Publications

February 2025 (Revised February 2025)
Case

Managing Complexity at mymuesli

By: Thomas Graeber and Stacy Straaberg

In April 2009, direct-to-consumer e-commerce muesli brand mymuesli faced a flood of customer questions. The breakfast cereal startup enabled users to order personalized muesli on its website by choosing from 75 organic ingredients for a total of 566 quadrillion... View Details

Keywords: Customer Satisfaction; Decisions; Food; Product Marketing; Product Positioning; Product Launch; Problems and Challenges; Behavior; Competitive Advantage; Customization and Personalization; Segmentation; Internet and the Web; Food and Beverage Industry; Europe; Germany

2013
Book

Beyond the Idea: How to Execute Innovation in Any Organization

By: Vijay Govindarajan and Chris Trimble

By offering specific action steps, Beyond the Idea extends the elegant conceptual insights from How Stella Saved the Farm, Govindarajan and Trimble's parable. Beyond the Idea shows exactly how to: - Build a team with a very particular structure, one... View Details

Article

Managing Multi-Site Nonprofits

By: Allen Grossman and V. Kasturi Rangan

Keywords: Nonprofit Organizations; Management

12 Jul 2004
Research & Ideas

Enron’s Lessons for Managers

Some events mark a generation. If a marker is a source of deep learning about ourselves, as Malcolm Salter believes it is, then the Enron crisis is exactly that for business people. Political scientists have the Bay of Pigs; engineers have the Challenger disaster. And... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

2010
Simulation

Change Management Simulation: Power and Influence

By: Linda A. Hill and William Q. Judge

In this single-player simulation, students play one of two roles at a sunglass manufacturing firm and face the challenges associated with implementing an organization-wide environmental sustainability initiative. The initiative seeks to change raw material inputs in... View Details

Keywords: Change Management; Power and Influence; Problems and Challenges; Environmental Sustainability; Production; Wastes and Waste Processing; Adoption

Research Summary

Management Control Systems in Multiunit Companies

By: Tatiana Sandino

Professor Sandino conducts research on early-stage multiunit companies that introduce management control systems to help maintain operations, as well as company culture, as they grow, but also to enable adaptation to the different markets that they serve. Building... View Details

September 2023
Case

Trilling Foods: Managing People with Data

By: Alexandra C. Feldberg and Jeffrey T. Polzer

Trilling Foods, a regional bricks-and-mortar grocery chain, has recently provided its frontline managers with new tools for using data. Allison Andersen, Trilling’s VP of Data Science, has spearheaded these efforts. Yet, as she works with Kent Wade, the general manager... View Details

Keywords: Digital Transformation; Management Practices and Processes; Training; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Food and Beverage Industry; Retail Industry

10 Feb 2015
News

Managing family businesses

September 1989
Case

Navistar: Managing Change

Describes 15 years of change at Navistar. Highlights changes in strategy, name, products, services, size, human resources policies, and programs. Underscores the brisk pace and scope of changes. Students are asked to categorize the types of change, evaluate them, and... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Change Management

September 1986 (Revised June 1989)
Background Note

Managing Rapid Growth

Describes the issues that entrepreneurs and their firms must deal with in attempting to make the transition from entrepreneurial to professional management. The note suggests that the delegation of responsibility and the implementation of formal controls are two key... View Details

Keywords: Transition; Decision Making; Entrepreneurship; Governance Controls; Growth Management; Resource Allocation; Organizational Structure

25 Apr 2023
HBS Seminar

Bart Vanneste, UCL School of Management

01 Jun 2000
News

Managing the Map

Celera completed its "rough draft" of the genome first. Whatever the outcome of the genome's public-private ownership squabble, managing an organization in this fast-paced, highly specialized environment... View Details

Keywords: Peter K. Jacobs

August 1995 (Revised September 1995)
Case

Hutton Branch Manager (C)

By: Lynn S. Paine and Jane Palley Katz

Centers on the company's plea of guilty to 2,000 counts of mail and wire fraud in response to the U.S. government's challenge to its cash management practices. Describes the Justice Department's investigations as well as the findings and recommendations of former... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Financial Management; Governance Controls; Crime and Corruption; Governance Compliance; Law Enforcement; Financial Services Industry; United States

August 1995 (Revised September 1995)
Background Note

Managing in an Information Age: Organizational Challenges and Opportunities

By: Lynda M. Applegate

Managers and management theorists spent the majority of this century building and perfecting the hierarchy; however, if we believe the press, they now appear to be engaged in destroying it. While many proclaim the dawning of the "Information Age" organization and the... View Details

Keywords: Management; Information Technology; Problems and Challenges; Opportunities

Research Summary

How and When Does Hierarchy Emerge in Firms?

Despite understanding that formal structure within firms is crucial for maintaining coordination and control as young firms grow, relatively little is systematically known about the initial formation of hierarchy in firms. By exploiting access to a dataset of all... View Details

Keywords: Organization Design; Start-up Growth; Startup Management; Organizational Design; Entrepreneurship; Brazil

Web

Managing the Future of Work

Managing the challenges posed by the changing nature of work Managing the challenges posed by the changing nature of work Multiple forces of change – demographics, technology, automation, globalization – are... View Details

June 2020
Teaching Note

Generation Investment Management

By: Vikram S. Gandhi and Sarah Mehta

This teaching note provides guidance for teaching the case “Generation Investment Management” (820-033), which looks at the challenges facing a sustainable investment firm. View Details

2009
Book

High Commitment, High Performance: How to Build a Resilient Organization for Sustained Advantage

By: Michael Beer

Integrating knowledge from strategic management, performance management, and organization design, strategic human resource expert and Harvard Business School Professor Michael Beer outlines what the high-commitment, high-performance organization looks like and provides... View Details

Keywords: Human Resources; Leadership; Management; Goals and Objectives; Organizational Culture; Organizational Design; Organizational Structure; Performance; Practice; Business Strategy; System