Publications

Find at Harvard

17 Apr 2022
Book

How to Avoid the 'Ethical Slide' That Leads Companies Astray

reputation is attractive,” she says. Not only that, “those companies are more steady and less volatile. They do not go through huge ethical collapses. They’re well-managed, and they’re able to respond [to challenges].” In addition, in this tight View Details

Keywords: by Lane Lambert

28 Mar 2016
Research & Ideas

What's a Boss Worth?

them look better. But how much of an effect does a good or bad boss have on workers, really? Harvard Business School Assistant Professor Christopher Stanton sets out to ask that question in The Value of Bosses, a paper recently published in the Journal of View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Service

22 Feb 2018
Book

The New History of American Capitalism

types developed by various social scientists during the past two centuries. One of the prime foci of social history, for example, was the history of labor. The history of capitalism picks up that interest but moves beyond wage labor in an... View Details

Keywords: Manufacturing

September 2017 (Revised February 2018)
Case

Becton Dickinson: Global Health Strategy

By: Mark R. Kramer and Sarah Mehta

Becton, Dickinson and Company (BD) was a medical technology firm headquartered in Franklin Lakes, New Jersey, with 43,000 employees and 2016 revenues of $12.5 billion. For several years, the company had pursued developing products that created shared value, defined as... View Details

Keywords: Shared Value; Creating Shared Value; Odon Device; Medical Technology; Value Creation; Values and Beliefs; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Health; Health Care and Treatment; Health Testing and Trials; Emerging Markets; Social Issues; Competitive Strategy; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry; Africa; Asia; Middle East

2008
Other Unpublished Work

From Public Purpose to Financial Economics: The Linked Ecologies of Economics and Business in Twentieth Century America

By: Marion Fourcade and Rakesh Khurana

As the main producers of managerial elites, business schools represent strategic research sites for understanding the formation of economic practices and representations. This article draws on historical material to analyze the changing place of economics in American... View Details

Keywords: Economics; Business Education; Finance; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Business History; Chicago

2002
Book

Searching for a Corporate Savior: The Irrational Quest for Charismatic CEOs

By: Rakesh Khurana

Corporate CEOs are headline news. Stock prices rise and fall at word of their hiring and firing. Business media debate their merits and defects as if individual leaders determined the health of the economy. Yet we know surprisingly little about how CEOs are selected... View Details

Keywords: Managerial Roles; Selection and Staffing; Personal Characteristics; Experience and Expertise; Investment Activism; Corporate Strategy

Find at Harvard

06 Jul 2016
What Do You Think?

How Do We Pay for the Costs of Globalization?

of backlash fostered by a long period of neglect of globalization’s effect on labor markets worldwide. Globalization takes many forms: common markets; free flows of workers including refugees and migrants; and multinational organizations... View Details

Keywords: by James L. Heskett; Manufacturing

October 2022
Case

Star Magnolia Capital: Becoming Experts at Finding Experts

By: Lauren Cohen, Hao Gao, River Ewing and Grace Headinger

Shinya Deguchi, Founder and Managing Partner of Star Magnolia Capital, a Shanghai-based multi-family office (MFO), considered how to convince a new prospective family that the MFO’s endowment model approach would best suit their needs. In recent decades, there has been... View Details

Keywords: China; Asia; Family Office; Shanghai; Financial Industry; Asset Management; Financial Instruments; Financial Management; Financial Strategy; Investment; Investment Return; Investment Portfolio; Human Capital; Family Business; Financial Services Industry; China; Shanghai

31 May 2023
HBS Case

Why Business Leaders Need to Hear Larry Miller's Story

View Video Editor's note: Watch the video in "full screen" mode for the best viewing experience. If Larry Miller hadn’t concealed his criminal record, would he ever have been given the chance to turn his life around? Would his talent have taken him to Nike, where he... View Details

Keywords: by Jamal Meneide; Entertainment & Recreation; Consumer Products

September 2015
Case

GovDelivery

By: Mitchell Weiss

Is government the biggest, worst customer in the world? And is that a reason for venture investors to back companies that sell to government or to stay away? It had been seven years since Scott Burns joined his friend Zach Stabenow to get a company called GovDocs off... View Details

Keywords: GovDelivery; Public Entrepreneurship; B2G; Business-to-Government; Scott Burns; Entrepreneurship; Government Administration; Venture Capital; Information Technology Industry; Public Administration Industry; Web Services Industry; Minnesota; United States

09 Jun 2022
HBS Case

From Truck Driver to Manager: US Foods’ Novel Approach to Staff Shortages

make jobs more appealing. “The question is, are all these demands that employees are making transitional?” asks Bell. “Are labor shortages going to be with us in the longer term? Maybe this is just a temporary consequence of COVID, but... View Details

Keywords: by Pamela Reynolds

28 Jun 2021
Research & Ideas

Keep or Cut Workers? How Companies Reacted to the COVID-19 Crisis

companies’ finances and worker treatment gives job seekers a new card to play. “That’s going to inform employee decisions when the labor market is tight,” he says. “The data is becoming more and more available. It’s easy to find, and it... View Details

Keywords: by Lane Lambert

18 Apr 2016
Research & Ideas

The Cost of Leaning In

between men and women, there’s also a persistent belief that women could close that gap if only they’d negotiate more frequently. In April 2012, the US Department of Labor hosted the Equal Pay App Challenge, in which students competed to... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

October 2013 (Revised November 2021)
Case

Cynthia Carroll at Anglo American (A)

By: Gautam Mukunda, Lisa Mazzanti and Aldo Sesia

In 2007, Cynthia Carroll, the newly-appointed chief executive of mining giant Anglo American, was considering shutting down mines in South Africa for safety reasons, namely worker fatalities. No company had ever done so before. Carroll felt that operating a company... View Details

Keywords: Culture; Leadership; Gender; Safety; Working Conditions; Business Exit or Shutdown; Organizational Culture; Change Management; Mining; Mining Industry; South Africa