Publications

December 2024
Case

AC Milan

By: Anita Elberse

In April 2024, Giorgio Furlani is nearing the end of his first full season as chief executive officer of Italian soccer club AC Milan. A Harvard Business School Class of 2007 graduate with a finance background, Furlani was appointed by RedBird Capital Partners’ founder... View Details

Keywords: Sports; Soccer; Football; Entertainment; Media; Talent Management; Superstars; Marketing; Strategy; General Management; Mergers and Acquisitions; Leadership; Business Strategy; Competitive Strategy; Business or Company Management; Sports Industry; Milan

2014
Chapter

Too Big To Trust? Managing Stakeholder Trust in Business in the Post-Bail-Out Economy

By: Deepak Malhotra

This chapter considers the aftermath of the financial crisis of 2008, and specifically the subsequent “bail-out” of the large financial institutions by the American government, from the perspective of trust in the post-bail-out economy. The author considers the impacts... View Details

Keywords: Trust; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Government and Politics; Financial Crisis

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January 2010 (Revised August 2010)
Background Note

Advanced Leadership Note: An Institutional Perspective and Framework for Managing and Leading

By: Rosabeth M. Kanter and Rakesh Khurana

Large-scale societal issues increasingly appear on the agenda of business leaders, including poverty, health, education, business-government relations, and the degradation of the environment. These problems are not entirely new, but the forces of globalization and the... View Details

Keywords: Change Management; Framework; Global Range; Leadership; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Social Enterprise; Social Issues; Complexity

June 2020
Case

Big Hit Entertainment and Blockbuster Band BTS: K-Pop Goes Global

By: Anita Elberse and Lizzy Woodham

Bang Si-Hyuk (‘Hitman Bang’) is the founder and co-chief executive officer of Big Hit Entertainment, the company behind BTS, a ‘K-pop’ band that has found unparalleled success around the globe—a remarkable feat given that most of their songs are in Korean. It is March... View Details

Keywords: Music; Entertainment; Superstars; Talent; Talent Development; Labor Economics; General Management; Music Entertainment; Media; Talent and Talent Management; Labor; Contracts; Marketing; Strategy; Music Industry; Entertainment and Recreation Industry

July–August 2020
Article

Sarcasm, Self-Deprecation, and Inside Jokes: A User's Guide to Humor at Work

By: Brad Bitterly and Alison Wood Brooks

Humor is widely considered essential in personal relationships, but in leaders, it’s seen as an ancillary behavior. Though some leaders use humor instinctively, many more could wield it purposefully. Humor helps build interpersonal trust and high-quality work... View Details

Keywords: Managing People; Humor; Leadership; Relationships

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July 2021
Supplement

Trouble at Basecamp: Managing Politics, Polarization, and Conflict in the Workplace (B)

By: Nour Kteily, Deepak Malhotra and David Lane

Supplement to the (A) case View Details

February 2018 (Revised October 2019)
Case

HubSpot and Motion AI: Chatbot-Enabled CRM

By: Jill Avery and Thomas Steenburgh

HubSpot, an inbound marketing, sales, and customer relationship management (CRM) software provider, announced that it had acquired Motion AI, a software platform that enabled companies to easily build and deploy chatbots, fueled by artificial intelligence, to interact... View Details

January 2011
Case

AIC Netbooks: Optimizing Product Assembly

By: Steven C. Wheelwright and Sunru Yong

AIC Systems, located in Taichung, Taiwan, is a manufacturer of printed circuit boards, primarily for motherboards and video cards for personal computers. The firm is considered an original design manufacturer (ODM) and takes an active role in innovating and designing... View Details

Keywords: Performance Management; Quantitative Analysis; Manufacturing; Production Planning; Production Management; Diversification; Production; Performance Efficiency; Product Design; Performance Improvement; Mobile Technology; Manufacturing Industry; Electronics Industry; Taiwan

March 2006 (Revised September 2006)
Case

Slots, Tables, and All That Jazz: Managing Customer Profitability at the MGM Grand Hotel

By: Dennis Campbell, Francisco de Asis Martinez-Jerez, Marc Epstein and Joshua Bellin

The MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas had detailed information on loyal gaming customers, but could its information systems also be tailored to nongaming customers? As the nongaming business sectors became increasingly profitable both at the MGM Grand and in Las Vegas... View Details

Keywords: Games, Gaming, and Gambling; Customer Relationship Management; Customer Value and Value Chain; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; Accommodations Industry; Nevada

April 2014
Case

Merrimack Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (A)

By: Amy C. Edmondson, Bethany S. Gerstein and Melissa Valentine

In 2006, Merrimack Pharmaceuticals was a fast-growing biotechnology company. Its leadership team was divided over whether to keep R&D organized in functional departments or transition to interdisciplinary teams. As a small company, Merrimack's R&D organization had... View Details

Keywords: Teamwork; Interdisciplinary Collaboration; R＆D; Biotechnology; Complexity; Innovation Management; Organizational Design; Groups and Teams; Collaborative Innovation and Invention; Research and Development; Biotechnology Industry; Pharmaceutical Industry

February 2009 (Revised August 2021)
Supplement

Jieliang Phone Home! (B)

By: Willy Shih, Ethan Bernstein and Nina Bilimoria

At Precision Electro-Tek's mobile phone manufacturing facility in southern China, thousands of operators—bright and capable young men and (mostly) women like Jieliang Hao—are motivated to improve line productivity through small innovations for faster assembly and have... View Details

Keywords: Managing People; Motivation and Incentives; Behavior; Production; Innovation and Invention; Performance Productivity; Groups and Teams; Management Practices and Processes; Compensation and Benefits; Labor; Surveys; Decisions; Manufacturing Industry; China

June 2016
Supplement

Supply Chain Finance at Procter & Gamble Spreadsheet Supplement

By: Benjamin C. Esty, Scott Mayfield and David Lane

In April 2013, Procter & Gamble (P&G), the world’s largest consumer packaged goods (CPG) company, announced that it would extend its payment terms to suppliers by 30 days. At the same time, P&G announced a new supply chain financing (SCF) program giving suppliers the... View Details

August 2016
Case

Building Smart Neighborhoods at Bouygues

By: Amy C. Edmondson, Bertrand Moingeon, Guo Bai and Jean-François Harvey

Can a consortium of 16 organizations, including multinational corporations, local government agencies, and startups, turn a rundown Paris suburb into a “smart” (ecologically viable, high-tech, livable) neighborhood? This case explores how Bouygues Immobilier led such a... View Details

Keywords: Collaboration; Teaming; Cross-industry Collaboration; Interorganizatonal Relationships; Innovation; Nascent Industries; Smart Cities; Governance; Collaborative Innovation and Invention; Innovation and Management; Innovation Strategy; Technological Innovation; Information Technology Industry; Construction Industry; Paris; France

07 Oct 2002
Research & Ideas

What Leaders Need to Do To Restore Investor Confidence

corporate America ever win back people's confidence? Harvard Management Update recently discussed this issue with Thomas R. Piper, Lawrence E. Fouraker Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School and coauthor of Can... View Details

Keywords: by Harvard Management Update

2009
Working Paper

An Ounce of Prevention: The Power of Public Risk Management in Stabilizing the Financial System

By: David A. Moss

The magnitude of the current financial crisis reflects the failure of an economic and regulatory philosophy that had proved increasingly influential in policy circles over the past three decades.

This paper suggests (1) that contrary to the prevailing wisdom,... View Details

Keywords: Financial Crisis; Financial Institutions; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Risk Management; Business and Government Relations; Balance and Stability

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January 2016
Case

Open Innovation at Fujitsu (A)

By: Amy C. Edmondson and Jean-François Harvey

This case study examines the open innovation journey at Fujitsu, a global information and communication technology company. The case ends with the location decision between Tokyo, Japan, downtown San Francisco or Sunnyvale, California, regarding establishing a small... View Details

April 2008
Case

Engstrom Auto Mirror Plant: Motivating in Good Times and Bad

By: Michael Beer and Elizabeth Collins

In May 2007, the Engstrom Auto Mirrors plant, a relatively small supplier based in Indiana, faces a crisis. The business was in the second year of a downturn. Sales had started to decline in 2005; a year later, plant manager Ron Bent had been forced to lay off more... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Behavior; Human Resource Management; Incentives; Motivation; Manufacturing; Leadership; Change Management; Employees; Motivation and Incentives; Goals and Objectives; Manufacturing Industry; Indiana

Article

Managing the Narrative: Investor Relations Officers and Their Interactions with Sell-Side Analysts and Institutional Investors

By: Lawrence D. Brown, Andrew C. Call, Michael B. Clement and Nathan Y. Sharp

Investor relations officers (IROs) play a central role in corporate communications with Wall Street. We survey 610 IROs at U.S. public companies and conduct 14 follow-up interviews to deepen our understanding of the role of IROs in corporate disclosure events. Three... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Disclosure; Power and Influence; Business and Shareholder Relations

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October 2009
Case

Medisys Corp.: The IntensCare Product Development Team

By: Anne Donnellon and Joshua D. Margolis

Key topics include designing teams, managing teams, managing conflict, group dynamics, project management, product development, interdepartmental relations, and organizational change. MediSys, a U.S.-based medical equipment maker, has been developing IntensCare, a new... View Details

Keywords: Project Management; Interdepartmental Relations; Organizational Change; Leadership; Conflict Management; Interpersonal Communication; Groups and Teams; Product Design; Product Development; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Health Care and Treatment; Power and Influence; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry; United States