Publications

December 2008
Article

The Teaching of Strategy: From General Manager to Analyst and Back Again?

By: Joseph L. Bower

Courses in strategy are an outgrowth of the business policy course first taught at Harvard Business School in 1912. This article examines how the teaching of a course concerned with the development and implementation of the goals and policies of a firm changed during... View Details

Keywords: Business Education; Curriculum and Courses; Teaching; Policy; Business History; Strategy; Competitive Strategy; Corporate Strategy

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January 2006 (Revised February 2015)
Case

Innovation at Timberland: Thinking Outside the Shoe Box

By: Rosabeth M. Kanter and Ryan Raffaelli

Innovation was linked to Timberland's heritage. In 2005, CEO Jeff Swartz and COO Ken Pucker hoped the Invention Factory, an advanced concept lab, would develop new breakthrough products and reinvigorate the company's culture of innovation. Since the 1960s, Timberland... View Details

Keywords: Innovation and Management; Growth and Development Strategy; Product Development; Organizational Culture; Change Management

November 2002 (Revised January 2004)
Case

Martha McCaskey

By: Joshua D. Margolis and Bart J. van Dissel

Martha McCaskey, a project leader at a consulting firm, is asked to complete a project at a crucial point in her career. Successful completion of the project would gain McCaskey a promotion and a significant raise. McCaskey, however, cannot see a way to complete the... View Details

Keywords: Ethics; Values and Beliefs; Personal Development and Career; Decision Making; Problems and Challenges; Consulting Industry

May 2022
Teaching Note

Climate Action in Miami

By: Rosabeth Moss Kanter and Catarina Martinez

Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 322-101. The Miami metropolitan area is a global epicenter of climate risk from heat and sea level rise, but leaders have only recently mobilized for action to respond to this systemic challenge. Resilient 305 began a collaboration across... View Details

Keywords: Climate Change; Climate Impact; Change; Leadership; Cross-sector Collaboration; Coalition; Ecosystem; Greenhouse Gas Emissions; Cities; Environmental Sustainability; Infrastructure; Green Technology; Environmental Management; Miami

Shaking the Globe: Courageous Decision-Making in a Changing World

We live in a highly interdependent world where 95 percent of the world's consumers live outside the U.S. Two-thirds of the world's purchasing power is also outside the U.S. Shaking the Globe guides everyone on how to absorb the... View Details

TeachingInterests

Managing Health Care Delivery - Executive Education

By: Robert S. Huckman

While delivering patient care has always been a primary goal of health care organizations, financial outcomes have long been the metric by which success is measured. Increasingly, however, health care leaders are being held accountable for... View Details

2011
Book

Do More Than Give: The Six Practices of Donors Who Change the World

By: Leslie Crutchfield, John Kania and Mark R. Kramer

Do More Than Give provides a blueprint for individuals, philanthropists, and foundation leaders to increase their impact. Based on Forces for Good, this groundbreaking book demonstrates how the six practices of high-impact nonprofits apply to donors... View Details

Keywords: Management Practices and Processes; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving

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June 2005 (Revised September 2008)
Class Lecture

Strategy: Building and Sustaining Competitive Advantage

By: Bharat N. Anand, Stephen P. Bradley, Pankaj Ghemawat, Tarun Khanna, Cynthia A. Montgomery, Michael E. Porter, Jan W. Rivkin, Michael G. Rukstad, John R. Wells and David B. Yoffie

It's great to have a blockbuster quarter or a revolutionary product or service, but true business excellence demands sustainability. Maintaining your competitive advantage requires a strategy that makes your business unique and carries you forward as the world around... View Details

Keywords: Competitive Advantage

March 2014
Case

Inequality and Growth in the 'Chinese Dream'

By: Rafael Di Tella, Meg Rithmire and Kaitlyn Szydlowski

Xi Jinping assumed his position as head of China's fifth generation of leaders in 2012. Xi was head of both the People's Republic of China and the Chinese Communist Party, which had ruled China since 1949. Xi inherited a country far more unequal than the one that Mao... View Details

Keywords: China; Growth; Inequality; Wealth And Poverty; Social Stability; Perceptions Of Inequality; Chinese Dream; Chinese Political Thought; Corruption; Equality and Inequality; China

July 2013
Case

Sample6: Innovating to Make Food Safer

By: Robert F. Higgins and Kirsten Kester

Tim Curran, CEO of Sample6, a start-up biotechnology company developing a novel food safety diagnostics platform, must decide how to partner with food industry players. How can he best convince leaders in this mature industry to adopt a new technology and improve food... View Details

Article

New Sales Realities

By: Frank V. Cespedes

Business leaders need to understand that it’s the fit of People, Process, Pricing, and Partners that drives sales effectiveness. As firms confront new buying processes, required sales competencies affect hiring, training, and development (People). Without a coherent... View Details

Keywords: Sales; Performance Effectiveness

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08 Apr 2015
News

3 key skills clinicians need in executive roles

May 2006
Module Note

Leading Culturally Diverse Teams

By: Robin J. Ely

Describes the Leading Culturally Diverse Teams module (eight class sessions), which teaches students the leadership perspectives and skills necessary to develop high-functioning, culturally diverse teams (teams diverse in, for example, race, ethnicity, gender,... View Details

Keywords: Competency and Skills; Diversity; Leadership; Groups and Teams; Perspective; Culture

14 Nov 2013
News

The mindfulness business

April 2012
Article

How Many Direct Reports?

By: Gary L. Neilson and Julie Wulf

If senior executives are feeling ever more pressed for time, why would they add more to their plates? It might sound counterintuitive, but research by Booz & Company's Gary L. Neilson and me shows that over the past 20 years the CEO's average span of control, measured... View Details

Keywords: Leadership; Governance Controls; Managerial Roles; Adaptation; Personal Development and Career; Cooperation; Management Teams

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September 2021
Case

Tonya Thayer

By: David Fubini

Tonya Thayer, Senior Partner and leader of the Consumer Package Goods practice at Sinclair Consulting, must evaluate Alan Henderson, a Principal (junior) Partner and a key member within CPG, as the six-month update on his progress and development nears. While prior... View Details

Keywords: Advice Giving; Performance Review; Performance Evaluation; Personal Development and Career

January 2020
Case

Terra Nova: A Social Business Trying to Unlock Land Rights for the Urban Poor in Brazil

By: Julie Battilana, Ruth Costas, Marissa Kimsey and Priscilla Zogbi

Brothers André and Daniel Albuquerque founded the company Terra Nova in 2001 to mediate land disputes between poor families illegally living in urban areas and the official landowners—with the aspiration to improve the lives of the poor. A business-led approach to the... View Details

Keywords: Mission and Purpose; Social Enterprise; Entrepreneurship; Negotiation; Power and Influence; Social Issues; Conflict and Resolution; Business and Government Relations; Infrastructure; Urban Development; Real Estate Industry; Brazil; Latin America