Publications

August 1986 (Revised September 2004)
Case

Hanson Ski Products

By: William J. Bruns Jr. and Julie H. Hertenstein

At the end of the budget cycle, the manager must test whether plans are feasible given financing arrangements and constraints. Cash needs are great due to seasonality. Needed loans must be calculated at five separate dates, and financial position projected. This is a... View Details

Keywords: Budgets and Budgeting; Capital Budgeting; Cash Flow; Financial Strategy; Activity Based Costing and Management; Financing and Loans; Managerial Roles; Credit; Insurance

October 2008 (Revised December 2008)
Supplement

Gillette Company (E): Procter & Gamble

By: Rosabeth M. Kanter and Matthew Bird

After arriving in 2001 as the first outsider Chairman and CEO in Gillette history, Jim Kilts led a remarkable turnaround. But by late 2004 he had to make a difficult decision. To better position the 104-year-old, Boston-based company, he opted to sell it to... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Decision Choices and Conditions; Leading Change; Growth and Development Strategy; Managerial Roles; Organizational Change and Adaptation

01 Dec 2000
News

A Trusty Board

its board. "There needs to be a sense of the difference between the fiduciary responsibility of the board and the managerial responsibility of the paid staff," he says. While the role of MBAs as museum... View Details

Keywords: Museums, Historical Sites, and Similar Institutions; Arts, Entertainment

01 Nov 2019
Blog Post

Confronting Climate Change in the Classroom and Beyond

new technologies, operating models, and managerial mindsets. And business can't do this alone, we need government to provide incentives in some cases and remove disincentives in others. As climate change becomes more and more apparent, so... View Details

15 Aug 2006
First Look

First Look: August 15, 2006

carburetors. Download working paper: http://www.hbs.edu/research/pdf/07-009.pdf Cases & Course MaterialsInnovating in Health Care—Framework Harvard Business School Note 306-042 Contains the framework for the second-year Innovating in Health Care course.... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

April 2009
Case

Invest Early: Early Childhood Development in a Rural Community

By: Stacey M. Childress and Geoff Eckman Marietta

Invest Early was an early childhood development partnership in rural northern Minnesota between 14 different organizations, which worked together through an advisory board, governing board, and leadership team in order to deliver coordinated early childhood services to... View Details

Keywords: Early Childhood Education; Rural Scope; Management Teams; Managerial Roles; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Business and Community Relations; Partners and Partnerships; Social and Collaborative Networks

Find at Harvard

July 2011
Teaching Note

Miles Everson at PricewaterhouseCoopers (TN)

By: Robert G. Eccles and Penelope Rossano

Teaching Note for 410062. View Details

Keywords: Partners and Partnerships; Employees; Financial Institutions; Opportunities; Networks; Managerial Roles; Experience and Expertise; Attitudes; Leadership; Service Industry; United States

September 1987 (Revised October 1987)
Background Note

The Job of the General Manager

By: James L. Heskett

Describes elements of the job of the general manager that are addressed in the Management Policy and Practice course at the Harvard Business School. These include: 1) establishing strategic direction, 2) setting goals and managing standards of performance, 3)... View Details

Keywords: Experience and Expertise; Policy; Recruitment; Working Conditions; Managerial Roles; Resource Allocation; Mission and Purpose; Performance Evaluation; Strategy; Value

May 1996
Background Note

The GM's Operational Challenge: Managing Through People

By: Christopher A. Bartlett and Ashish Nanda

Highlights and explores how a general manager adds value to the firm at the operational level by managing through people. Discusses how assumptions about human motivation influence the employment contract that the general manager implicitly enters into with the workers... View Details

Keywords: Employee Relationship Management; Selection and Staffing; Contracts; Managerial Roles; Operations; Problems and Challenges; Labor and Management Relations; Motivation and Incentives; Value

Web

Venture Capital and Private Equity - Course Catalog

Lerner started the Venture Capital and Private Equity (VCPE) course in 1996, and it today is one of the longest-running and largest offerings in the second-year curriculum. Designed as a survey course, the curriculum examines the firm-wide View Details

Profile

Michael Maples

grown up working on one of the original IBM PCs and writing video game software in high school. He went to Stanford and became even more involved with computers. His father, Mike Maples, Sr., was a successful IBM executive and a tough-minded View Details

Student-Profile

Patrick Ferguson

faculty advisors to pursue unconventional lines of inquiry. “I was a little nervous about studying general managerial accounting questions in a sports context, but my advisors, Professors Dennis Campbell and Karim Lakhani, pushed me to... View Details

November 2010 (Revised November 2017)
Case

Washout: The Founders' Tale and the Investors' Tale

By: Lena G. Goldberg and Chad M. Carr

The competing narratives of the founders of Alantec, Inc. and the venture capitalists who funded the company are explored in the context of Kalashian v. Advent VI Ltd. a California Superior Court case. The founders of the company, which produced switches for computer... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Venture Capital; Governance Controls; Governing and Advisory Boards; Lawsuits and Litigation; Managerial Roles; Ownership Stake; Business and Shareholder Relations; Conflict and Resolution; Technology Industry

December 2000 (Revised January 2002)
Background Note

Incentives and Controllability: A Note and Exercise

By: Brian J. Hall

Describes three performance measures for "plants" or businesses: cost centers, revenue centers, and profit centers. Discusses what should be done if a function outside of the "controllability" of the manager affects the performance measure and therefore compensation. View Details

Keywords: Factories, Labs, and Plants; Cost; Profit; Revenue; Compensation and Benefits; Managerial Roles; Performance Evaluation; Motivation and Incentives

April 1999
Teaching Note

Dimensions of Technology Strategy: Managing Innovation: Overview Teaching Note for Module 5

By: Clayton M. Christensen

Provides instructors with an overview teaching note for the technology strategy module of the course. The cases in the module give students insights about several issues in technology strategy. These include: 1) Whether to be a technological leader or follower; 2)... View Details

Keywords: Investment; Investment Return; Innovation and Management; Job Cuts and Outsourcing; Managerial Roles; Performance Improvement; Problems and Challenges; Research; Strategy; Technology

October 2015
Supplement

The National Geographic Society (B)

By: David A. Garvin

This case was written as an update to the case "The National Geographic Society," HBS No. 311-002, published in 2011. The (B) case describes the 2015 creation of National Geographic Partners, a for-profit joint venture between the National Geographic Society and 21st... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Information Publishing; Leadership Style; Leading Change; Growth and Development Strategy; Managerial Roles; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Culture; Organizational Structure; Internet; Publishing Industry; Media and Broadcasting Industry

01 Jun 2006
News

Faculty Books

Pill, and Ingrid Vogel (World Scientific Publishing Co.) Understanding the genesis of financial and currency crises, stock-market booms and busts, and social and labor unrest is crucial in making informed managerial decisions. These... View Details

Keywords: Business Schools & Computer & Management Training; Educational Services

2010
Article

The Strategic Use of Brand Biographies

By: Jill Avery, Neeru Paharia, Anat Keinan and Juliet Schor

We introduce the concept of a brand biography to describe an emerging trend in branding in which firms author a dynamic, historical account of the events that have shaped the brand over time. Using a particular type of brand biography, "the underdog," we empirically... View Details

Find at Harvard