Publications

15 May 2014
News

The Case For And Against Stressful Deadlines

29 Nov 2004
Research & Ideas

Caves, Clusters, and Weak Ties: The Six Degrees World of Inventors

smaller) communities and collaborations of inventors. Fleming and his colleagues found, for example, that at the end of the last decade, half of the patented inventors in... View Details

Keywords: by Sara Grant; Publishing

February 11, 2022
Article

Skills-Based Hiring Is on the Rise

By: Joseph B. Fuller, Christina Langer and Matthew Sigelman

Two decades ago, companies began adding degree requirements to job descriptions, even though the jobs themselves hadn’t changed. After the Great Recession, many organizations began trying to back away from those requirements. To learn how the effort is going, the... View Details

Keywords: Human Resource Management; Hiring; Recruiting; Selection and Staffing; Recruitment; Competency and Skills; Human Resources

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March 1992
Case

Amgen, Inc.: Planning the Unplannable

By: Nitin Nohria

By the early 1990s, Amgen--a pharmaceutical company started little over a decade ago as Applied Molecular Genetics--was within range of becoming a billion-dollar company. With two extremely successful biotechnology drugs on the market, Amgen stood as the largest and... View Details

Keywords: Growth and Development Strategy; Strategic Planning; Success; Risk and Uncertainty; Pharmaceutical Industry

11 Jun 2007
Lessons from the Classroom

Teaching the Next Generation of Energy Executives

rate for its electricity. Yet community opposition to the plant is fierce in some areas. “There's a great deal of activity and excitement in energy markets.” "The case is about View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Energy; Utilities

November 1998 (Revised February 1999)
Case

Microsoft Office: Finding the Suite Spot

By: Stefan H. Thomke and Steven Sinofsky

Describes a key decision-making process within Microsoft's Office products division. At a time when the PC software business has a great deal of uncertainty, Microsoft's management has to make a key decision regarding the future of software suites. A strengthening of... View Details

Keywords: Decisions; Applications and Software; Strategic Planning; Organizational Design; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Product Development; Managerial Roles; Growth and Development Strategy; Risk and Uncertainty; Goals and Objectives; Digital Platforms; Innovation and Management; Computer Industry; Information Technology Industry

Many companies operate units that are dispersed across different types of markets, serving significantly diverging customer bases. Such dispersion is likely to compromise headquarters' ability to control local managers' behavior and satisfy the needs of different... View Details

June 2002 (Revised August 2002)
Case

"One Country, Two Systems"? Italy and the Mezzogiorno (A)

By: Bruce R. Scott and Jamie Matthews

GDP per person in northern Italy caught up with average incomes in Britain, France, and Germany in the 1970s, but incomes in southern Italy (the Mezzogiorno) fell further behind. This was partly due to cultural and societal differences that dated to the Renaissance,... View Details

Keywords: History; Development Economics; Crime and Corruption; Social Issues; Economy; Government and Politics; Macroeconomics; Italy

2014
Report

An Economy Doing Half Its Job: Findings of Harvard Business School's 2013–14 Survey on U.S. Competitiveness

By: Michael E. Porter and Jan Rivkin

In 2013–14, Harvard Business School (HBS) conducted its third alumni survey on U.S. competitiveness. Our report on the findings focuses on a troubling divergence in the American economy: large and midsize firms have rallied strongly from the Great Recession, and highly... View Details

Keywords: Competition; Economy; Financial Crisis; United States

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01 Aug 2018
What Do You Think?

Are Free Trade and Free Markets Quaint Ideas From the Past?

AvigatorPhotographer Are Free Trade Notions Repeatedly Victim to Short-Term Thinking? Free trade and free markets are concepts to which many of us, given our training in economics, aspire. But they inevitably fall victim to the varied and... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

July 2005 (Revised October 2006)
Case

Global Fun: The Internationalization of Theme Parks

By: Geoffrey G. Jones and Steven Shaheen

A fictitious private equity firm considers whether to buy the international theme park business of the LEGO Group. Considers the origins of theme parks in the United States; the international expansion of Disney theme parks to Tokyo and Paris since the 1970s; and the... View Details

Keywords: Private Equity; Globalized Markets and Industries; Globalized Firms and Management; Global Strategy; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; Germany; Tokyo; Great Britain; Denmark; United States; Paris

29 Sep 2020
News

As it happened: The US debate 'cat fight'

29 Oct 2019
Blog Post

Merging the Worlds of Finance, Investing, and Environmental Impact

Career Services as a recruiting tool to find and hire great candidates for open positions. What do you like about your work? What keeps you going? I’m working with an incredible group of people to help solve View Details

18 Oct 2023
News

Spreading the Words

Shafiq Khan (MBA 1982) loves to solve problems. It’s what attracted him to the case study method at HBS and, after graduation, to consulting at Booz, Allen & Hamilton. Then, at United Airlines, Khan encountered another challenge: The company was spending one-sixth of... View Details

Keywords: April White

March 2021 (Revised August 2023)
Case

Helen Keller: Changing the World

By: Robert Simons and Shirley Sun

This case describes the rise of Helen Keller who at 19 months became deaf and blind. Refusing to be sidelined from life, Keller showed great determination in learning how to communicate with others, employing tutors and travelling to Boston to enroll in the Perkins... View Details

Keywords: Mission And Purpose; Values And Beliefs; Success; Diversity; Leading Change; Personal Development and Career; Personal Characteristics; Power and Influence

May 2003 (Revised November 2005)
Case

Marks & Spencer: The Phoenix Rises

By: Joseph L. Bower

The great U.K. retailer fell on hard times in 1998. In 2001, a new CEO was recruited who appears to have succeeded in turning around this world-renown company. This case examines the steps he took (strategic, structural, and recruiting key people) and highlights a... View Details

Keywords: Global Strategy; Recruitment; Leadership Development; Crisis Management; Supply and Industry; Business Strategy; Competitive Strategy; Segmentation; Retail Industry