Publications

04 Sep 2012
Research & Ideas

Book Excerpt: Indispensable: When Leaders Really Matter

In his new book, Indispensable: When Leaders Really Matter, Harvard Business School Assistant Professor Gautam Mukunda addresses the question of whether leaders create history or are created by it. In this... View Details

16 Jul 2012
Research & Ideas

Book Excerpt: ‘The Strategist’

strategy from the top of the organization to a specialist function." Montgomery maintains that it's time for CEOs to reclaim strategy, a point she argues fervently in her new book, The Strategist: Be the Leader Your Business Needs. The... View Details

Keywords: by Cynthia A. Montgomery

January 2023 (Revised August 2023)
Case

Veeva Systems and the Transformation to a Public Benefit Corporation

By: Ranjay Gulati and Allison M. Ciechanover

Peter Gassner, the co-founder and CEO of Veeva Systems, steered the company through rapid scaling from its launch in 2007 to 2022. Year after year, the company had exceeded expectations, with its market capitalization reaching $50 billion at its peak. By 2022, the... View Details

Keywords: Transformation; Corporate Governance; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Mission and Purpose; Organizational Culture; Information Technology Industry; Technology Industry; United States; California

31 Oct 2004
Research & Ideas

The New CEO’s Wrong Message

that there would be opportunities for early CEO input. Finally, he spent the next year working hard to make sure that his vision and agenda were clear to all employees, especially his senior management team.... View Details

Keywords: by Michael E. Porter, Jay W. Lorsch & Nitin Nohria

14 Jul 2023
Blog Post

Balancing Act: Kate Eberle Walker’s Action Plan for C-suite Diversity

previous CEO role. “But it is important. Business needs gender diversity.” Eberle Walker first recognized the gender imbalance in the business world as an investment banking associate. She was often the only woman in a meeting—a fact that... View Details

July 2024
Teaching Note

Leading Culture Change at Microsoft Western Europe

By: Amy C. Edmondson and Catherine Huang

This teaching plan is designed to be used in conjunction with the case study “Leading Culture Change at Microsoft Western Europe,” HBS No. 624-096, to help faculty deepen student understanding of psychological safety and organizational culture transformation through... View Details

Keywords: Culture Change; General Management; Psychological Safety; Leadership; Transformation; Organizational Culture; Problems and Challenges; Groups and Teams; Business or Company Management; Technology Industry; Europe

March 1995
Case

Donald Salter Communications, Inc.

By: Stuart C. Gilson and Jeremy Cott

A new CEO is hired to manage the turnaround of a family-owned newspaper publisher. In a departure from previous management, he implements a new compensation scheme that explicitly ties executive pay to market-value-based measures of firm performance. Because the... View Details

Keywords: Family Business; Transformation; Asset Management; Wages; Balanced Scorecard; Family Ownership; Motivation and Incentives; Valuation; Journalism and News Industry

January 2024
Case

National Football League and Private 5G

By: Andy Wu, Grant Son and Shuoyo Chen

On September 9, 2021, the National Football League (NFL) designated Verizon as its official 5G partner in a 10-year deal, committed to enhance the experience for NFL teams, players, and fans in stadiums. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said, “Verizon will help us... View Details

Keywords: Football; National Football League; 5G; Verizon; Communication Technology; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Technology Adoption; Risk and Uncertainty; Business Strategy; Collaborative Innovation and Invention; Sports Industry; Telecommunications Industry

25 May 2011
HBS Case

QuikTrip’s Investment in Retail Employees Pays Off

heard." "Retailers like Mercadona and QuikTrip have created ways to institutionalize improvement.” Ton notes that another commonality between QuikTrip and Mercadona lies in the strongly held values of its leadership. QuikTrip's... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Retail

Jeffrey F. Rayport

Jeffrey F Rayport is a faculty member in the Entrepreneurial Management Unit at Harvard Business School, where he teaches in the School’s MBA and Executive Education Programs and on HBS Online. His primary focus in teaching and research is growth-stage technology... View Details

Derek C. M. van Bever

Derek van Bever is a Senior Lecturer in the General Management Unit of Harvard Business School. He teaches courses in both years of the MBA program (“Leadership and Corporate Accountability” in the first-year required curriculum and “Building and Sustaining a... View Details

04 Oct 2006
Lessons from the Classroom

Surviving Success: When Founders Must Go

search process, the company offered the position of CEO to Dick Williams, an industry veteran with twenty-two years of experience at IBM. In the final stages of negotiating his hiring terms, Williams made one final, surprising request:... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Technology

Web

Entrepreneurship & Innovation - MBA

program, a one-time need-based award of $10,000-$20,000 to graduating MBA students who are committed to pursuing their own for-profit entrepreneurial ventures. Career & Professional Development (CPD) Career and Professional Development... View Details

October 2021 (Revised December 2021)
Case

Customer-Centric Design with Artificial Intelligence: Commonwealth Bank

By: Karim R. Lakhani, Yael Grushka-Cockayne, Jin Hyun Paik and Steven Randazzo

As Commonwealth Bank (CommBank) CEO Matt Comyn delivered the full financial year results in August 2021 over videoconference, it took less than two minutes for him to make his first mention of the organization's Customer Engagement Engine (CEE), the AI-driven customer... View Details

Keywords: Artificial Intelligence; Customer-centricity; Banks and Banking; Customer Focus and Relationships; Technological Innovation; Transformation; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Performance; AI and Machine Learning; Financial Services Industry; Australia

February 2018 (Revised October 2024)
Case

Hikma Pharmaceuticals Governance Journey

By: Lynn Paine, Suraj Srinivasan and Gamze Yucaoglu

The case opens with Said Darwazah, chairman and CEO of Hikma Pharmaceuticals, the multinational generics company, anticipating the company’s 2017 AGM and reflecting on changes made over the previous year to address concerns expressed by proxy advisors and some... View Details

Keywords: Jordan; Emerging Markets; Private Sector; For-profit Firms; Boards Of Directors; Pharmaceuticals; Remuneration; Shareholder Engagement; Corporate Governance; Governing and Advisory Boards; Business and Shareholder Relations; Executive Compensation; Business Growth and Maturation; Pharmaceutical Industry; Jordan

June 2010 (Revised July 2011)
Case

Classic Knitwear and Guardian: A Perfect Fit?

By: John A. Quelch and Patricia Girardi

Classic Knitwear manufactures and distributes casual apparel, either unbranded or under a private-label brand name. Partly because Classic has no brand recognition with consumers, gross margins are low. To improve margins, the company considers partnering via a... View Details

Keywords: Market Research; Forecasting; Consumer Marketing; New Product Marketing; Product Lines; Merchandising; Branding; Demand and Consumers; Partners and Partnerships; Marketing Strategy; Forecasting and Prediction; Product Marketing; Brands and Branding; Product Development; Manufacturing Industry; Apparel and Accessories Industry

December 2021 (Revised June 2022)
Case

Darden Restaurants: The Nine Square Feet

By: Joshua D. Margolis and James Barnett

In June 2021, Darden Restaurants CEO Gene Lee contemplates how to position the world’s biggest full-service restaurant more than one year into the COVID-19 pandemic. View Details

Keywords: COVID-19 Pandemic; Agribusiness; Change; Decision Making; Food; Human Resources; Leadership; Operations; Strategy; Health Pandemics; Opportunities; Food and Beverage Industry; United States

April 2021
Teaching Note

Drinkworks: Home Bar by Keurig

By: Sunil Gupta and Jonathan Levav

Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 521-010. In the summer of 2018, Drinkworks CEO Nathaniel Davis needed to make a number of go-to-market decisions ahead of his company’s upcoming product launch. Formed through a joint venture between Keurig Dr. Pepper and Anheuser-Busch... View Details