Publications

August 2019 (Revised March 2022)
Case

Family Matters: Governance at the Zamil Group

By: Christina R. Wing, Suraj Srinivasan and Esel Çekin

This case focuses on a large Saudi Arabian industrial conglomerate and family business Zamil Group’s corporate and family governance journey. The 12 sons of the founder led and grew the group successfully after taking over from their father in 1961. The secret to their... View Details

Keywords: Middle East; Family Ownership; Family-owned Business; Saudi Arabia; Family Business; Governance; Organizational Structure; Values and Beliefs; Steel Industry; Industrial Products Industry; Middle East; Saudi Arabia; Bahrain

18 Nov 2002
Research & Ideas

Where Morals and Profits Meet: The Corporate Value Shift

Harvard Business School professor Lynn S. Paine's new book, Value Shift, argues that companies can't consider themselves amoral or apart from society anymore—that the relationship between companies and society at large necessitates bringing a moral dimension to... View Details

Keywords: by Carla Tishler

15 Apr 2015
Research & Ideas

Why Americans Voted for an Income Tax

explained why he supported higher taxes on higher incomes: "As a country that values fairness, wealthier individuals have traditionally borne a greater share of this [tax] burden than the middle class or those less fortunate [This is] a basic reflection of our... View Details

Keywords: by Matthew C. Weinzierl

March 2024
Case

From “BIG” Ideas to Sustainable Impact at ICL Group (A)

By: Linda A. Hill and Lydia Begag

In the summer of 2023, Eduard (“Eddie”) Croitoru, Vice President (VP) of ICL Group (“ICL”) Corporate Initiatives, was reflecting on ICL’s internal ideation program, the Business Innovation for Growth (BIG) Accelerator. When Raviv Zoller became the CEO of ICL in 2018,... View Details

May 2016 (Revised September 2017)
Case

Pal's Sudden Service—Scaling an Organizational Model to Drive Growth

By: Gary P. Pisano, Francesca Gino and Bradley R. Staats

Pal's Sudden Service has developed a unique operating model and organizational culture in the quick service restaurant business. With a deep emphasis on process control and improvement, zero defects, extensive training, and a high level of employee engagement, Pal's... View Details

Keywords: Growth Strategy; Corporate Culture; Operations Strategy; Motivation; Values; Motivation and Incentives; Strategy; Values and Beliefs; Service Operations; Organizational Culture; Growth and Development Strategy; Service Industry; Food and Beverage Industry

04 Jun 2012
Research & Ideas

The Business of Life

encourages its members to keep the Sabbath Day holy. He sees no dichotomy. "You know, it's a travesty that somehow our society has gotten to a point where people have the view that science and academia are inconsistent with a spiritual life, and the View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

January 2010 (Revised December 2011)
Background Note

A Framework for Ethical Reasoning

By: Sandra J. Sucher and Nien-he Hsieh

A practical framework for evaluating the ethical dimensions of a proposed course of action for managers and executives. View Details

Keywords: Decision Making; Ethics; Values and Beliefs; Framework; Corporate Accountability; Leadership

Web

Invention of the Polarizer - Edwin H. Land & Polaroid | Harvard Business School

polarized light and mirages and Wood's own way of doing things. . . . I decided that the world needed a synthetic polarizer, an extensive sheet of polarizing material, in order to be able to carry out on a large scale all the things implied by Wood's stories." 8 Land... View Details

28 Sep 2020
Research & Ideas

How Leaders Can Navigate Politicized Conversations and Inspire Collaboration

we've found that even when people passionately disagree, they usually have some shared values or common beliefs that can bring them together. Hedge your claims. “I think it's very possible that the pandemic may overwhelm our medical... View Details

Keywords: by Kristen Senz

20 Aug 2008
Op-Ed

The Time is Right for Creative Capitalism

In a much admired and debated speech given at the World Economic Forum in Davos last January, Bill Gates said that many of the world's biggest problems cannot be fixed by philanthropy, but instead require free-market capitalism—"creative capitalism"—to solve.... View Details

Keywords: by Nancy Koehn

2011
Book

Blind Spots: Why We Fail to Do What's Right and What to Do about It

By: Max H. Bazerman and Ann E. Tenbrunsel

When confronted with an ethical dilemma, most of us like to think we would stand up for our principles. But we are not as ethical as we think we are. In Blind Spots, leading business ethicists Max Bazerman and Ann Tenbrunsel examine the ways we overestimate our ability... View Details

Keywords: Crime and Corruption; Moral Sensibility; Values and Beliefs; Failure; Performance Evaluation; Sales; Consumer Products Industry

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