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- All HBS Web (106)
- Faculty Publications (44)
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- December 2018 (Revised January 2020)
- Case
Husk Power: Scaling the Venture
In January 2018, Manoj Sinha—founder and CEO of Husk Power—was contemplating raising $20 million to scale operations for a second time. From 2007 through 2013, Husk built 80 biomass waste plants that provided electricity to 250,000 villagers and shop owners spread... View Details
Keywords: Scaling; Energy; Entrepreneurship; Emerging Markets; Growth and Development Strategy; Energy Industry; India
Roth, Benjamin N., Joseph B. Lassiter III, and Natalia Rigol. "Husk Power: Scaling the Venture." Harvard Business School Case 819-069, December 2018. (Revised January 2020.)
- July 2021 (Revised August 2021)
- Supplement
Airbnb Emerges from the Pandemic: Lessons for Stakeholder Governance (B)
By: Benjamin C. Esty and Allison M. Ciechanover
As the COVID pandemic spread in early 2020, global travel ground to a halt. For Airbnb, the San Francisco-based platform for renting accommodations, the impact was both swift and severe as revenues plummeted more than 70% over the prior year. Responding to the sudden... View Details
Keywords: Business and Stakeholder Relations; Corporate Governance; Crisis Management; Leadership; Two-Sided Platforms; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Mission and Purpose; Value Creation; Decision Making; Goals and Objectives; Travel Industry; Tourism Industry; Service Industry; United States
Esty, Benjamin C., and Allison M. Ciechanover. "Airbnb Emerges from the Pandemic: Lessons for Stakeholder Governance (B)." Harvard Business School Supplement 222-003, July 2021. (Revised August 2021.) (To be taught in September 2021.)
- 05 Feb 2024
- Research & Ideas
The Middle Manager of the Future: More Coaching, Less Commanding
on middle management During the 1980s and 1990s, middle managers became prime targets of large-scale downsizing at the behest of shareholder activists—yet the ranks of middle managers never really declined. Zhang’s data helps explain why.... View Details
Keywords: by Ben Rand
- 03 Oct 2023
- HBS Case
Layoffs Can Be Bad Business: 5 Strategies to Consider Before Cutting Staff
unavoidable. In such situations, companies can mitigate the hidden costs if executives develop specific policies to follow in downsizing and make everyone aware of the company’s approach and its commitment to acting fairly for all... View Details
- Research Summary
The New Social Contract: Contractors, Firms, and Agencies
The emergence of a 'new social contract' linking employees and organizations - perhaps most notable for the absence of a promise of lifelong job security - has been widely remarked. A related trend, less noted but potentially important, has been the emergence of a... View Details
- Research Summary
Papers in progress
- “The ‘Carbon Club’: Oil Companies, Climate Change & the Shaping of Public Policy”. Conspiracy theories abound, but the roles of the major oil companies in influencing public policy on climate change remain largely obscure. This... View Details
- 12 Dec 2023
- Research & Ideas
COVID Tested Global Supply Chains. Here’s How They’ve Adapted
diversification Companies are also starting to recognize—and rediscover, as in the case of Intel Corp.—the benefits of diversifying their global production and supply chains, Alfaro says. The chip manufacturer downsized its plant in Costa... View Details
Keywords: by Scott Van Voorhis
- 16 Jun 2008
- Research & Ideas
Seven Tips for Managing Price Increases
engineer products and packaging to hit key retail price points. This may mean downsizing package sizes, something the candy industry always does in response to inflation. 4. Use Promotions. If you've always passed through raw material... View Details
Keywords: by John Quelch
- 01 Oct 2001
- Research & Ideas
How To Make Restructuring Work for Your Company
strategic focus from a declining labor-intensive business to a more promising but less labor-intensive business. Ultimately this shift may necessitate downsizing the workforce. However, if the firm's current business is still profitable,... View Details
Keywords: by Stuart C. Gilson
- 09 May 2017
- What Do You Think?
Should Management Be Primarily Responsible to Shareholders?
increase short-term profitability (desired by short-term investors who make up an increasing share of the total) over long-term health of the corporation. This includes imprudent downsizing of organizations, spending reduction for... View Details
Keywords: by James Heskett
- 28 Jun 2004
- Research & Ideas
How to Avoid a Price Increase
cases of downsizing price increases, firms have chosen to maintain the sticker price of a product, but have reduced the quantity contained in that product. Thus, a tin of coffee stays $2.99, but shrinks from 14.5 ounces to 13 ounces, for... View Details
Keywords: by Manda Salls
- 15 Dec 2021
- Research & Ideas
The 10 Most Popular Articles of 2021
if employees have the psychological safety to reflect on these close calls, says research by Amy C. Edmondson, Olivia Jung, and colleagues. 5. How a Company Made Employees So Miserable, They Killed Themselves Aggressive downsizing at... View Details
Keywords: by Danielle Kost
- 24 Jan 2005
- Research & Ideas
Rethinking Activity-Based Costing
from making unnecessary new investments in capacity. For example, the vice president of operations at Lewis-Goetz, a hose and belt fabricator based in Pittsburgh, saw from his time-driven ABC model that one of his plants was operating at only 27 percent of capacity.... View Details
Keywords: by Robert S. Kaplan & Steven R. Anderson
- 17 Jun 2011
- HBS Case
KFC’s Explosive Growth in China
was Su's early decision to downsize his own career. Originally hired to cover the northern Asia-Pacific region, he departed from the usual managerial growth path of taking on larger geographic assignments and instead argued that he should... View Details
- 01 Mar 2021
- What Do You Think?
What Does Remote Work Mean for Middle Managers?
defensive for years. Organizations have been delayering—eliminating middle management jobs—to try to be more agile, with faster decision making and execution. Downsizing in the name of economies of scale has hit middle management hard.... View Details
Keywords: by James Heskett
- 10 Oct 2011
- Research & Ideas
Retailing Revolution: Category Killers on the Brink
phones, computers/tablets, and investment advice are three such categories today. The Future Of Retail Clearly, this is a new world for store retailers. To compete with online competitors, retailers will need to be agile both in eliminating or View Details
- 14 Dec 1999
- Research & Ideas
From Spare Change to Real Change: The Social Sector as a Beta Site for Business Innovation
ideas for systemic change that private enterprises are uniquely qualified to contribute. As government downsizes and the public expects the private sector to step in to help solve community problems, it is important that businesses... View Details
Keywords: by Rosabeth Moss Kanter
- 04 Nov 2002
- What Do You Think?
What’s Best for the Corporate Brain?
needed to develop intellectual capital and things like continuity of employment, organization structure, and incentives equivalent to the synapses by which information is exchanged and knowledge created, how many (if any) cells are destroyed in the "corporate... View Details
Keywords: by James Heskett
- 28 Oct 2014
- First Look
First Look: October 28
disruptive to its drug development efforts and delay new drugs coming to market. UK politicians expressed concerns over downsizing and job losses in the economically important pharmaceutical sector. The case allows readers to explore who... View Details
Keywords: Carmen Nobel
- 06 Jul 2009
- Research & Ideas
Conducting Layoffs: ’Necessary Evils’ at Work
In this uncertain economic climate, downsizing and layoffs are a sadly frequent occurrence. Although bad news is always painful to deliver and to hear, the process of conducting "necessary evils"—such as layoffs or firings—can... View Details
Keywords: by Martha Lagace