Publications

November 2008
Article

Winning the Race for Talent in Emerging Markets

By: Douglas A. Ready, Linda A. Hill and Jay A. Conger

"This war for talent is like nothing we've ever seen before," write the authors, who have spent decades studying talent management and leadership development. Recently they interviewed executives at more than 20 global companies to identify strategies for attracting... View Details

Keywords: Leadership Development; Selection and Staffing; Talent and Talent Management; Multinational Firms and Management; Organizational Culture; Recruitment; Diversity; Developing Countries and Economies

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June 2024
Teaching Note

Skills-First Hiring at IBM

By: Boris Groysberg and Sarah Mehta

Teaching note for “Skills-First Hiring at IBM,” case no. 422-013. View Details

Keywords: Competency and Skills; Experience and Expertise; Talent and Talent Management; Human Resources; Human Capital; Employees; Recruitment; Retention; Selection and Staffing; Jobs and Positions; Job Design and Levels; Job Interviews; Society; Societal Protocols; Technology Industry; United States; New York (state, US)

May 2024
Supplement

DRSi (A)

By: Richard S. Ruback and Royce Yudkoff

In March of 2019, Jen Ransom Fuller purchased DRSi. DRSi, located in Bellevue, Washington, printed and reproduced architectural plans and drawings. Fuller planned to use her first year of ownership to learn the business and to run it in much the same way as the seller.... View Details

Keywords: Acquisition; Small Business; Cost vs Benefits; Decisions; Business Education; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Leadership Style; Leading Change; Business or Company Management; Problems and Challenges; Health Pandemics; Selection and Staffing; Employee Relationship Management; Production; Logistics; Safety; United States; Washington (state, US)

June 2007 (Revised March 2008)
Case

Lazard LLC

By: Guhan Subramanian and Eliot Sherman

Describes Lazard's situation in 2001, and supplies context for the subsequent negotiation between its Chairman and his hand-picked successor. In 2001 Lazard, the last of the great investment houses to remain both private and in the control of its founding family, is in... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Family Business; Talent and Talent Management; Selection and Staffing; Management Succession; Negotiation Tactics; Financial Services Industry

April 2001 (Revised November 2001)
Case

AvantGo

By: Alan D. MacCormack and Kerry Herman

Richard Owen, CEO of AvantGo, is preparing for a meeting in which he will set the human resource policy for the firm going forward. It has been three months since the company's IPO, and given the tremendous cramp in hiring over the six months prior to the IPO, he knows... View Details

Keywords: Initial Public Offering; Management Teams; Selection and Staffing; Retention; Growth and Development Strategy; Performance Evaluation; Information Technology; Decisions; Information Technology Industry; Service Industry; United States

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2021
Working Paper

Multi-location Workers in Multinational Firms? Tradeoffs in Contextual Specialization of Employees and Organizational Outcomes

By: Hise O. Gibson, Ryan W. Buell and Prithwiraj Choudhury

We study how “contextual specialization,” the act of focusing workers’ organizational tasks within a particular locational context, and “contextual non-specialization,” the practice of diversifying workers’ organizational tasks among multiple locational contexts,... View Details

Keywords: Talent and Talent Management; Performance; Experience and Expertise; Selection and Staffing; Strength and Weakness; Personal Development and Career

Read Now

November 1998 (Revised July 2012)
Case

Explo Leisure Products

By: Richard G. Hamermesh

Tim Trowac and Dave Rahall, two former investment bankers, skillfully execute the leveraged buyout of a golf ball recycling company after working intensely on their due diligence, writing a business and financial plan, and developing the investment memorandum. Six... View Details

Keywords: Selection and Staffing; Leveraged Buyouts; Business Plan; Performance; Management Teams; Business Strategy; Financial Strategy; Business and Shareholder Relations; Green Technology Industry; Sports Industry

15 Aug 2017
First Look

First Look at New Research and Ideas, August 15, 2017

transformation. Over the preceding two years, Davis and Gorowitz had grown Swagbucks from a relatively small venture staffed by people from Gorowitz’s personal and professional networks into a professionally managed and rapidly scaling... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

31 Mar 2023
News

How Can We Solve the Teacher Shortage Crisis?

Institute, Joe Fuller. Fuller's guest in this episode is Mallory Dwinal-Palisch (MBA 2015), Chancellor of Reach University and CEO and cofounder of teacher staffing firm Craft Education System. Reach offers accredited, teacher... View Details

Keywords: Educational Support Services; Educational Services

01 Dec 1997
News

A Piece of the Action

useful research project could focus on the role of venture capital in financing and nurturing high potential ventures in the Valley. Presently staffed with a director and a full-time senior researcher, the Center will provide... View Details

Keywords: Susan Young

January 2002 (Revised June 2002)
Background Note

A Note on Building and Leading Your Senior Team

By: Linda A. Hill and Maria Farkas

As performance demands intensify in fast-moving global markets, more executives are coming to rely on senior teams for strategic and operational assistance. Team building with powerful senior executives presents special challenges, including competition for their boss'... View Details

Keywords: Talent and Talent Management; Globalized Markets and Industries; Selection and Staffing; Leadership; Management Teams; Operations; Organizational Culture; Rank and Position; Strategy

06 Sep 2013
News

More Seats at the Table

Beth Stewart Corporate America's glass ceiling doesn't stop at the C-suite. Only 16.6 percent of Fortune 500 companies have a woman on their board of directors. Beth A. Stewart (MBA 1982) is uniquely qualified to change that. And she is changing it—one board at a time.... View Details

Keywords: Constantine von Hoffman; Corporate Services

21 Mar 2004
Research & Ideas

Loyalty: Don’t Give Away the Store

customers shop at the deli counter, then make sure the deli counter is fully staffed at these times. The same goes for checkouts. Make sure plenty of checkout counters are open when best customers are shopping. It is crucial to find ways... View Details

Keywords: by Manda Salls; Consumer Products; Retail

14 Jun 2011
First Look

First Look: June 14

turning an internal capability into a client facing revenue stream. This is made especially difficult by the fact that the parent company is a manufacturing firm and InterfaceRAISE is a professional service firm (consulting). InterfaceRAISE is not being View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

July 2024 (Revised October 2024)
Case

Knowledge Transfer: Toyota, NUMMI, and GM

By: Willy Shih

New United Motors Manufacturing, Inc. (NUMMI) was a joint venture between Toyota and General Motors. It was an opportunity for GM to learn about the Toyota Production System, which was quite different from the mass production processes American automakers used at the... View Details

Keywords: Culture Change; Organizational Culture; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Factories, Labs, and Plants; Joint Ventures; Transformation; Selection and Staffing; Knowledge Acquisition; Knowledge Sharing; Labor Unions; Management Systems; Performance Improvement; Production; Labor and Management Relations; Auto Industry; Japan; United States

March 2024
Case

Biomanufacturing Decentralization by Stämm

By: Paul A. Gompers, Jenyfeer Martínez Buitrago and Mariana Cal

In Buenos Aires, Argentina, cousins Llamazares and D’Alvia founded Stämm, a startup based on the idea of decentralizing biomanufacturing processes and downsizing biotech facilities. After raising its seed and series A rounds, and while finalizing its series B round in... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Business Startups; Entrepreneurship; Venture Capital; Selection and Staffing; Technological Innovation; Science-Based Business; Business Strategy; Commercialization; Growth and Development Strategy; Product Launch; Research and Development; Biotechnology Industry; Latin America; South America; Argentina; Buenos Aires

December 2004 (Revised April 2006)
Case

Managing Diversity at Cityside Financial Services

By: Robin J. Ely and Ingrid Vargas

Cityside Financial Services, a disguised consumer bank, serves both a largely African-American urban community and a more affluent, predominantly white clientele. To match the gender and racial makeup of its staff to that of its customers, Cityside's sales division... View Details

Keywords: Selection and Staffing; Situation or Environment; Race; Employees; Gender; Customer Satisfaction; Diversity; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Banks and Banking; Banking Industry

July 2003 (Revised October 2013)
Case

Model N Inc.

By: Marco Iansiti and Alison Berkley Wagonfeld

The CEO of a Silicon Valley start-up needed to make organizational and product changes to deliver a new software solution to a Fortune 500 customer. He was wondering how he should structure the company to best meet the requirements for this particular customer, while... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Business Startups; Trends; Communication; Customer Focus and Relationships; Selection and Staffing; Time Management; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Business Strategy; Software; Computer Industry

March 2022
Supplement

Winning Business at Russell Reynolds (B)

By: Ethan Bernstein and Cara Mazzucco

In an effort to make compensation drive collaboration, Russell Reynolds Associates’ (RRA) CEO Clarke Murphy sought to re-engineer the bonus system for his executive search consultants in 2016. As his HR analytics guru, Kelly Smith, points out, that risks upsetting–and... View Details