Publications

August 2011
Teaching Note

Before the Fall: Lehman Brothers 2008 (TN)

By: Clayton Rose and Sally Canter Ganzfried

Teaching Note for 309-093. View Details

Keywords: Resignation and Termination; Problems and Challenges; Management; Change; Performance; Rank and Position; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Investment Funds; Capital Structure; Service Industry

2011
Working Paper

'Last-place Aversion': Evidence and Redistributive Implications

By: Ilyana Kuziemko, Ryan W. Buell, Taly Reich and Michael I. Norton

Why do low-income individuals often oppose redistribution? We hypothesize that an aversion to being in "last place" undercuts support for redistribution, with low-income individuals punishing those slightly below themselves to keep someone "beneath" them. In laboratory... View Details

Keywords: Wages; Surveys; Wealth and Poverty; Behavior; Income; Research; Rank and Position; Attitudes; Personal Characteristics; Economics

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May 2006 (Revised June 2006)
Case

Icebreaker: The China Entry Decision

By: Joseph B. Lassiter III and Dan Heath

Jeremy Moon, CEO of Icebreaker, maker of merino-fiber activewear, thinks about the strengths and weaknesses of staying focused on his rapidly expanding U.S. and European markets vs. broadening his attack to include China. If he enters China, should he continue his... View Details

Keywords: Brands and Branding; Product Positioning; Global Strategy; Expansion; Decision Choices and Conditions; Market Entry and Exit; Marketing Strategy; Apparel and Accessories Industry; China; United States; Europe

September 2003 (Revised January 2004)
Case

Alessi: Evolution of an Italian Design Factory (A)

By: Youngme E. Moon, Vincent Dessain and Anders Sjoman

Alessio Alessi, head of distribution at family-run Alessi S.p.A., is facing price and brand confusion among customers and is considering reorganizing Alessi's worldwide network of distributors. By describing the challenges facing Alessi, an internationally acclaimed... View Details

Keywords: Family Business; Transition; Cost Management; Brands and Branding; Product Positioning; Distribution; Production; Problems and Challenges; Networks; Consumer Products Industry

January 2003 (Revised April 2004)
Case

Cat is out of the Bag, The: KANA and the Layoff Gone Awry (A)

By: Leslie A. Perlow and David Ager

Vicki Amon-Higa, vice president of KANA, a publicly traded, midsize development company, was working with Bryan Kettle, KANA's CFO, to plan a layoff in which KANA would reduce the size of its workforce by nearly 40%. Despite the best of intentions, news of the layoff... View Details

Keywords: Crisis Management; Employees; Job Cuts and Outsourcing; Problems and Challenges; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Conflict Management

12 Oct 1999
Research & Ideas

Right from the Start: Common Traps for the New Leader

planning can make a leader susceptible to being diverted by peripheral issues. Being Captured By The Wrong People Those who have exerted influence in the old regime will inevitably jockey for position in the new. It is all too easy for... View Details

Keywords: by Dan Ciampa & Michael D. Watkins

01 Sep 2011
News

Capitalism’s False Mantra

of hedge funds, and encourage companies to contribute positively to society. The National Football League is Martin’s exemplar because it does all it can do to improve the customer experience while ensuring its employees — players to... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne; Publishing Industries (except Internet); Information; Management

01 Jun 2009
News

Consumption Is America’s Competitive Advantage

In the saber-rattling and highly influential 2007 report Rising Above the Gathering Storm, the National Academies warned that America’s technology and scientific leadership was being surpassed by a number of Asian countries, threatening both our dominant View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne; Management, Scientific, and Technical Consulting Services; Professional Services

01 Dec 2000
News

In War-Torn Liberia, Student Gains a Wealth of Experience

realized that its activities had contributed to unnecessary death and destruction. I saw firsthand the role and power of business and the positive and negative impact it can have on people's lives." Ballou ultimately wants to work in... View Details

Keywords: Margie Kelley; Mining (except Oil and Gas); Mining

01 Sep 2009
News

A Student Plan Goes to Washington

to their board positions, a situation widely regarded as a major impediment to good governance. Since the CGC’s professional directors would hold no other jobs, they would come to positions without industry conflicts and could serve... View Details

Keywords: Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools; Educational Services; Administration of Economic Programs; Government

01 Dec 2014
News

3-Minute Briefing: Nagisa Manabe (MBA 1991)

search, digital, print, radio, and television that I would have used for Guinness or Captain Morgan when I was at Diageo. The only real difference between the Postal Service and any of the other brands I’ve worked on is that we are guaranteed to get news coverage, both... View Details

Keywords: Julia Hanna

01 Jun 2007
News

A Class All His Own

includes so many remarkable individuals,” he comments. “Keeping in touch with them is fun.” Brigham is forthright about using his position as a “quiet fundraising effort,” too. “I want to do anything I can to help the School,” he says.... View Details

Keywords: Business Schools & Computer & Management Training; Educational Services; Finance

01 Sep 2013
News

Passion & Purpose

to become Brazil's largest investment bank. Today the Baker Scholar runs JGP, one of Brazil's leading independent asset management firms. JGP has delivered positive returns every year since its 1998 inception. Thomas A. James, MBA 1966... View Details

Keywords: awards; Finance; Computer Systems Design and Related Services; Professional Services; Management, Scientific, and Technical Consulting Services; Professional Services

Profile

Eric Chavez

accounting, theories behind good leadership and corporate accountability. I want to be put into a leadership position that can drive sustainability. The HBS mission to educate leaders who make a difference in the world really resonates... View Details

Keywords: Manufacturing/Energy; Tech

01 Dec 2006
News

Over 50 and Job Hunting?

that their age had disqualified them for positions already. While acknowledging the existence of stereotypes that portray older managers as less creative, energetic, or knowledgeable than younger job candidates, Pam Lassiter, principal of... View Details

Keywords: Deborah Blagg; job hunting

Alexander Legge

Legge, a forceful leader, successfully defended an anti-trust suit against the company in 1923, enabling it to retain its dominant position in the farming industry. One of his major contributions was in the area of standardization,... View Details

Keywords: Agriculture & Mining

2019
Article

The Social Desirability of Offshoring: A Swiss Consensus (1945–1975)

By: Sabine Pitteloud

This article focuses on the evolution of the rhetoric and practice of corporate offshoring in Switzerland from the post-war economic boom to the industrial crisis in the mid-seventies. The virtue of a historical perspective on the issue of offshoring is to show how... View Details

Keywords: Multinationals; Offshoring And Outsourcing; Relocation; Labor Relations; Multinational Firms and Management; Labor and Management Relations; Job Cuts and Outsourcing; Switzerland