Publications

May 2004 (Revised June 2004)
Case

Brief Biographical Note on P. Roy Vagelos

By: Nitin Nohria and Bridget Gurtler

Provides background biographical information on P. Roy Vagelos, chief executive officer of Merck Pharmaceuticals. Teaching Purpose: To chart the development of a leader in the pharmaceutical industry. View Details

Keywords: Biography; Teaching; Leadership Development; Mission and Purpose; Personal Development and Career; Ethics; Pharmaceutical Industry

Find at Harvard

November 2005 (Revised August 2006)
Case

John Whitehead: A Life in Leadership

By: William W. George and Andrew N. McLean

In 2005, John C. Whitehead, chairman of the Lower Manhattan Development Corp. (LMDC), confronts the collapse of a delicate agreement among business, government, and public interests in rebuilding on the World Trade Center site. Provides information on the leadership... View Details

Keywords: Education; Construction; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Biography; Leadership; Leadership Development; Agreements and Arrangements; Nonprofit Organizations

June 2006 (Revised April 2007)
Case

Howard Schultz: Building Starbucks Community

By: William W. George and Andrew N. McLean

In 2006, Howard Schultz reflects on his leadership at Starbucks in light of its continued growth plans. Provides information on the leadership development of the protagonist, tracing his youth and education, his early business career, his acquisition of Starbucks, and... View Details

Keywords: Education; Biography; Leadership; Leadership Development; Leadership Style; Growth and Development Strategy; Personal Development and Career

August 2005 (Revised February 2007)
Case

Martin Luther King, Jr.: A Young Minister Confronts the Challenges of Montgomery

By: William W. George, Rick Buhrman and Andrew N. McLean

As the Montgomery Bus Boycott starts, the young Martin Luther King Jr. faces challenges to his leadership goals, strategic vision, and personal and family safety. Makes extensive use of King's own words and writings and builds a portrait of a young, talented, and... View Details

Keywords: Decision Making; Education; Values and Beliefs; Biography; Leadership; Personal Development and Career; Family and Family Relationships; Alabama

July 2005 (Revised June 2006)
Case

Narayana Murthy and Compassionate Capitalism

By: William W. George, Shailendra Jit Singh and Andrew N. McLean

Narayana Murthy's roles at Infosys Technologies--as a co-founder, longtime CEO, and nonexecutive chairman and chief mentor--has been marked by explosive growth, demanding management challenges, and widely lauded company leadership. His personal leadership philosophy... View Details

Keywords: Business Ventures; Economic Systems; Ethics; Values and Beliefs; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Biography; Leadership; Business or Company Management; Information Technology Industry; India

31 Jul 2015
Research & Ideas

The Faculty Reader: Who is Reading What This Summer?

recommend Ron Chernow’s Grant, a biography of Ulysses S. Grant. Other than as the answer to the 1950s Groucho Marx question, “Who was buried in Grant’s tomb?”, I had not known much about this fascinating person. He was a terrible judge of... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Information; Publishing

03 Aug 2010
First Look

First Look: August 3

Determination Through Brand Biography Authors:Neeru Paharia, Anat Keinan, Jill Avery, and Juliet Schor Publication:Journal of Consumer Research (forthcoming) Abstract We introduce the concept of an underdog brand View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

25 Oct 2016
First Look

October 25, 2016

emissions in many settings in which it would otherwise fail to do so. Download working paper: https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=42912 Managing Reputation: Evidence from Biographies of Corporate Directors By: Gow, Ian D., Aida... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

02 Feb 2004
What Do You Think?

Leadership: A Matter of Sustaining or Eliminating Groupthink?

complex task requiring an almost messianic set of beliefs and the ability to communicate them in convincing ways. For a classic example of this, read Robert Caro's prize-winning biography of builder Robert Moses who transformed the... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

04 Sep 2012
Research & Ideas

Book Excerpt: Indispensable: When Leaders Really Matter

found, given, and transmitted from the past." Thomas Carlyle, the Scottish writer who named economics "the dismal science," famously declared for the other side: "The History of the world is but the Biography of great men." Our instincts... View Details

12 Jul 2020
Book

The Harvard Business School Faculty Summer Reader 2020

recommend Ron Chernow’s Grant, a biography of Ulysses S. Grant. Other than as the answer to the 1950s Groucho Marx question, “Who was buried in Grant’s tomb?”, I had not known much about this fascinating person. He was a terrible judge of... View Details

Keywords: by Staff

Article

Businessmen and Land Ownership in the Late Nineteenth Century

By: Tom Nicholas

This article analyses the proportions of personal to real estate wealth for a group of 295 businessmen profiled in the Dictionary of business biography. It shows that businessmen who owned land on a large scale in the late nineteenth century were a comparatively small... View Details

Keywords: Ownership; Personal Finance; Property; Biography; History; Acquisition; Wealth; Power and Influence; Status and Position; Integration; Transformation; Market Transactions