Publications

July 1980
Background Note

Action Planning and Implementation: A Manager's Checklist

By: Leonard A. Schlesinger and James P. Ware

A checklist of suggested guidelines for managers embarking on action planning and implementation activities. Used as a supplement to assist in the preparation of case materials. View Details

Keywords: Management Skills; Business Processes

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January 12, 2023
Article

Progressive Decentralization: A High-level Framework

By: Jad Esber and Scott Duke Kominers

We explain a high-level framework for designing for future decentralization up front, and offer some guidance about when and how to do so. The guidelines apply to both web3 projects and more traditional organizations. View Details

Keywords: Crypto Economy; Cryptocurrency; Decentralization; Decentralized Autonomous Organizations; Entrepreneurial Journey; Entrepreneurial Management; Organization Behavior; Organization And Management Theory; Organization Form; Organizational Structure

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01 Dec 2011
What Do You Think?

Thinking Slow: An Argument for Bureaucracy?

Summing Up Summarizing responses to questions about a topic as complex as thinking slow requires that one think slow. So I wrote this column, slept on it, rewrote it, and still have problems with it. But deadlines, as they so often do, help us avoid the "analysis... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

01 May 2019
Working Paper Summaries

Rehabilitating Corporate Purpose

Keywords: by Malcolm S. Salter

February 1989
Background Note

Learning with Cases

Gives some tips to maximize all learning; offers the pros and cons of experiential learning (cases) as a method; and gives some guidelines for effective case preparation, discussion, and learning. View Details

Keywords: Cases; Learning

July 1977 (Revised April 1995)
Background Note

Managing a Task Force

Describes several principles for improving the effectiveness of internal task forces. Suggests a number of guidelines for starting up a task force, conducting the first meeting, managing the group's activities, and completing the project. View Details

Keywords: Management; Groups and Teams

January 2000 (Revised June 2001)
Background Note

Seven Rules for New Leaders

Provides guidelines for how to successfully enter a new senior management position. Identifies key traps into which new leaders fall and provides a framework for organizing to succeed in the first few months on the job. View Details

Keywords: Leadership; Management Teams

20 Jan 2003
Research & Ideas

Fixing Corporate Governance: A Roundtable Discussion at Harvard Business School

With corporate America rocked by revelations of conflict of interest, malfeasance, negligence, and greed, a group of HBS professors recently gathered to review the current crisis. Is it a case of dé jà vu or an unprecedented, systemic failure? This roundtable... View Details

Keywords: by Garry Emmons

March 2016 (Revised August 2022)
Case

Fair & Lovely vs. Dark is Beautiful

By: Rohit Deshpande and Saloni Chaturvedi

Women of Worth (WOW) is an organization that seeks to empower women through training and workshops. The organization has also fought against discrimination based on the color of a person's skin through its “Dark is Beautiful” campaign—endorsed by well-known... View Details

Keywords: Prejudice and Bias; Race; Marketing; Social Issues; Beauty and Cosmetics Industry

March 2009 (Revised January 2010)
Supplement

The Walt Disney Company and Pixar Inc.: To Acquire or Not to Acquire? An Update

By: Juan Alcacer, David J. Collis and Mary Furey

This four-page update to the case, "The Walt Disney Company and Pixar Inc.: To Acquire or Not to Acquire?" details the Walt Disney Company's acquisition of Pixar, including deal terms, executive appointments, and operating guidelines for the two studios. View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Managerial Roles; Negotiation Deal; Operations; Motion Pictures and Video Industry

06 Oct 2003
What Do You Think?

Is “the Innovator’s Solution” to Sustained Corporate Growth an Unnatural Act?

devoted to identifying criteria by which disruptive technologies and their markets can be identified, and making sure that organizations and processes are fine-tuned to turn the tables on upstart competitors who might be doing the same. The authors propose four View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

March 2002 (Revised December 2002)
Background Note

A Note on Corporate Venturing and New Business Creation

By: David A. Garvin

Presents an introduction and overview of corporate venturing. Describes the need for companies to create new businesses, the stages in the process, predictable problems and challenges, the strengths and weaknesses of alternative approaches such as internal venture... View Details

Keywords: Business Plan; Business Startups; Forecasting and Prediction; Venture Capital; Problems and Challenges

March 2001 (Revised July 2007)
Background Note

Power and Influence: Achieving Your Objectives in Organizations

By: Kathleen L. McGinn and Elizabeth Long Lingo

Power is the potential to mobilize energy. This rather neutral definition does not address the issues of how to exercise power or to what ends. The answers to these questions determine the ultimate value of an individual's power. This note is written to help readers... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Culture; Personal Development and Career; Power and Influence; Social and Collaborative Networks; Value

July 1995
Background Note

Managerial Duties and Business Law

By: Joseph L. Badaracco Jr. and Jerry Useem

Consists of excerpts from Principles of Corporate Governance, a set of legal guidelines that enumerates the principal duties of corporate managers and directors, including fiduciary duty, duty of care, and duty of fair dealing. Also addresses legal obligations relating... View Details

Keywords: Ethics; Corporate Governance; Retention; Common Law; Business or Company Management; Goals and Objectives; Managerial Roles

February 1995
Case

Catalan Leather Industry, The

Antoni Subira, the Minister of Industry in Catalonia, Spain, must decide whether to impose strict European Union environmental guidelines on the local leather industry. Failure to impose new regulations would result in substantial fines. Imposition, on the other hand,... View Details

Keywords: Competition; Industry Structures; Environmental Sustainability; Spain

December 1994 (Revised December 1995)
Case

The JKJ Pension Fund

By: William J. Poorvu and John H. Vogel Jr.

The JKJ pension fund currently has $187 million invested in 14 properties. Sarah Griffin, the portfolio manager for real estate, needs to value each of the properties and recommend which ones should be sold and which ones to hold. She further needs to recommend... View Details

Keywords: Property; Investment Portfolio; Valuation; Investment Funds; Financial Management; Real Estate Industry; Financial Services Industry

July 2017 (Revised September 2017)
Case

GM's Capital Allocation Framework

By: C. Fritz Foley, F. Katelynn Boland and Michael Lemm

In March of 2015, General Motors announced the details of a newly established capital allocation framework. This framework provided a target for return on invested capital, guidelines for capital structure choices, and policies related to payouts. Senior managers face... View Details

Keywords: Performance Metrics; Capital Budgeting; Capital Structure; Performance Evaluation; Measurement and Metrics; Auto Industry; Transportation Industry; United States

March 1995 (Revised January 1996)
Background Note

Managerial Networks

Describes a managerial network as a set of relationships critical to a manager's ability to get things done, get ahead, and develop personally and professionally. "Networking" refers to the activities associated with developing and managing such relationships.... View Details

Keywords: Networks; Management Practices and Processes

May 2013
Teaching Note

Launching Krispy Natural: Cracking the Product Management Code (Brief Case)

By: Frank V. Cespedes and Heather Beckham

This case study concerns a review and interpretation of test market results for a new packaged good product. The purpose of the case is to provide students with practice and guidelines in the analysis of quantitative test market data while illustrating the roles of... View Details

Keywords: Analytics and Data Science; Analysis; Product Marketing