Leader Selection - Publications - Faculty & Research

March 2006
Case

The Whitesides Lab

By: H. Kent Bowen and Francesca Gino

A significant part of the long-term economic growth in developed economies depends on the translation of scientific research into new products and processes. Focuses on the front end of this value creation stream. The laboratory of George Whitesides has a 30-year... View Details

Keywords: Research; Performance Productivity; Economic Growth; Infrastructure; Creativity; Groups and Teams; Value Creation; Factories, Labs, and Plants; Leadership; Resource Allocation

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September 2009
Module Note

Leading Teams Note

By: Jeffrey T. Polzer

This note, which describes the architecture and processes that characterize effective teams, begins by detailing the steps involved in designing a team, from diagnosing the complexity, interdependence, and objectives of the task to harnessing the key resources teams... View Details

Keywords: Interpersonal Communication; Experience and Expertise; Decision Choices and Conditions; Knowledge Sharing; Leadership; Business Processes; Groups and Teams

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2021
Working Paper

Diversity and Performance in Entrepreneurial Teams

By: Sophie Calder-Wang, Paul A. Gompers and Kevin Huang

We study the role of diversity and performance in the entrepreneurial teams. We exploit a unique dataset of MBA students who participated in a required course to propose and start a real micro-business that allows us to examine horizontal diversity (i.e., within the... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Groups and Teams; Diversity; Performance

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15 Sep 2011
Research & Ideas

High Ambition Leadership

that explicitly address the leaders' role in building a "great institution": one that does "well" (produces financial results) and "good" (contributes to the larger good). Q: Who are higher-ambition leaders? A: In our book we explicitly View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

Article

Strong Leadership and Teamwork Drive Culture and Performance Change: Ohio State University Medical Center 2000–2006

By: Leonard A. Schlesinger, Fred Sanfilippo, Neeli Bendapudi and Anthony Rucci

Several characteristics of academic health centers have the potential to create high levels of internal conflict and misalignment that can pose significant leadership challenges.

In September 2000, the positions of Ohio State University (OSU) senior vice... View Details

Keywords: Employee Relationship Management; Customer Value and Value Chain; Organizational Structure; Performance Improvement; Customer Satisfaction; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Leading Change; Service Delivery; Satisfaction; Health Care and Treatment; Health Industry; Ohio

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06 Dec 2013
Op-Ed

HBS Faculty Remember Nelson Mandela

Zimbabwe shows. Most leaders are easily replaceable - usually more than we think they are, and almost always far more than they think they are. A select few are not. A relative handful of View Details

Keywords: by Nitin Nohria, Linda Hill, Rosabeth Moss Kanter & Gautam Mukunda

23 Mar 2021
Book

Succeeding in the New Work-from-Anywhere World

When the pandemic forced employees to flee offices and work from home in droves last year, many business leaders worried that productivity might take a dive. Would remote workers be too tempted by the lures of Netflix or too distracted by... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

18 Jul 2012
Research & Ideas

Penn State Lesson: Today’s Cover-Up was Yesterday’s Opportunity

fail, further alienating the public. Reversing this loss of trust will require a concerted effort to develop a new generation of responsible leaders. No longer can leaders be chosen strictly for their abilities. In the future they must... View Details

Keywords: by Bill George; Education

April 2025 (Revised June 2025)
Case

Governing Sustainability in a Shifting Context (A)

By: Lynn S. Paine and Will Hurwitz

In early 2025, boards of directors had to rethink corporate responsibility and sustainability efforts amid rapidly-shifting social, legal, regulatory, and economic forces. While just a few years earlier, calls to address racial justice and climate change reached into... View Details

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18 Jun 2014
Research & Ideas

Book Excerpt: ‘Collective Genius’

book excerpt Leading Innovation From Collective Genius: The Art of Practice of Leading Innovation By Linda A. Hill, Greg Brandeau, Emily Truelove and Kent Linebeck Though each of our leaders and their firms differed in key ways, all View Details

Keywords: by Linda Hill; Entertainment & Recreation

17 Mar 2022
Research & Ideas

Navigating Tradeoffs: How Purpose Becomes a Company's ‘Lighthouse in the Storm’

example leads us to an important theme: purpose’s role in helping leaders navigate tradeoffs. During the months-long process of selecting packaging, Puri and his team looked toward the company’s purpose for... View Details

Keywords: by Ranjay Gulati

21 May 2001
Research & Ideas

From Tigers to Kaleidoscopes: Thinking About Future Leadership

What do leaders this year and the next need to be doing differently than last year, and last decade, and last century? The rapidly changing business world means dramatic changes are afoot in time-worn notions about leadership, according... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

12 Feb 2001
Research & Ideas

John Irving’s Lessons for Business

all three of the creativity components in selecting people and assigning them to projects. First, of course, expertise is important — talent and skill, experience and training. Unfortunately, that's sometimes all that we consider. We need... View Details

Keywords: by Mallory Stark & Martha Lagace

11 Apr 2017
First Look

First Look at New Research, April 11

integration process. All focused on how best to combine the two airlines’ core systems and operating processes as well as the appropriate scope and speed of strategic changes. Now, Parker must decide on the composition of AAL’s senior executive team. Should Parker... View Details

October 2009 (Revised December 2010)
Case

GE Money Bank: The M-Budget Card Initiative

By: Michael L. Tushman, Sebastian Raisch and Christian Welling

The M-Budget Card case study is about mastering the challenges of an exploratory strategic initiative in a context marked by time pressure and frequent change. M-Budget was the first of a series of highly successful projects that established GE Money Bank as a leader... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Entrepreneurship; Credit Cards; Leading Change; Product Launch; Product Development; Groups and Teams; Banking Industry; Switzerland

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29 Apr 2002
Research & Ideas

Star Power! How to Win in Professional Services

corporations, the CEO is selected by a higher authority (the board of directors) acting on behalf of the shareholders, which gives him strong positional power to shape the company's direction, strategically and organizationally. The PSF... View Details

Keywords: by Jay W. Lorsch & Thomas J. Tierney

09 Feb 2009
Research & Ideas

Uncompromising Leadership in Tough Times

differently from the norm, too. Martha Lagace: What observations or experiences have driven you and your colleagues to study uncompromising leadership? How and why did you select the CEOs in your study? Michael Beer: My colleagues and I... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

Research Summary

The American Chief Executive from 1850 to 2000

By: Richard S. Tedlow

Richard S. Tedlow's research explores changes in the leadership strategies, styles, and backgrounds of corporate chief executive officers in the United States over the past century and a half. This project has both a qualitative and a quantitative component. The... View Details

28 Oct 2008
First Look

First Look: October 28, 2008

members to help select winning designs. Threadless encouraged community members to actively participate by critiquing submitted designs, blogging about their daily lives, posting songs and videos inspired by the designs, and, most... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

May 2025
Case

IQanat: Empowering Rural Youth in Kazakhstan

By: Boris Groysberg and Maxim Pike Harrell

In June 2025, IQanat CEO Aliya Salikova considered scaling opportunities for the foundation, which provided educational opportunities for children from rural regions of Kazakhstan. Established by Kazakhstani businessman and philanthropist Aidyn Rakhimbayev, IQanat... View Details