Publications

June 2016
Teaching Note

The Rawlinsons: Facing Life and Career Decisions as a Couple

By: Boris Groysberg and Robin Abrahams

David and Nadia Rawlinson are a dual-career power couple who both seek executive careers in large organizations. At the beginning of the case, Nadia has taken a new job in San Francisco, while David has been offered an opportunity in London. What are the risks of... View Details

Keywords: Career Management; Career Planning; Personal Development and Career; Gender

September 2021
Case

Vignettes on Professional Service Firm Governance

By: David G. Fubini, Suraj Srinivasan and Li-Kuan Ni

The two vignettes within “Vignettes on Professional Service Firm Governance” (HBS No. 122-024) present various issues relating to governance in professional service firms (“PSFs”). In the first, the Managing Director of a U.S. consulting firm contemplates whether to... View Details

Web

Field Course: Managing Family Wealth: A FIELD Immersion - Course Catalog

HBS Course Catalog Field Course: Managing Family Wealth: A FIELD Immersion Course Number 1412 Professor Lauren Cohen Spring; Q3Q4; 3.0 credits 12 sessions Project “Investment firms of the ultra-wealthy spend as much as 72% of their... View Details

March 2018
Supplement

Sandra Brown Goes Digital (C): Raising Quality in a Healthcare Company

By: Rosabeth Moss Kanter and Jonathan Cohen

Using digital and social media tools and lessons learned from prior change campaigns as a middle manager in a large biotech company, Sandra Brown continued in a new role in the quality division, engaging staff in a quality movement at the company. She had found a new... View Details

Keywords: Digital; Grassroots Movement; Managing Change; Career Path; Stakeholder Engagement; Engagement; Health Care Industry; Quality; Leading Change; Performance Improvement; Personal Development and Career; Social Media; Health Industry

2013
Chapter

Market Imperfections and Sustainable Competitive Advantage

By: Felix Oberholzer-Gee and Dennis Yao

This chapter reviews the main theories in strategic management that seek to explain persistent differences in profitability across companies. We argue that these differences are ultimately explained by market imperfections. Studying differences in financial performance... View Details

Keywords: Strategic Management; Market Imperfections; Five Forces Framework; Competitive Advantage; Profit

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June 2013 (Revised March 2014)
Case

Kvadrat: Leading for Innovation

By: Boris Groysberg and Sarah L. Abbott

In 2013, Anders Byriel, CEO of the family-owned Danish textiles company, Kvadrat, considered the firm's strategic plan. In 2000, Byriel and Mette Bendix, Kvadrat's Product Director, had taken over management of the company from their fathers, who had founded Kvadrat... View Details

Keywords: General Management; Organizational Behavior; Strategy; Performance Management; Leadership; Business or Company Management; Growth and Development Strategy; Management Practices and Processes; Human Resources; Denmark; Europe; Asia

February 2016
Case

Health Catalyst

By: Kevin Schulman and Suresh Balu

Dan Burton, Health Catalyst CEO (HBS Baker Scholar), and Tom Burton, Health Catalyst Senior Vice President of Product Development and cofounder, closed on a $41 million investment round. Their firm was one of the hottest companies in the health information technology... View Details

Keywords: Service Management; Strategy; Operations Management; Information Technology; Information Management; Entrepreneurship; Service Delivery; Competitive Strategy; Performance; Information Technology Industry; Health Industry

January 2017 (Revised February 2018)
Case

Godiva Japan: Think Local, Scale Global

By: Rohit Deshpandé, Esel Cekin and Akiko Kanno

This case tracks Jerome Chouchan’s strategies and execution for a successful turnaround of Godiva Japan’s operations, which were experiencing a decline in sales when he became the managing director of the company in 2010. Through various initiatives and innovations,... View Details

06 Apr 2023
Blog Post

Bringing Music to the HBS Classroom: My Journey as a Nontraditional Student in the Summer Venture in Management Program

It was January of 2022 when I stumbled upon the homepage of Harvard Business School’s Summer Venture in Management Program (SVMP) while browsing a music industry leader’s LinkedIn page. At the time, with my background in music, non-profit... View Details

01 Oct 1997
News

New Course for General Managers Broadens Managerial Scope and Builds Confidence

this type of manager, the School has introduced a comprehensive, six-week Executive Education program called The General Manager (TGM). The course enables participants to step back from their day-to-day... View Details

Keywords: Nancy O. Perry

February 2014 (Revised March 2014)
Case

Red Star Furniture Group Co. Ltd.

By: Krishna G. Palepu and Pedro Nueno

Founded in 1986, Red Star had become the leading department store in China for furniture and home equipment products (bathroom, lamps, textiles complements, etc.). The business model of Red Star was to provide adequate space for vendors (that rented the space) in good... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship In Emerging Markets; Growth Strategy And Execution; Growth and Development Strategy; Retail Industry; China

June 2017
Article

The Social Trajectory of a Finance Professor and the Common Sense of Capital

By: Marion Fourcade and Rakesh Khurana

This paper traces the career of Michael Jensen, a Chicago finance PhD turned Harvard Business School professor to reveal the intellectual and social conditions that enabled the emergence and institutionalization of what we call the “neoliberal common sense of capital,”... View Details

Keywords: Executive Pay; The Firm; Michael Jensen; Neo-Liberalism; Shareholder Value; Agency Theory; Corporate Governance; Executive Compensation; Business and Shareholder Relations; Transformation

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June 2014 (Revised March 2017)
Teaching Note

Agero: Enhancing Capabilities for Customers

By: Robert Simons and Natalie Kindred

This is the teaching note for Agero: Enhancing Capabilities for Customers (HBS No. 113-001) View Details

Keywords: Management Control Systems; Execution; Organization Structure; Diagnostic Control Systems; Interactive Control Systems; Performance Goals; Performance Measurement; Strategy; Organizational Design; Performance Evaluation; Customer Focus and Relationships

June 2023 (Revised January 2024)
Case

Siemens AG: A Private Equity Approach within an Industrial Corporation?

By: David J. Collis and Haisley Wert

In July 2022, Horst Kayser, Chairman of Siemens AG Portfolio Companies (POC), was reflecting on the advice he could offer Roland Busch, Chief Executive Officer of the parent company Siemens AG, about whether and how to operate a private equity-like approach inside the... View Details

Keywords: Strategy; Management; Value Creation; Private Equity; Corporate Strategy

August 2020
Case

This Old House of Worship: St. Anthony Shrine (A)

By: Ryan Raffaelli

This multimedia case asks students to consider how leaders of non-profit organizations manage difficult financial, operational, and cultural turnarounds. Since its founding in 1947, St. Anthony Shrine had been a central partner in serving the Downtown Boston community.... View Details

Keywords: Leadership And Change Management; Turnarounds; Non-profit Management; Leadership; Change Management; Nonprofit Organizations; Management; Religion; Mission and Purpose; Transformation; Organizational Culture; United States

June 2017
Teaching Note

Google to Alphabet: Two Job Opportunities

By: Robert Simons and Jennifer Packard

This is the teaching note for "Google to Alphabet: Two Job Opportunities" HBS No.116-046 The case describes two job postings for positions at Google. The first job posting is for a Software Engineer in the Google Maps unit and the second job posting is for an Account... View Details

Keywords: Strategy And Execution; Span Of Control; Span Of Accountability; Span Of Support; Management Control Systems; Entrepreneurial Gap; Motivation; Job Design; Strategy; Information Technology; Organizational Design; Jobs and Positions; Technology Industry

14 Feb 2017
Blog Post

Why I Love My Job: Leticia Tavares On Marriott's Management Acceleration Program

Why I Love My Job is a series of interviews with HBS students and alumni on what drives their satisfaction at work. Current Position:Manager - Management Acceleration Program (MAP)Current Location:Atlanta - GADescribe your role at... View Details

July–August 2018
Article

Using Time-Driven Activity-Based Costing to Model the Costs of Various Process-Improvement Strategies in Acute Pain Management

By: Keyuri Popat, Kelly Ann Gracia, Alexis B. Guzman and Thomas W. Feeley

Pain control for patients undergoing thoracic surgery is essential for their comfort and for improving their ability to function after surgery, but it can significantly increase costs. Here, we demonstrate how time-driven activity-based costing (TDABC) can be used to... View Details

Keywords: Time-Driven Activity-Based Costing; Health Care and Treatment; Cost Management; Performance Improvement