by James Sebenius - Publications - Faculty & Research

04 Jan 2022
What Do You Think?

Firing McDonald’s Easterbrook: What Could the Board Have Done Differently?

(iStockphoto/tofumax) A corporate board’s most important decision is selecting the organization’s CEO. By the same token, one could argue that a board’s most distasteful decision concerns firing a CEO. Once directors agree to release the... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

06 Jan 2016
What Do You Think?

Why Do Leaders Get Their Timing Wrong?

Summing Up Is Good Timing in Management Primarily a Function of Strategy or Culture? Timing in executing change is an important responsibility of leadership. Responses to this month’s column suggest that if timing is the result of one person’s judgment, that judgment... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett; Auto; Fashion

03 May 2021
What Do You Think?

Where Does CEO Activism Go From Here?

(Image credit: iStockphoto/adamkaz) CEO activism entered a new chapter with the decision by more than 200 leaders of large corporations last month to publicly declare their support for voting rights for Americans and, View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

14 Sep 2017
Op-Ed

Op-Ed: Google Engineer Deserved to be Fired by the CEO

Google CEO Sundar Pichai. Credit: Steven Zimmerman/Wikipedia Commons Google software engineer James Damore’s ten-page manifesto excoriating his employer for its diversity initiatives incited a major controversy in August about... View Details

Keywords: by Bill George

30 Nov 2018
What Do You Think?

What’s the Best Administrative Approach to Climate Change?

Summing Up: Should a 'Montreal Protocol' for Administering Global Warming Be Pursued? Climate change and how to manage it is a daunting subject. Nevertheless, several readers of this month’s column were willing to venture a model or two for administering a system... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett; Energy

02 Aug 2020
What Do You Think?

Is the 'Experimentation Organization' Becoming the Competitive Gold Standard?

level. Their work has been both influenced by and reported recently by several academics. Harvard Business School professors Michael Luca and Max Bazerman track experimentation in decision-making back to the... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett; Technology

05 Jul 2022
What Do You Think?

Have We Seen the Peak of Just-in-Time Inventory Management?

supply of “safety stock” was the order of the day for those using slower forms of transportation. "The result, of course, was what came to be known as 'just-in-time' inventory management, as championed by firms such as Toyota." One of my... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett; Manufacturing; Shipping; Transportation

04 Oct 2022
What Do You Think?

Have Managers Underestimated the Need for Face-to-Face Contact?

to a rubber band that snaps back toward a somewhat constant middle ground even after pandemic-level disruptions. Here’s the argument as it applies to remote work or “work from anywhere”: Remote work, already common, was first required by... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

03 Jan 2018
What Do You Think?

In the Wake of #MeToo, Should Corporate Boards Hire Compliance Officers?

on-the-job misdeeds served the purpose nicely. Those supporting the idea of a corporate board's creating an independent officer of compliance, reporting directly to the board, cited the need for visible action in the face of growing challenges posed View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

01 Dec 2021
What Do You Think?

How Will the Metaverse Affect Productivity?

described the Metaverse as “alternate digital realities where people work, play, and socialize.” That reminds us of the things that were promised us by futurists at the time of the development of the internet, many of which have exceeded... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

01 Feb 2023
What Do You Think?

Will Hybrid Work Strategies Pull Down Long-Term Performance?

hybrid work strategies make jobs that can be performed from the “home” more attractive by eliminating the need for some commuting. They raise productivity modestly, and provide employees more control over their personal and work lives.... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

03 Oct 2018
What Do You Think?

How Should Managers Deal with the Challenges of Building an Inclusive Workplace?

included in what is going on. There is a lot of advice for managers about how to promote inclusion in an organization. Laura Sherbin and Ripa Rashid remind us as leaders to practice inclusion on an everyday basis by “ensuring that team... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

September 1992 (Revised January 1993)
Case

Courtyard by Marriott

By: James L. Heskett and Roger H. Hallowell

Courtyard by Marriott, a chain of modestly priced hotels, weighs its future options regarding human resources, its service delivery system, and management structure. Fairfield Inn, another Marriott product, is discussed for contrast. View Details

Keywords: Human Resources; Service Operations; Brands and Branding; Management Systems; Decision Making; Service Industry; Accommodations Industry

Citation

Educators

Purchase

03 Aug 2016
What Do You Think?

How Can We Hold the “Leadership Industry” Accountable?

training they provide, market pressures, corporate governance shortcomings, and even the nature of leadership itself. John led the charge by saying, “Having taught within business schools for 20 years, I’ve had instructors talk about... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett; Education

30 May 2018
What Do You Think?

Should Intellectual Property be Protected in International Trade?

Summing Up Does IP Ownership Belong in International Trade Deals? Intellectual property (IP) regulation remains an active issue in trade negotiations between the China and the United States. The most straightforward element of the negotiation—US attempts to reduce its... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett; Technology

01 Feb 2022
What Do You Think?

Is Concierge Management an Answer to the “Big Quit”?

the same true for employees today, many of whom are performing their work remotely, outside the traditional office setting? We’ve previously discussed here the need for greater “voice” among “officed” employees as part of the effort to foster inclusion. The problem is... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

06 Apr 2016
What Do You Think?

As Tim Cook, How Would You Tackle Apple's Next Challenge?

not be the FBI but the very advances in information technology on which Apple prides itself. The question was whether Apple was like the boy with his finger in the dike trying to hold back the water as it refused the US government’s request to hack an iPhone owned... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett; Computer

03 Feb 2020
What Do You Think?

Can an Organization Have Too Much 'Rebel Talent'?

pot, “we need to channel the energy through coaching to effectively use the energy.” Shann Turnbull commented that rebel talent often encounters the real problem: us. As he put it, “humans, like all other social creatures, are hardwired View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

05 Jun 2023
What Do You Think?

Is the Anxious Achiever a Post-Pandemic Relic?

appreciated Jenny Odell’s thesis that “doing nothing” offers us several useful “tools,” including those of repair (personal reflection and recovery), “a sharpened ability to listen”—a critical resource in a world dominated by telling and... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

July 2008 (Revised July 2020)
Case

Managing a Global Team: Greg James at Sun Microsystems, Inc. (A)

By: Tsedal Neeley and Thomas J. DeLong

Greg James, a global manager at Sun Microsystems, Inc., sets out to meet with his entire 43-member customer implementation team spread across India, France, the United Arab Emirates, and the United States of America to resolve a dire customer system outage as required... View Details