Publications

April 1991 (Revised July 1991)
Case

RJR Nabisco Board: Guardians of the Gate? (A)

By: Jay W. Lorsch

Charles Hugel, the chairman of RJR Nabisco, receives a call from RJR Nabisco's CEO, Ross Johnson; Johnson plans to present an LBO plan to the board of directors at the board meeting the following week. The case details Hugel's actions as chairman, and describes the... View Details

Keywords: Leveraged Buyouts; Situation or Environment; Bids and Bidding; Decision Making; Managerial Roles; Governing and Advisory Boards; Management Teams; Consumer Products Industry; Food and Beverage Industry

October 2010 (Revised October 2011)
Case

Ken Langone: Member, GE Compensation Committee

By: Suraj Srinivasan and Lizzie Gomez

On September 2003, Richard Grasso stepped down as chairman and CEO of the New York Stock Exchange, following weeks of intense public criticism over the size of his $190 million compensation package. As chairman of the committee that oversaw Grasso's payout, Ken Langone... View Details

Keywords: Accounting; Corporate Governance; Governing and Advisory Boards; Employee Stock Ownership Plan; Executive Compensation; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Labor and Management Relations; Wages; Change Management; Energy Industry; New York (city, NY)

William Sahlman is a Baker Foundation Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School.

Mr. Sahlman received an A.B. degree in Economics from Princeton University (1972), an M.B.A. from Harvard University (1975), and a Ph.D. in Business... View Details

09 May 2021
News

#245 Hubert Joly- Skyrocketing Best Buy’s Success and Unleashing Human Magic

22 Sep 2015
News

Should Bank of America's CEO also be the chairman?

October 1997 (Revised November 1997)
Case

NAACP, The

By: James E. Austin, Paul Barese, Stephanie L. Woerner and Elaine V. Backman

In February 1995, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), the largest civil rights organization in the United States, was in the midst of a crisis. The executive director had been fired due to financial improprieties amid charges of... View Details

Keywords: Crime and Corruption; Capital; Governance Controls; Resignation and Termination; Selection and Staffing; Rights; Leadership; Management; United States

October 1998
Case

CRA Managed Care, Inc. (C)

By: Myra M. Hart and Susan Harmeling

Chronicles an entrepreneur's transition from chairman/CEO of a large privately held company, to chairman of a public company, to board member, to president of several major nonprofit boards, to founder of a new nonprofit for women business owners and founder of a new... View Details

Keywords: Transition; Leadership; Nonprofit Organizations; Governing and Advisory Boards; Entrepreneurship; Personal Development and Career; Gender; Management Skills; United States

December 1993 (Revised April 2006)
Case

Marriott Corporation (A)

By: Lynn S. Paine and Charles A. Nichols

Marriott Corp.'s chairman and CEO must decide whether to recommend a restructuring of the company to the board of directors. The proposal he is considering would split the Marriott Corp., a premier hotel developer, owner, and manager, into two separate companies by a... View Details

Keywords: Business or Company Management; Restructuring; Governing and Advisory Boards; Decision Making; Ethics; Management Teams; Business and Shareholder Relations; Accommodations Industry

December 1996 (Revised June 1997)
Case

Trinity College (A)

By: F. Warren McFarlan and Jaan Elias

Trinity College was an elite, private, liberal-arts college of some 1,800 students located in Hartford, CT. When Tom Gerety was chosen as Trinity's 17th president in 1989, he pledged to stay for ten years. Now less than five years at the job, Gerety announced he was... View Details

Keywords: Higher Education; Crisis Management; Management Succession; Planning; Social Enterprise; Education Industry; Connecticut

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

John Macomber is a Senior Lecturer in the Finance unit at Harvard Business School. His professional background includes leadership of real estate, construction, and information technology businesses. At HBS, Mr. Macomber's work focuses on climate adaptation and the... View Details

Keywords: building materials; construction; energy; green technology; infrastructure industry; real estate; transportation; utilities; waste management; insurance industry

February 1991 (Revised June 1993)
Case

Ross Perot and General Motors

By: Jay W. Lorsch

In December, 1986 the General Motors Board of Directors must decide whether to accept the buyout agreement between GM and Ross Perot, a director of GM and its largest stockholder. The agreement called for GM to purchase all of Perot's GM shares in exchange for his... View Details

Keywords: Leveraged Buyouts; Mergers and Acquisitions; Stock Shares; Resignation and Termination; Business or Company Management; Agreements and Arrangements

Trevor Fetter is a Senior Lecturer and the Henry B. Arthur Fellow at Harvard Business School, where he has been on the faculty since 2019. He teaches two MBA required courses: Financial Reporting and Control and Leadership and Corporate Accountability. He has also... View Details

April 1994 (Revised August 1996)
Case

American Express (A)

By: Jay W. Lorsch

In January 1993, the American Express board met to decide who would succeed James D. Robinson, III as chairman and CEO. The board needed to act in the spotlight of intense media and investor scrutiny, and after leaks had revealed that there was a conflict among the... View Details

Keywords: Decision Making; Corporate Governance; Resignation and Termination; Leadership; Management Succession; Performance Evaluation

George A. Riedel is the Henry B. Arthur Fellow and Senior Lecturer in the General Management Unit, where he currently teaches TEM (The Entrepreneurial Manager) and acts as a Section Chair in the Required Curriculum (RC). He has also taught TOM (Technology and... View Details

08 May 2019
Working Paper Summaries

Bank Boards: What Has Changed Since the Financial Crisis?

Keywords: by Shiva Rajgopal, Suraj Srinivasan, and Forester Wong; Banking

Stephen P. Bradley

Professor Bradley is the William Ziegler Professor of Business Administration Emeritus at the Harvard Business School. In addition to teaching Management and Strategy in the Owner President Management Program and leading an... View Details

Keywords: e-commerce industry; financial services; health care; high technology; internet; pharmaceuticals; telecommunications

13 May 2021
News

How to Lead in the Stakeholder Era

April 1989 (Revised September 1989)
Case

CIBA-GEIGY AG: Impact of Inflation and Currency Fluctuations

By: Hugo Uyterhoeven

The chairman of the second-largest Swiss multinational company is preparing for a board discussion on the impact of a constantly strengthening Swiss franc. The case raises strategic issues in terms of international competitiveness, financial reporting issues of how to... View Details

Keywords: Inflation and Deflation; Currency; Financial Management; Multinational Firms and Management; Problems and Challenges; Risk and Uncertainty; Competitive Strategy; Switzerland