Publications

January 2005 (Revised November 2005)
Case

Gobi Partners: October 2004

By: G. Felda Hardymon and Ann Leamon

The general partners of Gobi Partners, a venture fund located in Shanghai, are trying to decide the best way to raise money for their first fund. Their strategy of investing in early-stage digital media companies in China was well-received by strategic investors--IBM... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Venture Capital; Private Equity; Investment; Goals and Objectives; Emerging Markets; Problems and Challenges; Conflict Management; Shanghai

2003
Working Paper

The Flattening Firm: Evidence from Panel Data on the Changing Nature of Corporate Hierarchies

By: Raghuram G. Rajan and Julie Wulf

Using a detailed database of managerial job descriptions, reporting relationships, and compensation structures in over 300 large U.S. firms, we find that firm hierarchies are becoming flatter. The number of positions reporting directly to the CEO has gone up... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Structure; Managerial Roles; Jobs and Positions; United States

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November 2006
Article

The Flattening Firm: Evidence from Panel Data on the Changing Nature of Corporate Hierarchies

By: Raghuram G. Rajan and Julie Wulf

Using a detailed database of managerial job descriptions, reporting relationships, and compensation structures in over 300 large U.S. firms, we find that firm hierarchies are becoming flatter. The number of positions reporting directly to the CEO has gone up... View Details

Keywords: Geographic Location; Change; Business Ventures; Compensation and Benefits; Rank and Position; Wages; Motivation and Incentives; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Jobs and Positions; United States

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December 1997
Case

American Cyanamid (A) & (B) (Combined)

American Home Products' (AHP) $9 billion hostile takeover of American Cyanamid (Cyanamid) was the largest merger-and-acquistion transaction in 1994, and made AHP the fourth largest pharmaceutical firm in the United States. At the time of AHP's offer, Cyanamid had... View Details

Keywords: Governing and Advisory Boards; Mergers and Acquisitions; Corporate Governance; Conflict and Resolution; Pharmaceutical Industry

June 1994 (Revised September 1994)
Background Note

Commercializing Technology: Imaginative Understanding of User Needs

By: Dorothy A. Leonard

The transformation of technology into commercially successful products is a process fraught with risk and uncertainty, and increasing pressure on time to market is exacerbating the difficulties. This note first describes a study conducted by Hewlett-Packard to improve... View Details

Keywords: Transformation; Communication Strategy; Customers; Design; Marketing; Consumer Behavior; Product Development; Research; Risk and Uncertainty; Commercialization; Technology Adoption

26 Oct 2016
News

Case Study: How Much Should a New CEO Shake Things Up?

31 Jul 2024
Video

Ed Freeman: Can capitalism adapt to serve a changing world?

28 Mar 2016
Research & Ideas

What's a Boss Worth?

than Boss B for everyone.” Measuring boss quality To measure boss quality, the researchers looked at transaction times for the workers under them on any given day (due to confidentiality agreements, he can’t say what the transaction... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Service

29 Jan 2018
Book

How 'Teaming' Saved 33 Lives in the Chilean Mining Disaster

trapped men (enough food for two men for 10 days) combined to make the possibility of rescue appear all but impossible to consulted experts. A mining rescue in the United States just a few years earlier, in which nine men were trapped 240 feet below ground, had been... View Details

Keywords: by Amy C. Edmondson; Mining

06 Sep 2016
Blog Post

What Makes the HBS MBA unique?

As graduation approached this year, I spent more and more time reflecting on my experience at HBS. The last two years have been more than I ever could have imagined, and I’m so incredibly grateful to have had the opportunity to attend... View Details

Web

Rock Entrepreneurship Advisor Program - Entrepreneurship

virtual mentoring, pitch feedback, and more. To book a time with a REAP Advisor, visit the profiles linked below. REAP office hour appointments are for HBS alumni only . Please be sure to use your HBS email address when submitting your... View Details

Web

Health Care - Faculty & Research

to translate intention into impact. Early results from BMC include eliminating racial disparities in urgent cesarean section response times and cutting diabetes-related inequities in half—demonstrating the framework’s promise as a guide... View Details

Web

Networking Events - Recruiting

employers to bring it. Brief introduction followed by interactive discussion and Q&A Up to 8 students per timeslot May select 20, 30, or 45-minute timeslots Option for consecutive timeslots (example: 4:00-6:00pm with four 30-minute timeslots, up to 8 students per... View Details

08 Aug 2011
Research & Ideas

The Death of the Global Manager

When Transnational Management was first published in 1992, the world was a different place. "The global economy was radically restructuring in the wake of an era of accelerating globalization in the 1980s," says Harvard Business School professor emeritus... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna

10 Feb 2011
Working Paper Summaries

The Dark Side of Creativity: Original Thinkers Can Be More Dishonest

Keywords: by Francesca Gino & Dan Ariely

2025
Working Paper

CEO-Firm Matches and Productivity in 42 Countries

By: Amanda Dahlstrand, Dávid László, Helena Schweiger, Oriana Bandiera, Andrea Prat and Raffaella Sadun

Firms are key to economic development, and CEOs are key to firm productivity. Are firms in countries at varying stages of development led by the right CEOs, and if not, why? We develop a parsimonious measure of CEO time use that allows us to differentiate CEOs into... View Details

Keywords: Training; Management Skills; Economic Growth; Leadership Development

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September 2024
Case

Open Door Legal: Universal Legal Access

By: Brian Trelstad, Taylor Greenthal and Sarah Mehta

This case is about Open Door Legal (ODL), a San Francisco-based civil legal aid nonprofit. CEO Adrian Tirtanadi founded the organization in 2012 with a mission to achieve universal access to legal representation for all city residents. By 2024, ODL had opened four... View Details

Keywords: Social Entrepreneurship; Law; Growth Management; Nonprofit Organizations; Civil Society or Community; Business Model; Expansion; Legal Services Industry; United States; California; Los Angeles; San Francisco

June 2024
Supplement

Legacy Partners (A)

By: Richard S. Ruback and Royce Yudkoff

Instructors should consider the timing of making videos available to students, as they may reveal key case details.

Stephen Holbrook and Austin Pulsipher (both HBS '19) had been leading Nutrishare since acquiring the company six months earlier in mid-2021.... View Details

2023
Working Paper

Algorithm Failures and Consumers' Response: Evidence from Zillow

By: Isamar Troncoso, Runshan Fu, Nikhil Malik and Davide Proserpio

In November 2021, Zillow announced the closure of its iBuyer business. Popular media largely attributed this to a failure of its proprietary forecasting algorithm. We study the response of consumers to Zillow’s iBuyer business closure. We show that after the iBuyer... View Details

Keywords: Algorithmic Pricing; Price; Forecasting and Prediction; Consumer Behavior; Real Estate Industry