Publications

January 2002 (Revised June 2002)
Background Note

A Note on Building and Leading Your Senior Team

By: Linda A. Hill and Maria Farkas

As performance demands intensify in fast-moving global markets, more executives are coming to rely on senior teams for strategic and operational assistance. Team building with powerful senior executives presents special challenges, including competition for their boss'... View Details

Keywords: Talent and Talent Management; Globalized Markets and Industries; Selection and Staffing; Leadership; Management Teams; Operations; Organizational Culture; Rank and Position; Strategy

April 2004 (Revised May 2010)
Case

Columbia's Final Mission

By: Richard M.J. Bohmer, Amy C. Edmondson, Michael Roberto, Laura Feldman and Erika Ferlins

Describes the 16-day final mission of the space shuttle Columbia in January 2003 in which seven astronauts died. Includes background on NASA and the creation of the human space flight program, including the 1970 Apollo 13 crisis and 1986 Challenger disaster. Examines... View Details

Keywords: Leadership; Crisis Management; Management Skills; Organizational Culture; Groups and Teams; Behavior; Aerospace Industry

10 Feb 2025
Video

AI Governance: Navigating the complex landscape of artificial intelligence

Arthur I Segel

View Details

Keywords: federal government; real estate

February 1986 (Revised September 2011)
Case

Donna Dubinsky and Apple Computer, Inc. (A)

Describes a major conflict within Apple Computer in 1985 over control of product distribution. The founder and chairman, Steve Jobs, proposed a new distribution process which would transfer many responsibilities away from distribution manager, Donna Dubinsky. Dubinsky... View Details

Keywords: Management Teams; Conflict and Resolution; Computer Industry; United States

23 Jun 2023
HBS Case

This Company Lets Employees Take Charge—Even with Life and Death Decisions

example for companies struggling to re-engage “quiet quitters” while balancing rising costs and mixed economic signals. The company began in the Netherlands in 2006 as an antidote to what the founders viewed as innovation-crushing managed... View Details

Keywords: by Annelena Lobb; Health

15 May 2022
News

Layoffs on Zoom: Is There a Better Way?

17 Jan 2011
Research & Ideas

Being the Boss

the person up the chain be most responsible for whether you have a healthy relationship, but you're equally responsible. If you don't manage that relationship right, your team is not going to be able to do... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

October 1992 (Revised December 1992)
Supplement

Salomon and the Treasury Securities Auction: 1992 Update

By: Dwight B. Crane

Briefly summarizes the events that transpired after the investment bank Salomon Brothers revealed that it had repeatedly violated the rules governing the auction of new U.S. Government securities. Includes a description of the violations, the management shake-up that... View Details

Keywords: Crime and Corruption; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Financial Instruments; Banking Industry; Financial Services Industry; United States

2014
Working Paper

Linguistic Complexity in Firm Disclosures: Obfuscation or Information?

By: Brian J. Bushee, Ian D. Gow and Daniel Taylor

Prior research argues that the linguistic complexity of a firm’s disclosures reflects managerial obfuscation. However, complex language can be used either to obfuscate or to convey information, with the effect likely depending on the incentives of the source. We... View Details

Keywords: Communication; Financial Reporting

June 2007 (Revised September 2021)
Case

Thomas J. Watson, IBM and Nazi Germany

By: Geoffrey Jones, Grace Ballor and Adrian Brown

Considers the strategy of U.S.-owned IBM, then a manufacturer of punch cards, in Nazi Germany before 1937. Opens with IBM CEO Thomas J. Watson meeting Adolf Hitler in his capacity as President of the International Chamber of Commerce. IBM had acquired a German company... View Details

Keywords: Business History; Values and Beliefs; Multinational Firms and Management; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Investment; Business and Government Relations; Germany; United States

October 2018
Supplement

JetBlue: Relevant Sustainability Leadership (B)

By: George Serafeim and David Freiberg

The case outlines JetBlue's decision to disclose according to the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) standards and the ESG metrics they began reporting. Data on resulting changes in institutional ownership are also provided. View Details

Keywords: Sustainability; Metrics; Leadership And Change Management; Airlines; Innovation; Purpose; ESG; ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) Performance; Sustainability Reporting; Change Management; Leadership; Mission and Purpose; Financial Reporting

November–December 2019
Article

Head, Heart or Hands: How Do Employees Respond to a Radical Global Language Change Over Time?

By: Sebastian Reiche and Tsedal Neeley

To understand how recipients respond to radical change over time across cognitive, affective, and behavioral dimensions, we conducted a longitudinal study of a mandated language change at a Chilean subsidiary of a large U.S. multinational organization. The... View Details

Keywords: Language; Communication; Change; Employees; Attitudes; Emotions; Globalized Firms and Management

Find at Harvard

December 2014 (Revised July 2016)
Case

HEINEKEN—Brewing a Better World

By: Forest L. Reinhardt, José Alvarez, Tonia Junker and Daniela Beyersdorfer

The Dutch company HEINEKEN, one of the leading global brewers known for its brands like Heineken, Amstel, and Desperados and for its award-winning marketing campaigns, seeks to closely integrate its long-term sustainability "Brewing a Better World" approach into its... View Details

Keywords: Beer/brewing Industry; Sustainability; Local Sourcing; Corporate Strategy; Global Strategy; Brands and Branding; Marketing Strategy; Supply Chain Management; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Food and Beverage Industry

Ashish Nanda

Ashish Nanda is Senior Lecturer and C. Roland Christensen Distinguished Management Educator at Harvard Business School. From 2018 to 2021, he was course head for the MBA Required Curriculum course in Strategy. Beginning in 2022, he is teaching an MBA Elective... View Details

June 2014 (Revised November 2015)
Case

Via Verde

By: Arthur I Segel, Nicolas P. Retsinas, Philip Berkman, Sean Liu, Jared Katseff and Shawn Tuli

Developers Jonathan Rose and Adam Weinstein were trying to determine which of three proposals to submit to the city of New York in response to a RFP to create an affordable housing project in the South Bronx. The site, referred to as Via Verde, was a 1.5-acre... View Details

Keywords: Jonathan Rose Companies; Affordable Housing; Property; Real Estate Industry; United States

January 2019 (Revised February 2019)
Supplement

The a2 Milk Company

By: Benjamin C. Esty, Daniel Fisher and Greg Saldutte

The a2 Milk Company (a2MC) became the most valuable company listed on the New Zealand stock exchange in 2018 by capitalizing on a biochemical discovery related to the protein composition of cow's milk. Because many people find the A1 protein difficult to digest, and... View Details

Article

No Team is an Island: How Leaders Shape Networked Ecosystems for Team Success

By: Inga Carboni, Robert Cross and Amy C. Edmondson

Today’s organizations rely on networks of dynamic systems of “agile” teams to get work done. Teams are distributed, transient, and loosely bounded in service of responsiveness and innovation. The key to this new way of doing work is managing the networked ecosystem in... View Details

Keywords: Cross-functional Teams; Teams; Interviews; Leadership; Groups and Teams; Networks