Publications

08 Mar 2019
Research & Ideas

Seven Negotiation Lessons from Amazon's HQ Disaster in Queens

As Amazon’s stunning pullout from New York fades into the news archives, its potent lessons for business negotiators risk being lost. Highly promising deals in diffuse multiparty settings with many potential... View Details

Keywords: by James K. Sebenius; Real Estate; Construction

November 2000
Case

WARDA: Leading a Rice Revolution in West Africa

By: Ray A. Goldberg, Carin-Isabel Knoop and Cate Reavis

The West Africa Rice Development Association, along with various national and international partners, was developing and transferring new rice technologies to farmers throughout West and Central Africa. While production in West Africa was growing faster than any other... View Details

Keywords: Private Sector; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Policy; Government and Politics; Technological Innovation; Leadership; Performance Effectiveness; Problems and Challenges; Research and Development; Nonprofit Organizations; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Africa

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October 1997 (Revised November 1997)
Case

NAACP, The

By: James E. Austin, Paul Barese, Stephanie L. Woerner and Elaine V. Backman

In February 1995, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), the largest civil rights organization in the United States, was in the midst of a crisis. The executive director had been fired due to financial improprieties amid charges of... View Details

Keywords: Crime and Corruption; Capital; Governance Controls; Resignation and Termination; Selection and Staffing; Rights; Leadership; Management; United States

August 2008 (Revised October 2011)
Case

The Redgrove Axial Workshop

By: Michel Anteby and Mikell Hyman

Marc Fontaine, a new manager at a global manufacturing concern, is on a fast-track to a senior managerial position. One morning, in a storage room, he discovers some ornamental artifacts made with the same materials used for official production. He suspects workers... View Details

Keywords: Ethics; Managerial Roles; Production; Groups and Teams; Behavior

Martin Sinozich is a Senior Lecturer in the Entrepreneurial Management Unit at Harvard Business School, where he teaches in both MBA and Executive Education programs. For first-year MBAs, Martin teaches in Field Global Immersion, a required course that... View Details

November 2007 (Revised March 2009)
Case

Clear Channel 2006

By: Richard S. Ruback and Leslie Pierson

The Board of Directors of Clear Channel Communications, a radio broadcasting and outdoor advertising company, has to respond to a revised proposal from two private equity firms to take the company private. In November of 2006, the Board had unanimously approved an... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Private Equity; Governing and Advisory Boards; Negotiation Offer; Privatization; Business and Shareholder Relations

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February 2010 (Revised July 2010)
Case

Barclays Wealth: Reignite WAR or Launch AlphaStream?

By: Lena G. Goldberg and Elisa Farri

In late January 2009, Thomas Fekete, managing director at Barclays Wealth in London, redeemed the most illiquid positions in the so-called Wealth Absolute Return Fund (WAR), one of Barclays Wealth's most promising offshore funds of hedge funds, and halted the Fund's... View Details

Keywords: Financial Crisis; Financial Liquidity; International Finance; Investment Funds; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Strategy; Financial Services Industry; London

16 Jul 2024
Op-Ed

Corporate Boards Are Failing in Their No. 1 Duty

Boeing CEO has focused on short-term earnings, increasingly at the expense of franchise value and safety. Will the company’s new CEO have the courage to return Boeing to its former position as the world leader in aviation? Wells Fargo:... View Details

Keywords: by Bill George

10 Jan 2024
Research & Ideas

Technology and COVID Upended Tipping Norms. Will Consumers Keep Paying?

payment. But what about after taking a ride-share ride? Or after getting a haircut? Many of those establishments prompt tipping either through their online app or on a tablet at checkout. Have you been surprised by the prompt? You’re not alone. These View Details

Keywords: by Anna Lamb, Harvard Gazette

21 Sep 2009
Research & Ideas

Excessive Executive Pay: What’s the Solution?

Act, introduced May 19, casts shareholders as the antidote to runaway executive compensation and excessive risk-taking. The bill requires public companies to conduct annual, nonbinding votes by shareholders on executive compensation—so-called say on pay; grants... View Details

Keywords: by Roger Thompson

26 Jan 2024
Blog Post

Hiring at HBS: How Summer Interns Make an Impact at Emerson Collective

leaders, to build solutions that spur measurable, lasting change. Every year, HBS Interns play an important part in driving the Emerson Collective mission. Joanna Lichter, Associate Director of Venture Capital, plays a key role in... View Details

Keywords: Nonprofit / Government

October 2010 (Revised October 2011)
Case

Ken Langone: Member, GE Compensation Committee

By: Suraj Srinivasan and Lizzie Gomez

On September 2003, Richard Grasso stepped down as chairman and CEO of the New York Stock Exchange, following weeks of intense public criticism over the size of his $190 million compensation package. As chairman of the committee that oversaw Grasso's payout, Ken Langone... View Details

Keywords: Accounting; Corporate Governance; Governing and Advisory Boards; Employee Stock Ownership Plan; Executive Compensation; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Labor and Management Relations; Wages; Change Management; Energy Industry; New York (city, NY)

During weeklong January-term trips to New York City in 2013 and 2014, students from across Harvard University studied cultural entrepreneurship: new ventures in fashion, food, fine arts, and design. Students explored how such ventures are launched, and how proximity... View Details

April 2005
Case

FBI: Mission Extended

Following the bombing of the World Trade Center in 1993, there was consensus that the FBI needed to make organizational changes. The FBI had long distinguished itself as the world's pre-eminent organization for conducting after-the-fact investigations that laid the... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Law Enforcement; United States

July 2003
Case

De La Salle Academy

By: Thomas J. DeLong and David Ager

Brother Brian Carty, headmaster and founder of De La Salle Academy, a private school for academically talented, economically disadvantaged children in grades six to eight in New York City, is scheduled to meet with the school's board of directors to discuss how the... View Details

Keywords: Middle School Education; Corporate Accountability; Governing and Advisory Boards; Organizational Design; Management Succession; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Business and Community Relations; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Education Industry

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Program

Program for Leadership Development

on a higher level. This highly personalized program features two on-campus and two virtual, self-paced modules that focus on accelerating your business and your career. You will return to your organization more confident, more capable, and better equipped to take on... View Details

June 2025
Article

Outcome and Process Frames: Strategic Renewal and Capability Reprioritization at the Federal Bureau of Investigation

By: Ryan Raffaelli, Tiona Zuzul, Ranjay Gulati and Jan Rivkin

[Research Summary]: Framing is critical for leaders who must build support for strategic renewal. While research has concentrated on renewal that replaces one set of capabilities with another, we explore a distinctive challenge: how leaders persuade stakeholders to... View Details

Keywords: Framing; Stakeholder Management; Capabilities; Transformation; Leading Change; Crisis Management; Resource Allocation; Government and Politics; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Public Administration Industry

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November 2013 (Revised May 2023)
Case

Valuing Yahoo! in 2013

By: Luis M. Viceira and Atul Khosla

In late July 2013, Danielle Engle, Managing Director of Clairemont Capital, was contemplating what to do about a large investment her fund had in the stock of Yahoo! Inc. In mid-2012, Clairemont had invested nearly $75M in Yahoo! after the tech company settled a highly... View Details

Keywords: Investment; Decision Making; Investment Activism; Business Model; Growth and Development Strategy; Valuation