Publications

02 Aug 2022
Research & Ideas

6 Strategies for Building Socially Responsible—and Profitable—Companies

A dozen years ago, Harvard Business School Professor George Serafeim wondered why some companies operated with an eye toward the greater good, while most did not. Back then, he always got the same response: Corporate leaders thought social and environmental practices... View Details

Keywords: by Lane Lambert

2018
Chapter

New Prospects for Organizational Democracy?: How the Joint Pursuit of Social and Financial Goals Challenges Traditional Organizational Designs

By: Julie Battilana, Michael Fuerstein and Michael Lee

For an extended period during the first half of the 20th century, industrial democracy was a vibrant movement, with ideological and organizational ties to a thriving unionism. In 2015, however, things look different. While there are instances of democracy in the... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Design; Social Enterprise; Values and Beliefs; Integration; Theory

Find at Harvard

Article

How Does Accountability Affect Mission? The Case of a Nonprofit Serving Immigrants and Refugees

By: Rachel Christensen and Alnoor Ebrahim

Keywords: Mission and Purpose; Nonprofit Organizations; Refugees; Demography

Find at Harvard

22 Mar 2024
Blog Post

Driving Impact in Emerging Markets with HBS Alum Nneka Chime (MBA 2015)

Nneka Chime’s (MBA 2015) career path offers an alternative road map for HBS students and alumni seeking to make a difference in the world. While seeking, she aligned her professional choices with a larger View Details

Article

Exploring the Duality Between Product and Organizational Architectures: A Test of the 'Mirroring' Hypothesis

By: Alan MacCormack, Carliss Y. Baldwin and John Rusnak

A variety of academic studies argue that a relationship exists between the structure of an organization and the design of the products that the organization produces. Specifically, products tend to "mirror" the architectures of the organizations in which they are... View Details

Keywords: Organization Design; Architecture; Modularity; Open Source Software; Communication; Design; Governance; Management Practices and Processes; Open Source Distribution; Product Design; Mission and Purpose; Organizational Structure; Performance; Problems and Challenges; Behavior; Software

July 2021
Supplement

Trouble at Basecamp: Managing Politics, Polarization, and Conflict in the Workplace (B)

By: Nour Kteily, Deepak Malhotra and David Lane

Supplement to the (A) case View Details

13 Jan 2020
Working Paper Summaries

Recognition Incentives for Internal Crowdsourcing: A Field Experiment at NASA

Keywords: by Jana Gallus, Olivia S. Jung, and Karim R. Lakhani; Aerospace

17 Oct 2022
News

Ranjay Gulati On The Secret To Building Multi-Billion Dollar Companies

August 2012 (Revised August 2014)
Case

Cancer Treatment Centers of America® (A)

By: Regina E. Herzlinger and Natalie Kindred

Cancer Treatment Centers of America (CTCA), a U.S. network of four privately owned oncology focused factory hospitals, was weighing options for growth. CTCA was entirely cancer focused and specialized in treating patients with complex and advanced-stage cancers, who... View Details

March 2024 (Revised May 2025)
Case

Governing OpenAI (A)

By: Lynn S. Paine, Suraj Srinivasan and Will Hurwitz

In late November 2023, OpenAI’s new board of directors took stock of the situation. The company, which sought to develop artificial general intelligence (AGI)—computer systems with capabilities exceeding human abilities—was looking to regain its footing after a chaotic... View Details

Teaching

Overview

By: Nancy F. Koehn

My teaching and research focus on crisis leadership and how men and women use crises to make themselves better leaders. I currently teach a module in the Advanced Management Program and an HBS Online LIVE course on Courageous Leadership. The purpose of each course is... View Details

Web

Helping and harnessing business to address society’s greatest challenges. | Institute for Business in Global Society

business' role in society and developing a thriving ecosystem for translating that research into action. Our Mission & Team BiGS Research BiGS Fellows Tools & Resources Societies worldwide are facing... View Details

May 22 2018
Testimonial

Maximizing Growth Through Clarity

01 Sep 2018
News

What I Do: Clare Reichenbach (AMP 185, 2013)

pleasure and purpose aspects of the organization are reconciled in a thoughtful way. If we’re having amazing events to showcase the best of American food, in the same breath we should be talking about what... View Details

Keywords: Julia Hanna; illustrations by Peter and Maria Hoey

15 Dec 2024
News

Back at the Ranch

The summer training program at Bear Hug Cattle Company starts truly at square one. “The first day is about teaching the guys how to just be out here and not die,” says lead instructor Zach Aguilar, gazing out from under his broad-brimmed hat to the grassy rangelands of... View Details

Keywords: Jen McFarland Flint; photos by Adler and Vance Jacobs; Animal Production and Aquaculture; Agriculture

October 2021 (Revised January 2022)
Supplement

Michael Ku and Global Clinical Supply at Pfizer Inc.: Bringing Hope to Patients (C)

By: Linda A. Hill and Emily Tedards

This case is the third installment in a series about the 10-year cultural and digital transformation of Pfizer’s Global Clinical Supply organization. In 2011, Michael Ku became Pfizer’s Vice President of Global Clinical Supply (GCS) after the company had undergone... View Details

Keywords: Clinical Supply Chain; COVID-19; Vaccine; Agile; Innovation and Invention; Change Management; Organizational Culture; Transformation; Leadership; Corporate Strategy; Health Pandemics; Crisis Management; Mission and Purpose; Health Care and Treatment; Supply Chain Management; Digital Transformation

January 2017 (Revised March 2017)
Case

Royal DSM: From Continuous Transformation to Organic Growth

By: William W. George, Carin-Isabel Knoop and Amram Migdal

Royal DSM CEO Feike Sijbesma was pondering the challenges of shifting DSM’s global organization from the constant transformations of the past 100 years to creating organic growth. When Sijbesma took the helm as CEO in 2007, he further pushed and completed the company’s... View Details

Keywords: Organic Growth; Organizational Change; M＆A; Mergers And Acquisitions; Divestment; Business Ventures; Business Divisions; Business Growth and Maturation; Restructuring; Change; Change Management; Transformation; Transition; Engineering; Chemicals; Mining; Ethics; Values and Beliefs; Finance; Capital Markets; Financial Markets; Food; Globalization; Global Strategy; Globalized Firms and Management; Globalized Markets and Industries; Health; Nutrition; History; Leadership; Leadership Development; Leadership Style; Leading Change; Management; Business or Company Management; Growth and Development Strategy; Growth Management; Management Practices and Processes; Management Style; Organizations; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Mission and Purpose; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Culture; Organizational Design; Ownership; Public Ownership; Performance; Strategy; Adaptation; Consolidation; Corporate Strategy; Value; Value Creation; Food and Beverage Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; Europe; Netherlands