Publications

07 Feb 2022
Research & Ideas

Digital Transformation: A New Roadmap for Success

end-to-end customer experiences in an unforgiving dynamic economy. As one executive put it, in a hyperconnected world, competitors can "pop up from anywhere and everywhere." With rising expectations of View Details

Keywords: by Linda A. Hill, Ann Le Cam, Sunand Menon, and Emily Tedards

23 Apr 2012
Research & Ideas

How to Brand a Next-Generation Product

Timothy Dalton, Pierce Brosnan, Daniel Craig—without destroying the franchise Whereas with Rocky, you're pretty much stuck with Sylvester Stallone." Risk Vs. Reward Companies also must assess risk versus View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

October 2011
Case

Raleigh & Rosse: Measures to Motivate Exceptional Service

By: Robert Simons and Michael Mahoney

In January 2010, U.S. luxury goods retailer Raleigh & Rosse is being sued by its employees for encouraging "off the clock" hours. At the center of the class action lawsuit is the famous Raleigh & Rosse performance measurement system previously thought to be the core of... View Details

Keywords: Control Systems; Performance Measurement; Goal Setting; Compensation; Incentives; Motivation; Sales Compensation; Motivation and Incentives; Goals and Objectives; Growth Management; Lawsuits and Litigation; Organizational Culture; Management Systems; Customer Focus and Relationships; Employees; Performance Evaluation; Compensation and Benefits; Retail Industry; United States

May 2006 (Revised July 2007)
Case

Creating Meaning for the Customer: The Case of GMACI

Excellence in exploiting customer information and leveraging its affiliation to the GM group are among the strategic options that GMAC Insurance CEO Gary Kusumi is considering. GMAC Insurance, the wholly-owned auto insurance subsidiary of General Motors, formed through... View Details

Keywords: Customer Relationship Management; Decision Choices and Conditions; Knowledge Use and Leverage; Strategy; Auto Industry; Insurance Industry

June 2014 (Revised September 2014)
Case

Johnson & Johnson: The Promotion of Wellness

By: John A. Quelch and Carin-Isabel Knoop

To create the world's healthiest workforce, diversified health care giant Johnson & Johnson (J&J) mandated participation in its "Culture of Health" program globally, customized by location, culture, and specific health needs to offer prevention-focused education,... View Details

Keywords: Healthcare; Employee Motivation; Transformation; Ethics; Health; Human Resources; Leadership; Management; Personal Development and Career; Problems and Challenges; Strategy; Health Industry; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry; Pharmaceutical Industry; North and Central America; Middle East; Latin America; Europe; Asia

Article

Forgoing Earned Incentives to Signal Pure Motives

By: Erika L. Kirgios, Edward H. Chang, Emma E. Levine, Katherine L. Milkman and Judd B. Kessler

Policy makers, employers, and insurers often provide financial incentives to encourage citizens, employees, and customers to take actions that are good for them or for society (e.g., energy conservation, healthy living, safe driving). Although financial incentives are... View Details

Keywords: Incentives; Motivation Laundering; Self-signaling; Motivation and Incentives; Behavior; Perception

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March 2022 (Revised August 2022)
Case

LooksRare: The Decentralized, Tokenized, NFT Marketplace

By: Scott Duke Kominers, Shai Bernstein and George Gonzalez

LooksRare launched a decentralized and anonymous organization to compete against NFT marketplace leader OpenSea. By launching its own cryptocurrency, LooksRare attempted to lure users with a digital rewards program. The nature of the organization and its business... View Details

Keywords: NFTs; Alternative Assets; Blockchain; Cryptocurrency; Customer Relationship Management; Market Entry and Exit; Business Model; Marketing

November 2010 (Revised April 2011)
Supplement

Aman Resorts (B)

By: Eugene Soltes and Aldo Sesia

The (B) case describes how employees are rewarded and compensated and is used to supplement the (A) case. View Details

Keywords: Customer Focus and Relationships; Customer Satisfaction; Globalized Firms and Management; Compensation and Benefits; Employees; Performance Evaluation; Motivation and Incentives; Accommodations Industry

04 Nov 2002
Research & Ideas

From Lone Star to Team Player

keep rewarding and promoting them. Managers may feel that they need them, of course, as they do perform well. So it is pretty gutsy to fire them in today's rather poor economic environment. But if you're really serious about building a... View Details

Keywords: by Mallory Stark

25 Mar 2011
Working Paper Summaries

How Do Incumbents Fare in the Face of Increased Service Competition?

Keywords: by Ryan W. Buell, Dennis Campbell & Frances X. Frei; Banking

2022
Book

Purpose + Profit: How Business Can Lift Up the World

By: George Serafeim

The roadmap and best practices to reap the enormous value that can emerge when your business prioritizes social and environmental goals—such as climate change, diversity and inclusion, and sustainability—right alongside the pursuit of profit.

We not only... View Details

Keywords: ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) Performance; Profitability; Business And Society; Organizations; Mission and Purpose; Goals and Objectives; Social Issues; Environmental Sustainability; Value Creation; Organizational Change and Adaptation

2024
Working Paper

The Impact of Culture Consistency on Subunit Outcomes

By: Jasmijn Bol, Robert Grasser, Serena Loftus and Tatiana Sandino

We examine the association between subunit culture consistency—defined as the congruence between the organizational values espoused by top management and those perceived and practiced by subunit employees—and subunit outcomes. Using data from 235 subunits of a... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Culture; Employees; Creativity; Satisfaction

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07 Jul 2008
Research & Ideas

Innovation Corrupted: How Managers Can Avoid Another Enron

for natural gas, and to create derivative supply contracts that could help customers manage the risks of demand volatility and price swings more effectively than before. In this way, Skilling and his colleagues solved a major contracting... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Energy; Utilities

June 2015 (Revised May 2017)
Case

LOYAL3: Own What You Love™

By: Luis M. Viceira and Allison M. Ciechanover

This case features San Francisco–based financial technology startup, LOYAL3. Founded in 2008, the company seeks to disrupt the capital markets and democratize access to those markets for retail investors. By the fall of 2014, LOYAL3 had three products. In the first,... View Details

Keywords: Capital Markets; Stocks; Strategic Planning

March 2017 (Revised July 2019)
Case

Interline Brands: Don't Stop Believing

By: Nori Gerardo Lietz and Ricardo Andrade

Interline Brands, a leading distributor of residential housing maintenance and repair parts and equipment in the U.S., had just held its November 2014 board meeting. The meeting had been productive but not without some soul searching for both the company’s management... View Details

Keywords: Private Equity Exit; Consumer Goods; IPO; Private Equity; Initial Public Offering; Decision Choices and Conditions

12 Jul 2006
Research & Ideas

Competition the Cure for Healthcare

Last month HBS Working Knowledge offered an excerpt from Redefining Health Care: Creating Value-Based Competition on Results, by Harvard Business School professor Michael E. Porter and Elizabeth Olmsted Teisberg. The U.S. healthcare system is dysfunctional, a Rube... View Details

Keywords: by Roger Thompson; Health

October 2003
Case

Merrill Lynch: Supernova

Supernova is the name given to a new way to manage client relationships that originated in the Merrill Lynch Indianapolis offices. During a trial period, Supernova generated very good results among financial advisers and their customers, but challenged the traditional... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Customer Relationship Management; Organizational Culture; Financial Services Industry; Indianapolis

March 29, 2021
Editorial

Research: A Little Recognition Can Provide a Big Morale Boost

By: Shibeal O'Flaherty, Michael Sanders and A.V. Whillans

As organizations large and small face the twin challenges of increasingly strained budgets and burned out workforces, what can managers do to keep employees engaged—without breaking the bank? In this piece, the authors share new research on the power of symbolic awards... View Details

Keywords: Motivation; Psychology; Work; Employees; Motivation and Incentives; Social Psychology