Publications

2024
Chapter

Corporations as the Central Institutions of Society

By: Joseph L. Badaracco

Mark Twain observed that, “Prediction is very difficult—particularly when it involves the future,” and he was right. One way to reduce the risk of becoming an infamous forecaster—like the experts who told us the Internet would quickly collapse, that Apple would never... View Details

Keywords: Trends; Business and Government Relations; Organizations; Power and Influence; Society

November 1998 (Revised July 1999)
Case

Merrill Lynch's Acquisition of Mercury Asset Management

By: Andre F. Perold, Imran Ahmed and Randolph B Altschuler

In the Spring of 1998, Merrill Lynch faced an array of challenges and opportunities related to its global asset management business. The firm had recently completed its $5.3 billion cash acquisition of U.K.-based Mercury Asset Management, a transaction that made it one... View Details

Keywords: Acquisition; Asset Management; Currency; Financial Strategy; Global Strategy; Brands and Branding; Distribution; Production; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Retirement; Japan; Europe; United Kingdom

Find at Harvard

04 Apr 2017
First Look

First Look at New Research, April 4

businesses have led the venture capital model to adapt in fundamental ways over the prior decade. We both document and provide a framework to understand the changes in the... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

March 2022 (Revised March 2024)
Case

DaVita Responds to COVID

By: Susanna Gallani and David Lane

Early in August 2021, DaVita CEO Javier Rodriguez was assessing the ongoing impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on his firm, which provided life-sustaining kidney dialysis to roughly 240,000 people. Effective infection control practices and information sharing had ensured... View Details

Keywords: COVID-19 Pandemic; Change Management; Communication; Talent and Talent Management; Fairness; Values and Beliefs; Corporate Accountability; Health Care and Treatment; Health Pandemics; Human Resources; Employee Relationship Management; Retention; Wages; Working Conditions; Leadership Style; Crisis Management; Organizational Culture; Health Industry; United States

August 2011 (Revised July 2014)
Case

Social Innovation at Salesforce.com

By: Christopher Marquis, Marley C. Kornreich and Bobbi Thomason

Salesforce.com recently implemented an innovative social enterprise business model whereby the Salesforce.com Foundation funds its operations and grant budget by selling discounted salesforce.com software licenses to nonprofits and education clients. The case recounts... View Details

Keywords: Innovation and Invention; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Business Model; Information Technology; Leading Change; Problems and Challenges

20 Aug 2007
Research & Ideas

HBS Cases: Using Investor Relations Proactively

Total's IR organization that it may drop the stock unless the company had a good explanation of why it was in Myanmar (also known as Burma) and how this was in accordance with its ethical chart. Total... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Energy; Utilities

12 Apr 2018
Blog Post

Reading Between the Lines: How to Spot the Skills You Need Among the Resumes You Get

correspondences between previous jobs and the position at hand, but has to rely on clues for the “right mindset.” For Tamblyn, that means rigorous analytical skills, a data driven approach to problem solving, View Details

Keywords: All Industries

September 2023 (Revised December 2023)
Case

Twiddy & Company: Trust in a Chaotic Environment

By: Sandra J. Sucher, Shalene Gupta and Tom Quinn

Twiddy & Company, known for Southern hospitality rooted in personal interactions, needed to adjust to contactless remote customer service as fear of the contagious virus prevented person-to-person contact. Local elected officials, in a bid to stop tourists from... View Details

Keywords: Trust; Health Pandemics; Organizational Culture; Disruption; Government Legislation; Transportation; Tourism Industry; North Carolina; United States

2001
Chapter

Creating the Culture for Innovation

By: Rosabeth M. Kanter

Keywords: Innovation and Invention; Organizational Culture; Organizational Change and Adaptation

16 Apr 2012
Research & Ideas

The Inner Workings of Corporate Headquarters

Physicists tell us entropy is the natural state of the world, and that law seems especially true in today's multidivisional company. "When you create organizational subunits of any form, they'll have a tendency to focus internally on... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

2006
Chapter

The Corporation's Evolving Personality

By: Lynn S. Paine

Keywords: Business Ventures; Organizational Culture; Organizational Change and Adaptation

01 Sep 2013
News

Pens Down

Illustration by Dan Page In May, on the eve of the HBS application season, MBA Admissions director Dee Leopold (MBA 1980) announced a change for Class of 2016 hopefuls. There would be only one essay question: In addition to your résumé,... View Details

Keywords: Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools; Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools

June 2020
Teaching Note

The New LAX: Ready for Takeoff?

By: Boris Groysberg, Carin-Isabel Knoop, Kerry Herman and Amy Klopfenstein

This teaching note serves as a supplement to “The New LAX: Ready for Takeoff?” HBS 420-025. View Details

08 Jul 2025
Blog Post

In-Office, Remote, or Hybrid: Strategies for Success

flexible work settings, HBS Career & Professional Development offers several ways to connect with qualified MBA candidates: Create an account in the HBS recruiting platform 12twenty: Post jobs visible to HBS students and alumni, View Details

July 2011 (Revised September 2012)
Case

Intraoperative Radiotherapy for Breast Cancer (A)

By: Willy Shih

"This trial is going to take longer." Those were words that Michael Kaschke, CEO of Carl Zeiss AG, was not surprised to hear as he nurtured the intraoperative radiotherapy business inside his company's microsurgery unit. But he also didn't expect it to take 13 years to... View Details

Keywords: Finance; Business History; Disruptive Innovation; Emerging Markets; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Research and Development; Safety

July 2022
Case

FIJI Water: Carbon Negative? (Abridged)

By: Michael W. Toffel, George Serafeim, Francesca Gino, Stephanie Van Sice and Tom Quinn

In the midst of increasing press scrutiny of the bottled water industry’s environmentally harmful practices, FIJI Water made a series of sustainability promises. The boldest of these was a pledge to go “carbon negative.” The company said that not only would they offset... View Details

Keywords: Carbon Footprint; Carbon Offsetting; Environmental Accounting; Climate Change; Environmental Sustainability; Pollution; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Misleading and Fraudulent Advertising; Non-Governmental Organizations; Brands and Branding; Food and Beverage Industry; Fiji; United States