Publications

August 2006 (Revised May 2007)
Case

Management Levels at Staples (A): Company and Organization

By: David A. Garvin and Lynne Levesque

One of six cases that describe the roles and responsibilities of managers at each of the hierarchical levels of management within the U.S. Stores business unit of Staples, the world's largest office supply company. Together, the cases form a complete integrated... View Details

Keywords: Cost vs Benefits; Leadership; Management Practices and Processes; Managerial Roles; Operations; Performance Effectiveness; Strategic Planning; Perspective; Retail Industry

October 2008
Article

It's Time to Make Management a True Profession

By: Nitin Nohria and Rakesh Khurana

In the face of the recent institutional breakdown of trust in business, managers are losing legitimacy. To regain public trust, management needs to become a true profession in much the way medicine and law have, argue Khurana and Nohria of Harvard Business School. True... View Details

Keywords: Competency and Skills; Education; Ethics; Corporate Accountability; Management; Trust; Value Creation

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03 Nov 2011
What Do You Think?

The Ultimate Question in Management

these are efforts to provide simple guideposts in a very complex process. Performance measurement can be a confusing process, leading to inaction or, worse yet, inappropriate action. Can an "ultimate question" have a useful... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

Web

Product Management - Course Catalog

HBS Course Catalog Product Management Course Number 1765 Senior Lecturer Sara McKinley Torti Spring; Q3; 1.5 credits Exam Career Focus: This half course provides an introduction to product management, focused primarily on improving and... View Details

May 1990 (Revised September 1994)
Background Note

Note on Financial Reporting Strategy and Analysis When Managers Have Proprietary Information

By: Krishna G. Palepu

Provides a framework that helps explain these real-world observations about accounting and financial statement analysis. When managers have superior information on firms' strategies, and when investors suspect that managers have incentives not to fully disclose this... View Details

Keywords: Financial Reporting; Strategy; Knowledge Management

June 2010 (Revised January 2017)
Teaching Note

Continental Media Group: Business Highlights

By: Robert Simons

Teaching Note for 110087. View Details

Keywords: Execution; Management Control Systems; Performance Measurement; Informal Management; Emergent Strategy; Management; Profit; System; Opportunities; Strategy; Risk and Uncertainty; Media and Broadcasting Industry

November 2016 (Revised March 2018)
Module Note

Strategy Execution Module 9: Building a Balanced Scorecard

By: Robert Simons

This module reading explains how to construct a strategy map and build a balanced scorecard. Using an internal value chain model, the module illustrates how a balanced scorecard can support and enable customer management, innovation, operations, and post-sale service... View Details

Keywords: Management Control Systems; Implementing Strategy; Execution; Performance Measurement; Strategy Map; Business Goals; Customer Measures; Strategy; Balanced Scorecard; Business Model

November 2016 (Revised December 2016)
Module Note

Strategy Execution Module 11: Using Diagnostic and Interactive Control Systems

By: Robert Simons

This module reading introduces diagnostic and interactive control systems. Diagnostic control systems are the management-by-exception systems that managers use to monitor the achievement of their business strategy. Interactive control systems are the systems that top... View Details

Keywords: Management Control Systems; Implementing Strategy; Execution; Performance Measurement; Diagnostic Control Systems; Interactive Control Systems; Emergent Strategy; Goal Setting; Incentives; Strategy; Motivation and Incentives; Goals and Objectives; Management Systems; Performance Evaluation

16 Oct 2017
Working Paper Summaries

Healthy Business? Managerial Education and Management in Healthcare

Keywords: by Nicholas Bloom, Raffaella Sadun, Renata Lemos, and John Van Reenen; Health

March 2006
Background Note

Business, Law, and Society: The Systems Approach to Law and Management

Presents the systems approach to law and management, a construct for understanding how public law affects the competitive environment and a firm's resources. Describes how the legally astute manager can use legal tools to assess opportunities, develop the firm's value... View Details

Keywords: Business or Company Management; Law; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact

October 1994
Case

Olympus Optical Company, Ltd. (B): Functional Group Management

Documents the emergence of the functional group management system at Olympus's camera manufacturing facility. This system increases the pressure on the work force to decrease costs and improve output by treating the facility's 10 autonomous groups as profit centers,... View Details

Keywords: Cost Management; Performance Improvement; Manufacturing Industry; Japan

March 2017 (Revised May 2017)
Teaching Note

The Strategy Execution Series

By: Robert Simons and Jennifer Packard

This is the teaching note for the 15-module Strategy Execution series. New management tools and techniques are needed to implement strategy in the 21st century. Rapid innovation, entrepreneurial competitors, and increasingly demanding customers have radically altered... View Details

Keywords: Management Control Systems; Implementing Strategy; Strategy Execution; Performance Measurement; Profit Planning; Organization Design; Profitable Growth; Management Attention; Organizational Conflict; Job Design; Business Strategy; Management Systems; Entrepreneurship; Competition; Organizational Design; Performance Evaluation; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques

Fast Answer

Resources for Investment Management and Financial Analysis

Resources and instructional videos for company and industry financial analysis, stock pitching, Business Analysis & Valuation Using Financial Statements (BAV), Investment Management and Capital Markets, Projects in... View Details

12 Mar 2014
Lessons from the Classroom

Managing the Family Business: Firing the CEO

the CEO, with manageable consequences that are generally positive. Factor 1: Fit High performing companies require CEOs with the right skill set, decision style, and values. They have strong credibility with... View Details

2008
Working Paper

Embracing Commitment and Performance: CEOs and Practices Used to Manage Paradox

By: Tobias Fredberg, Michael Beer, Russell Eisenstat, Nathaniel Foote and Flemming Norrgren

We tend to assume that great leaders must make difficult choices between two or more conflicting outcomes. In an interview study with 26 CEOs of top American and European companies (incl. IKEA, Campbell Soups, Nokia, H&M), we find that instead of choosing between... View Details

Keywords: Leadership; Managerial Roles; Performance; Strategy; Management Practices and Processes; Decision Choices and Conditions

Read Now

Article

An Integrated Decision-Making Approach for Improving European Air Traffic Management

By: Yael Grushka-Cockayne, Bert De Reyck and Zeger Degraeve

We develop a multistakeholder, multicriteria decision-making framework for Eurocontrol, the European air traffic management organization, for evaluating and selecting operational improvements to the air traffic management system. The selected set of improvements will... View Details

Keywords: Decision Making; Framework; Operations; Performance Improvement; Government Administration; Air Transportation Industry; Europe

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July 2014
Case

Venture Capital at the Harvard Management Company in Historical Perspective

By: Felda Hardymon, Tom Nicholas and Vasiliki Fouka

The compromise between capital preservation and growth has always been central to the performance of the Harvard endowment. Setting an institutional structure for effectively governing this compromise became especially important when the Harvard Management Company... View Details

Keywords: Venture Capital; Financial Management; Asset Management; Higher Education; Investment; Financial Services Industry; Education Industry; Cambridge

February 2012 (Revised April 2017)
Case

Schneider Electric: Becoming the Global Specialist in Energy Management

By: John D. Macomber and Rachna Tahilyani

Global electrical products company assesses growth and market demands in India. Company must decide between a products acquisition or developing a service business. Students need to be aware of different country conditions, demands on implementation of different... View Details

Keywords: Globalization; Energy; Management; Energy Industry