Publications

05 Nov 2007
What Do You Think?

Why Is Succession So Badly Managed?

the organization for a number of years and was making his mark running a non-core business, plastics, with a management style that was very different from his predecessor, Reg Jones. His selection culminated... View Details

Keywords: Re: James L. Heskett

21 May 2014
Lessons from the Classroom

CORe: HBS Powers Up Online Program on Business Fundamentals

As a Harvard Business School professor for 20 years, V.G. Narayanan has significant experience using the School's pioneering case method to teach business concepts—introducing a real-world management problem, and then using the Socratic... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Education

April 1998 (Revised November 1999)
Case

Linda Jacober

By: Hugo Uyterhoeven

Linda Jacober is parachuted into a new venture, Mac Direct. Did she inherit the strategic plan of a lifetime or did she board a kamikaze plane? What organizational challenges did she encounter upon her arrival? How well has she done to date and what advice would one... View Details

Keywords: Strategy; Opportunities; Change Management; Leadership Style; Problems and Challenges

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February 2004
Case

New HP, The: The Clean Room and Beyond

By: Leslie A. Perlow and Elizabeth Kind

When the $19 billion merger of Silicon Valley legend Hewlett-Packard and Houston-based PC giant Compaq Computer Corp. legally closed on May 3, 2002, both companies had already devoted an immense amount of time preparing for the challenges that lay ahead. Chief among... View Details

Keywords: Horizontal Integration; Management Teams; Management Style; Problems and Challenges; Employees; Organizational Culture; Computer Industry; San Francisco

August 2002 (Revised February 2003)
Case

Myteam.com

By: John T. Gourville, Joseph B. Lassiter III and Taslim Pirmohamed

Elliot Katzman is faced with the need to raise cash and cut spending to develop his online amateur sports software application, Myteam.com. Even with powerful allies such as Little League and Coca-Cola, "big deals with big players" had not kept the company from running... View Details

Keywords: Cash Flow; Financial Management; Leadership Style; Crisis Management; Resource Allocation; Alliances; Sports; Web Sites; Sports Industry; Web Services Industry

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19 Feb 2008
Research & Ideas

Radical Design, Radical Results

addresses this shortfall as part of a larger research agenda investigating how companies manage to succeed in this particular arena. Verganti coauthored the article with Claudio Dell'Era, his colleague at Italy's Politecnico di Milano.... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Consumer Products

March 2000 (Revised June 2000)
Case

Jeanne Lewis at Staples, Inc. (C)

By: Linda A. Hill and Kristin Doughty

Supplements the (A) case. View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Management Style; Change Management; Marketing Strategy; Management Succession; Competitive Advantage; Problems and Challenges; Management Teams; Retail Industry; United States

08 Nov 2024
HBS Case

What Wartime Service Taught These Historic Leaders

of biographical case studies for his MBA class, Changing the World, that includes several protagonists whose management chops are battle-tested. “There’s a discipline in the military that is sometimes lacking in commercial organizations,... View Details

Keywords: by Avery Forman; Entertainment & Recreation

March 2006 (Revised November 2007)
Case

Manchester Bidwell Corporation (A)

By: James L. Heskett

The head of Manchester Bidwell Corp. ponders what it will take to replicate its social services in 100 cities across North America and internationally--an effort that ultimately would cost several hundred million dollars. View Details

Keywords: Cost vs Benefits; Social Entrepreneurship; Leadership Style; Growth Management; Welfare; North and Central America

23 May 2017
First Look

First Look at New Ideas and Research: May 23, 2017

technology firms, we show that founders who received advice from other founders with more “hands-on” management styles were more likely to reorient their own management... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

April 1984 (Revised May 2011)
Case

Mike Walker

Describes Bill Hudson's attempts to constructively deviate from and change the culture of various work units that he has worked in over 26 years with ABC Electronics. View Details

Keywords: Change; Management Skills; Management Style; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Culture

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February 2023 (Revised November 2024)
Case

Ronald Reagan: Changing the World

By: Robert Simons and Shirley Sun

This case traces the rise of Ronald Reagan from small town Illinois to two-term president of the United States. An unlikely candidate for the world’s most powerful job, the case describes the different roles that Reagan filled over his life: radio announcer, Hollywood... View Details

Keywords: Politics; Entertainment; Personal Characteristics; Business And Government; Values And Beliefs; Mission And Purpose; Decision Making; Government Administration; Management Style; Power and Influence; United States

August 1993
Case

General Motors: Smith's Dilemma

By: Nitin Nohria and Sandy Green

Discusses Roger Smith's tenure as CEO of General Motors. Describes his vision for changing General Motors, and how he went about implementing that vision. View Details

Keywords: Change Management; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Management Teams; Leadership Style; Auto Industry; Manufacturing Industry

November 2010
Teaching Note

Belco Global Foods (TN)

By: C. Fritz Foley and Matthew Johnson

Teaching Note for 211033. View Details

Keywords: Managerial Roles; Leadership Style; Trade; International Finance; Globalization; Decisions; Customers; Food and Beverage Industry

February 2008 (Revised February 2008)
Case

University of Chicago Graduate School of Business

By: Srikant M. Datar, David A. Garvin and James Weber

The University of Chicago Graduate School of Business offered a discipline-based, flexible MBA program to full time, evening, weekend, and executive MBA students. At a time when other MBA programs were introducing significant changes to their curricula, Chicago felt... View Details

Keywords: Change Management; Higher Education; Training; Management Style; Problems and Challenges; Education Industry

02 Sep 2002
Research & Ideas

Foreign Multinationals in the U.S.: A Rocky Road

appeared "amateurish" compared to their U.S. counterparts. Recent years have seen a considerable convergence of U.K. management styles with those of the U.S. Many of the largest British... View Details

Keywords: by Sarah Jane Johnston & Martha Lagace

September 1983 (Revised December 1988)
Case

Cleveland Twist Drill (A)

By: Richard G. Hamermesh

Deals with the problems of implementing strategy in a declining industry and the negotiation of strategy with external constituencies, particularly labor unions. Traces Jim Bartlett's first nine months as president and asks for a plan of action. View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Management Style; Negotiation Tactics; Labor and Management Relations; Corporate Strategy

September 13, 2023
Article

The Myth of the CEO as Ultimate Decision Maker

By: Nitin Nohria

Chief executives are responsible for guiding corporations, so the role inevitably requires making many decisions. But people overestimate the level of personal involvement CEOs have in this process. Instead of making decisions, CEOs tend to shape decisions, by... View Details

Keywords: Problem Solving; Delegation; Leadership Style; Decision Making; Time Management; Power and Influence