Publications

January 2025
Case

Driving Efficiency and Sustainability at P&G China

By: Feng Zhu, Philip Kuai and Billy Chan

P&G China’s business had reached new heights thanks to the explosive growth of e-commerce in the country, but the rapidly increasing volume of shipments to customers had created operational and environmental challenges in terms of packaging waste, shipping damage, and... View Details

Keywords: Transformation; Customer Value and Value Chain; Environmental Sustainability; E-commerce; Logistics; Product Design; Value Creation; Order Taking and Fulfillment; Supply Chain Management; Consumer Products Industry; China

Web

Values Matter—No Matter Where You Are | Social Enterprise | Harvard Business School

hard-charging, and – most of all – values driven. The most important thing I brought from the Leadership Fellows experience to Disney/ABC is the recognition that values matter, no matter where you are or... View Details

19 May 2011
Working Paper Summaries

Mandatory IFRS Adoption and Financial Statement Comparability

Keywords: by Francois Brochet, Alan Jagolinzer & Edward J. Riedl

March 2023
Case

Innovation at Google Ads: The Sales Acceleration and Innovation Labs (SAIL) (A)

By: Linda A. Hill and Emily Tedards

In 2018, Ana Owczarzak was appointed to lead Google Ads' new innovation and accelerator team - the Sales Acceleration and Innovation Labs (SAIL). The purpose of SAIL was to offer testing and incubation services for individuals within Google Ads who were developing new... View Details

Keywords: Innovation Leadership; Innovation Strategy; Organizational Design; Technology Industry; Advertising Industry; Information Technology Industry; United States

02 Mar 2012
News

HBS Profs on 3 Big Co. Lessons from Start-ups, and 3 So-Whats

November 1989 (Revised March 2000)
Case

Wisconsin Central Ltd. Railroad and Berkshire Partners (A): Leveraged Buyouts and Financial Distress

By: Michael C. Jensen, Willy Burkhardt and Brian Barry

Wisconsin Central Ltd. is a regional railroad formed in a leveraged buyout, which is currently in default on its loan covenants. The case uses this situation to examine the financial structure of a typical LBO association and its internal control mechanisms and... View Details

Keywords: Financial Management; Governing and Advisory Boards; Leveraged Buyouts; Financial Condition; Financing and Loans; Corporate Finance; Rail Industry

October 2013 (Revised January 2016)
Case

J.C. Penney's 'Fair and Square' Strategy (Abridged)

By: Elie Ofek and Jill Avery

As he gets ready to release 2nd quarter 2012 results, Ron Johnson, the new CEO of department store J.C. Penney, is reconsidering the dramatic changes he initiated for the business model and brand image of his company. A new pricing scheme he put in place in February,... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Change Management; Marketing Strategy; Price; Consumer Behavior; Decision Making; Management Teams; Brands and Branding; Retail Industry; United States

May 2013
Supplement

Transport Corporation of India (B): Choosing the Right Candidate

By: V.G. Narayanan and Saloni Chaturvedi

Transport Corporation of India was a logistics company that provided multi-modal transport solutions to its customers. Set up in 1958, TCI had grown from a 'one man, one truck, one office' set-up to a company with revenues of $400 million in half a century. TCI's... View Details

Keywords: Customer Relationship Management; Business Divisions; Performance; Sales; Transportation Industry; India

01 Dec 2015
News

Leading Boston and Beyond

report things,” she says. RELATED Watch alumni discuss innovation inside City Hall Snow removal, potholes, trash pick-up, and graffiti removal; it doesn’t bring the hipster-cred of a high-tech start-up or... View Details

Keywords: Jen Myers; Executive, Legislative, and Other General Government Support; Executive, Legislative, and Other General Government Support

01 Dec 2015
News

Golden State of Mind

hold you back from what you want to become,” Draper tells them earnestly, his hair plastered around his face. That’s a scene from the first episode of Startup U, a reality TV show on ABC Family that follows 10 DU students through the ups... View Details

Keywords: Julia Hanna

May 2011
Article

Race at the Top: How Companies Shape the Inclusion of African Americans on Their Boards in Response to Institutional Pressures

By: Clayton S. Rose and William T. Bielby

Drawing on institutionalist theory, we conceptualize the racial composition of the boards of directors of large American companies as shaped in response to social and political norms. We use new longitudinal and cross-sectional data to test hypotheses about factors... View Details

Keywords: Leadership; Governing and Advisory Boards; Race; Mathematical Methods; Government and Politics; Public Ownership; United States

Find at Harvard

February 2015 (Revised June 2017)
Case

Intrapreneurship at DaVita HealthCare Partners

By: Joseph B. Fuller, David J. Collis and Matthew G. Preble

Josh Golomb, president and general manager of DaVita Rx (Rx), was about to meet with Kent Thiry, CEO of Rx's corporate parent, DaVita Healthcare Partners Inc. (DaVita), in August 2013. The two would discuss whether Golomb should lead a new DaVita venture, Paladina... View Details

Keywords: Intrapreneurship; Entrepreneurial Organizations; Startup Management; Startup; Strategic Positioning; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Corporate Strategy; Business Startups; Strategic Planning; Competitive Strategy; Health Industry; United States

March 2016
Teaching Note

Advanced Leadership Pathways: Laurent Adamowicz and Bon'App

By: Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Tessa Natanay Hamilton and Ai-Ling Jamila Malone

After a successful career as Chairman and CEO of Paris-based luxury food company, Fauchon, Laurent Adamowicz sought to provide a solution to a large scale complex problem. Ultimately, Adamowicz created a mobile application to provide consumers with more accessible and... View Details

Keywords: Leadership; Change Management; Social Entrepreneurship; Nutrition; Business and Community Relations

28 Jun 2020
News

The Disparate Racial Impact of Requiring a College Degree

13 Aug 2008
Research & Ideas

The Inner Life of Leaders

of California and at Harvard Business School, where he became a member of the HBS faculty. McNamara was a devotee View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

2024
Working Paper

Second- versus Third-party Audit Quality: Evidence from Global Supply Chain Monitoring

By: Maria R. Ibanez, Ashley Palmarozzo, Jodi L. Short and Michael W. Toffel

Capitalizing on the superior credibility and flexibility and potential lower cost of external assessments, many global buyers are relying less on their own employee (“second-party”) auditors and more on third-party auditors to monitor and prevent environmental and... View Details

Keywords: Auditing; Audit Quality; Working Conditions; Sustainability; Empirical Operations; Empirical Service Operations; Sustainability Management; Corporate Accountability; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Supply Chain Management

SSRN

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January 1997
Case

Dr. Sergio Ceccuzzi and SMI: Negotiating Cross-Border Acquisitions in Europe (B)

By: James K. Sebenius

Since the 1960s, SMI has quietly executed a series of brilliantly negotiated takeovers throughout Europe, often acquiring companies much larger than itself. Despite formidable obstacles, SMI has managed to acquire state-owned competitors in Italy and France, as well as... View Details

Keywords: Acquisition; Corporate Governance; International Relations; Negotiation Tactics; Consolidation; Mining Industry; Europe

January 2025
Case

Redwood & Strong: The Value of a Consulting Engagement

By: David G. Fubini and Patrick Sanguineti

The board of Redwood & Strong LLP (R&S), the American branch of a large global law firm, is meeting to review the findings of a recent strategic initiative designed to identify potential merger candidates. The request for the engagement originated from Daniel Crawford,... View Details

Keywords: Client Service; Professional Service Firm; Professional Services; Consulting; Mergers and Acquisitions; Governing and Advisory Boards; Reports; Strategic Planning; Value; Consulting Industry; Legal Services Industry; United States