Publications

Read Now

07 Feb 2011
Lessons from the Classroom

Creating the Founders’ Dilemmas Course

four sections of the course, with 68 students in each section. Some 170 more students were wait-listed. The course's popularity is a reflection of its universal nature—it addresses quandaries that virtually all entrepreneurs will face... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Education

February 1997 (Revised April 1998)
Case

first direct (A)

By: Jeffrey F. Rayport

Describes the operations and strategy of the world's largest, fastest growing branchless bank. Using a person-to-person interface over conventional phone lines, First Direct provides standard banking and related financial products to nearly 700,000 customers throughout... View Details

Keywords: Service Delivery; Customer Satisfaction; Banks and Banking; Innovation and Invention; Banking Industry; United Kingdom

March–April 2020
Article

What's Really Holding Women Back? It's Not What Most People Think

By: R. Ely and Irene Padavic

Ask people to explain why women remain so dramatically underrepresented in the senior ranks of most companies, and you will hear from the vast majority a lament that goes something like this: High-level jobs require extremely long hours, women's devotion to family... View Details

Keywords: Overwork; Employment; Gender; Equality and Inequality; Work-Life Balance; Organizational Culture

01 Nov 1999
Lessons from the Classroom

What’s Next & So What? Leading in the 21st Century

does the course fit into a global context? Hamel: In the last few years, the business world has changed dramatically. No longer moving linearly or at a steady, predictable pace, the world has become fundamentally discontinuous. Most View Details

Keywords: by Staff

December 1992 (Revised March 1993)
Case

Dan Gordon

Describes Dan Gordon's first month on the job as Chief Operating Officer of Club Sports International (CSI), a chain of 7 health and fitness clubs. Describes the company's strategy and organization. The company needs Dan to tighten up its operations and create a base... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Governance Controls; Business or Company Management; Growth and Development Strategy; Organizational Design; Health Industry

April 2007 (Revised March 2008)
Case

Dr. Iqbal Survé at Sekunjalo Investment Group (A)

By: Linda A. Hill and Emily Stecker

Dr. Iqbal Surve, a self-described "medical doctor, philanthropist, and social entrepreneur," was born in 1963 and grew up in poverty, like virtually all non-white South Africans during apartheid. During the 1970s and 1980s, he served in leadership positions in the ANC,... View Details

Keywords: Crime and Corruption; Social Entrepreneurship; Investment; Leadership; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Partners and Partnerships; South Africa

December 2004 (Revised April 2006)
Case

Mavens & Moguls: Because Marketing Matters...

By: Myra M. Hart, Kristin Lieb and Victoria Winston

Mavens & Moguls is a virtual marketing-consulting firm of approximately 40 professionals. Examines the processes by which Paige Arnof-Fenn (an HBS grad with deep industry experience)draws on her experience and her network to create a high-quality marketing consulting... View Details

Keywords: Networks; Values and Beliefs; Business Growth and Maturation; Organizational Structure; Marketing; Entrepreneurship; Experience and Expertise; Growth and Development Strategy; Consulting Industry

1992
Working Paper

Employment versus Sub-Contracting: The Real Trade-Offs

By: Amar Bhide and Howard Stevenson

By many accounts, sub-contracting is in the vogue while traditional employment relationships are on the outs. Ten years ago free-lancers, independent subcontractors and the like accounted for about 10 percent of the labor force; today they constitute 25 percent. Of the... View Details

Keywords: Sub-contracting; Freelancers; Employment; Organizations; Theory

Read Now

12 Feb 2009
Working Paper Summaries

Platform Competition, Compatibility, and Social Efficiency

Keywords: by Ramon Casadesus-Masanell & Francisco Ruiz-Aliseda; Computer

15 Mar 2016
First Look

March 15, 2016

examples—GE, Mahindra & Mahindra, Hasbro, IBM, United Rentals, and Tata Consultancy Services—and testimonies of leaders who have successfully used this framework, this book solves once and for all the practical dilemma of how to align an View Details

16 May 2012
Research & Ideas

Can Decades of Military Overspending be Fixed?

virtually mandates changes to contracts as requirements are added or changed; and financial incentives that reward lowball contractor bids and provide negative sanctions for failing to spend all the allocated funds." It doesn't help... View Details

Keywords: by J. Ronald Fox; Service

January – February 2011
Article

Stop Holding Yourself Back

By: Anne Morriss, Robin J. Ely and Frances X. Frei

After working with hundreds of leaders in a wide variety of organizations and in countries all over the globe, the authors found one very clear pattern: when it comes to meeting their leadership potential, many people unintentionally get in their own way. Five barriers... View Details

Keywords: Transformation; Decision Choices and Conditions; Leadership; Personal Development and Career; Personal Characteristics

Spring 2011
Article

CSR as Reputation Insurance: Primum Non Nocere

By: Dylan B. Minor and John Morgan

We provide a theoretical framework showing how CSR activities can insure a firm against lost reputation in the face of adverse events. We offer evidence for this linkage through a case study and a multi-year analysis of stock price responses for S&P 500 companies... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Social Responsibility; Insurance; Risk Management; Marketing Strategy; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Reputation

January 2021 (Revised February 2021)
Case

TCS: From Physical Offices to Borderless Work

By: Prithwiraj Choudhury and Malini Sen

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), a multinational IT services company headquartered in Mumbai, is a subsidiary of one of India’s most reputed conglomerates, the Tata Group. In 2020, TCS was valued at $144.7 billion, the highest for any company in the IT sector,... View Details

Keywords: Remote Work; Organizational Structure; Change Management; Transformation; Decision Choices and Conditions; Customer Satisfaction; Information Technology Industry; India; Asia; United States; Europe

Research Summary

Research Summary

By: Leslie A. Perlow

There has been tremendous change in the workplace — ubiquitous technology, 24/7 globalization, hyper-efficiency and now significant changes in work location. Professor Perlow’s research explores the implications for the ways we work and live, and what we can do to... View Details

17 Sep 2024
Research & Ideas

Advice for the New CEO: Talk to Your Employees Early and Often

CEOs have never had so many ways to communicate with their employees. But despite the availability of Slack, internal newsletters, and virtual town hall meetings, organizations can still go quiet. One of the... View Details

Keywords: by Ami Albernaz

July 2020 (Revised September 2020)
Case

The Honor Foundation: Accessing Special Operations Talent

By: Boris Groysberg and John Masko

In 2020, The Honor Foundation (THF), a nonprofit dedicated to helping U.S. military special operators to transition into civilian careers, was facing a series of strategic challenges. THF had been founded in 2013 by former Navy SEAL trainee Joe Musselman, who observed... View Details