Publications

May 1990 (Revised April 1995)
Teaching Note

Karen Green, Teaching Note

By: Linda A. Hill

The video depicts Karen Green, a manager in her early thirties, on a company retreat. She is being considered for a project manager position, a promotion she does not receive. During the retreat, the circumstances that influenced the decision become evident. The... View Details

Keywords: Work-Life Balance; Personal Development and Career; Gender; Power and Influence

February 2014
Case

BGI: Data-driven Research

By: Willy Shih and Sen Chai

BGI has the largest installed gene-sequencing capacity in the world, and to Zhang Gengyun, general manager of the Life Sciences Division, this represented an opportunity to apply his training as a plant breeder and his early career work as a biochemist to improving... View Details

September–October 2024
Article

Should a Family Business Accept a Returning Daughter’s Radical Proposal?

By: John D. Macomber

A family-owned and controlled conglomerate in Cote d'Ivoire, West Africa, has to decide what titles and authority to give to a daughter who is being courted to leave a promising career in Europe to come back and join the business. The choices of role range from an... View Details

Keywords: Succession Planning; Power Grid; Family Business; Management Succession; Emerging Markets; Business Strategy; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Côte d'Ivoire

June 2011 (Revised April 2014)
Case

sweetriot 2.0

By: Christopher Marquis, Donna Khalife and Bobbi Thomason

In the fall of 2010, Sarah Endline, CEO and Founder of sweetriot, an organic chocolate company, was deciding the best way to grow her organic chocolate company, while keeping her chocolate physically and conceptually on the shelf. She wanted to grow the offerings and... View Details

Keywords: Social Entrepreneurship; Profit; Business Strategy; Business Growth and Maturation; Social Enterprise; Growth and Development Strategy; Experience and Expertise; Economic Growth; Organizational Culture; Mission and Purpose; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Food and Beverage Industry; New York (state, US)

11 Jun 2024
In Practice

The Harvard Business School Faculty Summer Reader 2024

As the vacation season looms, Harvard Business School faculty members share recommendations for a little light reading. Spoiler alert: Lessons in Chemistry tops two of their beach-read lists. For those whose brains can’t—or won’t—turn off, HBS faculty also suggest some... View Details

Keywords: by Avery Forman

March 2021
Case

P.F. Chang's

By: Ashish Nanda, Nitin Nohria and Margaret Cross

Excited yet apprehensive after being named CEO of P.F. Chang’s beginning July 1st, 2020, Damola Adamolekun was well aware of the extraordinary challenges facing the firm. The closure of businesses deemed “nonessential” owing to the COVID-19 pandemic had devastated the... View Details

Keywords: Restaurants; COVID-19 Pandemic; Scenario Planning; Scenarios; Health Pandemics; Risk and Uncertainty; Strategy

27 Jun 2007
Lessons from the Classroom

Learning to Make the Move to CEO

You're a successful senior executive with 20, 25 years of experience under your belt. You've made your mark and stand just 1 or 2 rungs from the position of CEO. Now what? As faculty chair of Harvard Business School's Advanced Management... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Education

June 1999
Case

PDQ Manufacturing, Inc.

By: William J. Bruns Jr.

A small manufacturer of car wash facilities has been unable to develop management systems because of rapid growth. Now size dictates the need for such systems because the current personal management style is proving inadequate. View Details

Keywords: Management Practices and Processes; Organizational Design; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Personal Development and Career; Growth Management; Manufacturing Industry

November 2008
Article

Winning the Race for Talent in Emerging Markets

By: Douglas A. Ready, Linda A. Hill and Jay A. Conger

"This war for talent is like nothing we've ever seen before," write the authors, who have spent decades studying talent management and leadership development. Recently they interviewed executives at more than 20 global companies to identify strategies for attracting... View Details

Keywords: Leadership Development; Selection and Staffing; Talent and Talent Management; Multinational Firms and Management; Organizational Culture; Recruitment; Diversity; Developing Countries and Economies

Find at Harvard

June 2006 (Revised March 2007)
Case

Jack Carlisle, CIO

An experienced CIO hired to professionalize IT in a growing financial services firm struggles with the turmoil that follows sudden replacement of the company's CEO. Jack Carlisle must assess the changes, both actual and prospective, in an environment in which IT has... View Details

Keywords: Change Management; Information Technology; Personal Development and Career; Management Teams; Financial Services Industry

16 May 2012
Research & Ideas

Can Decades of Military Overspending be Fixed?

States has often turned to cutting-edge technology solutions to solve strategic and operational challenges. “Costs tend to rise in all organizations unless managers and their staffs are skilled in industrial View Details

Keywords: by J. Ronald Fox; Service

16 Jul 2018
Research & Ideas

Kids of Working Moms Grow into Happy Adults

In 2015, preliminary results of a groundbreaking study found that the daughters of employed mothers often perform better in their eventual careers than the daughters of stay-at-home moms. Now the full study has been released, and it... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

May 2016
Case

Seaside Organics

By: Howard H. Stevenson and Alisa Zalosh

This case follows Sara Norton, a soccer player-turned-serial entrepreneur, as she transforms Seaside Organics from a fledgling startup into an $89 million company. Informed by the successes and failures of her first organics venture, WellBar, Norton tries to balance... View Details

Keywords: Business Growth and Maturation; Organizational Structure; Personal Development and Career; Entrepreneurship; Personal Characteristics; Business Startups; Business Strategy; Conflict and Resolution; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry

August 2008
Supplement

Philipp Justus at eBay Germany (C)

By: Linda A. Hill and Emily Stecker

This case traces the development of eBay Germany, eBay Inc., and the career of eBay Germany's first country manager, Philipp Justus. The case covers from 2000 through the fall of 2007. This case details how eBay Germany, once a small start-up, became one of eBay's most... View Details

Keywords: Innovation and Management; Leadership; Auctions; Organizational Structure; Personal Development and Career; Internet; Germany

December 2017 (Revised January 2018)
Case

NatureSweet

By: Jose Alvarez, Forest Reinhardt and Natalie Kindred

This case describes the business model and workplace philosophy of NatureSweet, a privately owned, vertically integrated greenhouse grower and marketer of fresh tomatoes with sales across the United States and $329 million in 2016 revenues. CEO Bryant Ambelang treated... View Details

04 Feb 2008
Research & Ideas

Putting Entrepreneurship in the Social Sector

cover in one of the chapters in the book. A network approach requires leaders to focus not only on management challenges and opportunities at an organizational level, but also more broadly on how to mobilize resources both within and... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

April 2010
Case

George Martin at The Boston Consulting Group (A)

By: Leslie A. Perlow and Kerry Herman

George Martin, managing partner at The Boston Consulting Group, is worried as some of his best performers have recently pulled him aside to discuss the challenges they face managing the demands of their work lives with their desire for more predictable time with their... View Details

Keywords: Problems and Challenges; Work-Life Balance; Management Teams; Interpersonal Communication; Jobs and Positions; Employees; Consulting Industry; Boston

24 Jul 2023
Research & Ideas

Part-Time Employees Want More Hours. Can Companies Tap This ‘Hidden’ Talent Pool?

many such workers are caregivers, excluded from full-time jobs because short-sighted employers don’t offer them the flexibility they need. Filtered out by hiring algorithms due to employment gaps or other hiring “red flags,” these willing workers could offer one... View Details

Keywords: by Kara Baskin

2015
Case

Advanced Leadership Pathways: Torsten Thiele and the Global Ocean Trust

By: Rosabeth Moss Kanter and Brian Hoffstein

Following a successful career in finance, Torsten Thiele devoted himself full-time to the challenging cause of ocean conservation and stewardship. In August 2015, Thiele had already come a long way in spearheading initiatives towards the protection of the ocean: from... View Details

Keywords: Environment; Natural Environment; Environmental Sustainability; Pollutants; Science-Based Business; Climate Change; Social Enterprise; Leadership