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20 Nov 2018
Working Paper Summaries

Reverse the Curse of the Top-5

Keywords: by Robert S. Kaplan; Education

06 Jan 2012
Op-Ed

Where Green Corporate Ratings Fail

environmental record is actually quite mixed. But you wouldn't know it from environmental ratings and rankings that claim to highlight the most environmentally proactive companies. News Corporation was awarded the highest rating of... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Toffel & Auden Schendler; Information; Publishing

03 Jan 2019
Research & Ideas

Everyone Knows Innovation is Essential to Business Success—Except Board Directors

three on their list of concerns. That’s the surprising finding in a new survey of boards of directors conducted by Harvard Business School professor Boris Groysberg and doctoral student Yo-Jud Cheng. “The concerns that ranked at the top... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

January 2005 (Revised April 2006)
Case

Four Deals

By: Carliss Y. Baldwin

Describes four disguised deals with different characteristics from the perspective of the acquirer. Asks students to compare, contrast, and rank the opportunities. View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Negotiation Deal

January 2009 (Revised June 2024)
Case

Design Thinking and Innovation at Apple

By: Stefan Thomke and Barbara Feinberg

Describes Apple's approach to innovation, management, and design thinking. For several years, Apple has been ranked as the most innovative company in the world, but how it has achieved such success remains mysterious because of the company's obsession with secrecy.... View Details

Keywords: Design; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Innovation and Management; Product Design; Product Development; Research and Development; Creativity; Technology Industry

September 2015 (Revised September 2020)
Case

Gap Inc.: Refashioning Performance Management

By: Joshua Margolis, Paul McKinnon and Michael Norris

In 2014, clothing retailer Gap Inc. rolled out a new performance management process for headquarters staff that did away with a traditional rating and ranking system. The new process involved informal monthly meetings between managers and their reports, and it more... View Details

Keywords: Performance Management; Retail; HR; Motivation and Incentives; Performance; Management; Human Resources; Performance Evaluation; Apparel and Accessories Industry; Retail Industry

2016
Case

Africa Strategy of China Nonferrous Metal Mining Group

By: F. Warren McFarlan, Jie Jiao, Dayong Yang and Shanshan Cao

Founded in 1983, China Nonferrous Metal Mining (Group) Co., Ltd. ("CNMC") is one of the earliest and largest global Chinese nonferrous metal industrial enterprises. It has investments and projects in 27 countries and trade networks in nearly 100 countries with a... View Details

Keywords: Cross-cultural Management; Global Strategy; Globalization; International Business; Strategy Management; Africa; China

January 18, 2024
Article

America's Top Talent Incubators Are Organizations Where People Want to Stay

By: Sarah Abbott and Boris Groysberg

Organizations like GE, IBM, and Procter & Gamble (P&G) have long been touted as the classic "academy companies." Academy companies produce first-rate executives who populate their own senior ranks and also go on to lead other companies. We wondered if academy companies... View Details

Keywords: Talent and Talent Management; Personal Development and Career; Organizational Culture

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February 1994 (Revised November 1994)
Case

Brinkerhoff International, Inc. (A)

Presents a study of two oil rigs and their team relationships within a context of dissension in lower management ranks and a president who is trying to expand the business in a changing economy. View Details

Keywords: Groups and Teams; Conflict and Resolution; Energy Sources; Mining Industry; Energy Industry

20 Sep 2012
Research & Ideas

US Competitiveness at Risk

report ranks every country on the ease of doing business. Twenty years ago, the US would have been by far the easiest place. Now we're well down the list—not in the top 10. In other countries, I've participated in some... View Details

Keywords: Re: Michael E. Porter & Jan W. Rivkin

December 2010
Article

Rating the Ratings: How Good are Commercial Governance Ratings?

By: Robert M. Daines, Ian D. Gow and David F. Larcker

Proxy advisory and corporate governance rating firms (such as RiskMetrics/Institutional Shareholder Services, GovernanceMetrics International, and The Corporate Library) play an increasingly important role in U.S. public markets. They rank the quality of firm corporate... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Governance; Markets; Rank and Position; Quality; Business and Shareholder Relations; Voting; Change; Information; Outcome or Result; United States

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February 2014
Article

'Last-place Aversion': Evidence and Redistributive Implications

By: Ilyana Kuziemko, Ryan W. Buell, Taly Reich and Michael Norton

We present evidence from laboratory experiments showing that individuals are "last-place averse." Participants choose gambles with the potential to move them out of last place that they reject when randomly placed in other parts of the distribution. In... View Details

Keywords: Income; Rank and Position; Attitudes

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28 Dec 2020
Interview

Psychological Safety and Fearless Organisations

By: Amy C. Edmondson and Vesna Lucca

In This Podcast:
• The ugly and beauty in transformational change
• Why don’t all companies create psychological safety
• Her passion to create a better workplace
• Buckminster Fuller
• The importance of system thinking
• The power... View Details

Keywords: Psychological Safety; Organizational Culture; Transformation

September 2013 (Revised April 2014)
Case

Trader Joe's

By: David L. Ager and Michael A. Roberto

Based on a variety of metrics, Trader Joe's ranked as one of the most successful grocers in the United States in 2013. Experts estimated that the company had the highest sales per square foot of any major grocery chain, even significantly higher than top performer... View Details

Keywords: Core Competencies; Growth Strategy; Strategic Positioning; Industry Analysis; Competitive Strategy; Competitive Advantage; Organizational Culture; Growth and Development Strategy; Retail Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; United States

07 Jan 2020
Cold Call Podcast

Can Capitalism Be Fixed by Making Companies More Just?

Keywords: Re: Ethan C. Rouen & Charles C.Y. Wang; Financial Services

May 2009
Article

Configurations of Extremal Even Unimodular Lattices

By: Scott Duke Kominers

We extend the results of Ozeki on the configurations of extremal even unimodular lattices. Specifically, we show that if L is such a lattice of rank 56, 72, or 96, then L is generated by its minimal-norm vectors. View Details

Keywords: Mathematical Methods

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February 1991 (Revised August 2001)
Case

Ann Hopkins (A)

By: Joseph L. Badaracco Jr. and Ilyse Barkan

Intended to help students understand the many barriers organizations face as their members and their management ranks grow more diverse. As a case on business ethics, it encourages students to discuss what "fairness" and "diversity" mean when an organization is also... View Details

Keywords: Ethics; Employee Relationship Management; Organizational Culture; Organizational Structure; Problems and Challenges; Groups and Teams

July 2021 (Revised October 2021)
Case

Allianz Customer Centricity: Is Simplicity the Way Forward?

By: Eva Ascarza and Emilie Billaud

This case explores the tradeoffs between product personalization and simplicity as companies grow. The case presents an opportunity to understand whether and how each of these approaches enables and/or limits companies’ abilities to provide customer satisfaction while... View Details

Keywords: Simplicity; Customer Focus and Relationships; Customization and Personalization; Customer Satisfaction; Performance Efficiency; Strategy; Insurance Industry; Europe; Germany