Publications

September 2007
Case

Still Leading (B4): Lee Iacocca—Driving Impact

By: Rosabeth Moss Kanter and Lance P. Pierce

Lee Iacocca, a successful CEO of an auto company, devoted himself after retirement to several social causes. Describes issues in the transition. View Details

Keywords: Transition; Transformation; Retirement; Work-Life Balance; Problems and Challenges; Civil Society or Community; Auto Industry

April 2024
Teaching Note

Harvard University and Urban Mining Industries: Decarbonizing the Supply Chain

By: Shirley Lu and Robert S. Kaplan

Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 123-076. View Details

Keywords: Carbon Emissions; Blockchain; Supply Chain; Green Technology; Climate Change; Environmental Sustainability

June 17, 2016
Comment

Companies Need to Start Marketing Security to Customers

By: John A. Quelch

Recent events in Orlando underscore an important marketing truth: consumer safety and security are mission critical. A popular nightclub, Pulse, known as a safe place for the LGBT community, is put out of business at least temporarily by a terrorist act. Not far away... View Details

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20 Apr 2022
Blog Post

How HBS Prepared Me to Lead a Company on Day One

from those closest to the action by listening to colleagues with different vantage points, creating meaningful relationships, and building consensus. These are the timeless skills that matter in leading any organization. They prepare you for View Details

08 Aug 2011
Research & Ideas

The Death of the Global Manager

business, Bartlett says. "That's a big change that's taken place." The World's Communication Pipeline Another seismic shift is the broader context in which companies now operate, forgotten all too easily in today's... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna

June 2003
Case

Peabody Elementary School (A)

By: Rosabeth M. Kanter and Kevin Morris

A new principal, Marty Pettigrew, has just joined this inner-city optional school--which offers special programs in international studies to attract children from all over the city. Entering mid-way through the school year, he observes a number of areas of concern,... View Details

Keywords: Change Management; Leading Change; Early Childhood Education; Education Industry

April 2025
Case

Thrivent: From Insurance Agents to Financial Advisors

By: Hubert Joly, Leonard A. Schlesinger and Tom Quinn

Thrivent, a midwestern financial services company with a centuries-long history rooted in Lutheranism, had reached $10 billion in revenue mostly by selling life insurance. In the 2020s, however, CEO Terry Rasmussen began a transformation process centered around the... View Details

Keywords: Change Management; Transformation; Talent and Talent Management; Customer Focus and Relationships; Customer Value and Value Chain; Forecasting and Prediction; Employee Relationship Management; Retention; Selection and Staffing; Job Design and Levels; Human Capital; Leading Change; Mission and Purpose; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Culture; Insurance Industry; Financial Services Industry; United States; Minneapolis

08 Apr 2014
News

Can China Lead?

October 14, 2022
Article

The Challenges of Transforming Twitter

By: Andy Wu and Goran Calic

Elon Musk may be an idiosyncratic leader, but if he buys Twitter he’ll face a familiar business challenge: how to transform a legacy tech company. Faced with this challenge, leaders should follow five principles: 1) prioritize an objective, 2) communicate the strategy,... View Details

Keywords: Transformation; Corporate Strategy; Change Management; Leading Change; Technology Industry

01 Jun 2005
News

Full Circle

surgery on the dog and oversaw a physical therapy program that included exercise on an underwater treadmill. After three weeks, Ginger was walking again. Anderson has a few words of advice for alumni who may be considering a change of... View Details

Keywords: Julia Hanna; veterinary; MBA applicable; Health, Social Assistance

01 Sep 2017
News

History’s Lessons

against him. The chief executive understood what this meant. “You think I don’t know I am going to be beaten,” he remarked to a visitor in late summer, “but I do, and unless some great change takes place, badly beaten.” If McClellan was... View Details

Keywords: Abraham Lincoln; Ernest Shackelford; Rachel Carson

01 Jun 2016
News

3-Minute Briefing: Derek Bouchard-Hall (MBA 2004)

through charisma or force of character in the way that I thought leaders always did. Professor Joshua Margolis’s class helped me see beyond that. It’s possible to be an effective leader and an introvert. We’ve spent a lot of time changing... View Details

Keywords: April White; photographed by Scott Clark

29 Aug 2017
Book

Using Language to Build a Global Company

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Technology

May 2024 (Revised January 2025)
Technical Note

Health Care Payment in the United States

By: Robert S. Huckman, Jeff Charca and Craig Garthwaite

This document provides an overview of how various actors (e.g., physicians, hospitals, and other health care providers) are paid in the United States health care system. It is particularly focused on features of the payment system that contribute to strategic decisions... View Details

Keywords: Compensation and Benefits; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Health Industry

2022
Article

Becoming a Learning Organization While Enhancing Performance: The Case of LEGO

By: Thomas Borup Kristensen, Henrik Saabye and Amy Edmondson

Purpose - The purpose of this study is to empirically test how problem-solving lean practices, along with leaders as learning facilitators in an action learning approach, can be transferred from a production context to a knowledge work context for the purpose... View Details

Keywords: Performance Efficiency; Learning; Organizational Change and Adaptation

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July 2022
Article

What Do I Make of the Rest of My Life? Global and Quotidian Life Construal across the Retirement Transition

By: Jeff Steiner and Teresa M. Amabile

Retirement means relinquishing the daily structure that work provides and the career-dependent meanings that it offers life narratives. The retirement transition can therefore involve contemplating both how to spend newly-freed daily time and the implications of... View Details

Keywords: Retirement Transition; Life Narrative; Construal Level Theory; Global Construal; Quotidian Construal; Meanings Of Work And Retirement; Retirement; Transition; Perspective

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January 2018
Case

Blue Harbour's Activism at Babcock & Wilcox

By: Suraj Srinivasan and Quinn Pitcher

The case describes Blue Harbour Group's investment in Babcock & Wilcox and its transformation into BWX Technologies. In 2004, activist hedge fund Blue Harbour Group invested in Babcock & Wilcox, an energy and construction company. Blue Harbour developed an investment... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Governance; Investment Activism; Leading Change; Energy Industry; Construction Industry; United States