Publications

October 2005 (Revised February 2006)
Case

Reactivity: A Case of Re-Invention

By: Myra M. Hart and Sylvia Sensiper

By the time Glenn Osaka joined Reactivity as its new CEO in January 2001, the Internet bubble had burst, the financial markets had turned, and the company's core businesses were drying up. He was not hired to lead a turnaround, but Osaka found that the firm's future... View Details

Keywords: Management Style; Venture Capital; Organizational Culture; Applications and Software; Leadership Style; Product; Transformation; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Entrepreneurship; Growth and Development Strategy; Information Technology Industry; Consulting Industry

05 Jun 2007
First Look

First Look: June 5, 2007

response, Beijing Hualian developed a new "Family Store" format targeted at the nation's growing middle class, made up of younger consumers with more fashionable tastes. Like hypermarkets, Hualian Family Stores include both food... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

25 Aug 2015
First Look

First Look Tuesday

decades about how and why people make the moral decisions they do. In this review, we explain how intuition, affect, physiology, and identity support and inform more... View Details

05 Feb 2009
Research & Ideas

In Praise of Marketing

the United States. The latest Interbrand listing of the most valuable global brands reveals seven American brands in the top ten and sixty in the top hundred, more than twice the expected numbers based on the United States' command of 28... View Details

Keywords: by John Quelch; Advertising

21 Apr 2015
First Look

First Look: April 21

ever-growing e-commerce site, and fierce competition, Amoruso wondered what opportunity to tackle next. Should she concentrate on product line expansion into lingerie, swimwear, cosmetics, View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel & Sean Silverthorne

09 Feb 2004
Research & Ideas

Got a New Strategy? Now Make it Happen

years ago we launched a research program to develop a process that leaders could use to engage their people in an honest conversation. The "strategic fitness process" was designed in partnership... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Beer & Russell A. Eisenstat

10 Feb 2009
First Look

First Look: February 10, 2009

premia determined mainly by the product of risk aversion and the nominal-real covariance. The concavity of the yield curve—the level of intermediate-term bond yields, relative to the average of short- View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

February 2025
Case

Luca de Meo at Renault Group (A)

By: Emily Truelove, Linda A. Hill and Lydia Begag

When Luca de Meo became CEO of Renault Group in 2020, the 122-year-old French automaker faced financial challenges and the double technological disruption of the automotive industry: the shift to electric vehicles (EVs) and the rise of software-defined vehicles (SDVs).... View Details

February 2008 (Revised September 2008)
Case

Indesit Company: Does Global Matter?

By: Joseph L. Bower

In 2007, the leadership of the Indesit Company is focused on long-term corporate strategy. After 3 decades, the company has emerged as the number 2 home appliance producer in Europe. Should they invest further to be number 1, or should they focus on the global market,... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Global Strategy; Growth and Development; Business or Company Management; Brands and Branding; Markets; Problems and Challenges; Corporate Strategy; Consumer Products Industry

26 Jun 2007
First Look

First Look: June 26, 2007

Materials Harvard Business School Case 107-018 Explores the process and inputs behind financial and operational forecasting in the Electronic Specialty Materials unit at Air... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

15 Aug 2019
Blog Post

Stan Chang: “A Guided Experience into the World of Entrepreneurship”

best program for me.” Stan had already gained an impressive amount of experience at Microsoft where he worked on operating systems and with online payments technology, responsibilities that “shaped my view on software View Details

Keywords: Technology; Entrepreneurship

21 Nov 2016
Research & Ideas

It Matters That Your CEO Doesn't Know Much About Sales

CEOs need to roll up their sleeves and learn more about the customer-facing sides of their businesses, like sales. Source: AlexBrylov Let’s face it: To most C-suite executives, sales processes are often an... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

August 2019 (Revised August 2024)
Module Note

Why Aspiring Executives Should Care About Management Theory

By: Clayton M. Christensen, Rory McDonald and Shaye Roseman

Managers often make significant business decisions based on little more than convincing book jacket blurbs. They should hold themselves—and the experts—to a higher standard. View Details

Keywords: Management Theory; Management Practices and Processes; Leadership Development

12 Mar 2012
Research & Ideas

Crowded at the Top: The Rise of the Functional Manager

"But what we found instead is that it's not an increase in the total number of managers reporting directly, it's just the number of functional managers, which is a little more subtle." The paper divides functional managers into two camps—those focused on... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

26 May 2009
Research & Ideas

Improving Market Research in a Recession

recession ends? Or are they developing coping mechanisms that will endure, especially if the recession is lengthy? What new products and services will consumers be open to... View Details

Keywords: by John Quelch

June 2000
Case

Lifeline Systems, Inc. (A)

By: H. Kent Bowen and Marilyn Matis

Lifeline Systems provides emergency response equipment to the elderly who live at home. The company uses local hospitals to market, sell, and install these units in homes, while the hospital monitors and calls for aid to respond to emergency calls from the elderly... View Details

Keywords: Health Care and Treatment; Product Marketing; Sales; Problems and Challenges; Growth and Development Strategy; Managerial Roles; Service Operations; Information Infrastructure; Age; Service Delivery; Restructuring; Crisis Management; Health Industry; Service Industry