Leadership - Publications - Faculty & Research

February 2022 (Revised May 2022)
Case

Buddy Valastro: Cake Boss

By: Boris Groysberg, Evan M.S. Hecht and Katherine Connolly Baden

Buddy Valastro, celebrity baker and business owner, inherited his father’s bakery—Carlo’s Bake Shop of Hoboken, New Jersey—at the age of seventeen. He had willed the shop to survive and gone on to fame through his television show, “Cake Boss”—the name most people now... View Details

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Jay Bhandari

“wizards and witches'' of business. I wonder how cold Hogwarts gets in the winter What is your most memorable classroom moment? In a Leadership and Corporate Accountability (LCA) class, we debated the influence of choice and circumstance... View Details

August 2005 (Revised September 2006)
Case

Polyphonic HMI: Mixing Music and Math

By: Anita Elberse, Jehoshua Eliashberg and Julian Villanueva

In 2003, Mike McCready, CEO of Barcelona-based Polyphonic HMI, was preparing to launch an artificial intelligence tool that could create significant value for music businesses. The technology, referred to as Hit Song Science (HSS), analyzed the mathematical... View Details

Keywords: Forecasting and Prediction; Music Entertainment; Business History; Leadership; Marketing Strategy; Strategic Planning; Problems and Challenges; Mathematical Methods; Entertainment and Recreation Industry

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04 Jun 2018
News

Should Directors Consider Hiring a CEO Fired Elsewhere for Inappropriate Behavior?

01 Jun 2022
What Do You Think?

Is Stakeholder Management Facing New Headwinds?

(iStockphoto/Krle) Advocates for stakeholders—including employees, customers, suppliers, the “community,” and investors—have dominated the discussion of leadership and management over the past two decades. They believe that enlightened... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

October 2015 (Revised November 2024)
Case

A Challenger's Strategy: Pinar Abay at ING Bank Turkey

By: Paul Healy, Gautam Mukunda and Esel Çekin

In 2013, Pinar Abay was appointed as the CEO of ING Bank Turkey. At 34, she was the youngest bank CEO in Turkey's history. Her appointment raised eyebrows because of her youth and because her career at McKinsey had given her no day-to-day bank management experience.... View Details

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January 2010 (Revised December 2012)
Case

Knight the King: The Founding of Nike

By: Noam Wasserman and Kyle Anderson

It had taken Phil Knight 16 long years to build Nike into the number one athletic-shoe company in the country. When Knight had first conceived of the company for an MBA class project, Adidas had had more than 80% market share, but Knight's marketing approach had... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Entrepreneurship; Initial Public Offering; Leadership; Growth and Development Strategy; Marketing Strategy; Competitive Advantage; Apparel and Accessories Industry

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Melcolm Ruffin

with the Philadelphia 76ers, supporting front office scouting and draft preparation. Continuing a tradition of strong Black leadership After graduation, Melcolm began a five-year tenure with the NBA League Headquarters in New York City,... View Details

Keywords: Entertainment/Media

01 Oct 2021
News

Fostering Diversity

believe is crucial to society. “You need to invest in the pipeline in order for things to change,” says Victoria, an independent consultant focused on health care and technology. “We believe that we need more diversity—race, gender, perspective—in View Details

December 1997 (Revised October 2006)
Case

Merck Sharp & Dohme Argentina, Inc. (A)

By: Lynn S. Paine and Hal Hogan

Describes the efforts of the new managing director of Merck's subsidiary for Argentina, Uruguay, and Paraguay to transform the organization and its culture. Focuses on a critical decision: whether to offer the son of a high-ranking official in the government's national... View Details

Keywords: Business or Company Management; Ethics; Decision Making; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Culture; Leadership; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Conflict of Interests; Argentina; Uruguay; Paraguay

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MBA Program - Alumni

and other planned gifts enable you to make philanthropy a part of your financial or estate planning. The HBS Fund Investors Society recognizes leadership annual donors. Learn More Donor Stories Kent Thiry & Denise O’Leary (both MBA 1983)... View Details

April 2005 (Revised July 2009)
Case

IBM's Decade of Transformation: Turnaround to Growth

By: Lynda M. Applegate, Robert D. Austin and Elizabeth Collins

Describes IBM's decade of transformation. Provides background on the company's history and the factors that led to its near death in the early 1990s and to its remarkable turnaround during Gerstner's reign as CEO. A rewritten version of an earlier case. View Details

Keywords: History; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Leading Change; Transformation; Growth and Development Strategy

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01 Oct 2021
News

From Scholarship to Life-Saving Impact

executive—or perhaps founding her own company. “To do so, I knew I needed to hone my managerial and leadership skills,” she says. Harvard’s new joint MS/MBA Biotechnology: Life Sciences degree felt like the perfect fit. “I really liked... View Details

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Helping and harnessing business to address society’s greatest challenges. | Institute for Business in Global Society

Initiative With global health care spending greater than $8.5 trillion, there is no shortage of opportunities to make an impact in this demanding sector. Leadership Initiative Leaders have always faced the job of inspiring others while... View Details

January 2010 (Revised July 2011)
Case

Hindustan Unilever Limited

By: Thomas J. DeLong and Mona Srivastava

This case illustrates Hindustan Unilever Limited's conflict resolution and people development policies using a “leading from the middle” example. The story centers on the challenges faced by an HR manager at a factory who must meet organizational objectives while... View Details

Keywords: Employee Relationship Management; Labor Unions; Leadership; Goals and Objectives; Managerial Roles; Conflict Management; Food and Beverage Industry; India

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February 2010
Case

Burt's Bees: Balancing Growth and Sustainability (Multimedia)

By: Christopher Marquis

The case examines sustainability initiatives at Burt's Bees, with video segments that detail the company's history, leadership, and implementation of ambitious 2020 sustainability goals. The company traces its roots to 1984, when Roxanne Quinby and Burt Schavitz teamed... View Details

Keywords: Balance and Stability; Leadership; Problems and Challenges; Business or Company Management; Growth Management; Organizational Culture; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Environmental Sustainability; Mergers and Acquisitions; Social Enterprise; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Ethics

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12 Mar 2014
Lessons from the Classroom

Managing the Family Business: Firing the CEO

Even the stock market moves with changes in the leadership of a company. When the Japanese camera maker Olympus fired its CEO in 2011, its stock fell; when Air France-KLM indicated it would let its CEO go that same year, its stock rose.... View Details

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Entrepreneurial Management Awards & Honors - Faculty & Research

(Journal of Finance, forthcoming). Lauren H. Cohen : Invited to brief the United States Congress on innovation policy, 2020. Lauren H. Cohen : Winner of the 2020 Global Thought Leadership Grant on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)... View Details

August 2023
Supplement

Reimagining Hindustan Unilever (B)

By: Sunil Gupta and Rachna Tahilyani

In April 2023, as the CEO and MD of Hindustan Unilever (HUL), India’s largest fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) firm, prepared to hand over the firm’s reins to his successor, he proudly reflected on the last decade. His quest to digitally transform HUL into an... View Details

Keywords: Experimentation; Digital Transformation; Digital Strategy; Leading Change; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Business Strategy; Marketing; Performance; Competition; E-commerce; Consumer Behavior; Transformation; Distribution; Decisions; Consumer Products Industry; Asia; India

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May 2010 (Revised May 2011)
Case

Kent Thiry: "Mayor" of DaVita

By: William W. George and Natalie Kindred

Kent Thiry, CEO of dialysis provider DaVita, is considering how to integrate employees from recently acquired Gambro Healthcare without damaging DaVita's robust, unconventional internal culture. When Thiry joined DaVita in 1999, breaking an important promise to his... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Experience and Expertise; Employee Relationship Management; Leadership Style; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Culture; Personal Development and Career; Integration; Health Industry

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