Publications

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February 2006 (Revised March 2008)
Case

ChoicePoint (A)

By: Lynn S. Paine and Zack Phillips

The CEO of ChoicePoint, a leading company in the rapidly growing U.S. personal data industry, must reexamine the company's business model after a serious breach of data security affecting some 145,000 U.S. citizens. He must decide on steps to strengthen data protection... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Safety; Rights; Analytics and Data Science; Ethics; Information Technology; Information Industry; United States

06 Mar 2018
First Look

First Look at Research and Ideas, March 6, 2018

provide insights into why and how investors use reported environmental, social, and governance (ESG) information. Relevance to investment performance is the most frequent motivation for use of ESG data followed by client demand and product strategy, bringing change in... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

13 Jun 2005
Research & Ideas

Rescuing Products with Stealth Positioning

difference between stealth positioning and deceit. The difference is both ethical and economic. When used thoughtfully, stealth positioning is a legitimate way to diffuse prejudice about a product or company, encourage acceptance, and... View Details

Keywords: by Youngme Moon

September 1986 (Revised March 1987)
Case

Graves Industries, Inc. (B): Lohnes Marine Hardware Division

Describes events occurring over a four-year period in one division of Graves Industries. The division goes through a business cycle and uses several methods of managing earnings to meet its budget targets. The purpose of the case is to allow the exploration of the... View Details

Keywords: Earnings Management; Crime and Corruption; Ethics

10 Jan 2005
Research & Ideas

How to Put Meaning Back into Leading

The bottom line is, after all, the bottom line when it comes to business success. No profit, no business. But should money be the sole measure for evaluating and rewarding the effectiveness of a leader? In a new Harvard View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

February 2022
Case

Paul Polman

By: Elizabeth A. Keenan, Youngme Moon and Susie Ma

Over his 40-year career, Paul Polman had led some of the world’s largest consumer goods companies, making his biggest mark as CEO of Unilever—a multi-national corporation that produced everything from soap to soup. Polman was also well-regarded as a leader in corporate... View Details

Keywords: Marketing; Brands and Branding; Marketing Communications; Marketing Strategy; Leadership; Corporate Accountability; Personal Development and Career; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Ethics; Values and Beliefs; Social Issues; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving

November 2012 (Revised August 2013)
Case

A Politician in a Leather Suit and the Paradox of Japanese Capitalism

By: Karthik Ramanna and Matthew Shaffer

Two lost decades later, capitalism in Japan embodies peculiar contradictions—preserving wealth and social stability in the face of declining economic power. Scant transparency in Japanese corporate practices plays an important role in this phenomenon. Sometimes... View Details

Keywords: Crime and Corruption; Economic Systems; Economic Slowdown and Stagnation; Fairness; Values and Beliefs; Corporate Accountability; Corporate Governance; Civil Society or Community; Japan; Tokyo

17 Apr 2006
Research & Ideas

Resisting the Seductions of Success

York family and practiced estate law in New York City. In his spare time, he wrote scores of well-regarded novels and short stories about characters who inevitably reflected the men and women—successful lawyers, bankers, and business... View Details

Keywords: by Joseph L. Badaracco Jr.; Entertainment & Recreation; Information; Publishing

27 Feb 2017
Research & Ideas

Reputation is Vital to Survival in Turbulent Markets

the rough-and-tumble of business everywhere, let alone in conditions of turbulence where corruption may be the norm and not the exception, it may seem almost counterintuitive to believe that maintaining the highest standards, including... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

25 Jun 2001
Lessons from the Classroom

Machiavelli, Morals, and You

of one of the keys to leadership: the notion of accountability. Badaracco, the school's John Shad Professor of Business Ethics, uses the novel as part of his course called The Moral Leader, an unusual course for MBA students in which... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

25 Sep 2019
Research & Ideas

The Economic Cost of Physician Burnout

sign up for the job to stare at a screen. They are doing this to provide care for people,” says one of the study’s co-authors, Joel Goh, a visiting scholar in the Technology & Operations Management Unit at Harvard Business School. “It... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Health

08 Feb 2021
Book

How to Make the World Better, Not Perfect

It’s a question people often ask Harvard Business School Professor Max Bazerman: Can you meet with my relative or friend who is applying to Harvard? Perhaps they ask with the hope that it might help them in the admissions process.... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

February 2001 (Revised October 2001)
Case

JetBlue Airways: Starting from Scratch

JetBlue Airways shows how an entrepreneurial venture is able to use human resource management, specifically a values-centered approach to managing people, as a source of competitive advantage. The major challenge faced by Ann Rhoades is to grow this people-centered... View Details

Keywords: Leadership; Values and Beliefs; Competitive Advantage; Entrepreneurship; Human Resources; Business Startups; Air Transportation Industry