Publications

16 Jul 2024
Op-Ed

Corporate Boards Are Failing in Their No. 1 Duty

oversee the outcomes. A development plan should be prepared for each person to provide the varied experiences required if they are chosen, with opportunities to shine in different roles View Details

Keywords: by Bill George

October 2019 (Revised April 2020)
Case

Carme Ruscalleda: The Chef as an Artist

By: Boris Groysberg, Carin-Isabel Knoop and Annelena Lobb

In October 2018, Chef Carme Ruscalleda, the most-starred woman chef in the world at the time, closed the doors of her Restaurant Sant Pau (Sant Pau), as she had on almost every night for the past 30 years—this time for the last time. Ruscalleda had opened the... View Details

Keywords: Restaurants; Sant Pau; Personal Development and Career; Family Business; Leadership Style; Innovation and Invention; Food; Success; Food and Beverage Industry

02 Dec 2015
What Do You Think?

What Will It Take to Achieve Gender Equality in Leadership?

the issue and influences their own hiring and promotion decisions. Peter Bowie underlined the point by saying, “Equal opportunity to be ‘selected’ is one of the keys to the solution.” A direct appeal to the... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

August 2009 (Revised February 2011)
Background Note

Managing Individual Human Capital: Research Resources

By: Boris Groysberg and Emilie Codega

This technical note provides a list of library resources for researching executives and a bibliography of books on managing one's own career. View Details

Keywords: Human Resources; Human Capital; Leadership; Managerial Roles; Personal Development and Career; Research

August 2010 (Revised January 2013)
Case

Avi Kremer

By: Joshua D. Margolis and Mark Wetzel

If you were diagnosed with a terminal illness, how would you respond and what would you do with your remaining time? Avi Kremer contemplates four options for how to devote himself 18 months after being diagnosed with ALS. His experience thus far and the choices he... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Values and Beliefs; Health Disorders; Leadership Development; Personal Development and Career; Social Enterprise; Personal Characteristics

December 2006 (Revised April 2014)
Case

J. R. D. Tata

By: Nitin Nohria, Anthony Mayo and Mark Benson

J.R.D Tata, Chairman of the Indian conglomerate Tata & Sons, played a significant role in building India's economic infrastructure. Under his guidance, Tata & Sons built locomotives, steel refineries, airlines, chemical plants, and technology-based enterprises.... View Details

Keywords: Family Business; Development Economics; Working Conditions; Leadership; Infrastructure; Personal Development and Career; Business and Government Relations; India

04 Sep 2001
Lessons from the Classroom

Getting Back on Course

personal models of success, the first step in the process is introspection, followed by a creative and savvy approach to one's actual next career move. In the May program, participants spent time in... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

November 2024
Case

Meghna Modi at Revlon India: Leading with a Bold Purpose

By: Aiyesha Dey, Sarah Mehta and Sarah Sasso

This case is about Meghna Modi, the head of struggling cosmetics company Revlon India, as she tries to both turn the company around and implement her personal purpose at work. Influenced by her own life struggles, Modi feels compelled to empower her frontline... View Details

Keywords: Leadership; Business or Company Management; Performance; Personal Development and Career; Gender; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Power and Influence; Beauty and Cosmetics Industry; Asia; India; Delhi

November 2017 (Revised November 2021)
Case

Irene Rosenfeld at Mondelēz International: Crafting a Corporate Strategy

By: Raffaella Sadun, David J. Collis, Amram Migdal and Kerry Herman

The case focuses on Irene Rosenfeld’s tenure as CEO of the global snack food company Mondelēz International. Beginning in 2006, she had led the company through many acquisitions, including France’s LU Biscuit and British confectionery company Cadbury, before, in 2012,... View Details

March 2009 (Revised August 2009)
Exercise

Managing Your Own Human Capital: Executive Interview Exercise (2008)

By: Boris Groysberg and Robin Abrahams

This note contains instructions for an exercise in which students interview C-level executives on how they have managed their careers. View Details

Keywords: Personal Development and Career; Leadership Development

March 2025
Case

Sarojini Naidu: Courage of the Nightingale

By: Ranjay Gulati, Malini Sen and Anjali Raina

Indian poet and freedom fighter and mother of four, Sarojini (Chattopadhyay) Naidu, could not hold back. As the protestors marched ahead without retaliating against the police’s blows, she stepped forward to join them. A British officer approached Naidu and touched her... View Details

Keywords: Gender; Leadership; Personal Development and Career; Motivation and Incentives; Power and Influence; Government and Politics; India; Asia

February 2011 (Revised April 2012)
Case

PepsiCo Peru Foods: More than Small Potatoes

By: Rosabeth M. Kanter, Rakesh Khurana, Rajiv Lal and Matthew Bird

The regional head of supply chain for PepsiCo South America Foods and his team had worked for 10 years to realize their dream of creating an agricultural research center in Peru that could provide more productive and healthier varieties of potatoes for the Frito-Lay... View Details

Keywords: Food; Supply Chain; Planning; Growth and Development Strategy; Leading Change; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Peru

January 2008 (Revised May 2014)
Case

Kazuo Inamori, a Japanese Entrepreneur

By: Anthony J. Mayo, Masako Egawa and Mayuka Yamazaki

The case provides insight into a business leader whose cognizance of contextual forces (social, economic, and political) allowed him to drive significant change in an industry and Japanese society in the second half of the twentieth century. View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Business History; Leading Change; Management Style; Personal Development and Career; Telecommunications Industry; Japan

November 1994 (Revised May 1996)
Case

Walt Disney's Dennis Hightower-- Taking Charge

By: Ashish Nanda

In 1987, Dennis Hightower, was recruited from outside for a newly created position as head of Disney Consumer Products European operations. Hightower has to win initial acceptance of entrenched country managers, integrate the company's diverse subsidiaries closer... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Leadership; Change Management; Corporate Strategy; Personal Development and Career; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; Europe

October 2017
Case

Still Leading (B1): Hon. Bob McDonald – Profiting from Purpose

By: Rosabeth Moss Kanter and Marcus Millen

Robert (Bob) A. McDonald just completed his service as the 8th United States Secretary of Veterans Affairs (VA), successfully leading the beginnings of a transformation for one of the nation’s most scrutinized departments. Reflecting back, McDonald looked to the... View Details

Keywords: Leadership; Personal Development and Career; Transition

May 1999
Case

Susan Brown

By: William A. Sahlman

A number of issues confront an associate in a venture capital firm. She has just learned that her senior partners are not yet willing to make her a general partner of the firm. She has several options and must decide what to do. View Details

Keywords: Human Resources; Venture Capital; Personal Development and Career; Leadership Development; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Financial Services Industry

December 2023 (Revised July 2024)
Case

Boortmalt: The Master Maltster

By: Forest Reinhardt, Jose B Alvarez, Damien McLoughlin, Lena Duchene and Emer Moloney

By May 2023, Boortmalt was the world’s leading producer of malt, with a production capacity of 3 million tonnes, 15% of global market share, and 27 malting plants across five continents. It had recently acquired a major competitor and had sustained an EBITDA growth of... View Details

October 2008 (Revised January 2011)
Case

Lawrence Trinh: Venturing to Vietnam

By: Joshua D. Margolis and Rachel Gordon

Should Lawrence Trinh pursue his aspiration of working in Vietnam—and if so, what set of principles and practices should he adopt if he encounters corruption? These are questions that reverberate for many students who wish to work in emerging markets and other contexts... View Details

Keywords: Developing Countries and Economies; Ethics; Investment; Leadership Development; Emerging Markets; Personal Development and Career; Welfare; Financial Services Industry

February 2020
Supplement

Coaching Makena Lane

By: Ethan Bernstein

Video Supplement for "Coaching Makena Lane," product number 418-031. Videos include a collection of ~3 minute animated videos of 5 celebrity coaches answering the same 2 questions participants are asked in the teaching plan: 1. How would you evaluate Makena Lane’s... View Details

Keywords: Executive Coaching; Leadership Style; Performance Evaluation; Personal Development and Career