a new approach to quality within the next 12 months. Issues of personnel (and their roles), production processes (and their control), and quality standards must be addressed. View Details

Keywords: Employee Relationship Management; Job Design and Levels; Management Practices and Processes; Production; Quality; Mathematical Methods

March 2023 (Revised May 2023)
Case

OneTen at Delta Air Lines: Catalyzing Family-Sustaining Careers for Black Talent (A)

By: Linda A. Hill and Lydia Begag

It was December 10, 2020, and Ed Bastian, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Delta Air Lines (Delta), had just finished a meeting with Joanne Smith, Executive Vice President and Chief People Officer, and Keyra Lynn Johnson, the Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer.... View Details

Keywords: Recruitment; Training; Race; Equality and Inequality; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Job Design and Levels; Air Transportation Industry; United States

August 2023
Technical Note

Two Ways of Pursuing a Calling

By: Leslie Perlow and Hannah Weisman

Work can be a means to a financial end, a stepping stone to higher-level jobs, or a meaningful end in itself: a calling. The technical note provides an overview of two different ways people can pursue a calling: with an internal focus or external focus. View Details

Keywords: Personal Development and Career; Job Search; Job Design and Levels; Happiness; Identity; Well-being; Motivation and Incentives; Human Needs; Satisfaction; Mission and Purpose; Health Industry; Music Industry; Education Industry; Fine Arts Industry; Motion Pictures and Video Industry

March 2022 (Revised September 2022)
Case

Can Papaya Global Keep Scaling Fast?

By: Daniel Isenberg and William R. Kerr

Companies that employ people all around the world also need to pay those people. That can be an exceedingly complex task, though - defining terms of employment, complying with global regulations, and working with huge quantities of data, among other obstacles,... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Scaling And Growth; Job Design and Levels; Compensation and Benefits; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Global Range

January 2009 (Revised June 2010)
Case

Cisco Systems (2001): Building and Sustaining a Customer-Centric Culture

By: Ranjay Gulati

Customer centricity has been an important part of the culture at Cisco Systems since its inception. While part of this is attributable to values put in place by the founders and retained by subsequent management, it is also closely interwoven with its organizational... View Details

Keywords: Customer Satisfaction; Organizational Design; Organizational Structure; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Change Management; Organizational Culture; Research and Development; Job Cuts and Outsourcing; Employees; Brands and Branding; Customer Relationship Management; Business Units

05 Jul 2004
What Do You Think?

Work-Life: Is Productivity in the Balance?

things, to attract and retain talent. Such benefits recognize the growing demands on the lives of people, particularly at times when jobs are being expanded to achieve higher productivity—to do more with less. Responses have ranged all... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

August 2023
Case

Salma Qarnain: Spaceships to Broadway

By: Leslie Perlow, Mel Martin and Hannah Weisman

Salma Qarnain, daughter of Pakistani Muslim immigrants, is an engineer trained at Stanford and MIT. She began her career building spacecrafts but 30 years later finds herself pursuing her calling, acting on Broadway. The case explores Qarnain’s career path, family... View Details

Keywords: Personal Development and Career; Job Search; Job Design and Levels; Happiness; Identity; Well-being; Work-Life Balance; Family and Family Relationships; Theater Entertainment; Film Entertainment; Talent and Talent Management; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; Motion Pictures and Video Industry; Aerospace Industry; United States; New York (city, NY); Boston; California

01 Mar 2004
Lessons from the Classroom

Mission to Mars: It Really Is Rocket Science

"derivative" projects that use existing (and proven) designs to deliver new science experiments to the surface. Of course, the cultural change required to do this would be significant. Building spacecraft to print is cheap, but... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

04 Apr 2005
What Do You Think?

Can an Organization’s “Deep Smarts” Be Preserved?

military services begins in structuring leadership positions of 'executive officer' ... principal assistants to designated leaders having command responsibilities ... growth positions to enhance individuals' abilities." Francine... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

June 2024
Teaching Note

Skills-First Hiring at IBM

By: Boris Groysberg and Sarah Mehta

Teaching note for “Skills-First Hiring at IBM,” case no. 422-013. View Details

Keywords: Competency and Skills; Experience and Expertise; Talent and Talent Management; Human Resources; Human Capital; Employees; Recruitment; Retention; Selection and Staffing; Jobs and Positions; Job Design and Levels; Job Interviews; Society; Societal Protocols; Technology Industry; United States; New York (state, US)