Publications

August 1994 (Revised May 1997)
Case

Olympus Optical Company, Ltd. (A): Cost Management for Short Life Cycle Products

Explores Olympus Optical's strategic response to major losses in its camera business. Key to Olympus's recovery were its extensive product planning process, a quality improvement program, and an aggressive cost-reduction program. In particular, the case details... View Details

Keywords: Cost Management; Product Design; Business Strategy; Product Development; Consumer Products Industry

Educators

September – October 2011
Article

Manage the Culture Cycle

By: James L. Heskett

Organizational culture—the shared assumptions, values, and behaviors that determine "how we do things around here"—can be measured and shaped. In organizations with large numbers of customer-facing employees, it can account for up to half of the difference in operating... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Culture; Value; Behavior; Retention; Customer Focus and Relationships; Change Management; Learning; Innovation and Invention; Labor

27 Jul 2016
News

Breaking the Cycle of Poverty

Margaret Crotty (MBA 2000) is CEO of Partnership with Children, which provides counseling services and family support to public schools in New York City. In this interview, she reflects on the influences that put her on this path. “Two of the biggest influences in my... View Details

July 1995
Article

Of Life Cycles Real and Imaginary: The Unexpectedly Long Old Age of Optical Lithography

By: Rebecca M. Henderson

Keywords: Health

Read Now

10 Oct 2017
News

Rules of Business: The Health Care Profit Cycle

2018
Chapter

Organizational Remedies for Discrimination

By: R. Ely and A. Feldberg

Laws now exist to protect employees from blatant forms of discrimination in hiring and promotion, but workplace discrimination persists in latent forms. These “second-generation” forms of bias arise in workplace structures, practices, and patterns of interaction that... View Details

Keywords: Discrimination; Prejudice and Bias; Equality and Inequality

January–February 2018
Article

The Leader's Guide to Corporate Culture: How to Manage the Eight Critical Elements of Organizational Life

By: Boris Groysberg, Jeremiah Lee, Jesse Price and J. Yo-Jud Cheng

Executives are often confounded by culture, because much of it is anchored in unspoken behaviors, mindsets, and social patterns. But when properly managed, culture can help them achieve change and build organizations that will thrive in even the most trying times. In... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Culture; Performance Effectiveness; Strategy; Organizational Change and Adaptation

Register to Read

January 2009 (Revised November 2009)
Background Note

Adult Life Stages

By: John A. Davis

This note describes basic concepts of adult life stage theory and summarizes Daniel Levinson's research findings on the adult development of men and women. View Details

Keywords: Transition; Motivation and Incentives; Behavior; Personal Development and Career; Organizational Culture; Gender

14 Jun 2022
News

Gen Z Revived Life Is Good and the $150 Million Clothing Brand Makes a Case Study for Riding Out a Down Cycle

15 Dec 2003
Research & Ideas

Women Leaders and Organizational Change

our beliefs about what makes for good workers, good work, and successful organizations. This more expansive view of gender positions organizations as central to shaping the meaning of gender and helps us reflect more critically on current View Details

Keywords: by Mallory Stark

Research Summary

Developing Organizational Capabilities to Compete

By: Michael Beer

Michael Beer’s current research focuses on the question of what makes an Effective Organization. Based on his extensive research and practice about this question Beer has identified six highly interrelated core capabilities:

Capacity of the... View Details

February 2014 (Revised May 2016)
Case

The Rawlinsons: Facing Life and Career Decisions as a Couple

By: Boris Groysberg and Kerry Herman

The Rawlinsons, a young, ambitious, career-minded couple, are considering their life and career goals. They are both successful, have aspirations to serve in public office, and are negotiating important career choices as a couple. View Details

Keywords: Talent Management; Career Management; Career Planning; Organizational Behavior; Work/life Balance; Work/family Balance; Careers; Talent and Talent Management; Human Capital; Work-Life Balance; Personal Development and Career; United States

Educators

01 Jun 2004
News

Life Lessons

student, at the Dance Complex in Cambridge. The first sixteen years of Martín Curiel’s life followed the cycles of the harvest. As migrant farmworkers, his parents moved Curiel and his two sisters from... View Details

Keywords: James E. Aisner; Garry Emmons; Julia Hanna; Susan Young; Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools; Educational Services

07 Jul 2003
Research & Ideas

The Organizational Model for Open Source

important roles foundations can play is to ensure that pluralism in the governance of these projects is sustained. Q: Will the nonprofit foundation be an organizational model that will define future software development? A: I cannot see... View Details

Keywords: by Mallory Stark

February 2024
Technical Note

AI Product Development Lifecycle

By: Michael Parzen, Jessie Li and Marily Nika

In this article, we will discuss the concept of AI Products, how they are changing our daily lives, how the field of AI & Product Management is evolving, and the AI Product Development Lifecycle. View Details

Keywords: Artificial Intelligence; Product Management; Product Life Cycle; Technology; AI and Machine Learning; Product Development

Educators

January 2002
Article

Organizational Endowments and the Performance of University Start-ups

By: Scott Shane and Toby E. Stuart

The question of how initial resource endowments—the stocks of resources that entrepreneurs contribute to their new ventures at the time of founding—affect organizational life chances is one of significant interest in organizational ecology, evolutionary... View Details

Keywords: Resource Allocation; Entrepreneurship; Business Startups; Research; Company History; Initial Public Offering; Venture Capital; Financing and Loans

December 2016 (Revised May 2018)
Module Note

Strategy Execution Module 15: Using the Levers of Control to Implement Strategy

By: Robert Simons

This module reading pulls together key concepts and techniques from the Strategy Execution series into an integrated model—the levers of control. The four levers are: (1) belief systems, (2) boundary systems, (3) diagnostic control systems, and (4) interactive control... View Details

Keywords: Management Control Systems; Implementing Strategy; Execution; Levers Of Control; Balancing Innovation And Control; Managing Growing Businesses; Turn Around Management; Human Behavior; Organizational Life Cycle; Strategy; Management Systems; Performance; Measurement and Metrics; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Behavior