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December 2012
Article

The Microwork Solution: A New Approach to Outsourcing Can Support Economic Development—and Add to Your Bottom Line

By: Francesca Gino and Bradely R. Staats

What's the best way to lift people out of poverty? The social entrepreneurs in the new "impact sourcing" industry believe the answer is providing work, not aid. Their organizations hire people at the bottom of the pyramid to perform digital tasks such as transcribing... View Details

Keywords: Outsourcing; Job Cuts and Outsourcing; Nonprofit Organizations; Partners and Partnerships; Development Economics; Social Entrepreneurship; Welfare; Cooperation; San Francisco

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July 2001 (Revised March 2002)
Case

Progressive Insurance: Disclosure Strategy

By: Amy P. Hutton and James Weber

Progressive Insurance had refused to play Wall Street's earning game. Progressive didn't manage reported earnings nor did management give guidance to analysts. Management then considered taking their unique disclosure strategy one step further to become the first to... View Details

Keywords: Earnings Management; Stocks; Corporate Disclosure; Insurance; Volatility; Insurance Industry; United States

14 Feb 2018
News

Money Can’t Buy Love, But Here’s What Can

Web

Investing for Impact | Social Enterprise | Harvard Business School

guests), students work in small groups supervised by their faculty mentors to conduct due diligence on a business for possible investment by the HBS Impact Investment Fund and/or one of our local partners. Working closely with... View Details

January 2009 (Revised June 2010)
Case

Cisco Business Councils (2007): Unifying a Functional Enterprise with an Internal Governance System

By: Ranjay Gulati

In response to the 2001 market downturn, Cisco Systems implemented a major restructuring that transformed the company from a decentralized to centralized organization. While recognizing that a centralized, functional structure was necessary to avoid product and... View Details

Keywords: Restructuring; Customer Focus and Relationships; Governing and Advisory Boards; Resource Allocation; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Structure; Corporate Strategy; Technology Industry

01 Nov 2016
First Look

First Look - November 1, 2016

Runway, Sentient Jet), and there is a more explicit focus on sustainability (e.g., Stella McCartney). Luxury brands need to consider the increasing global connectedness, particularly the importance of the... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

13 Feb 2012
Research & Ideas

The Case Against Racial Colorblindness

needed minority officers who were college graduates to lead their diverse enlistees," Norton says. "Statements like these help to reframe the general notion of why developing effective strategies for... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

Fit to Compete

Is Silence Killing Your Strategy? In his thirty years of working in corporations, Harvard Business School professor Michael Beer has witnessed firsthand how organizational silence derails strategic objectives. When employees can't speak truth to power, senior... View Details

Profile

Loujaine AlMoallim

involves carefully considering the unique needs and aspirations of each team member and adapting one’s leadership style to ensure that everyone is working collaboratively towards a shared goal. View Details

25 Apr 2007
Research & Ideas

Feeling Stuck? Getting Past Impasse

Impasse means that we need to change our whole approach to a problem. Thoughts are always part and parcel of the feeling experience: thoughts of "I'm not doing something... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

20 Jul 2021
Research & Ideas

Bankruptcy Spells Death for Too Many Businesses

Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection is supposed to allow companies to shed debt and get a fresh start. Ideally, creditors recover most of what they’re owed as the restructured firm begins turning a profit. Yet, more companies are liquidated... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne

November 2015
Case

Katherine Schuler at Boxes & Bins, Inc.

By: Linda A. Hill and James Kindley

This case is about Katherine Schuler, soon to become senior vice president of marketing at a fast-growing retail organization, Boxes & Bins (B&B). Part of Schuler's success has been due to her "fit" into a company with clear values and principles. In particular, B&B... View Details

Keywords: Change Management; Personal Development and Career; Growth and Development Strategy; Retail Industry

March 2012
Article

Enriching the Ecosystem

By: Rosabeth Moss Kanter

To remain a leader in innovation, the United States needs the support of foundational institutions that help seed, grow, and renew enterprises. Historically, these institutions-such as universities, venture creators, labor markets, and job-training programs-have tended... View Details

Keywords: Innovation and Invention; Organizations; Research and Development; Social and Collaborative Networks; Growth and Development Strategy; United States

21 Sep 2020
Research & Ideas

Are You Sabotaging Your Own Company?

“Sometimes when things go wrong, an organization needs to look at whether the problems are self-inflicted. The way things are handled in some organizations, the way decisions are made, and the way people communicate are often at the root... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

2019
Chapter

Coordination Frictions in Venture Capital Syndicates

By: Ramana Nanda and Matthew Rhodes-Kropf

An extensive literature on venture capital has studied asymmetric information and agency problems between investors and entrepreneurs, examining how separating entrepreneurs from the investor can create frictions that might inhibit the funding of good projects. It has... View Details

Keywords: Syndication; Frictions; Venture Capital; Networks; Entrepreneurship

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August 2018 (Revised September 2018)
Case

National Storage Affiliates: The REIT IPO Decision

By: Charles F. Wu, Max de la Bruyére and Gregory D. Himmel

In 2015, two years after founding National Storage Affiliates (NSA), Arlen Nordhagen and Tamara Fischer had an important decision to make. Should they proceed with NSA’s IPO? Although they had targeted to receive $15–17 a share, it was now apparent that the figure was... View Details

Keywords: Initial Public Offering; Problems and Challenges; Decision Making; Real Estate Industry