Publications

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February 1999 (Revised June 2000)
Case

Alexander Bandelli (A)

By: Thomas J. DeLong and Catherine M. Conneely

Alexander Bandelli has the opportunity to redefine the way real estate business is done in the Northeast region. He has just joined Ronsini and Fitch and has been asked by senior management to move to a client focus rather than the older, traditional transaction focus.... View Details

Keywords: Change Management; Customer Focus and Relationships; Management Teams; Real Estate Industry; Northeastern United States

November 2014
Teaching Note

Marketing Marijuana in Colorado

By: John A. Quelch

The case, set in the middle of 2014, reviews the first six months of marketplace activity in Colorado, following the legalization of marijuana for recreational use and the expansion of marijuana retailing from medical dispensaries to recreational stores. The case... View Details

Keywords: Marketing Innovations; Retail Government Services; Public Health; Agribusiness; Customers; Goods and Commodities; Government and Politics; Health; Marketing; Society; Consumer Products Industry; Distribution Industry; Health Industry; Public Administration Industry; North and Central America

November 2003 (Revised August 2005)
Case

First Commonwealth Financial Corporation

By: Robert S. Kaplan

First Commonwealth Financial Corp., a financial institution in central and southwestern Pennsylvania, implemented the Balanced Scorecard for describing and implementing its new customer-focused strategy. Its founder and chairman decided that the Balanced Scorecard also... View Details

Keywords: Balanced Scorecard; Corporate Strategy; Customers; Corporate Governance; Governing and Advisory Boards; Customer Relationship Management; Executive Compensation; Financial Services Industry; Banking Industry; Pennsylvania

September–October 2022
Article

Seeking Purity, Avoiding Pollution: Strategies for Moral Career Building

By: Erin Reid and Lakshmi Ramarajan

This study builds theory on how people construct moral careers. Analyzing interviews with 102 journalists, we show how people build moral careers by seeking jobs that allow them to fulfill both the institution’s moral obligations and their own material aims. We... View Details

Keywords: Personal Development and Career; Moral Sensibility

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29 Mar 2010
Research & Ideas

Ruthlessly Realistic: How CEOs Must Overcome Denial

executive who dared "speak truth to power" about Ford's Model T myopia—and this man, Ernest Kanzler, was his relative! (He was the brother-in-law of Ford's only child, Edsel.) A firm that deals with bad news by literally or figuratively dismissing the View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Auto; Retail; Technology

September–October 2022
Article

Case Study: What's the Right Career Move After a Public Failure?

By: Jon M. Jachimowicz and Francesca Gino

“Reunions are for happy people,” Mariani Kallis said to her friend Whitney on the phone. “I’m not going.” “Come on, it won’t be the same without you,” Whitney pleaded. “Besides, no one is happy right now. Everyone’s life is a mess.” “I’m pretty sure none of our... View Details

Keywords: Career Decisions; Personal Development and Career

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06 Dec 2021
News

In My Humble Opinion: Come Clean

Simon. But he saw an opportunity in a sleepy family company with a great reputation. He introduced systems that track customer preferences and check an order’s tiniest details, reducing the opportunity for... View Details

Keywords: Julia Hanna; career; life experiences; dry cleaning; leadership; music; Personal and Laundry Services; Personal and Laundry Services

June 2013
Supplement

Union Corrugating Co. (Video Supplement)

By: Jim Sharpe

This is the Video Supplement for Union Corrugating Company(A) and (B) (HBS Cases 803065 and 804003). View Details

February 2008 (Revised December 2011)
Case

Weber Shandwick: The Client Relationship Leader Program

By: Robert G. Eccles and Kerry Herman

In 2002 Weber Shandwick, a leading global public relations agency, instituted a Client Relationship Leader (CRL) Program for its top 32 global accounts. The purpose of the program is to ensure that all of the firm's resources across geographies, practice areas, and... View Details

Keywords: Blogs; Competency and Skills; Customer Relationship Management; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Design; Social and Collaborative Networks; Competitive Advantage; Public Relations Industry

December 2022 (Revised September 2024)
Teaching Note

Leonard Bernstein: Changing the World

By: Robert Simons and Shirley Sun

Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 122-056. The case traces the rise of Leonard Bernstein from a middle-class family in Boston to the conductor of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra. The case describes how he studied music intensely as a young man and developed mentors to... View Details

Keywords: Entertainment; Personal Characteristics; Work-Life Balance; Entrepreneurship; Success; Values and Beliefs; Mission and Purpose; Personal Development and Career; Entertainment and Recreation Industry

18 Jul 2018
Blog Post

Amira Rashad: An Ambidextrous Mind Meets Consumer Needs in the Middle East

ambidextrous mind," Amira says. "I'm equally comfortable with the details of ground-level execution as I am with the big picture, 30,000-foot, pie-in-the-sky vision." In 2010, her personal and... View Details

July 2020 (Revised October 2020)
Case

Valentina Tereshkova: Conquering Space

By: Boris Groysberg and Annelena Lobb

On June 13, 1963, Valentina Tereshkova of the USSR became the first woman to fly in space on Vostok 6. Soviet leaders publicly espoused gender equity, but also sent Tereshkova on her mission in order to be the first country to send a woman to space, a milestone they... View Details

Keywords: Gender Equity; Gender; Equality and Inequality; Personal Development and Career; Aerospace Industry; Soviet Union; United States

April 2005
Case

Saving Disney

At a March 2004 annual shareholder meeting, 45% of Walt Disney Co.'s shareholders withheld their support from CEO and Chairman Michael Eisner, producing a large no-confidence vote in the company's leader. The company had struggled financially in recent years and the... View Details

Keywords: Governing and Advisory Boards; Personal Development and Career; Corporate Governance; Entertainment and Recreation Industry

May 2013
Supplement

Transport Corporation of India (B): Choosing the Right Candidate

By: V.G. Narayanan and Saloni Chaturvedi

Transport Corporation of India was a logistics company that provided multi-modal transport solutions to its customers. Set up in 1958, TCI had grown from a 'one man, one truck, one office' set-up to a company with revenues of $400 million in half a century. TCI's... View Details

Keywords: Customer Relationship Management; Business Divisions; Performance; Sales; Transportation Industry; India

September 1996 (Revised May 1997)
Case

Mobil USM&R (C): Lubricants Business Unit

By: Robert S. Kaplan

The general manager of a Lubricants Business Unit in Mobil's U.S. Marketing and Refining division launched a project to develop a Balanced Scorecard (BSC) for his unit. The purpose was to provide focus for all employees of the unit, enabling it to operate on an... View Details

Keywords: Balanced Scorecard; Employees; Customization and Personalization; Performance Evaluation; Measurement and Metrics; Management Teams; Projects; Energy Industry; Mining Industry; United States

Fall 2011
Article

A Brief Postwar History of U.S. Consumer Finance

By: Gunnar Trumbull and Peter Tufano

In this brief history of U.S. consumer finance since World War II, the sector is defined based on the functions delivered by firms in the form of payments, savings and investing, borrowing, managing risk, and providing advice. Evidence of major trends in consumption,... View Details

Keywords: Consumer Finance; Consumer Credit; U.s. History; Consumer Behavior; Personal Finance; Credit; Trends; History; United States

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June 2021
Case

Acelero Learning

By: Mario Small, Kathleen L. McGinn, Amy Klopfenstein and Katherine Chen

In November 2020, Henry Wilde, co-founder and CEO of Acelero, Inc., must decide whether to change his company’s program model for delivering early childhood education to low-income children. One of the only for-profit Head Start providers in the United States, Acelero... View Details

Keywords: Early Childhood Education; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Growth and Development Strategy; Adoption; Customer Focus and Relationships; Operations; Education Industry; North and Central America; United States

February 2022 (Revised October 2022)
Case

P.T. Barnum: Changing the World

By: Robert Simons and Shirley Sun

This case describes the life of P.T. Barnum, widely considered to the be the father of modern advertising and marketing. Barnum showed his genius for business early, selling lottery tickets and confections from his father’s store. He went on to found a famous museum of... View Details

Keywords: Entertainment; Entrepreneurship; Personal Characteristics; Marketing; Success; Values and Beliefs; Mission and Purpose; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; United States; Europe