Publications

November 2004
Case

IBM's Diversity Strategy: Bridging the Workplace and the Marketplace

By: David A. Thomas and Ayesha Kanji

Explores how IBM incorporated diversity into its business strategy, making the case that workforce diversity is critical to marketing its products and services to its customers. In the early 1990s, Ted Childs, vice-president of Workforce Diversity, proposed to CEO Lou... View Details

Keywords: Information Technology; Diversification; Business Strategy; Integration; Global Strategy; Organizations; Markets; Information Technology Industry; United States

May 2025
Case

The Video-Streaming Wars in 2025: Can Anyone Catch Netflix?

By: Anita Elberse and Javiera Larenas

On January 21, 2025, Ted Sarandos, co-chief executive officer of video-streaming service Netflix, presented the company’s quarterly earnings. He had every reason to be upbeat: Netflix added 19 million new subscribers in the final quarter of 2024, ended the year with a... View Details

Keywords: Entertainment; Media; Television; Management; Strategy; Disruption; Technology; Competition

July 2020
Teaching Plan

Girls Who Code

By: Brian Trelstad and Amy Klopfenstein

This teaching plan serves as a supplement to HBS Case No. 320-055, “Girls Who Code.” Founded 2012 by former lawyer Reshma Saujani, Girls Who Code (GWC) offered coding education programs to middle- and high school-aged girls. The organization also sought to alter... View Details

July 2000 (Revised September 2005)
Case

Madison Avenue: Digital Media Services (A)

Introduces a "new-economy" company, Madison Avenue, facing challenges of mega-success. In the two years since its founding, the company's revenues have grown from zero to nearly $30 million, head count has swollen from the start-up handful to more than 200, and the... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Design; Online Advertising; Advertising Industry

06 Oct 2023
Book

Yes, You Can Radically Change Your Organization in One Week

provide business leaders with what they call “the secret memo” for quick, effective organizational change. The book, which is their third together, and Morriss’s recent TED Talk, are loaded with tactical tips and concrete examples from... View Details

Keywords: by Kristen Senz

January 2025
Case

Netflix: Takedown Troubles

By: Clayton S. Rose, Tom Quinn and Maxim Pike Harrell

In October 2021, Netflix Co-CEO Ted Sarandos sent an all-staff email addressing backlash to comedian Dave Chappelle’s new stand-up special, The Closer. Released on October 5, the comedian’s depiction of the transgender community and other LGBTQ+ groups prompted... View Details

June 2012
Case

Buro Happold (Abridged)

By: Robert G. Eccles and Ryan Johnson

In 1996, Ted Happold, the founder of the engineering services firm Buro Happold, passed away, and Padraic Kelly became the firm's new managing director (MD). One of his first initiatives was "Aim for Growth," which was intended to help the firm grow beyond its current... View Details

Keywords: Learning And Development; Managing Growth; Organizational Design; Diversification; Client Management; Leadership Skills; Entrepreneurship; Growth and Development Strategy; Leadership Development; Management Skills; Training; Programs; Customer Relationship Management

07 Aug 2013
Working Paper Summaries

Debating the Responsibility of Capitalism in Historical and Global Perspective

Keywords: by Geoffrey G. Jones

January 2021 (Revised May 2021)
Case

Delta Air Lines: Navigating the COVID-19 Storm

By: Ted Berk and Ryan Flamerich

This case examines Delta Air Lines’ response as demand for its services plummeted in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, with a focus on the company’s funding needs and capital structure. Following a series of initial actions, the company’s cash “burn” had reduced from... View Details

Keywords: COVID-19; Health Pandemics; Financial Condition; Capital Structure; Crisis Management; Risk Management; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Air Transportation Industry

04 Jan 2022
Research & Ideas

Scrap the Big New Year's Resolutions. Make 6 Simple Changes Instead.

can learn,” says Takeuchi. To improve your narration abilities in the year ahead, Takeuchi recommends listening to the top 10 speeches ever delivered, or the 10 most popular TED Talks of all time. 6. Try a high-energy outdoor activity By... View Details

Keywords: by Kristen Senz

30 Nov 2015
Research & Ideas

Donors Are Turned Off by Overhead Costs. Here’s What Charities Can Do

toward clean water projects. Still, Keenan acknowledges that many in the nonprofit sector worry that enabling overhead-free donations will perpetuate the idea that overhead is a bad thing. For example, activist Dan Pallotta argues in favor of overhead in his viral... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

23 Sep 2022
Research & Ideas

8 Strategies to Sustain Business Innovation

off. While he acknowledges that ignoring data seems “pretty provocative,” McDonald quotes Netflix’s chief content officer Ted Sarandos: “Data tells you what happened in the past, not the future.” 4. Crowd sequence to accelerate innovation... View Details

Keywords: by Lane Lambert

04 Jun 2020
Book

It’s Not About You: Why Leaders Need to Look Outward

understand its component parts. [Frei outlines three components of trust—authenticity, logic, and empathy—in her TED Talk]. We can isolate whether or not you're building trust with your peers, with your employees, with your boss, with... View Details

Keywords: by Kristen Senz

30 Oct 2019
Research & Ideas

How to Recover Gracefully After Shutting Down Your Startup

$60 million from investors that included Kleiner Perkins—didn’t close for another two years. No one wants to be a quitter. Psychology professor Angela Duckworth tapped into the zeitgeist with her famous TED Talk and best-selling book,... View Details

Keywords: by Danielle Kost

October 2024
Supplement

LFM Capital: Turnaround at Pratt Industries (B)

By: Ted Berk

April 2019 (Revised December 2019)
Case

Turnaround at Mattel, 2017

By: Ted Berk

Just nine months into her new role as chief executive of Mattel, the world's leading toy maker, Margo Georgiadis faces a set of unexpected, inter-related decisions in the fall of 2017. Mattel's performance had been lagging for a number of years, and Georgiadis had been... View Details

Keywords: Turnarounds; Takeover; Leading Change; Financial Condition; Decision Making; Transformation

21 Jul 2009
Research Event

Business Summit: Managing Human Capital—Global Trends and Challenges

Editor's Note: This is a summary of an HBS Business Summit presentation. View a full summary and video of the event on the HBS Centennial Web site linked below. Date of Event: October 13, 2008 Moderator: David H. Thomas, HBS faculty Speakers: View Details

Keywords: Re: David A. Thomas

April 2019
Supplement

Turnaround at Mattel, 2017

By: Ted Berk