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December 2019 (Revised September 2020)
Case

Facebook Faces the Regulators

By: Debora L. Spar

In the fall of 2019, Facebook and its CEO Mark Zuckerberg are facing increased scrutiny on multiple fronts. Regulators from around the globe are threatening the company with punitive measures. Users are organizing against it. But there is little consensus around what,... View Details

Keywords: Facebook; Regulation; Media; Internet and the Web; Governance; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Business and Government Relations; Social Media; Europe

July 2009 (Revised March 2010)
Case

Sotheby's & Christie's Inc.

By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell and Catherine Jane Wise

The fine art auction business has remained a duopoly over its 250 year history. The industry is dominated by Sotheby's and Christie's Inc. Curiously, neither competitor has been able to overtake the other by a notable margin despite the clear network effects of this... View Details

Keywords: Arts; Business Model; Restructuring; Economics; Auctions; Market Entry and Exit; Duopoly and Oligopoly; Operations; Competition

February 2005 (Revised March 2013)
Case

Phase Zero: Introducing New Services at IDEO (A)

By: Amy C. Edmondson and Laura Feldman

Focuses on whether world-renowned product design firm IDEO's new customer service fits with the firm's strategic position and organization capabilities. Over the course of IDEO's 13-year history, an increasing share of revenues are a result of "Phase 0"... View Details

Keywords: Strategy; Service Operations; Product Design; Infrastructure; Customer Focus and Relationships; Innovation and Invention; Service Industry; Boston; United States

Article

Control, Performance, and Knowledge Transfers in Large Multinationals: Unilever in the United States, 1945-1980

By: G. Jones

This article considers key issues relating to the organization and performance of large multinational firms in the post-Second World War period. Although foreign direct investment is defined by ownership and control, in practice the nature of that "control" is far from... View Details

Keywords: Multinational Firms and Management; Governance Controls; Performance; Business or Company Management; Ownership; Consumer Products Industry; Manufacturing Industry; United States

April 2003 (Revised April 2009)
Case

Paul Levy: Taking Charge of the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center

By: David A. Garvin and Michael Roberto

On January 7, 2002, Paul Levy became CEO of the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. He took over a troubled organization, in serious financial difficulty. This multimedia case describes the situation Levy inherited, his negotiations prior to taking the job, and his... View Details

Keywords: Communication Strategy; Decision Choices and Conditions; Leadership Style; Leading Change; Managerial Roles; Organizational Culture; Health Industry

01 Mar 2024
News

Alumni and Faculty Books and Podcasts

Edited by Margie Kelley Alumni Books You Got This! A Straightforward, No-Nonsense Playbook for Crushing 130+ Workplace Challenges By Heidi Abelli (MBA 1993) Palmetto Publishing Stepping into the corporate world can feel like navigating a labyrinth, especially when... View Details

Keywords: Publishing Industries (except Internet); Information

09 Jan 2020
Book

Rethinking Business Strategy in the Age of AI

cybersecurity threats. During the past 10 years, Iansiti and Lakhani have researched AI’s impact on businesses and have helped several companies transform their strategies, including internet pioneers like Amazon, Microsoft, Mozilla, and Facebook, as well as... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

21 Jun 2023
Blog Post

Building a Better World: The Harvard Builders Club

we met with the world's most prominent tech leaders and investors, from organizations like Google, Meta, Sequoia, a16z, Greylock, BCV, and many more. More than anything, bringing everyone together strengthened our community and... View Details

Web

About - Behavioral Finance & Financial Stability

historical database of banking, stock market, and currency crises with data on over 60 countries back to 1800. Please visit our data page for visualizations and data downloads, organized by topic. You may also be interested in the Harvard... View Details

07 Mar 2022
News

Effective Leaders Share the Spotlight with Their Teams

October 2014 (Revised December 2018)
Case

Jean-Claude Biver (A): The Reemergence of the Swiss Watch Industry

By: Ryan Raffaelli

In the early 1980s, the Swiss watch industry was near collapse after failing to adapt to Japanese competition from battery-powered quartz technology. In 1982, Jean-Claude Biver purchased Blancpain, a watch company that had been out of business since 1961 but had once... View Details

Keywords: Re-emergence; Leading Change; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Transformation; Leadership; Personal Development and Career; Apparel and Accessories Industry; Switzerland

2010
Book

Winning in Emerging Markets: A Road Map for Strategy and Execution

By: Tarun Khanna, Krishna G. Palepu and Richard Bullock

The best way to select emerging markets to exploit is to evaluate their size or growth potential, right? Not according to Krishna Palepu and Tarun Khanna. In 'Winning in Emerging Markets,' these leading scholars on the subject present a decidedly different framework... View Details

Keywords: Developing Countries and Economies; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Emerging Markets; Organizations; Opportunities; Business Strategy

01 Dec 2023
News

A Continuum of Innovation

As senior associate dean and chair of the MBA Program, Matt Weinzierl has a running list of questions that he and Jana P. Kierstead, the executive director of MBA and Doctoral programs, always keep in mind. They range from the curricular (How can we ensure that the MBA... View Details

Keywords: Jennifer Gillespie

February 2001 (Revised September 2005)
Case

Howard Schultz and Starbucks Coffee Company

By: Nancy F. Koehn

Investigates the entrepreneur's strategic initiatives to develop a mass market for specialty coffee in the 1980s and 1990s. These initiatives included the development of premium products, rapid expansion of company-owned stores--each with attractive retail environments... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Groups and Teams; Brands and Branding; Growth Management; Employee Relationship Management; Consumer Behavior; Organizational Design; Leadership Style; Customer Relationship Management; Competitive Advantage; Vertical Integration; Food and Beverage Industry

28 Nov 2005
Research & Ideas

Unilever: Transformation and Tradition

development of new products, but was also indispensable for the constant upgrading and renewal of brands. Unilever's main problem was the time it took to turn scientific knowledge into successful branded products. It entered the 1960s with an View Details

Keywords: by Geoffrey Jones; Consumer Products

October 14, 2019
Article

Cracking the Code of Sustained Collaboration

By: Francesca Gino

When most organizations strive to increase collaboration, they approach it too narrowly: as a value to cultivate—not a skill to teach. So they create open offices, talk up collaboration as a corporate goal, and try to influence employees through other superficial means... View Details

Keywords: Collaboration; Listening; Empathy; Feedback; Organizational Culture; Interpersonal Communication; Training; Programs

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January 2021
Article

Turbulence, Firm Decentralization and Growth in Bad Times

By: Philippe Aghion, Nicholas Bloom, Brian Lucking, Raffaella Sadun and John Van Reenen

What is the optimal form of firm organization during “bad times”? We present a model of delegation within the firm to show that the effect is ambiguous. The greater turbulence following macro shocks may benefit decentralized firms because the value of local information... View Details

Keywords: Decentralization; Growth; Turbulence; Great Recession; Organizational Design; System Shocks; Economic Growth; Performance