Publications

January 2017 (Revised May 2020)
Case

Sesame Workshop (A): Bringing Big Bird Back to Health

By: Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Ryan Raffaelli and Jonathan Cohen

Sesame Workshop was transforming in 2016. CEO Jeff Dunn had reorganized and shifted the iconic institution to respond to digital disruption and a consensus culture. This case examines his efforts to turn Sesame Workshop around. It notes Sesame's storied history and the... View Details

Keywords: Restructuring; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Leadership; Information Technology; Education; Media; Strategy; Education Industry

December 2013 (Revised September 2017)
Case

Atlanta Schools: Measures to Improve Performance

By: Robert Simons and Natalie Kindred

The widespread cheating scandal that rocked the Atlanta public school system in 2010 and 2011 illustrates how high-stakes performance pressure, without sufficient risk controls, can drive dangerous behavior. After becoming superintendent of the low-income and... View Details

Teaching Interest

Overview

By: Willy C. Shih

Professor Shih has taught the Technology and Operations Management (TOM) course and FIELD Global Immersion in the first-year MBA required curriculum. He also has taught Building and Sustaining a Successful Enterprise (BSSE) in the second-year MBA curriculum, as well as... View Details

Keywords: Supply Chain Management; Operations Management; Operations Strategy; Globalization Of Supply Chain; Competitiveness; Globalization; Trade; Operations; Manufacturing Industry; Manufacturing Industry; United States; China; Europe; Japan

Program

Investment Management Workshop

Summary The Investment Management Workshop convenes the world's top principals, portfolio managers, and executives to explore the latest industry strategies and best practices. Focused on asset management, business strategy, business... View Details

02 Apr 2019
Research Event

Women Pay a Higher Career Price in Today's Always-On Work Culture

educated and valuable talent in a competitive labor market. The loss of women managers—and potential future leaders—has been particularly vexing for executives. Many of them cling to the belief that women’s struggle to balance their home... View Details

Keywords: by Danielle Kost; Consulting; Service

October 1987 (Revised September 1992)
Case

Hurricane Island Outward Bound School

Hurricane Island Outward Bound, a small, nonprofit school that helped pioneer experiential education in the United States, has recently recovered from a financial crisis. Students take the role of the school's new marketing manager, who is preparing his first marketing... View Details

Keywords: Demand and Consumers; Nonprofit Organizations; Marketing Strategy; Education; Education Industry; United States

Keywords: Education; Government

May 2024
Case

SofMedica Group: Managing Growth

By: Boris Groysberg and Sarah L. Abbott

SofMedica Group had expanded from its origins as a medical equipment distributor in Romania to a holding company with four business lines operating in six countries. This expansion had been driven by SofMedica’s mission: to make cutting edge medical technology... View Details

January 2005 (Revised August 2006)
Case

Lean Forward Media

By: Teresa M. Amabile and Victoria Winston

Jeff Norton and Michelle Crames, the co-founders of Lean Forward Media, face several options for producing the world's first interactive DVD film for children. Their vision is to build a company whose products simultaneously entertain children, engage them actively in... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Early Childhood Education; Games, Gaming, and Gambling; Entrepreneurship; Venture Capital; Management Practices and Processes; Risk Management; Partners and Partnerships; Opportunities; Creativity

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December 2023
Case

TikTok: The Algorithm Will See You Now

By: Shikhar Ghosh and Shweta Bagai

In a world where attention is a scarce commodity, this case explores the meteoric rise of TikTok—an app that transformed from a niche platform for teens into the most visited domain by 2021—surpassing even Google. Its algorithm was a sophisticated mechanism for... View Details

Keywords: Social Media; Applications and Software; Disruptive Innovation; Business and Government Relations; International Relations; Cybersecurity; Culture; Technology Industry; China; United States; India

Program

Real Estate Management Program

backgrounds, including industry newcomers. The program welcomes individuals or teams. Attendance by multiple company representatives will foster collaboration and amplify the program's impact. Learning and Living at HBS When you... View Details

Keywords: Real Estate; Real Estate

Samuel L. Hayes

Samuel L. Hayes holds the Jacob H. Schiff Chair in Investment Banking Emeritus, at the Harvard Business School. He has taught at the School since 1970, prior to which he was a tenured member of the faculty of the Columbia University Graduate School of Business. He... View Details

September 2000 (Revised March 2001)
Case

Old Mutual

By: Tarun Khanna, Krishna G. Palepu and Kirsty O'Neil-Massaro

Designed to explore the demutualization and listing overseas of one of Africa's largest financial institutions, Old Mutual, and the effects that these actions have on South Africa's domestic capital markets. Explores the particular difficulties that arise as a result... View Details

Keywords: Financial Institutions; Growth and Development Strategy; Organizational Structure; Global Strategy; Corporate Strategy; Capital Markets; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Business Education; Financial Strategy; Business or Company Management; Financial Services Industry; Financial Services Industry; South Africa

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2013
Working Paper

Work Design Drivers of Organizational Learning about Operational Failures: A Laboratory Experiment on Medication Administration

By: Anita L. Tucker

Operational failures persist in hospitals, in part because employees work around them rather than attempt to prevent recurrence. Drawing on a process improvement tool—the Andon cord—we examine three work design components that may foster improvement-oriented behaviors:... View Details

Keywords: Health Care; Process Improvement; Organizational Learning; Behavioral Operations; Prosocial Behavior; Experiments; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Behavior; Performance Improvement; Health Care and Treatment; Business Processes; Health Industry

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06 Apr 2023
Blog Post

How to onboard recently graduated MBAs

For large numbers of Harvard Business School MBA graduates, the first post-degree position is not merely a return to the workforce, but a deliberate pivot toward a new ambition. “Many MBAs are switchers,” notes Kristin Brennan, HBS Career Coach. “They’ve used their... View Details

Keywords: All Industries

January 2024 (Revised June 2024)
Case

School of Rock: Tuning into Structured Empowerment (A)

By: Tatiana Sandino, Jeffrey Rayport, Samuel Grad and Stacy Straaberg

In summer 2021, School of Rock was a youth-oriented music education company with 291 franchise- and company-owned schools globally. Before CEO Rob Price’s hire in 2017, School of Rock’s nonconformist rock ‘n’ roll culture led to variability in teaching styles,... View Details

Web

Faculty & Advisors | MBA

all. Paul Clancy MBA, Columbia University; BS, Babson College Paul has worked in the biotech industry for the last twenty-three years and spent fourteen years in the consumer products industry. He served as the Chief Financial Officer for... View Details

Working Paper

Group Fairness in Dynamic Refugee Assignment

By: Daniel Freund, Thodoris Lykouris, Elisabeth Paulson, Bradley Sturt and Wentao Weng

Ensuring that refugees and asylum seekers thrive (e.g., find employment) in their host countries is a profound humanitarian goal, and a primary driver of employment is the geographic location within a host country to which the refugee or asylum seeker is... View Details

Keywords: Refugees; Geographic Location; Mathematical Methods; Employment; Fairness