Publications

September 1999 (Revised May 2003)
Case

Deloitte & Touche (B): Changing the Workplace

By: Rosabeth M. Kanter and Jane Roessner

Deloitte & Touche women's initiative changed the workplace culture at the firm, solved retention problems, and brought external benefits. Now a new CEO must decide how to take this a step further as competition for talent was even stronger, young people had different... View Details

Keywords: Strategic Planning; Organizational Culture; Accounting; Gender; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Loss; Change Management; Jobs and Positions; Resignation and Termination; Accounting Industry; United States

September 1999 (Revised May 2003)
Case

Deloitte & Touche (A): A Hole in the Pipeline

By: Rosabeth M. Kanter and Jane Roessner

Deloitte & Touche was losing talented women, and CEO Mike Cook wanted to stop the loss, especially as the accounting and consulting fields became more competitive. The firm commissioned an analysis of the situation; now it had to consider the results and develop a plan... View Details

Keywords: Strategic Planning; Organizational Culture; Accounting; Gender; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Loss; Change Management; Jobs and Positions; Resignation and Termination; Accounting Industry; United States

Profile

Kevin Nazemi

leadership was more about being a facilitator driving implementation. Now I see a leader as someone who manages an ongoing give-and -take, who builds trust and moves people toward a common goal. Real leadership doesn’t just maximize the... View Details

March 2008 (Revised October 2009)
Case

IBM in the 21st Century: The Coming of the Globally Integrated Enterprise

By: Rosabeth M. Kanter

Members of IBM's fifth Integration and Values Team (IVT5) were close to finishing their deliberations. Convened by Sam Palmisano, Chairman and CEO, and sponsored by Jon Iwata, Senior VP of Corporate Communications and Marketing, and John E. Kelly III, Senior VP and... View Details

Keywords: Global Strategy; Multinational Firms and Management; Innovation and Management; Leadership Development; Management Teams; Organizational Culture; Integration

Web

Making Difficult Decisions: The General Manager’s Role (MDD) - Course Catalog

manager’s job. Making Difficult Decisions: The General Manager’s Role (MDD) explores the kinds of decisions made by general managers (GMs) and how context influences the generation of options, and the effectiveness of the decisions made.... View Details

14 Sep 2021
Blog Post

How to Support Your Employees' Career Development

manager to a level two. With that in mind, you could start developing those skills and demonstrating them. Some organizations also make it a point to communicate to employees that they need to be operating... View Details

25 Apr 2018
News

Giving Minorities a Playbook for Corporate Success

John Rice (MBA 1992) founded Management Leadership for Tomorrow (MLT), a national nonprofit organization, to equip underrepresented minorities with the skills, coaching, and relationships they need to become high-impact leaders in... View Details

01 May 2020
In Practice

COVID-19’s Hard Lessons Might Prepare Business for Climate Change

COVID-19 outbreak might change the way companies think about sustainability. Here’s what they said: Michael Toffel: Companies might prepare better for big disruptions I hope that the pandemic will increase companies’ attention to View Details

Keywords: by Danielle Kost

Student-Faculty-Profile

Grant Donnelly & Michael Norton

make when disposing of things they no longer want — and change those decisions for the better. Research focus Currently, municipal waste management companies provide limited options for disposal: a trash can, a recycling bin, and in... View Details

December 16, 2019
Article

Why Your Startup Won't Last

By: Ranjay Gulati and Vasundhara Sawhney

Why do some startups that have crossed the threshold of “product-market fit” and have a viable business model still fail? This article begins by exploring the argument that most startups need more professionalization to thrive. Founders resist putting in place... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Organizational Structure; Growth and Development Strategy

Read Now

2019
Book

The Wise Company: How Companies Create Continuous Innovation

By: Ikujiro Nonaka and Hirotaka Takeuchi

High-velocity change is the fundamental challenge facing companies today. Few companies, however, are prepared to continuously innovate—because they focus on the short-term and do not emphasize the wisdom needed to make sure that their interests are aligned with those... View Details

Keywords: Knowledge; Wise Leadership; Leaders; Innovation; Knowledge Management; Leadership; Innovation and Invention; Organizational Change and Adaptation

Find at Harvard

May 2002
Case

Aspen Financial

By: Arthur I Segel and Melissa Yin-Yin Lam

Jack and Bruce Aspen must decide how they want to grow their commercial real estate finance company during a time of tremendous change in the industry. View Details

Keywords: History; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Change Management; Growth and Development; Real Estate Industry

07 Apr 2016
News

Bain Capital Promotes Four, Renames Hedge Fund, Credit Units

Keywords: Bain; Funds, Trusts, and Other Financial Vehicles; Finance

January 2006 (Revised June 2008)
Case

Lehman Brothers (A): Rise of the Equity Research Department

By: Ashish Nanda, Boris Groysberg and Lauren Prusiner

Under Jack Rivkin's leadership, Shearson Lehman's research department rose from relative obscurity to the highest ranking research department on Wall Street within three years. When Rivkin is promoted to head of equity, he wonders how to succeed in his new position. A... View Details

Keywords: Talent and Talent Management; Leadership; Service Operations; Organizational Culture; Research; Alignment

November 2002 (Revised March 2006)
Case

Global Conservation Trust, The: A Foundation for Food Security

By: Ray A. Goldberg and Carin-Isabel Knoop

Biodiversity is being lost due to the delegation of the ability to store and maintain various types of plants to governments and foundations with no or little financial base. How does one develop the resources to maintain plant diversity for the future benefit of... View Details

Keywords: Food; Safety; Plant-Based Agribusiness; Nonprofit Organizations; Welfare; Finance; Environmental Sustainability; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry

October 1998 (Revised December 1998)
Case

CompUSA The Computer Superstore

By: Ananth Raman and Anna Sheen McClelland

Examines the CompUSA organization, focusing especially on the operations and the company culture. Highlights the economics of PC retailing and the importance of a responsive supply chain for their product category. The description of company culture emphasizes the role... View Details

Keywords: Supply Chain; Organizational Culture; Motivation and Incentives; Supply Chain Management; Computer Industry; Retail Industry; United States

November 1989 (Revised February 1992)
Case

Ford Motor Co.: Dealer Sales and Service

By: Leonard A. Schlesinger

Since Henry Ford founded Ford Motor Co., Ford vehicles have been sold and serviced the same way. By the late 1980s Ford began to consider making changes in its sales and service process. Two developments forced Ford to reconsider these processes. First, Ford found... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Change Management; Distribution Channels; Customer Focus and Relationships; Service Industry; Auto Industry; Retail Industry; United States