Publications

14 Sep 2012
Working Paper Summaries

What Do Managers Do? Exploring Persistent Performance Differences among Seemingly Similar Enterprises

An abstract is unavailable at this time. View Details

Keywords: by Robert Gibbons & Rebecca Henderson

February 2001 (Revised September 2005)
Case

Howard Schultz and Starbucks Coffee Company

By: Nancy F. Koehn

Investigates the entrepreneur's strategic initiatives to develop a mass market for specialty coffee in the 1980s and 1990s. These initiatives included the development of premium products, rapid expansion of company-owned stores--each with attractive retail environments... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Groups and Teams; Brands and Branding; Growth Management; Employee Relationship Management; Consumer Behavior; Organizational Design; Leadership Style; Customer Relationship Management; Competitive Advantage; Vertical Integration; Food and Beverage Industry

2011
Chapter

Multinational Enterprises and Corporate Responsibility: A Matter of Justice?

By: Nien-he Hsieh

Keywords: Multinational Firms and Management; Ethics; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Lawfulness

8:30 AM – 6:45 PM EDT, 20 Oct 2020
Virtual Programming

The Future of Work - and Managing the Impact of COVID-19

Forces such as automation, demographics, and globalization were already changing how and where we work at a bewildering pace, then COVID happened. In the months ahead, companies need to prepare for three areas where their decisions and actions will play out in... View Details

March 2017 (Revised December 2018)
Case

Reawakening the Magic: Bob Iger and the Walt Disney Company

By: David Collis and Ashley Hartman

Mickey Mouse, Snow White, and Buzz Lightyear strolled down Main Street at the grand opening of Hong Kong Disney in the fall of 2005, pausing to snap selfies with enthusiastic children in Mickey Mouse ears. Bob Iger, newly appointed CEO of The Walt Disney Company,... View Details

Keywords: Franchise Management; Brand Management; Culture Change; Business Units; Acquisition Strategy; Technological Change; Disney; ESPN; Cord-cutting; Bob Iger; Strategy; Corporate Strategy; Competitive Advantage; Diversification; Integration; Media; Media and Broadcasting Industry; Media and Broadcasting Industry; Media and Broadcasting Industry

June 2008
Article

The Multiunit Enterprise

By: David A. Garvin and Lynne C. Levesque

A multiunit enterprise is a geographically dispersed organization built from standard units (stores, restaurants, or branches) that are aggregated into larger geographic groupings (districts, regions, and divisions). Although this organizational structure has become... View Details

Keywords: Globalized Firms and Management; Organizational Structure; Global Range; Research; Business Ventures; Problems and Challenges; Business or Company Management; Business Headquarters; Organizational Design; Talent and Talent Management; Goals and Objectives

Find at Harvard

20 Sep 2019
Research & Ideas

Solving the Riddle of How Companies Grow Over Time

companies grow and others stagnate. “In spite of all of the emphasis on growth, in fact most firms don’t grow much at all.” In addition to... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Manufacturing

17 Feb 2003
Research & Ideas

Rating Fund Managers by the Company They Keep

Many tools for rating the performance of mutual funds and their managers rely heavily on past performance. But what about the future? Now comes a system devised by Randolph B.... View Details

Keywords: by Ann Cullen

March 2020 (Revised September 2020)
Case

Board Director Dilemmas—Pushing Senior Management

By: David G. Fubini, Suraj Srinivasan and Amram Migdal

This case explores a new board director who wants more detail from the management team than his fellow directors are willing to press for. New board director Sam Pesca is frustrated that CFO Alex Marotta provides only a minimal two-page financial summary at board... View Details

Keywords: Board Of Directors; Corporate Governance; Governing and Advisory Boards; Management Teams

March 2017 (Revised February 2025)
Case

Edwin Land: The Art and Science of Innovation

By: Tom Nicholas, Christopher T. Stanton and Matthew G. Preble

Throughout the second half of the 20th century, Polaroid first invented—and then continuously reinvented—the field of instant photography. Under the leadership of its mercurial founder Edwin Land, the company regularly released new instant cameras and films, often... View Details

Keywords: Instant Photography; Company History; Change Management; Disruption; Forecasting and Prediction; Entrepreneurship; Business History; Innovation Strategy; Disruptive Innovation; Innovation and Management; Intellectual Property; Patents; Product Marketing; Brands and Branding; Product Launch; Product Development; Chemical Industry; Consumer Products Industry; United States

May 2017
Teaching Note

Hilti Fleet Management (A) and (B)

By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell, Oliver Gassmann and Roman Sauer

These notes are meant to accompany Hilti Fleet Management (A): Turning a Successful Business Model on Its Head (717-427) and Hilti Fleet Management (B): Towards a New Business Model (717-465).
This case explores the introduction of fleet management in the... View Details

May 2011
Case

The Morrison Company

By: Steven C. Wheelwright and Paul Meyers

The Morrison Company develops and manufactures radio frequency identification tags (RFID) known as smart labels for the retail and pharmaceutical industries. RFID technology is a fast-growing and increasingly competitive industry. Sales have risen dramatically over the... View Details

Keywords: Quantitative Analysis; Technology; Operations Management; Product Lines; Manufacturing; Capacity Planning; Production Planning; Information Technology; Strategy; Production; Organizational Structure; Infrastructure; Product Development; Information Infrastructure; Manufacturing Industry; Retail Industry; Pharmaceutical Industry; Electronics Industry

July 2018 (Revised June 2020)
Case

The Boston Cranberry Company

By: Alan MacCormack

This case describes the operations of a fictitious company that processes Cranberries. The case contains data that allows students to calculate the bottleneck stage in production, and to evaluate alternative investment options for increasing cranberry processing... View Details

Keywords: Process Analysis; Plant Management; Operations; Production; Management; Analysis; Performance Capacity; Investment

November 2000 (Revised April 2001)
Case

CMR Enterprises

By: Das Narayandas and Mary N. Caravella

Sam Marcus recently purchased a small cabinet-making company, and is looking for dramatic growth. The company competes in commercial and residential construction markets; shortly after the acquisition, the company gains a large new residential customer. The case traces... View Details

Keywords: Acquisition; Customer Relationship Management; Entrepreneurship; Leadership; Marketing Strategy; Performance Evaluation; Relationships; Segmentation; Construction Industry

24 Oct 2017
News

Change Management Is Becoming Increasingly Data-Driven. Companies Aren’t Ready

December 2002 (Revised December 2017)
Background Note

Teaching Old Companies New Tricks: The Challenge of Managing New Streams Within the Mainstream

By: Rosabeth Moss Kanter

Describes the challenge of starting new ventures or new activities in established companies, especially if they diverge from the mainstream of ongoing commitments. Fledgling ventures require a different kind of management that acknowledges their uncertainty, intensity,... View Details

Keywords: Business Units; Teaching; Entrepreneurship; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Business or Company Management; Organizations; Problems and Challenges; Risk and Uncertainty; Corporate Strategy

July 2014
Case

Venture Capital at the Harvard Management Company in Historical Perspective

By: Felda Hardymon, Tom Nicholas and Vasiliki Fouka

The compromise between capital preservation and growth has always been central to the performance of the Harvard endowment. Setting an institutional structure for effectively governing this compromise became especially important when the Harvard Management Company... View Details

Keywords: Venture Capital; Financial Management; Asset Management; Higher Education; Investment; Financial Services Industry; Education Industry; Cambridge