Publications

February 2009 (Revised August 2021)
Supplement

Jieliang Phone Home! (B)

By: Willy Shih, Ethan Bernstein and Nina Bilimoria

At Precision Electro-Tek's mobile phone manufacturing facility in southern China, thousands of operators—bright and capable young men and (mostly) women like Jieliang Hao—are motivated to improve line productivity through small innovations for faster assembly and have... View Details

Keywords: Managing People; Motivation and Incentives; Behavior; Production; Innovation and Invention; Performance Productivity; Groups and Teams; Management Practices and Processes; Compensation and Benefits; Labor; Surveys; Decisions; Manufacturing Industry; China

October 1997 (Revised July 1998)
Case

Cultivating Capabilities to Innovate: Booz.Allen & Hamilton

By: Clayton M. Christensen and Bret J. Baird

Describes the efforts of the president of Booz.Allen, a major consulting firm, to understand and improve the way that products, services, and processes are developed and deployed throughout the firm. Proactive management of these processes proves very difficult because... View Details

Keywords: Change Management; Innovation and Management; Management Teams; Service Operations; Organizational Culture; Customer Focus and Relationships; Decision Making; Consulting Industry

August 2006 (Revised July 2007)
Background Note

Governance of the Family Business

By: John A. Davis

Reviews the ways to achieve governance of the family business. Points out the importance of plans (e.g., strategic plans), statements (e.g., mission statements), policies, rules, and agreements to the governance process. Discusses the roles of three structures in... View Details

Keywords: Family Business; Corporate Governance; Governing and Advisory Boards; Management Teams; Mission and Purpose

09 Aug 2017
Sharpening Your Skills

Productivity Tips You Probably Haven't Considered Before

Productivity Studies show that workers are more productive on rainy days than on sunny ones. Does your office take advantage? Need to Solve a Problem? Take a Break From Collaborating Organizations spend a lot of money enabling employees... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

February 2021
Case

Enterprise Agility at Komerční Banka

By: Euvin Naidoo, Suraj Srinivasan and Sarah Gulick

In 2017, Jan Juchelka, the new CEO of Komerční Banka, identified the need for the bank to start an enterprise wide agile transformation. He started by working to create a sense of urgency to kick-start a process to enable the level of service delivery to customers he... View Details

Keywords: Agile; Agility; Transformation; Organizational Structure; Business Headquarters; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Management Systems; Banking Industry; Czech Republic

2014
Supplement

Bluestar's Acquisition of Adisseo (B)

By: F. Warren McFarlan, Donghong Li and Lei Li

This case describes the post-M&A integration of Adisseo of France in 2006 by Bluestar Group, the largest subsidiary of ChemChina (a Fortune 500 company) until 2013. Adisseo was mainly engaged in production of methionine, a feed additive, while China had no methionine... View Details

Keywords: Internationalization; Mergers ＆ Acquisitions; Postmerger Integration; Strategy; China; France

Web

Faculty & Research

had yet to generate meaningful cash flow. This presented Blue Owl with a high-risk, high-reward scenario. The critical question for the team was whether Blue Owl should proceed with the transaction despite the risks, and whether the proposed deal View Details

July 2008 (Revised December 2011)
Case

ghSMART & Co., 2006: Pioneering in Professional Services

By: Noam T. Wasserman and Ashraf Haque

Geoff Smart, founder and CEO of ghSMART & Co., wanted to build ghSMART into the #1 management-assessment firm for CEOs and investors. However, he had just received two pieces of very bad news: the demise of an existing project and the loss of a $1 million engagement he... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Decision Choices and Conditions; Entrepreneurship; Corporate Governance; Growth and Development Strategy; Organizational Structure; Service Industry

10 Jan 2005
Research & Ideas

Motivation and the Cross-Sector Alliance

structure with management and ownership formally represented in different organs. In the case of La Nación, the newspaper is owned by a corporation (La Nación S.A.), but the Saguier family, descending from its founder, controls both its... View Details

Keywords: by James Austin, Ezequiel Reficco & SEKN research team

June 1994
Background Note

Scope and Challenge of Business-to-Business Marketing

By: V. Kasturi Rangan

Identifies six key linkages that distinguish business-to-business marketing; three with respect to the external environment (i.e., derived demand, complex buying process, and concentrated customer base) and three with respect to the internal organization (emphasis on... View Details

Keywords: Marketing; Customers; Demand and Consumers; Organizational Structure; Order Taking and Fulfillment; Technology

18 May 2017
Blog Post

Why We Recruit: Hilton

OrganizationStephanie Atiase, Senior Director of Corporate Strategy, Hilton Describe your organization in three to five sentences.Hilton is the leading global hospitality company, spanning the lodging sector from luxurious full-service... View Details

Keywords: Hospitality

Research Summary

Overview

ECONOMICS OF THE ADVERTISING AND MARKETING SERVICEC INDUSTRY

Professor Silk’s recent research has been focused on the economics of the advertising and marketing services industry. He has conducted econometric studies of the effects of scale and scope on the... View Details

January 2009 (Revised June 2010)
Case

Cisco Business Councils (2007): Unifying a Functional Enterprise with an Internal Governance System

By: Ranjay Gulati

In response to the 2001 market downturn, Cisco Systems implemented a major restructuring that transformed the company from a decentralized to centralized organization. While recognizing that a centralized, functional structure was necessary to avoid product and... View Details

Keywords: Restructuring; Customer Focus and Relationships; Governing and Advisory Boards; Resource Allocation; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Structure; Corporate Strategy; Technology Industry

06 Nov 2000
Research & Ideas

The Determinants of Corporate Venture Capital Success

would have a much greater psychological effect as well as a cleaner capital structure to attract follow-on financings by outside investors. Between 1988 and 1996, the organization invested in over one dozen... View Details

Keywords: by Paul Gompers & Josh Lerner

Forthcoming
Article

Achieving Epilepsy Care for All: Ecosystem-Based Transformation

By: Susanna Gallani, Bernice Martin Lee and Lidia M. V. R. Moura

Epilepsy exemplifies many of the systemic challenges of modern health care— fragmented care delivery, inequitable access, financial strain, and so on. The current “system of systems” (SoS) structure of U.S. health care fosters siloed operations among its member systems... View Details

Keywords: Healthcare Delivery; Epilepsy; Seizures; Health Care and Treatment; Health Disorders; Equality and Inequality; Framework; Service Delivery

Felipe Csaszar is a professor of strategy and chair of the Strategy Department at the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business. His research examines how decision structures influence key organizational outcomes, such as innovation, financial performance, and... View Details

December 2016
Case

Public Mission, Private Funding: The University of California, Berkeley

By: William C. Kirby and Joycelyn W. Eby

UC Berkley, long known as one of the leading public universities in both the U.S. and the world, has seen turbulent times recently. While student enrollment and costs have increased steadily in recent years, the school, which has been fiercely proud of its public... View Details

21 Jun 2004
Research & Ideas

Racial Diversity Pays Off

white counterparts." Ely's contribution, he went on to explain, is in developing theory about when and under what circumstances diversity leads to process gains or losses. The questions she asks, he said, include: How do organizations' View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

October 1988 (Revised December 1989)
Case

Siemens Electric Motor Works (B): Pricing Interdivisional Sales

Examines Siemens' policy for pricing products transferred between the manufacturing and sales divisions of their Electric Motor Works, where both are profit centers. It is unique in that the organizational linkage between the product costing system and the transfer... View Details

Keywords: Production; Price; Organizational Structure; Profit; Business Processes; Manufacturing Industry