Publications
Publications
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(8,106)
- Faculty Publications (2,351)
- December 9, 2020
- Article
Give Employees Cash to Purchase Their Own Insurance
By: Regina E. Herzlinger and Barak D. Richman
Employers’ and employees’ health care costs continue to skyrocket. A solution is to allow employers to give employees pre-tax cash to purchase their own health insurance. This move, enabled by a newly enacted federal rule, would put competitive pressure on insurers,... View Details
- December 2020 (Revised March 2025)
- Case
Responsive Working at PepsiCo UK (A): Designing a Turnaround
By: Amy C. Edmondson and Nancy Boghossian Staples
Facing a significant decline in revenues in 2016, David Gwilliam, Head of Transformation at PepsiCo UK introduced a new way of working (“Responsive Working”), which encompasses a set of work practices and some new team structures. The work practices comprise a set of 9... View Details
- December 2020 (Revised June 2021)
- Case
France Télécom (A): A Challenging Restructuring
These cases explore the impacts of industry shocks, resulting corporate actions that had a devastating impact on employees, and the legal conviction of corporate leaders for “institutional harassment."
This case series follows the evolution of France... View Details
This case series follows the evolution of France... View Details
Keywords: Health ＆ Wellness; Human Resource Management; Strategic Change; Leadership & Corporate Accountability; Leadership And Change Management; Leadership And Managing People; Change; Restructuring; Crime and Corruption; Ethics; Health; Human Capital; Human Resources; Labor; Labor and Management Relations; Labor Unions; Law; Social Psychology; Strategy; Leadership; Leadership Style; Organizations; Problems and Challenges; Relationships; Crisis Management; Organizational Culture; Employees; Well-being; Telecommunications Industry; Europe; European Union
- December 2020
- Supplement
France Télécom (B): A Wave of Staff Suicides
In the B case we learn that at least 19 France Telecom employees took their own lives between 2006 and 2009, 12 others attempted suicide, and eight suffered from serious depression for reasons reportedly related to work. Some of these deaths occurred in public places,... View Details
Keywords: Mental Health; Change; Crime and Corruption; Ethics; Health; Human Capital; Human Resources; Labor and Management Relations; Labor Unions; Law; Social Psychology; Strategy; Leadership Style; Organizations; Problems and Challenges; Relationships; Crisis Management; Employees; Well-being; Telecommunications Industry; Europe; European Union
- December 2020
- Supplement
France Télécom (C): An Unprecedented Trial
In the C case we learn that former CEO Didier Lombard, Deputy Chief Executive Louis-Pierre Wenes, Human Resources Head Olivier Barberot and France Telecom itself were charged for institutional harassment by French authorities, a first for a CAC 40 company. In December... View Details
Keywords: Human Behavior; Human Dignity; Human Resource Practices; Corporate Change And Sustainability; Corporate Culture; Strategic Corporate Decisions; Strategic Change; Strategic Decision Making; Emotion; Management Challenges; Corporate Accountability; Organizational Culture; Human Resources; Crisis Management; Law; Courts and Trials; Labor; Labor and Management Relations; Management Practices and Processes; Employees; Well-being; Telecommunications Industry; Europe; European Union
- 2023
- Working Paper
Personalized Game Design for Improved User Retention and Monetization in Freemium Games
By: Eva Ascarza, Oded Netzer and Julian Runge
One of the most crucial aspects and significant levers that gaming companies possess in designing
digital games is setting the level of difficulty, which essentially regulates the user’s ability to
progress within the game. This aspect is particularly significant in... View Details
- November 2020 (Revised March 2022)
- Teaching Note
Social Salary Setting at Spiber
By: Ashley Whillans and John Beshears
Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 920-050. The case tells the story of Spiber, a Japanese technology start-up company. To reflect the company’s values, the leadership team implemented a new and unique salary-setting process: each employee had the authority to choose their... View Details
- November 2020 (Revised February 2021)
- Case
Integrating Beam Suntory (A)
By: David G. Fubini, Rawi Abdelal and David Lane
The spring 2014 acquisition of U.S. alcoholic spirits maker Beam Inc. by Japan’s Suntory Holdings vaulted Suntory from 15th to third-largest international spirits company in the world. Yet Suntory had borrowed nearly the entire $16 billion purchase price, and relied on... View Details
Keywords: Family Business; Communication; Borrowing and Debt; Globalization; Corporate Governance; Governing and Advisory Boards; Retention; Leadership; Supply Chain; Organizational Structure; Ownership; Relationships; Conflict and Resolution; Integration; Value Creation; Food and Beverage Industry; Japan; United States; Chicago
- November 2020
- Supplement
Integrating Beam Suntory (B)
By: David G. Fubini, Rawi Abdelal and David Lane
Supplements (A) case: The spring 2014 acquisition of U.S. alcoholic spirits maker Beam Inc. by Japan’s Suntory Holdings vaulted Suntory from 15th to third-largest international spirits company in the world. Yet Suntory had borrowed nearly the entire $16 billion... View Details
Keywords: Family Business; Communication; Borrowing and Debt; Globalization; Corporate Governance; Governing and Advisory Boards; Retention; Leadership; Supply Chain; Organizational Structure; Ownership; Relationships; Conflict and Resolution; Integration; Value Creation; Food and Beverage Industry; Japan; United States; Chicago
- November 2020
- Teaching Note
Unilever's Response to the Future of Work
By: William R. Kerr and Bailey McAfee
Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 820-104. View Details
- November 2020 (Revised March 2021)
- Case
Amazon: Cult or Culture?
By: Boris Groysberg, Sarah L. Abbott and Tricia Gregg
Amazon was one of the first entrants in e-commerce. Under the leadership of founder Jeff Bezos, Amazon had expanded beyond books to manufacturing and selling a wide range of products and services globally. Bezos had built a customer-centric culture that permeated all... View Details
- November 2020
- Case
Truebird—An AlleyCorp Venture
By: Shikhar Ghosh and Shweta Bagai
In December 2018, Kevin Ryan and Wendy Tsu faced an important decision – to finalize the CEO candidate for Truebird, an innovative, automated coffee café concept. Like many of AlleyCorp and Ryan’s companies, Truebird started with the observation of an unmet need – an... View Details
- November 2020
- Case
Creating a Virtual Internship at Goldman Sachs
By: Prithwiraj Choudhury, Iavor I. Bojinov and Emma Salomon
Goldman Sachs runs an annual internship for over 3,000 participants, spread across dozens of the firm's global offices. In 2020, the team brought all its resources to bear to transform the internship program into a fully virtual format in just a few short weeks. The... View Details
- 2020
- Working Paper
Determinants of Early-Stage Startup Performance: Survey Results
To explore determinants of new venture performance, the CEOs of 470 early-stage startups were surveyed regarding a broad range of factors related to their venture’s customer value proposition, product management, marketing, technology and operations, financial... View Details
- November 2020
- Case
Guild Education: Unlocking Opportunity for America's Workforce
By: William A. Sahlman, Michael D. Smith, Nicole Tempest Keller and Alpana Thapar
Founded in 2015, Guild Education is an education marketplace that connects employers and universities to provide employees with ‘education as a benefit.’ The Denver-based company is transforming traditional tuition assistance programs by facilitating direct payment by... View Details
- 2020
- White Paper
Building the On-Demand Workforce
By: Joseph B. Fuller, Manjari Raman, James Palano, Allison Bailey, Nithya Vaduganathan, Elizabeth Kaufman, Renée Laverdière and Sibley Lovett
The right talent, in the right place, at the
right time, is the equation for success in
today’s world. In an era of technological
change, demographic shifts, and economic
uncertainty, companies can enhance their
ability to compete by building a flexible... View Details
- November–December 2020
- Article
Rethinking the On-Demand Workforce
By: Joseph B. Fuller, Manjari Raman, Allison Bailey and Nithya Vaduganathan
As companies struggle with chronic skills shortages and changing labor demographics, a new generation of talent platforms, offering on-demand access to highly trained workers, has begun to help. These platforms include marketplaces for premium expertise (such as Toptal... View Details
- November–December 2020
- Article
The Risks You Can't Foresee: What to Do When There's No Playbook
By: Robert S. Kaplan, Herman B. Leonard and Anette Mikes
No matter how good their risk management systems are, companies can’t plan for everything. Some risks are outside people’s realm of experience or so remote no one could have imagined them. Some result from a perfect storm of coinciding breakdowns, and some materialize... View Details
- October 2020 (Revised March 2022)
- Case
Automercados Plaza's: Surviving Venezuela's Hyperinflation
By: Alberto Cavallo, Mariana Cal and Carla Larangeira
Under the rule of presidents Hugo Chávez and Nicolas Maduro, Venezuela experienced one of the worst economic and political meltdowns in modern history, culminating with a massive hyperinflation. Remarkably, during this dramatic times Automercados Plaza's had grown to... View Details
- October 2020 (Revised August 2022)
- Case
Union Square Hospitality Group: Hospitality Included
By: Peter Boumgarden, Ryan W. Buell, Lamar Pierce and Richard Ryffel
In 2015, Union Square Hospitality Group (USHG), helmed by famous restauranteur Danny Meyer, sent shockwaves through the restaurant industry by announcing the end of tipping in its restaurants. Under its new policy, Hospitality Included (HI), USHG would charge higher... View Details