Publications

05 Jul 2006
Working Paper Summaries

Behavioral Operations

Keywords: by Francesca Gino & Gary P. Pisano

July 1997 (Revised April 1998)
Case

Chase Manhattan Corporation: The Making of America's Largest Bank

By: Stuart C. Gilson and Cedric Escalle

Chase Bank and Chemical Bank intend to merge, producing the largest commercial bank in the United States, the fourth largest in the world. Projected financial benefits under the merger reflect significant planned reduction in operating costs, including 17,000 employee... View Details

Keywords: Commercial Banking; Profit; Corporate Strategy; Value Creation; Restructuring; Negotiation; Mergers and Acquisitions; Risk and Uncertainty; Resignation and Termination; Revenue; Banking Industry; United States

Research Summary

Helping at Work

By: Teresa M. Amabile

This research focuses on collaboration and helping in creative project teams. Colin Fisher (UCL), Julianna Pillemer (NYU Stern School), and I developed a multi-year research program examining help received and given, including successful and unsuccessful helping... View Details

Keywords: Collaboration; Helping; Creativity; Creative Industries

October 2021 (Revised September 2022)
Case

SmartOne: Building an AI Data Business

By: Karim R. Lakhani, Pippa Armerding, Gamze Yucaoglu and Fares Khrais

The case opens in August 2021, as Habib and Shahysta Hassim, husband and wife co-founders of the data labeling company SmartOne, contemplate the strategy of the high growth company. Between 2016 and 2021, SmartOne had kept doubling its size every two years and now,... View Details

Keywords: Artificial Intelligence; Data Labeling; Entrepreneurship; Strategy; Operations; Business Model; Growth Management; Growth and Development Strategy; AI and Machine Learning; Africa; Madagascar; Europe; France; United States

Research Summary

Overview

Matthew's research examines how entrepreneurial organizations and their managers create social and institutional change. His latest project focuses on hybrid organizations that combine aspects of non-profits and companies to create innovative organizational forms. In... View Details

Keywords: Organization Theory; Hybrid Organizations; Entrepreneurship; Social Entrepreneurship; Corporate Social Responsibility; Innovation

September 2019
Case

Shell: A Company of Opportunity?

By: Joseph B. Fuller and Emer Moloney

The Opportunity Hub was a cloud-based platform that enabled managers to market projects they were working on and associated resourcing needs as “Opportunity Owners” and employees, or “Opportunity Seekers,” to browse these statements of need and engage when they had... View Details

Keywords: Business Divisions; Change Management; Competency and Skills; Experience and Expertise; Talent and Talent Management; Energy; Energy Sources; Non-Renewable Energy; Renewable Energy; Human Resources; Employees; Retention; Collaborative Innovation and Invention; Innovation and Management; Innovation Strategy; Technological Innovation; Jobs and Positions; Job Design and Levels; Knowledge Sharing; Knowledge; Knowledge Use and Leverage; Labor; Human Capital; Labor Unions; Leading Change; Resource Allocation; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Performance Evaluation; Performance Productivity; Strategic Planning; Projects; Motivation and Incentives; Business Strategy; Social and Collaborative Networks; Technology Platform; Chemical Industry; Energy Industry; Information Technology Industry; Technology Industry; United Kingdom; Netherlands

John Macomber is a Senior Lecturer in the Finance unit at Harvard Business School. His professional background includes leadership of real estate, construction, and information technology businesses. At HBS, Mr. Macomber's work focuses on climate adaptation and the... View Details

Keywords: waste management; waste management; waste management; waste management; waste management; waste management; waste management; waste management; waste management; waste management

12 Aug 2019
Research & Ideas

How Scale Changes a Manager's Responsibilities

employees, founding leaders confront an important reality: It’s time to let go. It’s simply impossible to be plugged into everything. At this stage, you are probably managing managers, and more than ever have to empower your leaders to,... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Austin

15 Jul 2019
Book

Many Executives Are Afraid of Finance. Here's How They Can Gain Confidence

what’s the best way for managers to communicate financial information to shareholders? “People who want to have advanced roles in enterprise confront financial questions more and more, and they have to be more fluent in the financial... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

March 2013 (Revised March 2014)
Case

Brazos Partners and the Tri-Northern Exit

By: Matthew Rhodes-Kropf and Nathaniel Burbank

Randall Fojtasek, a partner at the Dallas-based Brazos Private Equity Partners, must decide whether now is the time to sell his firm's investment in Tri-Northern Distribution. Brazos, a middle-market leveraged buyout group, created the company two years earlier through... View Details

Keywords: Private Equity Exit; LBO; Leveraged Buyout Transaction; Texas; Security; Brazos; Tri-Northern; Tri-Ed; Northern Video; Private Equity; Partners and Partnerships; Distribution; Leveraged Buyouts; Decision Choices and Conditions; Investment Funds; Financial Services Industry; Distribution Industry; Texas

31 May 2016
HBS Seminar

Sandra Sucher, Harvard Business School

25 Aug 2014
HBS Case

Starbucks Reinvented

untested arenas that define the company as it exists today. "This case distills 20 years of my thinking about the most important lessons of strategy, leadership, and managing in turbulence in the frame of a very relevant... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Food & Beverage

March 1985 (Revised November 1985)
Case

Wilmington Tap and Die

By: Robert S. Kaplan

The general manager of a division manufacturing taps and dies must decide whether to continue a major capital investment program. The program was designed to replace aging mechanical machines with modern, electronically controlled equipment. A post-audit, after an... View Details

Keywords: Capital Budgeting; Investment; Accounting Audits; Cost Management; Technological Innovation; Information Technology; Performance Productivity; Production; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Manufacturing Industry

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15 Sep 2021
News

Answer to U.S. Labor Shortage? ‘Hidden’ Workforce

February 2004 (Revised March 2006)
Case

Pratt & Whitney: Engineering Standard Work

By: H. Kent Bowen and Courtney Purrington

As the engineering of state-of-the-art jet engines becomes more and more complex, Pratt & Whitney leaders face major competitive problems. Product development projects are not meeting the cost, quality, and lead-time targets. The leadership develops a design,... View Details

Keywords: Design; Engineering; Cost; Knowledge Management; Time Management; Product Launch; Standards; Product Development; Problems and Challenges; Quality; Creativity; Competitive Strategy; Manufacturing Industry

26 Aug 2002
Research & Ideas

High-Stakes Decision Making: The Lessons of Mount Everest

anticipatory regret can lead to indecision and costly delays. 71 This anxiety can be particularly problematic for executives in fast-moving industries. Successful management teams in turbulent industries develop certain practices to cope... View Details

Keywords: by Michael A. Roberto

Article

More-Experienced Entrepreneurs Have Bigger Deadline Problems

By: Andy Wu, Aticus Peterson and Amy Meeker

Professor Andy Wu and doctoral candidate Aticus Peterson of Harvard Business School tracked 314 entrepreneurs who launched multiple technology hardware products on the crowdfunding platform Kickstarter from September 2010 to June 2019. The more projects the founders... View Details

Keywords: Deadlines; Entrepreneurship; Projects; Time Management

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Register to Read

2007
Working Paper

Interpersonal Authority in a Theory of the Firm

By: Eric J. Van den Steen

This paper develops a theory of the firm in which a firm's centralized asset ownership and low-powered incentives give a manager 'interpersonal authority' over employees (in a world with differing priors). The paper derives such interpersonal authority as... View Details

Keywords: Governance Controls; Employee Relationship Management; Managerial Roles; Motivation and Incentives; Boundaries; Theory