Publications

October 2003
Case

Fire at Mann Gulch

Describes the 1949 firefighting tragedy in Montana that led to the deaths of 12 smoke jumpers. Explores the myriad of poor decisions by the firefighting crew and their foreman. View Details

Keywords: Decisions; Decision Choices and Conditions; Crisis Management; Public Administration Industry; Montana

23 Jun 2003
Research & Ideas

Psychology, Pathology, and the CEO

enters a kind of death spiral. Reversing that downward trend requires deliberate efforts by the CEO to address each of the pathologies. ... Sparking Collaboration Turnaround leaders know that problem solving requires collaboration across... View Details

Keywords: by Rosabeth Moss Kanter

09 May 2014
News

American dynamism dimmed

22 Jun 2017
News

The next CEO of Uber: Here’s who should be on the short list

August 2008 (Revised November 2015)
Supplement

Yataro Iwasaki: Founding Mitsubishi (B)

By: Geoffrey G. Jones, Masako Egawa and Mayuka Yamazaki

This brief (B) case documents the fate of Mitsubishi and the shipping company NYK after the death of Yataro Iwasaki in 1885. The case supplements case 808-158, “Yataro Iwaski: Founding Mitsubishi (A).” View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Globalized Firms and Management; Business History; Leadership; Japan

02 May 2021
News

Kominers’s Conundrums: The Empire Strikes Back on a Holiday

17 Sep 2001
Research & Ideas

Why E-commerce Didn’t Die With the Fall of Webvan

Times were hard for Webvan this year. Like other online grocers and delivery services that hit the screen in 2001—among them, Homegrocer, Kozmo, and Streamline—Webvan finally called it quits in July after two years in business. Webvan may be gone, but the forces that... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Consumer Products; Retail

17 Sep 2020
News

6 questions that must be answered in the race for a vaccine

14 Dec 2007
Op-Ed

When Your Product Becomes a Commodity

Editor's Note: Harvard Business School professor John Quelch writes a blog on marketing issues, called Marketing Know: How, for Harvard Business Online. It is reprinted on HBS Working Knowledge. How often have you heard a manager blame "commoditization" for... View Details

Keywords: by John Quelch

March 1980 (Revised July 1985)
Case

Parker Brothers (A)

Focuses on the decision required of Parker Brothers regarding the necessity and advisability of recalling a new product that may have been related to the death of two children. View Details

Keywords: Safety; Risk Management; Product; Consumer Products Industry

17 Dec 2008
Lessons from the Classroom

‘Ted Levitt Changed My Life’

The details differ slightly, but the story, in its telling, is always the same. Ninety or so MBA students sit nervously awaiting the start of their first Marketing class. At the appointed time—not a minute more or less—a slight man with bushy eyebrows and an impressive... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Education; Retail

March 1999 (Revised July 1999)
Case

Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, The

By: Richard M.J. Bohmer and Ann Winslow

Describes the death of a cancer patient in one of the nation's premier cancer treatment centers and examines the organizational and process characteristics that may have contributed to the medical error. View Details

Keywords: Health Care and Treatment; Quality; Service Operations; Management Practices and Processes; Business Processes; Failure; Health Industry

March 2001 (Revised January 2009)
Case

Walt Disney Company, The: The Entertainment King

By: Michael G. Rukstad, David J. Collis and Tyrell Levine

The first ten pages of this case are comprised of the company's history, from 1923 to 2001. The Walt years are described, as is the company's decline after his death and its resurgence under Eisner. The last five pages are devoted to Eisner's strategic challenges in... View Details

Keywords: History; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Managerial Roles; Creativity; Corporate Strategy; Boundaries; Brands and Branding; Entertainment and Recreation Industry

August 26, 2014
Comment

Female Hurricanes Are Not Deadlier than Male Hurricanes

By: Daniel Malter

In a highly contentious study, Jung, Shavitt, Viswanathan and Hilbe (2014) claimed that hurricanes had higher death tolls when they had female rather than male names due to implicit gender bias. Their article includes a study of the death toll of hurricanes that made... View Details

Keywords: United States

Find at Harvard

22 Sep 2020
Working Paper Summaries

Older People Are Less Pessimistic about the Health Risks of COVID-19

Keywords: by Pedro Bordalo, Katherine B. Coffman, Nicola Gennaioli, and Andrei Shleifer

January 19, 2024
Article

Value-Based Health Care Can Transform the Treatment of Patients with Substance Use Disorder

By: Robert S. Kaplan and Sarah E. Wakeman

U.S. overdose deaths currently exceed 100,000 per year. New facilities, known as bridge clinics, are broadening access to high-quality care by offering outpatient substance use disorder (SUD) treatment with few access barriers. But many of the critical services offered... View Details

Keywords: Health Care and Treatment; Cost; Adoption

Read Now

March 5, 2020
Editorial

Murky Data Calls into Question Quarantine Strategy

By: Amar Bhide

Like sepsis, a life-threatening, uncontrolled immune response to infections, draconian efforts to contain the coronavirus outbreak may cause more harm than the infection itself. Yet the measures now paralysing the western world before many have actually died are based... View Details

Keywords: Coronavirus; Coronavirus Pandemic; Data; Health Pandemics; Data and Data Sets