Publications

March 2000
Case

Lockheed Martin: The Employer of Choice Mission

By: Clayton M. Christensen and Michael D Overdorf

A Lockheed Martin manager is faced with the decision of where to focus the organization's resources in order to develop a world-class employee development system. The manager's recommendation will serve as the basis for the company's goal of becoming an Employer of... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Culture; Resource Allocation; Decision Choices and Conditions; Employees; Human Resources; Leadership Development; Cost Management; Organizational Design; Aerospace Industry

October 14, 2019
Article

The Truth About Open Offices: There Are Reasons Why They Don't Produce the Desired Interactions

By: Ethan Bernstein and Ben Waber

It’s never been easier for workers to collaborate—or so it seems. Open, flexible, activity-based spaces are displacing cubicles, making people more visible. Messaging is displacing phone calls, making people more accessible. Enterprise social media such as Slack and... View Details

Keywords: Buildings and Facilities; Interpersonal Communication; Communication Technology; Design; Human Resources; Performance Productivity; Organizational Design

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Research Summary

Research overview

By: Julie Battilana

How can actors – be they individuals or organizations – diverge from deeply-seated norms and develop new ones, when their beliefs and actions are shaped by these very norms? This question lies at the heart of Professor Battilana’s research. To address it, she... View Details

November 2007 (Revised September 2010)
Background Note

The Rong Family: A Chinese Business History

By: Elisabeth Koll

Provides the complex historical background to understanding the development of family businesses in China from the late 19th century to the present. Using the example of the Rong family, China's most prominent industrialist family in pre-1949 China, analyzes the... View Details

Keywords: Family Business; Business History; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Structure; Alliances; Business and Government Relations; Social and Collaborative Networks; China

February 2007
Case

IBM Culture in Its Architecture

By: A. Eugene Kohn and Kerry Herman

In 1992, Lou Gerstner was the CEO of IBM during a period where the firm was losing money and a turnaround was desperately needed. In a bold decision, Gerstner chose to build a new headquarters in Armonk, NY that had strict limits on expandability. His idea was to use... View Details

Keywords: Design; Leadership; Job Design and Levels; Organizational Structure; Buildings and Facilities; Business Headquarters; Decisions; Organizational Culture; Corporate Strategy; Expansion; Information Technology Industry; New York (state, US)

2010
Working Paper

Venture Capital Investment in the Clean Energy Sector

By: Shikhar Ghosh and Ramana Nanda

We examine the extent to which venture capital is adequately positioned for the rapid commercialization of clean energy technologies in the United States. While there are several startups in clean energy that are well-suited to the traditional venture capital... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Energy Generation; Venture Capital; Investment; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Technological Innovation; Competition; Energy Industry; Green Technology Industry; United States

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December 2022
Case

To Feed the Planet: Juan Luciano at ADM

By: Joshua D. Margolis, David E. Bell, Damien McLoughlin, Stacy Straaberg and James Weber

In December 2022, Juan Luciano, Chairman and CEO of agribusiness and nutrition giant ADM, considered the next phase of the historic company’s future. Beginning in 2011 when he joined as COO and moving into his tenure as CEO in 2015, Luciano led a transformation of ADM... View Details

April 2000 (Revised March 2002)
Case

Destiny WebSolutions, Inc.

Describes Destiny's use of "pattern language" concepts to structure its business activities. The innovative approach contrasts with a process approach and helps the company balance its needs for scalability with retained agility. View Details

Keywords: Change Management; Business Processes

Research Summary

Managing Workplace Reforms and Organization-Wide Transformations

Richard E. Walton is studying (with doctoral candidate Scott Hamlin and research associate Kathleen Scharf) the development and diffusion of new forms of union-management partnership together with other new practices in the steel industry. To test and elaborate... View Details

2023
Working Paper

The Optimal Stock Valuation Ratio

By: Sebastian Hillenbrand and Odhrain McCarthy

Trailing price ratios, such as the price-dividend and the price-earnings ratio, scale prices by trailing cash flow measures. They theoretically contain expected returns, yet, their performance in predicting stock market returns is poor. This is because of an omitted... View Details

Keywords: Price; Investment Return; AI and Machine Learning; Valuation; Cash Flow; Forecasting and Prediction

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February 2002 (Revised May 2003)
Case

Endeca Technologies (A)

By: G. Felda Hardymon, Josh Lerner and Ann Leamon

Steve Papa, CEO of Endeca Technologies, must decide among two term sheets raising the same amount of badly needed money for his young software company. One deal is led by insiders and, is offered at a lower price. It continues a board that has worked very well and... View Details

Keywords: Venture Capital; Cost vs Benefits; Financial Condition; Financing and Loans; Management Skills; Financial Strategy; Corporate Finance; Decision Choices and Conditions; Information Technology Industry

March 2021 (Revised August 2022)
Case

Seeding and Selling Asana

By: Jeffrey F. Rayport, Susie Ma and Amram Migdal

In December 2019, Oliver Jay, Asana’s Chief Revenue Officer (CRO), was reconsidering his go-to-market (GTM) strategy. Asana was cloud-based work management software that enabled users to break up projects into discrete tasks that could be assigned, scheduled, and... View Details

Keywords: SaaS; Customer Journey; Business Model; Business Organization; Change Management; Growth and Development Strategy; Growth Management; Marketing Channels; Marketing Strategy; Product Marketing; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Design; Organizational Structure; Digital Platforms; Internet and the Web; Technology Industry; United States

February 4, 2017
Article

Historical Transformations in Boundary and Land Use in New Delhi's Urban Villages

By: Sudev J Sheth

New Delhi’s “urban villages” are the result of government land acquisitions that began in 1912 and continued into the 1960s. Since the 1980s, growing demand for real estate within the city has engendered unprecedented residential and commercial development in these... View Details

Keywords: India; Urban Planning; Eminent Domain; Land Politics; Real Estate; History; City; Planning; Urban Scope; India; Delhi

06 Nov 2019
Op-Ed

Torched Planet: The Business Case to Reinvent Almost Everything

The world is. on. fire. The Earth is burning. We only have a little time to arrest climate change, and if we fail to do so the consequences will be both dire and irreversible. We have the technology and the resources to fix things, if we want to. We even have a... View Details

Keywords: by Rebecca Henderson; Energy

Program

Program for Leadership Development

that embraces digital transformation and implement strategies that drive breakthrough innovation. Read More Master the cross-functional challenges of corporate leadership Lead organizational change and inspire high-performing global teams... View Details

June 2023
Case

Tractor Supply Co

By: David L. Ager and Michael A. Roberto

In February 2023, Hal Lawton, CEO of Tractor Supply Co, the largest farm and ranch retailer in the United States reflected on the company’s 70% growth between 2019 and 2022. Economists had begun to predict an economic downturn and experts were predicting softening... View Details

Keywords: COVID-19 Pandemic; Demand and Consumers; Economic Slowdown and Stagnation; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Retail Industry

Research Summary

Overview

ECONOMICS OF THE ADVERTISING AND MARKETING SERVICEC INDUSTRY

Professor Silk’s recent research has been focused on the economics of the advertising and marketing services industry. He has conducted econometric studies of the effects of scale and scope on the... View Details

22 Sep 2009
First Look

First Look: September 22

($5): http://papers.nber.org/papers/w15325 PublicationsHow Actors Change Institutions: Towards a Theory of Institutional Entrepreneurship Authors:Julie Battilana, Bernard Leca, and Eva Boxenbaum Publication:The Academy of Management... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

March 1998 (Revised August 1998)
Case

BSkyB

By: Debora L. Spar

In 1983, Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. bought a floundering two-year-old British company called Satellite Television plc. and renamed it Sky. Without external financing, without having been allocated any space on Britain's existing satellites, and over the opposition of... View Details

Keywords: Information Technology; Change Management; Television Entertainment; Media and Broadcasting Industry; Great Britain