by Jim Heskett - Publications - Faculty & Research

07 Feb 2011
Lessons from the Classroom

Creating the Founders’ Dilemmas Course

to deal with the big risks introduced by that decision; and Jim Triandiflou, founder and CEO of Ockham Technologies, who worries about losing control of the company as he and his cofounder consider various... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Education

19 Jul 2010
Research & Ideas

How Mercadona Fixes Retail’s ’Last 10 Yards’ Problem

impact on profits." Adopting Mercadona's approach also requires a leader with a strong backbone. Ton notes that Jim Sinegal, CEO of Costco, another retailer with good labor practices, had been criticized View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Retail; Food & Beverage

24 Jul 2006
Research & Ideas

How Kayak Users Built a New Industry

from these standards. By the same token, the dominant design of rodeo kayaks (as of about 2000) involves a short, center-buoyant, planing hull made of molded plastic. Bill Abernathy of HBS and Jim Utterback... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Entertainment & Recreation

2012
Book

Harder Than I Thought: Adventures of a Twenty-First Century Leader

By: Robert D. Austin, Richard L. Nolan and Shannon O'Donnell

Being a great leader today is much harder than you think—meet Jim Barton. He's a newly minted CEO, rising leader of a firm in transition, and manager of massive complexity—thanks to our incredibly networked and increasingly unpredictable world of business. What if you... View Details

Keywords: Leadership; Complexity; Crisis Management; Problems and Challenges; Volatility

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22 Feb 2011
Research & Ideas

The Most Important Management Trends of the (Still Young) Twenty-First Century

twenty-first century, and then to tell us what they hope will be the most fertile areas of business research between now and 2020. But we didn't leave it there. Professor Jim Heskett is moderating a similar... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

28 Jun 2010
HBS Case

Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center

details how one institution has implemented its own version of health-care reform, taking overall performance levels from well below average to the top 10 percent in the industry. Coauthored by HBS assistant professor Anita Tucker and... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Health

21 Feb 2005
Research & Ideas

The VC Quandary: Too Much Money

School. Intel Capital, the chipmaker's venture division, has scaled back somewhat from the hyper investment levels of 2000, "but I've always thought it was really important in the venture market to stay in the market, be in the market consistently," said... View Details

Keywords: by Julie Jette; Financial Services

24 Feb 2020
Research & Ideas

The Hidden Vulnerabilities of Open Source Software

underscore the importance of understanding where open source is most used and could be vulnerable to attack. The report, ‘Vulnerabilities in the Core,’ a Preliminary Report and Census II of Open Source Software, was prepared by the... View Details

Keywords: by Frank Nagle and Jenny Hoffman; Computer

16 Jul 2021
Op-Ed

For Entrepreneurs, the Benefits of Slowing Down

class=infogram-embed data-id=_/UddyZtUFxQwXnFZ7mkNa][/div] I was reminded of the value of slowing down during the last few days by one of my founders who is in the midst of closing a massive financing at a "unicorn" valuation. The company... View Details

Keywords: by Jeffrey Bussgang

22 Feb 2010
Op-Ed

Tragedy at Toyota: How Not to Lead in Crisis

Toyota's ever-widening problems are a tragic case study in how not to lead in crisis. Under the media spotlight, Toyota CEO Akio Toyoda, grandson of the founder, went into hiding and sent American CEO Jim Lentz to make apologies.... View Details

Keywords: by William George; Auto

03 Feb 2011
What Do You Think?

Are We Going “Back to the Future” In Researching Management?

Citing corporate scandals of the past ten years, Andrew MacLennan said that " in the last 10 years there has been a growing recognition of the need to balance great ideas with concern for execution " Debra Farquharson commented that this has been accompanied... View Details

Keywords: Re: James L. Heskett

14 Nov 2007
Research & Ideas

Growing CEOs from the Inside

Succession planning is hard work: It must be embraced by the organization and driven by the CEO. In the book, Bower identifies best practices companies can follow to identify, groom, and train internal... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Employment

06 Apr 2016
Research & Ideas

Should Entrepreneurs Pitch Products or Ideas for Products?

idea because the monopoly surplus is higher than that from a duopoly,” Luo explains. This intuition was originally developed by her colleagues Dennis Yao at Harvard Business School and Jim Anton from Duke... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Motion Pictures & Video; Entertainment & Recreation; Banking

07 Feb 2005
Research & Ideas

How “Career Imprinting” Shapes Leaders

new book, Career Imprints: Creating Leaders Across an Industry, is scheduled to be published in April by Jossey-Bass. Mallory Stark: What is career imprinting? Monica Higgins: Career imprinting refers to the process View Details

Keywords: by Mallory Stark

15 Sep 2008
Research & Ideas

The Coming Transformation of Social Enterprise

Jim Austin, picked by Dean John McArthur to lead the new initiative, saw the potential for research, curriculum, and career development around the challenges of social enterprises, including both nonprofit... View Details

Keywords: by Roger Thompson

September 1997
Case

Information at the World Bank: In Search of a Technology Solution (A)

By: W. Earl Sasser, Josep Valor and Carin-Isabel Knoop

Information Technology Services Director Mohamed Muhsin planned to restructure the World Bank's information technology in response to President Jim Wolfensohn's call to build a knowledge bank. Several reorganization efforts taken by the bank in the 1980s led to a... View Details

Keywords: Restructuring; Information; Knowledge Management; Mission and Purpose; Technology; Public Administration Industry

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October 2018 (Revised July 2023)
Case

The Boston Beer Company (A): New CEO

By: Christina R. Wing and Marco Iansiti

In 1984, when the Boston Beer Company’s Samuel Adams Boston Lager was first sold, founder Jim Koch had helped ignite a craft beer movement by making small-batch premium beers in an era of industry consolidation. By 2018, Boston Beer was a publicly traded company that... View Details

Keywords: Beer/brewing Industry; Succession; Leadership; Change; Supply Chain; Change Management; Entrepreneurship; Supply Chain Management; Management Succession; Food and Beverage Industry; United States; Boston

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February 2000 (Revised March 2004)
Case

Signature Security: Providing Alarm Systems for the Countries Down Under

Signature Security, an entrepreneurial company, was created to roll up the electronic security industry in Australia and New Zealand. Signature was created by a team of experienced U.S. managers. Original financing was provided by Clairvest, a Canadian merchant bank.... View Details

Keywords: Management Succession; Entrepreneurship; Financing and Loans; Australia; New Zealand

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September 2006 (Revised November 2006)
Case

Cathy Benko: WINning at Deloitte (A)

By: Kathleen L. McGinn, Deborah M. Kolb and Cailin B. Hammer

Jim Quigley, CEO of Deloitte and Touche's consulting practice, asks senior partner Cathy Benko to lead Deloitte & Touche's much publicized Initiative for the Retention and Advancement of Women (WIN). Benko, already the Lead Client Service Partner on one of Deloitte's... View Details

Keywords: Motivation and Incentives; Leadership Development; Talent and Talent Management; Personal Development and Career; Gender; Consulting Industry; United States

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2009
Book

The Adventures of an IT Leader

By: Robert D. Austin, Richard L. Nolan and Shannon O'Donnell

Becoming an effective IT manager presents a host of challenges-from anticipating emerging technology to managing relationships with vendors, employees, and other managers. Ultimately, a good IT manager must be a strong business leader, not just a technical... View Details

Keywords: Books; Leadership; Crisis Management; Personal Development and Career; Relationships; Safety; Information Technology

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