Publications

May 2012
Case

Columbia's Final Mission (Abridged) (A)

By: Amy C. Edmondson and Kerry Herman

This case documents decision-making processes, organizational culture, and other contributors to NASA's failed Columbia mission in 2003. Addresses the question of how organizations should deal with "ambiguous threats" - weak signals of potential crisis - and explores... View Details

Keywords: Cognitive Biases; Teams; Organizational Learning; Ambiguous Threat; Leadership; Organizational Culture; Decision Making; Failure; Crisis Management; Aerospace Industry

October 2016
Case

Elon Musk: Balancing Purpose and Risk

By: Shikhar Ghosh and Sarah Mehta

The case is used to illustrate the place of ‘Purpose’ versus financial risk and returns in a founder’s objectives. It also addresses personal risk profile of different founders, and when paired with the Risk Tolerance Exercise, it enables evaluating one’s own appetite... View Details

Keywords: Electric Vehicle; Solar Power; Vision; Trade-offs; Leadership; Mission and Purpose; Risk and Uncertainty; Entrepreneurship; Failure; United States; North America

25 Aug 2022
News

On Purpose

“having a purpose can give you clarity and help guide your choices.” It’s a useful tool, he says, in finding a position that will ring true to your stakeholders. View Details

Keywords: Jen McFarland Flint; Performing Arts, Spectator Sports, and Related Industries; Performing Arts, Spectator Sports, and Related Industries

28 Jan 2021
News

Leading with Innovation and Purpose

Web

Our Mission | About

virtually none of these problems can be addressed without business leaders playing a vital role. And, of course, the first component of the mission is educating, which we do in many ways—through our educational programs, through the ideas... View Details

July 2024
Case

Living up to Purpose and Performance at Parker Hannifin

By: Hubert Joly, Alicia Dadlani and Martha Hostetter

In 2019, Parker Hannifin, one of the world’s largest manufacturers of motion and control technologies, did something unusual for an industrial company: it created a purpose statement. Even though it already had a clear business strategy and longstanding culture of... View Details

Keywords: Mission and Purpose; Health Pandemics; Leadership; Business or Company Management; Organizational Culture; Business Strategy; Communication Strategy; Manufacturing Industry; Industrial Products Industry; Cleveland; Ohio; United States

22 Mar 2022
Cold Call Podcast

How Etsy Found Its Purpose and Crafted a Turnaround

Keywords: Re: Ranjay Gulati; Technology; Retail

2017
Chapter

Corporate Moral Agency, Positive Duties, and Purpose

By: Nien-hê Hsieh

A long-standing question in business ethics is whether business enterprises are themselves moral agents with distinct moral responsibilities. To date, the debate about corporate moral agency has focused on responsibility for past wrongdoing that involves violating... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Moral Sensibility; Mission and Purpose

Find at Harvard

15 Nov 2019
News

Purposeful Leadership

May 2019
Teaching Note

Elon Musk: Balancing Purpose and Risk

By: Shikhar Ghosh and Shweta Bagai

Teaching Note for HBS No. 817-040. View Details

01 Mar 2003
News

Post-Soviet Purpose

HBS assistant professor Rawi Abdelal’s 2001 book National Purpose in the World Economy: Post-Soviet States in Comparative Perspective (Cornell University Press) was awarded the 2002 Shulman Prize for Outstanding Book on International... View Details

Keywords: Publishing Industries (except Internet); Information

April 2005
Case

FBI: Mission Extended

Following the bombing of the World Trade Center in 1993, there was consensus that the FBI needed to make organizational changes. The FBI had long distinguished itself as the world's pre-eminent organization for conducting after-the-fact investigations that laid the... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Law Enforcement; United States

January 2014 (Revised August 2014)
Case

The Kursk Submarine Rescue Mission

By: Anette Mikes

The Kursk, a Russian nuclear-powered submarine sank in the relatively shallow waters of the Barents Sea in August 2000, during a naval exercise. Numerous survivors were reported to be awaiting rescue, and within a week, an international rescue party gathered at the... View Details

Keywords: Risk Management; Moral Sensibility; Leadership; Organizational Structure; Crisis Management; Failure; Cooperation; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Norway; United Kingdom; Russia

March 2021 (Revised August 2023)
Case

Helen Keller: Changing the World

By: Robert Simons and Shirley Sun

This case describes the rise of Helen Keller who at 19 months became deaf and blind. Refusing to be sidelined from life, Keller showed great determination in learning how to communicate with others, employing tutors and travelling to Boston to enroll in the Perkins... View Details

Keywords: Mission And Purpose; Values And Beliefs; Success; Diversity; Leading Change; Personal Development and Career; Personal Characteristics; Power and Influence

Research Summary

Growing as a Purposeful Leader

By: Leonard A. Schlesinger

Leaders today have to lead in the context of extraordinary changes and challenges. The demands of today's stakeholders have risen significantly, and what is expected of senior leaders is quickly evolving in terms of their mission (more than profit),... View Details

29 Apr 2019
News

A Global Mission

For more than 50 years, Art DeFehr (MBA 1967) has been a fixture at Palliser, the Canadian furniture company founded by his family. He served as CEO of the 2,000-employee firm from 1984 to 2015 and continues to sit on its board. For the... View Details

January 2014
Supplement

Dana Hall: Funding a Mission (D)

By: F. Warren McFarlan and Kaitlyn Szydlowski

This case is a sequel to Dana Hall: Funding a Mission (A), (B) and (C) cases. It focuses on the causes of recent fund-raising success and the complex resource allocation problems the School faces as it tries to deliver on its mission. In conjunction with the (A), (B) &... View Details

Keywords: Philanthropy; Mission and Purpose; Social Enterprise; Finance; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving

01 Sep 2024
News

Advancing the Mission

Fund advance the School's mission to educate leaders who make a difference in the world. Other examples include a professor's exploration of a tech giant's new revenue market for an existing product, and the... View Details

August 2020
Teaching Note

Sesame Workshop (C): Mission Critical Responses to Global and National Crises

By: Rosabeth Moss Kanter and Joyce J. Kim

Teaching Note for Case No. 321-016. Beginning in March 2020, Sesame Workshop navigated a global pandemic, which caused unemployment, businesses shutdowns, school closures, and remote work environments along with a racial justice crisis, with a renewed mission that led... View Details

Keywords: Pandemic; Children; Health Pandemics; Social Issues; Crisis Management; Mission and Purpose; Education; Leadership; Media and Broadcasting Industry; Media and Broadcasting Industry