Publications

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November 2015 (Revised October 2017)
Case

Nestle's Creating Shared Value Strategy

By: Michael E. Porter, Mark R. Kramer, Kerry Herman and Sarah McAra

This case considers Nestlé’s creating shared value (CSV) strategy, which focused on the three categories of nutrition, water, and rural development. In the packaged food and beverage industry, pressure had mounted since the 1990s to improve supply chain sustainability... View Details

Keywords: Shared Value; Health And Wellness; Nutrition; Health; Labor; Environmental Sustainability; Strategy; Operations; Food and Beverage Industry; Switzerland; Europe; Africa; Latin America; North America; Asia

October 2007 (Revised March 2008)
Case

First National Bank's Golden Opportunity

By: Shawn A. Cole, Peter Tufano, Daniel Schneider and Daryl Collins

Executives at First National Bank in South Africa are considering whether to launch a potentially exciting, but rather unorthodox, new savings product. Instead of paying interest, this product gives depositors the chance to win large cash prizes each month. Michael... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Banks and Banking; Investment; Innovation and Invention; Product Launch; Demand and Consumers; Banking Industry; South Africa

December 2005 (Revised December 2008)
Case

SchoolNet: Pursuing Opportunity beyond Federal Mandates

Settling into his seat on the train bound for New York, CEO Jonathan Harber reflected on the evolution of SchoolNet's position in the educational technology market and its important relationship with Philadelphia. Specifically, how could it transition from a project to... View Details

Keywords: Customers; Education; Performance Improvement; Partners and Partnerships; Expansion; Technology Adoption; Philadelphia

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20 Mar 2013
Research & Ideas

How CEOs Sustain Higher-Ambition Goals

At a recent Harvard Business School conference, dozens of CEOs committed to the idea of working toward "higher-ambition" goals that go beyond just short-term shareholder value. Inspired by the book Higher Ambition: How Great Leaders View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

September 2018
Case

OYO: Creating Effective Spaces

By: Das Narayandas, Sunil Gupta, Rachna Tahilyani and Mahima Rao-Kachroo

Twenty-four-year old Ritesh Agarwal, founder and CEO of India-based online hotel branding network OYO Rooms, has tackled the issue of unreliability in India's highly fragmented budget hotel industry. In 2018, OYO branded 8,500 properties across 200 cities and managed... View Details

Keywords: Technology; Accomodation; App Development; Operations And Processes; Innovation; Strategy; Change Management; Entrepreneurship; Information Technology; Research; Marketing; Operations; Innovation Strategy; Sales; Accommodations Industry; India; South Asia

July 2013 (Revised October 2014)
Case

Value Retail: Opportunities for European Expansion

By: Arthur I Segel

Scott Malkin, CEO of Value Retail, a developer and operator of European outlet villages serving luxury brands, is planning on developing a 18,503 m2 open-air outlet village to be built 98 kilometers south of Milan on land he was about to acquire for 7.26 million lira.... View Details

Keywords: Acquisition; Investment; Risk and Uncertainty; Expansion; Retail Industry; Milan

May 2010
Case

Flare Fragrances Company, Inc: Analyzing Growth Opportunities

By: John A. Quelch and Lisa D. Donovan

Flare Fragrances, a manufacturer of perfumes for women, faces a growth challenge in a difficult economic environment. CEO Joely Patterson outlines two growth opportunities for her marketing staff to evaluate. One involves launching a new scent -- and possibly... View Details

Keywords: Quantitative Analysis; Market Segmentation; Product Introduction; New Product Marketing; Product Lines; Product Positioning; Distribution; Product Launch; Segmentation; Growth and Development Strategy; Consumer Products Industry

23 Jun 2003
Research & Ideas

Psychology, Pathology, and the CEO

largely isolated from one another, and an inward focus among managers. Perpetual restructuring had created a culture of fear and had reduced employee initiative. When the new CEO asked executives... View Details

Keywords: by Rosabeth Moss Kanter

04 Dec 2019
Book

Creating the Experimentation Organization

asking for children’s ages “at checkout” was potentially vague. They wondered what would happen if they specified the checkout date. Creating two different versions of the same menu, they tested it in real time, and determined that the... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

18 Nov 2015
Research & Ideas

Who Really Determines CEO Salary Packages?

options), and in terms of how CEO performance is measured. THE NETWORK EFFECT Gallani hypothesized two possible culprits for the isomorphism. The first was the issue of interlocking directorates. Many directors belong to the boards of... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Consulting

12 May 2021
Book

The Hard Truth About Being a CEO

Click to watch. David Fubini has never been a CEO of a major corporation, but during his 34-year career as a senior director at consulting firm McKinsey, he had ample opportunity to work closely with and... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

16 Sep 2002
Research & Ideas

The Irrational Quest for Charismatic CEOs

influence may not have nourished an internal candidate needed to take the firm past its early, entrepreneurial stage. The closed CEO labor market and the consequences it has wrought fundamentally threaten... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

24 Sep 2014
Op-Ed

The Climate Needs Aggressive CEO Leadership

Corporations are facing great uncertainty. For the world to avoid the worst impacts of climate change, the United States eventually will have to put a price on carbon dioxide emissions, as has been done by Europe, parts of Canada, and California. To plan for the... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Toffel & Auden Schendler; Energy; Utilities

13 Dec 2004
Research & Ideas

How Leaders Create Winning Streaks

creates sustained long-term momentum by changing the systems and habits to build organizational confidence. The work of leaders is to build confidence in others, even prior to achieving positive results; the confidence that is View Details

Keywords: by Rosabeth Moss Kanter & Walter Kiechel

01 Mar 2010
Op-Ed

A Golden Opportunity for Ford and GM

Toyota's tragic automobile recalls offer a historic opportunity for Ford's CEO Alan Mulally and General Motors' new CEO Ed Whitacre. After years of decline, they can... View Details

Keywords: by Bill George; Auto

20 Oct 2008
Research & Ideas

The Seven Things That Surprise New CEOs

new CEOs. See a video interview with Porter.Most new chief executives are taken aback by the unexpected and unfamiliar new roles, the time and information limitations, and the altered professional relationships they run up against. Here are the common surprises new... View Details

Keywords: by Michael E. Porter, Jay W. Lorsch & Nitin Nohria

November 2020
Case

Guild Education: Unlocking Opportunity for America's Workforce

By: William A. Sahlman, Michael D. Smith, Nicole Tempest Keller and Alpana Thapar

Founded in 2015, Guild Education is an education marketplace that connects employers and universities to provide employees with ‘education as a benefit.’ The Denver-based company is transforming traditional tuition assistance programs by facilitating direct payment by... View Details

Keywords: Education; Digital Platforms; Information Technology; Employees; Social Enterprise; Education Industry; Technology Industry; Colorado

June 2023 (Revised March 2024)
Case

Creating World-Class Board Governance at SECO

By: Krishna G. Palepu and Emer Moloney

In Spring 2023, SECO CEO Massimo Mauri had the ambition to grow the €200 million revenue technology company to a €1 billion company by 2030. Founded in Italy in the 1970s, the family-owned company had gone through a period of growth and internationalization,... View Details

July 2017 (Revised July 2018)
Case

Upwork: Creating the Human Cloud

By: Dylan Minor and David Yoffie

Stephane Kasriel, the new CEO of Upwork, the leading platform for freelance labor, needs to decide on how to redesign its business model. While the firm has been growing rapidly since the merger of Odesk and eLance, the newly combined firm continues to face problems of... View Details

Keywords: Strategy; Platform; Platform Businesses; Technology; Business Model; Digital Platforms; Growth and Development Strategy; Internet and the Web; Labor