Publications

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23 Jun 2003
Research & Ideas

Psychology, Pathology, and the CEO

Haythornthwaite engaged large teams to work on a new strategy for Invensys, while Jim Kilts devised Gillette's strategy for each line of business by himself, working with a small group of trusted executives.... View Details

Keywords: by Rosabeth Moss Kanter

05 Nov 2007
What Do You Think?

Why Is Succession So Badly Managed?

share of the criticism. Patrick Duffy summed up the gist of many other comments by pointing out that "few CEOs want to accept their mortality." Suggestions for improving the process were varied and quite creative. Michelle Malay... View Details

Keywords: Re: James L. Heskett

06 Mar 2017
Video

Climate MBA Panel & Webinar: How Can Business Schools and MBAs Contribute Towards Climate Action?

10 Dec 2013
News

The Payoffs And Pitfalls Of Self-Doubt

September 2006 (Revised November 2006)
Case

Cathy Benko: WINning at Deloitte (A)

By: Kathleen L. McGinn, Deborah M. Kolb and Cailin B. Hammer

Jim Quigley, CEO of Deloitte and Touche's consulting practice, asks senior partner Cathy Benko to lead Deloitte & Touche's much publicized Initiative for the Retention and Advancement of Women (WIN). Benko, already the Lead Client Service Partner on one of Deloitte's... View Details

Keywords: Motivation and Incentives; Leadership Development; Talent and Talent Management; Personal Development and Career; Gender; Consulting Industry; United States

March 2007 (Revised March 2012)
Case

Edward Jones in 2006: Confronting Success

By: David J. Collis and Troy Smith

When Jim Weddle took over as Managing Partner of Edward Jones in January 2006, the brokerage firm was at a critical juncture. The firm's distinctive strategy had enabled it to grow from its roots in small-town America to become the 4th largest broker in the U.S. Weddle... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Goals and Objectives; Growth and Development Strategy; Performance; Competitive Advantage; Financial Services Industry; United States

November 2008 (Revised January 2010)
Case

Stone Finch, Inc.: Young Division, Old Division

By: Richard G. Hamermesh and Elizabeth Collins

CEO Jim Billings wants to attract energetic, entrepreneurial talent to Stone Finch, Inc., which comprises an older division that fabricates products like piping and tanks for water and wastewater processing plants, and a much newer division that develops biochemical... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Behavior; Human Resource Management; Motivation; Business Growth; Motivation and Incentives; Leadership; Business Subsidiaries; Innovation Strategy; Resource Allocation; Organizational Structure; Organizational Culture; Retention; Operations; Recruitment; Integration; Business Growth and Maturation; Mergers and Acquisitions; Growth and Development Strategy; Manufacturing Industry

June 2016 (Revised April 2018)
Case

Boys & Girls Clubs of America: Driving Impact

By: V. Kasturi Rangan and Lisa C. Cox

With $1.8 billion in 2015 revenues, Boys & Girls Club of America had evolved over its 155-year-old history to occupy the lead position in the Youth Development space in the United States. Its new CEO Jim Clark had initiated yet another change process in 2015 to ensure... View Details

Keywords: Nonprofit Strategy; Planning Process; Transformative Impact; Nonprofit Organizations; Strategic Planning; Change Management; Growth Management

January 2005 (Revised April 2006)
Case

Stonewall Kitchen

By: Myra M. Hart, Victoria Winston, Kristin Lieb, Kenna Wyllie Baudin, Alison Bell and Leslie Simmons

Jonathan King and Jim Stott, the founders of Stonewall Kitchen, started out in 1992 with a simple business selling jams and jellies at local farmers' markets. By 2004, they had grown the company into a $25 million organization with 250 employees. They expanded their... View Details

Keywords: Strategic Planning; Food; Expansion; Business Growth and Maturation; Entrepreneurship; Financing and Loans; Business Startups; Growth and Development Strategy; Retail Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; United States

05 Nov 2001
Research & Ideas

Venture Capital Goes Boom—or Bust?

were not realized. Four years later, another company working on the same technology went public to great acclaim and fanfare. The firm? Netscape Communications, under the leadership of Marc Andreessen and Jim Clark. 2 Because its new... View Details

Keywords: by Paul A. Gompers & Josh Lerner

October 2016 (Revised February 2019)
Case

PTC: A Transformation to IoT

By: Rajiv Lal and Sarah McAra

In the 2010s, PTC, a leading provider of software for discrete manufacturers, faced maturing markets and changing customer needs as smart, connected products took hold—the rise of the Internet of Things (IoT). PTC saw a first mover advantage in entering the IoT space... View Details

Keywords: Internet Of Things; IoT; Smart; Connected Products; Business Organization; Transformation; Customer Relationship Management; Innovation Strategy; Technological Innovation; Leading Change; Marketing; Product Development; Service Operations; Strategy; Competition; Technology Industry

12 Jul 2020
Research & Ideas

Solving COVID'S Mental Health Crisis

who need them, especially among vulnerable populations. Racial inequities, laid bare by the pandemic, and social unrest provoked by recent police killings have escalated tensions. In the course of writing... View Details

Keywords: by Howard Stevenson and Shirley Spence; Health

01 Mar 2023
News

Step Change

oversubscribed by 30 times, generating $100 million. Significantly, a cultural shift occurred after the 2011 revolution when, suddenly, anything seemed possible. Amal Enan (MBA 2014) witnessed these transformations firsthand, from roles... View Details

Keywords: Julia Hanna; photographed by Abdelrahman Gabr – Koree; entrepreneurship; women; venture capital; Egypt; developing economies; Finance

01 Feb 1998
News

C.D. Spangler, Jr.: A Leadership Role in Business and Academe

the midst of court-ordered desegregation. (Of that time he is often quoted as saying, "Our concern should be the quality of the school at the end of the bus ride, rather than the length of the ride itself.") In 1982, North Carolina Governor View Details

Keywords: Nancy O. Perry; photo by Ann Hawthorne

September 2008 (Revised February 2009)
Case

Ocean Tomo: Building a Market for Intellectual Property

By: Peter A. Coles, Andrei Hagiu and Alison Berkley Wagonfeld

Ocean Tomo's management team sought to turn the company into the leading intermediary for intellectual property. Despite its increasingly important role in the global marketplace, IP remained a notoriously illiquid asset—difficult to value, harder to trade, and often... View Details

Keywords: Globalized Markets and Industries; Intellectual Property; Resource Allocation; Auctions; Market Design; Service Operations

April 2011 (Revised May 2012)
Case

City Year: The Journey

By: Rosabeth Moss Kanter and James Weber

Throughout its first two decades, City Year, a non-profit organization, was dedicated to recruiting young adults to give a year of public service. It had passed through several growth phases but by 2010 a new challenge, and opportunity, had arisen when City Year and... View Details

Keywords: Education; Service Operations; Nonprofit Organizations; Growth and Development Strategy; Performance Efficiency; Resource Allocation

17 Oct 2012
Research & Ideas

America Needs a Manufacturing Renaissance

Manufacturing commons are "webs of technological knowhow, operational capabilities, and specialized skills" that underlie many industries, universities, and the government. Also, see Professor Jim Heskett's conversation with his readers... View Details

Keywords: by Gary P. Pisano & Willy C. Shih; Manufacturing

January 2025
Case

Untapped Global: Financing Africa's Missing Middle

By: Raymond Kluender and Emanuele Colonnelli

In November 2024, Jim Chu, founder and CEO of Untapped Global, faced mounting internal tensions over the company’s strategic direction. Untapped had developed a data-driven revenue-based financing (RBF) model to address the “missing middle” problem—the $5.2 trillion... View Details