CEO - Publications - Faculty & Research

March 2017 (Revised October 2017)
Supplement

CEO Activism (B)

By: Michael W. Toffel, Aaron K. Chatterji and Julia Kelley

Supplements the (A) case. View Details

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June 2011
Article

The Ambidextrous CEO

By: Michael L. Tushman, Wendy K. Smith and Andy Binns

Keywords: Management

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March 1991 (Revised October 1991)
Case

CEO Evaluation at Dayton Hudson

By: Jay W. Lorsch

Describes the Dayton Hudson CEO evaluation process, one of the most intensive in corporate America today. The board of directors' role in the evaluation is examined, as is the question of whether the Dayton Hudson CEO evaluation process should serve as a model for... View Details

Keywords: Performance Evaluation; Governing and Advisory Boards; Management Succession; Management Teams

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16 Mar 2015
Working Paper Summaries

Higher-Ambition CEOs Need Higher-Ambition Boards

Keywords: by Edward J. Ludwig, Anna Elise Walton & Michael Beer

23 Jun 2003
Research & Ideas

Psychology, Pathology, and the CEO

turnaround. Consider the situations that confronted new CEOs in three companies: Gillette: Its performance was strong through the mid-1990s, but by the beginning of 2001, this global consumer-products company had experienced several years... View Details

Keywords: by Rosabeth Moss Kanter

December 2024 (Revised March 2025)
Case

Strategy and CEO Succession at Starbucks

By: Krishna G. Palepu and David Lane

On August 13, 2024, Starbucks announced that Laxman Narasimhan who was appointed as the CEO only in September 2023, was stepping down as CEO and board director “with immediate effect.” Laxman would be replaced on September 9 by Brian Niccol, CEO since 2018 of Chipotle... View Details

Keywords: Strategy; Corporate Governance; Leadership; Management Succession; Cost Management; Labor Unions; Working Conditions; Order Taking and Fulfillment; Service Operations; Investment Activism; Governing and Advisory Boards; Resignation and Termination; Food and Beverage Industry; United States

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June 1990 (Revised October 1993)
Case

Phil Knight: CEO at NIKE--1983

By: Richard E. Walton

An edited, shortened version of Phil Knight: CEO at Nike with parts of Nike (E) integrated into it. View Details

Keywords: Management Teams; Apparel and Accessories Industry; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; Sports Industry

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12 May 2021
Book

The Hard Truth About Being a CEO

Click to watch. David Fubini has never been a CEO of a major corporation, but during his 34-year career as a senior director at consulting firm McKinsey, he had ample opportunity to work closely with and observe View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

May–June 2015
Article

Higher-Ambition CEOs Need Higher-Ambition Boards

By: Edward Ludwig, Elise Walton and Michael Beer

The authors opine that ambitious chief executives (CEOs) of corporations need corporate boards which are also ambitious and accommodative of them. According to the authors good corporate governance and financial performance are the main requirements for good board-CEO... View Details

Keywords: Governing and Advisory Boards; Management Succession; Performance; Corporate Governance; Management Teams

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18 Nov 2015
Research & Ideas

Who Really Determines CEO Salary Packages?

compensation packages look so similar to each other? “Many of them stated that the design of the CEO compensation package was heavily reliant on the proposals produced by the compensation consultant” That’s the main question Susanna... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Consulting

16 Sep 2002
Research & Ideas

The Irrational Quest for Charismatic CEOs

The cult of the CEO is complex and persistent—and usually not good for business, says HBS professor Rakesh Khurana. Khurana recently fielded questions from HBS Working Knowledge senior editor Martha Lagace in an e-mail interview about his... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

02 Jan 2024
What Do You Think?

Do Boomerang CEOs Get a Bad Rap?

(AdobeStock/Vincent) The return of Robert Iger as CEO of Walt Disney followed by a poorer-than-expected company performance has rekindled the debate about whether the decision to bring back formerly successful View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

24 Sep 2014
Op-Ed

The Climate Needs Aggressive CEO Leadership

Corporations are facing great uncertainty. For the world to avoid the worst impacts of climate change, the United States eventually will have to put a price on carbon dioxide emissions, as has been done by Europe, parts of Canada, and California. To plan for the... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Toffel & Auden Schendler; Energy; Utilities

March 27, 2018
Other Article

Why CEOs Are Taking a Stand

By: Aaron K. Chatterji and Michael W. Toffel

In this podcast, we discuss the emerging phenomenon of CEO activism. We explain how political polarization in the U.S. and employee expectations around company values are pushing corporate leaders to enter into controversial political and social debates. We also hear... View Details

Keywords: Leadership; Social Issues; Values and Beliefs; Communication Strategy

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22 Nov 2006
Research & Ideas

CEO Succession: The Case at Ford

Podcast with: Joseph Bower Interviewer: James Aisner Running Time: 8 min., 23 sec. In early September, Ford Motor Company announced that Bill Ford would be replaced as CEO by Boeing's Alan Mulally, credited with the turnaround of the... View Details

Keywords: by Jim Aisner; Auto; Employment

2014
Working Paper

Higher-Ambition CEOs Need Higher-Ambition Boards

By: Edward Ludwig, Elise Walton and Michael Beer

Over the past years, forward-looking CEOs have adopted a higher-ambition approach to strategy and leadership. These "higher-ambition CEOs" are driven by a sense of purpose that goes beyond achieving financial success. They aspire to build organizations that succeed in... View Details

Keywords: Strategy; Leadership Style; Management Teams

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2016
Working Paper

CEO Personality and Firm Policies

By: Ian D. Gow, Steven N. Kaplan, David F. Larcker and Anastasia A. Zakolyukina

Based on two samples of high quality personality data for chief executive officers (CEOs), we use linguistic features extracted from conferences calls and statistical learning techniques to develop a measure of CEO personality in terms of the Big Five traits:... View Details

Keywords: Interpersonal Communication; Personal Characteristics; Management Teams

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20 Oct 2008
Research & Ideas

The Seven Things That Surprise New CEOs

new CEOs. See a video interview with Porter.Most new chief executives are taken aback by the unexpected and unfamiliar new roles, the time and information limitations, and the altered professional relationships they run up against. Here are the common surprises new... View Details

Keywords: by Michael E. Porter, Jay W. Lorsch & Nitin Nohria

12 Mar 2014
Lessons from the Classroom

Managing the Family Business: Firing the CEO

Editor's note: This is part of a series of occasional columns on managing the family business written by Senior Lecturer John A. Davis. In this article, Davis discusses when to make changes at the top. No one needs convincing that the right View Details

Article

Assessing the Impact of CEO Activism

By: Aaron K Chatterji and Michael W. Toffel

CEO activism refers to corporate leaders speaking out on social and environmental policy issues not directly related to their company’s core business. Distinct from nonmarket strategy and traditional corporate social responsibility, the recent wave of CEO activism... View Details

Keywords: Business And Society; Leadership; Policy; Ethics; Values and Beliefs; Governance; Social Issues; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Public Opinion