Publications

July 1993 (Revised April 1999)
Case

ABB's Relays Business: Building and Managing a Global Matrix

By: Christopher A. Bartlett

Describes the development and management of the relays business area (BA) in ABB's global matrix organization. Focuses on three levels of management--corporate, BA, and operating company. Highlights the roles and responsibilities of individuals at each level as ABB... View Details

Keywords: Multinational Firms and Management; Business or Company Management; Business Strategy; Organizational Structure; Managerial Roles; Management Practices and Processes; Employees; Organizational Culture; Success; Manufacturing Industry

November 1998 (Revised July 1999)
Case

Merrill Lynch's Acquisition of Mercury Asset Management

By: Andre F. Perold, Imran Ahmed and Randolph B Altschuler

In the Spring of 1998, Merrill Lynch faced an array of challenges and opportunities related to its global asset management business. The firm had recently completed its $5.3 billion cash acquisition of U.K.-based Mercury Asset Management, a transaction that made it one... View Details

Keywords: Acquisition; Asset Management; Currency; Financial Strategy; Global Strategy; Brands and Branding; Distribution; Production; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Retirement; Japan; Europe; United Kingdom

Find at Harvard

Web

Business for Social Impact | Social Enterprise | Harvard Business School

Since its inception, the Social Enterprise Initiative has explored the role of business in creating social value. Early efforts in the late 1990s included hosting a research conference on business leadership... View Details

October 1992 (Revised August 1994)
Case

Allied-Signal: Managing the Hazardous Waste Liability Risk

By: Richard H.K. Vietor and Edward Prewitt

Allied-Signal, Inc., one of the world's oldest chemical companies and today a diversified conglomerate, is liable for clean-up costs of old hazardous waste sites. These costs are substantial: reserves grew to nearly $500 million in 1991. Attempting to avoid further... View Details

Keywords: Wastes and Waste Processing; Environmental Sustainability; Programs; Cost Management; Policy; Government Legislation; Factories, Labs, and Plants; Governance Compliance; Legal Liability; Chemical Industry; United States; Europe

2018
Article

What Can Managers Privately Disclose to Investors?

By: Eugene F. Soltes

Regulators have long been aware that differential access to information can undermine the efficiency and fairness of financial markets. In an effort to place investors on equal footing, the Securities and Exchange Commission in 2000 created Regulation Fair Disclosure... View Details

Keywords: Disclosure Regulation; Information; Communication; Business and Shareholder Relations; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms

Read Now

08 Mar 2004
Research & Ideas

Creating Value in Your Business Ecosystem

Wal-Mart's and Microsoft's dominance in modern business has been attributed to any number of factors, ranging from the vision and drive of their founders to the companies' aggressive competitive practices. But the performance of these two... View Details

Keywords: by Marco Iansiti & Roy Levien

05 Dec 2024
HBS Seminar

Amanda Sharkey, Mendoza College of Business

25 Nov 2013
Research & Ideas

Hiding From Managers Can Increase Your Productivity

Companies all over the world have striven for transparency in the workplace, literally tearing down walls in an effort to let managers and employees observe each other. Take, for example, one of the 14 key principles of The Toyota Way,... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Manufacturing

Web

Podcast - Business & Environment

advice. Climate Rising Host: Professor Mike Toffel, Faculty Chair, Business & Environment Initiative Guests: Jay Koh, Co-Founder and Managing Director of the Lightsmith Group For transcripts and other... View Details

02 Mar 2018
News

Trump Management Style, Year 2: See Year 1

02 Jul 2020
News

Entrepreneurial Management from Harvard ManageMentor

10 Jan 2008
Sharpening Your Skills

Sharpening Your Skills: Operations Management

Sharpening Your Skills dives into the HBS Working Knowledge archives to bring together articles on ways to improve your business skills. Questions to be answered: Can "lean" productions methods improve service industries? How can a... View Details

16 Mar 2020
Research & Ideas

How the Coronavirus Is Already Rewriting the Future of Business

With COVID-19 cases growing worldwide, business leaders are scrambling to deal with a wide variety of problems, from slumping sales and stalling supply chains to keeping employees healthy and making sure they can continue working. We asked professors of Harvard... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

December 2004 (Revised August 2005)
Case

Managing a Public Image: Sophie Chen

By: Robin J. Ely and Ingrid Vargas

Sophie Chen, an Asian-American MBA student at Harvard Business School, describes a professional situation in which she was unable to mentor a junior person effectively because she disapproved of the way her Asian-American mentee conformed to an ethnic stereotype.... View Details

Keywords: Leadership; Perception; Relationships; Diversity

07 Jun 2022
News

Navigating Sales Management with Frank Cespedes

Web

Product Management - Course Catalog

at a technology company tasked with improving and growing a product. Through case studies, individual exercises, assigned readings, and conversations with product leaders, students will examine different View Details

01 Jun 2022
What Do You Think?

Is Stakeholder Management Facing New Headwinds?

influence on the decision. That’s all well and good—until factors like cultural issues and employee power begin to creep into the picture. For example, the state has had power but only now seems to be exhibiting higher levels of interest in View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

Article

Predictions, Prophets, and Restarting Your Business

By: Frank V. Cespedes

The first task of crisis management is a reasonably accurate view of the current situation and how it might evolve. There are many predictions about so-called “new normal” as a result of the semi-enforced social distancing necessitated by the coronavirus. But most are... View Details

Keywords: Health Pandemics; Crisis Management; Strategic Planning