Chao - Publications - Faculty & Research

September 2001 (Revised April 2002)
Case

Ocean Carriers

By: Erik Stafford, Angela Chao and Kathleen Luchs

In January 2001, Mary Linn, vice president of finance for Ocean Carriers, a shipping company with offices in New York and Hong Kong, was evaluating a proposed lease of a ship for a three-year period, beginning in early 2003. The customer was eager to finalize the... View Details

Keywords: Cash Flow; Forecasting and Prediction; Cost of Capital; Leasing; Corporate Strategy; Valuation; Shipping Industry; New York (city, NY); Hong Kong

Citation

Educators

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01 Nov 2020
Research & Ideas

Good Leadership Is an Act of Kindness

bloggers are buzzing with guidance about ways to sustain employee engagement and productivity in the chaos of a pandemic. Unfortunately, most Management 101 advice does not recognize that in times like these, the manager's toolkit must... View Details

Keywords: by Boris Groysberg and Susan Seligson

30 Nov 2021
In Practice

What's the Role of Business in Confronting Climate Change?

The 26th annual United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties, also known as COP26, ended with a hard-fought pact that called on businesses and governments to meet their climate change goals faster. The event followed an August report by the Intergovernmental... View Details

Keywords: by Lynn Schenk and Dina Gerdeman

29 Jan 2018
Book

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

led to chaos or harm. It required extreme teaming. Facing the unprecedented nature of the disaster, multiple temporary, constantly shifting groups of people working separately on different types of problems, and coordinating across... View Details

Keywords: by Amy C. Edmondson; Mining

24 May 2021
Op-Ed

Can Fabric Waste Become Fashion’s Resource?

COVID-19 has broken fashion’s supply chain. As a result, an already wasteful industry has become more wasteful. Even before the pandemic, the global apparel industry was producing about 92 million tons of textile waste a year. That’s about one garbage truck’s worth of... View Details

Keywords: by Geoffrey Jones and Shelly Xu; Fashion

Research Summary

Organisational Learning in Software Requirements Engineering and Management

The current research project addresses the continuing low success rate of software development projects, which has been frequently reported in empirical studies. For example, the 2004 Chaos Report by the Standish Group found that only 29% of 9,236 application... View Details

14 Feb 2017
Research & Ideas

A Strategy For Steady Leadership in an Unsteady World

business leaders to step forward and lead in ways that business schools don’t teach. Let’s examine these different ways of leading comprising VUCA 2.0: Vision – Today’s business leaders need the ability to see through the chaos to have a... View Details

Keywords: by Bill George

06 Aug 2012
Research & Ideas

Strategic Intelligence: Adapt or Die

one-shot deal. Most companies use consultants to set a new strategy and then get on with it and start executing—until the next time they need a new strategy. Q: How can a company always be changing without creating chaos or overwhelming... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

15 Jun 2007
Research & Ideas

Remembering Alfred Chandler

chaos of his desk belied a very careful, systematic way of working. I met Al in the early 1990s, when he must have been in his mid- to late 70s. I remember looking at his raincoat, jacket, and tie—I almost never saw Al in anything but a... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

07 Apr 2014
Research & Ideas

Negotiation and All That Jazz

Michael Wheeler Read An Excerpt Meanwhile, as you're trying to gain a better sense of the situation, your counterpart is also reading or misreading you. As one manager told Wheeler, "It sometimes feels like I'm dancing on a tabletop in the pitch dark." To take into... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

07 Sep 2016
What Do You Think?

How Can the Threat of Networks Be Reduced?

a few examples. Networks enable mind-bending progress--but offer the potential of indescribable chaos in everybody’s personal life and society at large. Just ask Democratic members of the US Congress whose email accounts were... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

17 Feb 2003
Research & Ideas

Tales of the Newly-minted MBA

the chaos theory—a mix of passion and practicality, risk and reward," said Carl Horton (HBS MBA '95). His parents moved to Washington, DC, in 1978 to work for Jimmy Carter, Horton recalled, initiating his interest in politics. Over... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna

02 Feb 2004
What Do You Think?

Leadership: A Matter of Sustaining or Eliminating Groupthink?

doers at the senior levels of management." Advice to leaders in formulating decisions was provided by Keith Pinto, who opined that "Encouraging mavericks, risk takers, and soul searching questions is part of the chaos that... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

01 Oct 2009
What Do You Think?

Can the “Masks of Command” Coexist with Authentic Leadership?

mask concept explains most if not all of mankind's woes of today." Those arguing a middle ground put forth some interesting suggestions, such as Leamon Duncan's: " sometimes leaders must mask feelings and emotions in order to exhibit calm in the midst of... View Details

Keywords: by Jim Heskett

10 Apr 2014
Research & Ideas

Book Excerpt--‘Accelerate: Building Strategic Agility for a Faster-Moving World’

organizations that we have created in the last century, and that we continue to create today, could not function. Without management, chaos would reign. Enterprises would fall apart and go out of business quickly. Management is an... View Details

Keywords: Re: John P. Kotter

23 Feb 2021
Research & Ideas

COVID-19 Shines New Light on Working Conditions in Supply Chains

more than 20 years, the devastation in meatpacking is just one example of how lax regulation can make a grave situation deadly. The lack of safety guidance from the US Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA) nearly a year after the pandemic began continues... View Details

Keywords: by Danielle Kost; Apparel & Accessories

23 Jul 2007
Research & Ideas

HBS Cases: How Wikipedia Works (or Doesn’t)

we've got a really, really good teaching case right here.' " Why Wikipedia Works From the outside, Wikipedia may look like chaos barely contained. "When people look at these sorts of phenomenon at Wikipedia, they misread the anarchy,"... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Publishing

09 Nov 2006
Research & Ideas

Andy Grove: A Biographer’s Tale

edge. So these are all parts of Intel culture. Disagree and then commit. In other words, we'll listen to you. Let chaos reign and then reign in chaos. In other words, get as many ideas as you can—but once you do, come to a decision and... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Computer

21 May 2020
Research & Ideas

Fighting the COVID Blues: Advice from Business Research

contributing negatively to my own curiosity and theirs,” she says. “Usually, the chaos or mess is not as big or loud as I envisioned it would get. And the joy that comes out of the little mess is significantly higher than the small amount... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman and Danielle Kost

29 Oct 2013
First Look

First Look: October 29

negotiators thrive in the face of chaos and uncertainty. They don't trap themselves with rigid plans. Instead they understand negotiation as a process of exploration that demands ongoing learning, adapting, and influencing. Their agility... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

Publications