Publications

September 2021 (Revised February 2023)
Case

Harambe: Mobilizing Capital in Africa

By: Anywhere (Siko) Sikochi, Dilyana Karadzhova Botha and Francesco Tronci

Harambe was a non-profit organization whose mission was to build an ecosystem to identify promising young African entrepreneurs and provide them access to training, markets, capital, and support networks. From 2007 to 2021, Harambe had grown to a network of 367... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Nonprofit Organizations; Business Model; Strategy; Organizational Structure; Business Startups; Capital; Venture Capital; Social and Collaborative Networks; Networks; Developing Countries and Economies; Emerging Markets; Africa; South Africa

Rakesh Khurana is the Marvin Bower Professor of Leadership Development at the Harvard Business School. He is also Professor of Sociology at Harvard University, co-Master of Cabot House at Harvard College, and the Danoff Dean of Harvard College.

Professor... View Details

Keywords: executive search

March 2016
Article

Environmental Demands and the Emergence of Social Structure: Technological Dynamism and Interorganizational Network Forms

By: Adam Tatarynowicz, Maxim Sytch and Ranjay Gulati

This study investigates the origins of variation in the structures of interorganizational networks across industries. We combine empirical analyses of existing interorganizational networks in six industries with an agent-based simulation model of network emergence.... View Details

Keywords: Interorganizatonal Relationships; Social Networks; Network Emergence; Interorganizational Networks; Information Technology; Networks; Organizational Structure; Social and Collaborative Networks; Social Media

Find at Harvard

2021
Working Paper

Accounting for Product Impact in the Airlines Industry

By: George Serafeim and Katie Trinh

We apply the product impact measurement framework of the Impact-Weighted Accounts Initiative (IWAI) in two competitor companies within the airlines industry. We design a monetization methodology that allows us to calculate monetary impact estimates of fare... View Details

SSRN

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May 2012 (Revised November 2015)
Case

The National Geographic Society (A) (Abridged)

By: David A. Garvin and Annelena Lobb

In January 2010, John Fahey, president, CEO, and chairman of the board of trustees' executive committee of the Washington, D.C.–based National Geographic Society (NGS), must decide how best to organize the 121-year old mission-driven organization for a world of... View Details

Keywords: General Management; Change Management; Media And Publishing; Digital Convergence; Strategy Development; Business Models; Information Publishing; Online Technology; Business Model; Organizational Structure; Business Strategy; Publishing Industry

06 Sep 2021
News

Automated Hiring Software Is Mistakenly Rejecting Millions of Viable Job Candidates

Web

Programs & Events - Alumni

questions about alumni events. Feb 16 16–21 FEB 2025 Executive Education HBS Campus Leading Global Businesses Build and lead your global organization while boosting its ability to create and sustain advantage and adapt nimbly to changing... View Details

March 2023
Case

Roche: ESG and Access to Healthcare

By: George Serafeim, Susanna Gallani and Benjamin Maletta

In May 2022, Roche Group, one of the largest healthcare companies in the world, hosted its first ESG investor event focused exclusively on its efforts to impact access to healthcare. While Roche had recently set an ambitious goal to double the number of patients that... View Details

May 1992 (Revised August 1996)
Supplement

NIKE in Transition (C): A Second COO

By: Christopher A. Bartlett

After two years of stunning financial results, Knight again appoints a new COO, Dick Donahue. Are Knight and Nike ready for a new COO? How does Donahue differ from Woodell? Will his personality, style, and agenda fit with the new Nike Knight has created? Also describes... View Details

Keywords: Policy; Growth and Development; Leadership Style; Management Succession; Managerial Roles; Organizational Structure; Strategy; Apparel and Accessories Industry

28 Apr 2015
First Look

First Look: April 28

high-tech entrepreneurship from three path-breaking entrepreneurs who emerged as CEOs of huge global companies. Their approaches to formulating strategy and building organizations offer unique insights for start-up executives as well as... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

06 Oct 2003
What Do You Think?

Is “the Innovator’s Solution” to Sustained Corporate Growth an Unnatural Act?

forms of innovation: process innovations ... innovations in the way we think ... innovations in organization structure ... and so on." These comments pose the question of whether too many elements, many... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

March 2024 (Revised September 2024)
Case

Supercell 2.0: Clash of Plans

By: Jeffrey F. Rayport and George Gonzalez

Founded in 2010, Supercell was a Helsinki, Finland-based mobile gaming company that had developed and launched five global hit mobile games: Clash of Clans, Clash Royale, Hay Day, Brawl Stars, and Boom Beach. The company’s early philosophy was that it could produce... View Details

Keywords: Business Growth and Maturation; Restructuring; Games, Gaming, and Gambling; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Culture; Organizational Structure; Corporate Strategy; Video Game Industry; Finland

01 Sep 2023
News

Bless this Stress

organizations owe it to their employees to do more. Even in environments where people thrive on stress, “We need to do more to help people, naturally and structurally, get back to a state of homeostasis,” she says. One View Details

Keywords: Jen McFarland Flint; Business Schools & Computer & Management Training; Educational Services

17 May 2017
Research & Ideas

Minorities Who 'Whiten' Job Resumes Get More Interviews

Organizations now have an opportunity to recognize this issue as a pinch point, so they can do something about it.” In one study, the researchers created resumes for black and Asian applicants and sent them out for 1,600 entry-level jobs... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

06 Aug 2020
Blog Post

WHY WE STARTED THE HBS BLACK INVESTMENT CLUB

INSPIRED BY RECENT EVENTS The protests against the unjust murders of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and countless others since have mobilized the nation to take a stand in support of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement and against the many policies that... View Details

Keywords: All Industries

2009
Other Unpublished Work

The Flattening Firm and Product Market Competition: The Effect of Trade Liberalization on Corporate Hierarchies

By: Maria Guadalupe and Julie Wulf

This paper establishes a causal effect of product market competition on various characteristics of organizational design. Using a unique panel-dataset on firm hierarchies of large U.S. firms (1986-1999) and a quasi-natural experiment (trade liberalization), we find... View Details

Keywords: Trade; Managerial Roles; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Design; Organizational Structure; Business Strategy; Competitive Strategy

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August 1989 (Revised January 1992)
Case

Prospect Hill

By: William J. Poorvu and Katherine Sweetman

Bill Hassett, a partner in the Nelson Companies, has to make some important decisions regarding the expansion of Prospect Hill Executive Office Park in Waltham, Massachusetts. The pre-development issues concerning him about the Hillside Building include how to position... View Details

Keywords: Expansion; Growth and Development Strategy; Property; Decisions; Interest Rates; Urban Development; Organizational Structure; Real Estate Industry; Massachusetts

Jan W. Rivkin is a Professor in the Strategy Unit at Harvard Business School. In the past, he has served as Faculty Chair of the MBA Program, Senior Associate Dean for Research, and head of the Strategy Unit. His research, course development, and teaching focus on... View Details

Keywords: airline; computer; internet; music; transportation

May 2005 (Revised April 2011)
Case

Arctic Timber AB: Engineered Woods Division (A)

By: Michael L. Tushman, David Kiron and Wendy Smith

Describes the leadership challenges involved in managing strategic innovation and change in a highly mature business unit. Allows systematic exploration of organizational structures, incentives, competencies, and culture that impede innovation. Pivots on a new leader's... View Details

Keywords: Change Management; Innovation and Management; Innovation Strategy; Leadership; Management Teams; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Culture; Organizational Structure