Publications
Publications
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- All HBS Web
(6,001)
- Faculty Publications (561)
- September 2004 (Revised October 2005)
- Case
Sapient Corporation
By: Rakesh Khurana and Joel Podolny
Describes the start-up, growth, organizational design, and operations over the first 10 years of a professional services firm. Focuses on the creative use of organizational purpose and values as an integral part of strategy and alignment of organizational activities. View Details
- April 2004 (Revised July 2007)
- Case
OfficeTiger
By: Joseph B. Lassiter III and Johanna Regine Naunton Blaxall
OfficeTiger was founded in late 1999 with an innovative approach to global outsourcing. The company's employees, located primarily in India, provided services for corporations, investment banks, and professional services firms throughout the United States, Europe, and... View Details
- 2004
- Book
Birth of a Salesman: The Transformation of Selling in America
This book chronicles the remarkable metamorphosis of the American salesman from itinerant amateur to trained expert. From the mid-nineteenth century to the eve of World War II, the development of sales management transformed an economy populated by peddlers and... View Details
- March 2004 (Revised April 2004)
- Background Note
Seeing What's on Red Auerbach's Mind
Analysis of an interview with Red Auerbach, HBR No. 87201. Alan M. Webber, who conducted the interview, probed for the lessons that Auerbach has learned from a long and productive career coaching and managing the Boston Celtics, a professional basketball team in the... View Details
- March 2004 (Revised May 2006)
- Background Note
Corporate Reform in the United States
By: Lynn S. Paine and Kim Bettcher
The spate of corporate misdeeds revealed to the American public in 2001 to 2002 prompted corrective action in many quarters of the U.S. economy. The note summarizes some of the steps taken by lawmakers, regulators, law-enforcement officials, companies, investors,... View Details
- February 2004 (Revised March 2006)
- Case
Pratt & Whitney: Engineering Standard Work
By: H. Kent Bowen and Courtney Purrington
As the engineering of state-of-the-art jet engines becomes more and more complex, Pratt & Whitney leaders face major competitive problems. Product development projects are not meeting the cost, quality, and lead-time targets. The leadership develops a design,... View Details
- February 2004 (Revised April 2005)
- Exercise
Necessary Evils: A Diagnostic Exercise
By: Joshua D. Margolis and Andrew Molinsky
Central to the work of leaders and professionals are tasks that entail harming one party to deliver benefits or advance valued and worthy goals. Sometimes a person must, as part of his or her job, perform an act that causes emotional, material, or physical harm to... View Details
- February 2004 (Revised March 2004)
- Background Note
Profitability Drivers in Professional Service Firms
By: Ashish Nanda
This case presents a simple model of the drivers of profitability in a professional service partnership and conducts an empirical exploration of the determinants of profitability among AmLaw 100 firms over the period 1994 to 1999. View Details
- January 2004 (Revised July 2007)
- Case
Lumen and Absorb Teams at Crutchfield Chemical Engineering, The
By: Teresa M. Amabile and Elizabeth Schatzel
Large discrepancies have developed between two elite technology development teams at Crutchfield Chemical Engineering in terms of motivation and creativity. To investigate, Paul Burke, director of corporate technology development, commissioned a study of the day-by-day... View Details
- January 2004 (Revised May 2004)
- Background Note
Strategy and Positioning in Professional Service Firms
By: Ashish Nanda
This case provides a definition of strategy, distinguishes between corporate and practice strategy, and discusses how and why developing and implementing strategy for professional service firms is different from developing and implementing strategy for commercial... View Details
- January 2004 (Revised March 2005)
- Background Note
Managing Client Conflicts
By: Ashish Nanda
This case describes the two types of client conflict--conflict of duty and conflict of service--that professionals manage. It delineates how the management of these conflicts affects the scale and scope of service that professionals provide. View Details
- January 2004 (Revised April 2005)
- Background Note
Personal Values and Professional Responsibilities
Describes some of the classic conflicts managers face in trying to live and work by their personal values and uses Hirschman's "exit, loyalty, and voice" framework to suggest ways for resolving these conflicts. View Details
- January 2004 (Revised April 2004)
- Case
Crisis and Response: Sexual Abuse Allegations in the Boston Archdiocese (A)
By: Ashish Nanda
This case describes how the Boston archdiocese of the Roman Catholic Church handled allegations of clergy sexual abuse during the 1990s. In 2002, the archdiocese was confronted by public revelations of how the allegations were handled. Professional organizations first... View Details
- January 2004 (Revised April 2004)
- Case
Crisis and Response: Sexual Abuse Allegations in the Boston Archdiocese (B)
By: Ashish Nanda
In 2002, the Boston archdiocese of the Roman Catholic Church was confronted by public revelations of how allegations of clergy sexual abuse were handled by the archdiocese during the 1990s. This case describes how the Boston archdiocese addressed the issue over the... View Details
- January 2004 (Revised February 2004)
- Case
Evolution of Public Reputation of a Profession (A)
By: Ashish Nanda
This case explores how the public reputation of a profession evolves as its membership changes. The public reputation of a professional relies on its association's credibility for ensuring, through rigorous certification and self-regulation, that its members place... View Details
- January 2004 (Revised May 2004)
- Background Note
Professional Associations
By: Ashish Nanda
This case discusses why society grants professional associations the rights of certification and self-regulation. In exercising these rights, professional associations serve client interests but also the interest of member practitioners. The case discusses how... View Details
- December 2003 (Revised March 2005)
- Background Note
Who is a Professional?
By: Ashish Nanda
Many occupations lay claim to professional status. Business executives, social workers, musicians, sportsmen, and academics describe their occupations as "professions". Office assistants call themselves "administrative professionals". Obviously, not all occupations... View Details
- November 2003 (Revised May 2005)
- Case
Beverly Stern: Retail Executive
By: H. Kent Bowen and Alison Berkley Wagonfeld
Beverly Stern has been a successful operating manager in three prominent retail chains: GAP, Pottery Barn, and Williams-Sonoma. Stern's last job at a start-up did not meet her expectations, and she must now decide what to do next. She has an offer to start a new retail... View Details
- November 2003 (Revised March 2005)
- Compilation
Being a Professional
By: Ashish Nanda
We encounter in all aspects of our daily lives groups of individuals who identify themselves as professionals. Many of us aspire to be professionals in our vocation and conduct. But what are the aspects of being a professional? The following anthology of book excerpts... View Details