Publications

July 2001 (Revised October 2001)
Case

Policy Management Systems Corp.: The Financial Reporting Crisis

Tim Williams, the new CFO of a publicly-traded enterprise software company, attempts to rebuild his company's reputation for reliable financial reporting following a highly visible financial reporting crisis. The crisis begins with an earnings shortfall warning, which... View Details

Keywords: Accrual Accounting; Revenue Recognition; Capital Markets; Policy; Corporate Governance; Accounting Audits; Technology Industry

2013
Case

Hindustan Unilever Limited: Meeting Employee Expectations

By: Shashank Shah, Ajith Sankar and David Sharpe

Keywords: Human Resource Management; Employee Empowerment; Employee Engagement; Employee Compensation; Consumer Products Industry; India; United Kingdom

08 Sep 2020
Sharpening Your Skills

Capitalism Works Better When I Can See What You're Doing

information, revealing too much can benefit individuals but hurt businesses. Why Managers Should Reveal Their FailuresIf you want to get your messages through to employees, be ready to confess your own View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

December 2016 (Revised May 2018)
Module Note

Strategy Execution Module 15: Using the Levers of Control to Implement Strategy

By: Robert Simons

This module reading pulls together key concepts and techniques from the Strategy Execution series into an integrated model—the levers of control. The four levers are: (1) belief systems, (2) boundary systems, (3) diagnostic control systems, and (4) interactive control... View Details

Keywords: Management Control Systems; Implementing Strategy; Execution; Levers Of Control; Balancing Innovation And Control; Managing Growing Businesses; Turn Around Management; Human Behavior; Organizational Life Cycle; Strategy; Management Systems; Performance; Measurement and Metrics; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Behavior

January 2021
Article

Machine Learning for Pattern Discovery in Management Research

By: Prithwiraj Choudhury, Ryan Allen and Michael G. Endres

Supervised machine learning (ML) methods are a powerful toolkit for discovering robust patterns in quantitative data. The patterns identified by ML could be used for exploratory inductive or abductive research, or for post-hoc analysis of regression results to detect... View Details

Keywords: Machine Learning; Supervised Machine Learning; Induction; Abduction; Exploratory Data Analysis; Pattern Discovery; Decision Trees; Random Forests; Neural Networks; ROC Curve; Confusion Matrix; Partial Dependence Plots; AI and Machine Learning

Read Now

2009
Chapter

Self-regulatory Institutions for Solving Environmental Problems: Perspectives and Contributions from the Management Literature

By: Andrew A. King and Michael W. Toffel

Scholars of management have long considered how institutions can help resolve market imperfections and thereby improve human welfare. Most previous research has emphasized the use of for-profit firms. Such institutions cannot effectively address many environmental... View Details

Keywords: For-Profit Firms; Investment; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Environmental Sustainability; Competitive Advantage

Read Now

10 Sep 2007
Research & Ideas

High Note: Managing the Medici String Quartet

Why would a business school professor want to write a case study about a string quartet? The answer was easy for Robert Austin, a scholar with research expertise in the management of innovation. While attending an academic workshop near... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Music

26 Nov 2001
Research & Ideas

Manager or Mentor? Why You Must Be Both

HBS professor David A. Thomas hates the word "mentor." In his opinion, it's as empty a buzzword as "coach." In fact, when Thomas spoke to an audience of around 100 administrative managers at Harvard University... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

February 2012
Case

Henkel: Building a Winning Culture

By: Robert Simons and Natalie Kindred

This case illustrates a CEO-led organizational transformation driven by stretch goals, performance measurement, and accountability. When Kasper Rorsted became CEO of Henkel, a Germany-based producer of personal care, laundry, and adhesives products, in 2008, he was... View Details

Keywords: Performance Measurement; Performance Appraisals; Human Resource Management; Values; Organizational Transformations; Pay For Performance; Strategy Execution; Values and Beliefs; Work-Life Balance; Organizational Culture; Human Resources; Performance Evaluation; Compensation and Benefits

03 Dec 2014
What Do You Think?

Can the Brilliant Jerk Be Managed Effectively?

type of person in the first place. As Richard Fairbanks, CEO of Capital One, is fond of saying, "At most companies, people spend 2 percent of their time recruiting and 75 percent managing their... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

March 2018
Case

TrustSphere: Building a Market for Relationship Analytics

By: Boris Groysberg and Katherine Connolly Baden

Manish Goel was the CEO of TrustSphere, a seven-year-old company in the data analytics industry that focused squarely on relationship analytics, a space in which TrustSphere was pioneering a unique technology and solutions in the areas of sales, risk, and people... View Details

Keywords: Data Analytics; People Analytics; Talent Management; Human Resources; Networks; Relationships; Analysis; Employee Relationship Management; Core Relationships; Applications and Software; Communication; Technology Industry; Singapore

30 Jun 2009
Research Event

Business Summit: The Role of Business Leaders in Sustaining Market Capitalism

environmental issues, inadequate governance, and lack of transparency. But these same leaders have very different perspectives on the most appropriate path forward. Some feel the sole focus of business should be on building great companies. Others believe that for... View Details

Keywords: Re: Multiple Faculty

October 2012
Case

Winfield Refuse Management, Inc.: Raising Debt vs. Equity

By: W. Carl Kester and Sunru Yong

A small, publicly traded company specializing in non-hazardous waste management considers a major acquisition in the Midwestern U.S. The acquisition can provide entry into the region, help the firm compete in a competitive industry, and improve its cost position. The... View Details

Keywords: United States; Acquisitions; Capital Structure; Equity Capital; Debt Management; Expansion; Leveraged Buyouts; Financial Analysis; Administrative/Support/Waste Management/Remediation Services; Equity; Borrowing and Debt; Service Industry

July 2020
Case

Karen Bruck: Growing Managers at MercadoLibre

By: Joshua D. Margolis, Fernanda Miguel and Mariana Cal

Karen Bruck, Corporate Sales Director at MercadoLibre, Latin America's largest e-commerce platform, needs to make a decision about one of her managers, who, while analytically savvy, has an approach that does not fit in with the company's culture. View Details

Keywords: Performance Evaluation; Employee Relationship Management; Decision Making; Interpersonal Communication; Organizational Culture; Retail Industry; Latin America; Argentina

Web

Introduction - The Medium - The Human Factor – Baker Library | Bloomberg Center, Historical Collections

HBS Home HBS Index Contact Us Harvard Business School Baker Library Historical Collections The Human Factor Introducing the Industrial Life Photograph Collection at the Baker Library Introduction The Exhibition The Request The Response... View Details

03 Nov 2016
News

You’re Fired: Managing Gray-Area Decisions

August 2015
Teaching Note

Rana Plaza (C): Primark and Victim Compensation

By: John A. Quelch

Keywords: Corporate Social Responsibility; Business Ethics; Human Resource Management; Workplace Safety; Safety; Working Conditions; Supply Chain Management; Ethics; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Human Resources

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