Publications

March 2013 (Revised May 2013)
Case

Omar Ishrak: Building Medtronic Globally

By: Bill George and Natalie Kindred

Omar Ishrak, Medtronic's first non-American CEO, aims to reinvigorate the medical device maker's growth by focusing on emerging markets, therapy innovation, and creative business models. In 2012, budget constraints in mature economies, the lack of new medical therapies... View Details

Keywords: Healthcare; Medical Devices; Medtronic; Globalization; Innovation; Reverse Innovation; Leadership; Multinational Firms and Management; Globalized Markets and Industries; Management Teams; Business Model; Emerging Markets; Global Strategy; Health Care and Treatment; Acquisition; Innovation and Invention; Manufacturing Industry; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry; China

April 2017
Teaching Note

Global Leadership in a Dynamic and Evolving Region: Molinas @ The Coca-Cola Company (A, B, C, D)

By: Tsedal Neeley and Nathan Overmeyer

Teaching Note for HBS Nos. 417-068, 417-069, 417-070, and 417-071. View Details

Keywords: Functions; Structure; Centralization; Decentralization; Diversity; Country Of Origin Effects; Global Contextual Intelligence; Leading Change; Crisis Management; Organizational Structure; Experience and Expertise; Situation or Environment; Central Asia; Turkey

January 18, 2012
Blog Post

How IBM's Sam Palmisano Redefined the Global Corporation

By: Bill George

Keywords: Leadership; Business Ventures; Computer Industry

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May 2025 (Revised June 2025)
Case

Daiichi Sankyo: Steering a Global Organization

By: Tiona Zuzul, Amy C. Edmondson and Cat Huang

In the spring of 2023, Sunao Manabe, CEO of Daiichi Sankyo, reflected on a pivotal decision. A large Western pharmaceutical company had made a bid to partner with Daiichi Sankyo to develop the next three products in its oncology pipeline. Daiichi Sankyo, a 125-year old... View Details

Keywords: Strategy; Culture Change; Decision-making; Leadership; Culture; Innovation; Psychological Safety

February 2024
Case

More than Optics: Olympus's Vision to Become a Leading Global MedTech Company

By: David J. Collis and Haisley Wert

In August 2022, CEO Yasuo Takeuchi reflected on Olympus Corporation’s recent transformation from being known as a Japanese consumer camera company to becoming a leading global medical technology (MedTech) company. Over the past dozen years, Takeuchi and prior... View Details

Keywords: Global Human Resource Management; Medical Technology; Corporate Strategy; Transformation; Globalization; Business Model; Leading Change; Organizational Structure; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry; Japan; United States

January 2018 (Revised January 2024)
Supplement

Wanxiang Group: A Chinese Company's Global Strategy (C)

By: William C. Kirby, Yuanzhuo Wang and Daniel Fu

This case updates Wanxiang Group's activities since 2012, focusing on its electric vehicle strategy and a transition of the group's leadership. View Details

Keywords: Electric Vehicles; Leadership Succession; Strategy; Management Succession; Global Range; Auto Industry; United States; China

May 2016
Article

'Both/And' Leadership

By: Wendy K. Smith, Marianne Lewis and Michael Tushman

Leaders face a multitude of strategic paradoxes—contradictory pressures that are too often viewed as "either/or" choices. There are innovation paradoxes, in which the pursuit of new offerings and processes conflicts with the mandate to sustain the tried and... View Details

Keywords: Conflict of Interests; Goals and Objectives; Business Processes

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25 Oct 2012
Research & Ideas

Developing the Global Leader

What skills do today's executives need to develop to become effective global leaders of tomorrow? And how do corporations teach these skills to their own leaders? "The shift from a country-centric corporation to one that is more... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna

November 2012
Case

Hillary Clinton & Partners: Leading Global Social Change from the U.S. State Department

By: Rosabeth M. Kanter and Ai-Ling Jamila Malone

As U.S. Secretary of State, Hillary Rodham Clinton acted on a long-standing interest in public-private partnerships to elevate and activate an Office of Global Partnerships reporting directly to her. One major initiative that also addressed her interest in women's... View Details

Keywords: Collaboration; Partnerships; Global Collaboration; Innovation; Leadership; Leading Change

July 2025
Case

ICARE: Frontline Leadership at Michelin

By: Hubert Joly and Emilie Billaud

In 2025, Michelin CEO Florent Menegaux reflected on the company’s transformation since taking the helm in 2019. Amid a volatile global landscape marked by inflation, rising competition, and geopolitical and sustainability pressures, Michelin had achieved strong... View Details

26 Mar 2007
Research & Ideas

Learning from Failed Political Leadership

of Illusion: American Leadership in the Media Age. The book weaves together insights from economics, leadership studies, history, geopolitics, and national security to make a case for strategic independence... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

10 May 2010
Research & Ideas

What Top Scholars Say About Leadership

of a global view. Too much of leadership research is conducted in the United States or western Europe. This is despite the reality that some of the most disruptive leadership... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Education

10 Nov 2015
Op-Ed

Authentic Leadership Rediscovered

Bennis. True North assembled this developmental process in an original approach that enabled people to develop themselves as authentic leaders. In order to see how leadership has changed in the past decade, we initiated research in 2014... View Details

Keywords: by Bill George

Article

How Did Location Affect Adoptions of the Commercial Internet?: Global Village vs. Urban Leadership

By: Chris Forman, Avi Goldfarb and Shane Greenstein

Find at Harvard

February 2017
Module Note

Leading Global Teams

By: Tsedal Neeley

This module aims to help students become effective leaders and members of global teams that must work together across national boundaries and toward a common goal. Students will learn to diagnose the challenges that global teams often face as well as strategies that... View Details

Keywords: Groups and Teams; Leadership; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues

Teaching Interest

Senior Executive Leadership Program—China

By: Felix Oberholzer-Gee

Today's global business environment offers many exciting prospects for talented executives and ambitious organizations. To take full advantage of emerging opportunities in China and beyond, businesses need exceptional leaders—forward-thinking executives who are... View Details

June 1991 (Revised June 1993)
Case

Becton Dickinson (B): Global Management

By: Michael Beer

The president of Becton Dickinson (BD) and his top management team struggle with issues of: 1) how to manage the top of the organization, focusing on leadership style, the committee structure, and the role of sector presidents, and 2) how to manage a multinational... View Details

Keywords: Globalized Firms and Management; Multinational Firms and Management; Human Resources; Leadership Style; Management Teams; Corporate Strategy; Health Industry

June 2012
Article

Leadership Is a Conversation

By: Boris Groysberg and Michael Slind

Globalization and new technologies have sharply reduced the efficacy of command-and-control management and its accompanying forms of corporate communication. In the course of a recent research project, the authors concluded that by talking with employees, rather than... View Details

Keywords: Employees; Management Style; Interpersonal Communication; Leadership; Cooperation; Partners and Partnerships

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February 2008 (Revised September 2008)
Case

Indesit Company: Does Global Matter?

By: Joseph L. Bower

In 2007, the leadership of the Indesit Company is focused on long-term corporate strategy. After 3 decades, the company has emerged as the number 2 home appliance producer in Europe. Should they invest further to be number 1, or should they focus on the global market,... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Global Strategy; Growth and Development; Business or Company Management; Brands and Branding; Markets; Problems and Challenges; Corporate Strategy; Consumer Products Industry