Publications

February 2025 (Revised April 2025)
Case

Shake Shack's Playbook for the Digital Era

By: Christopher Stanton, Allison Ciechanover and George Gonzalez

This case examines Shake Shack’s journey from a single New York City hot dog cart to a global fast-casual restaurant chain renowned for both premium quality and a culture of “enlightened hospitality.” As the company expands worldwide, it pilots digital ordering... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Customer Satisfaction; Technology Adoption; Brands and Branding; Organizational Culture; Customization and Personalization; Expansion; Digital Transformation; Food and Beverage Industry

July 2000
Case

Dawn Riley at America True (C1)

By: Linda A. Hill and Kristin Doughty

This version of the (C) case can be taught independently of the (A) and (B) cases. Dawn Riley, CEO/Captain of America True, the first coed syndicate to race for the America's Cup, is based in Auckland, New Zealand, where racing will begin in six weeks. Riley has built... View Details

Keywords: Management Style; Leadership; Groups and Teams; Decision Making; Organizational Culture; Problems and Challenges; Gender; Management Teams; Sports; Business Startups; New Zealand; North and Central America

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Program

Managing Innovation

companies across the globe. With new insight into innovation processes, you will be ready to take action and lead a highly creative, innovation-focused culture that can consistently deliver results. This program is eligible for the... View Details

04 Aug 2008
Research & Ideas

How Female Stars Succeed in New Jobs

to stars when they change jobs. Equity analysts are an ideal population to study: Their performance is objectively measured every year, there is a lot of demographic and organizational data on them and their employers, and many things are... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Financial Services

Program

Driving Nonprofit Performance and Innovation—Virtual

sessions on innovation and organizational learning; generating evidence about an intervention's effectiveness; building a culture of performance measurement; and managing for collective impact amid the... View Details

20 Dec 2022
Op-Ed

Employee Feedback: The Key to Retention During the Great Resignation

suspect—compensation. To those of us who have studied organizations up close for decades, none of this is surprising. But what can be done about it? “Companies with healthy, high-commitment, high-performance cultures have had... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Beer

03 Oct 2023
HBS Case

Layoffs Can Be Bad Business: 5 Strategies to Consider Before Cutting Staff

The pattern has become painfully predictable in recent years: As the economy shows signs of a slowdown, companies hand out layoff notices to stabilize profitability and calm investor fears. That cycle seems to be in place in the post-pandemic business world, as... View Details

Keywords: by Ben Rand; Telecommunications; Technology; Financial Services; Manufacturing

05 Sep 2023
Book

Thriving After Failing: How to Turn Your Setbacks Into Triumphs

Harvard Business School Professor Amy Edmondson experienced her first big-stakes professional failure when she was just starting out in her academic career, some 30 years ago, after a decade working in engineering and consulting. Little did she know at the time, but... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

29 Jul 2019
Research & Ideas

How Companies Benefit When Employees Work Remotely

Companies that let their workers decide where and when to do their jobs—whether in another city or in the middle of the night—increase employee productivity, reduce turnover, and lower organizational costs, new research suggests.... View Details

Keywords: by Kristen Senz

Article

Untapped Potential in the Study of Negotiation and Gender Inequality in Organizations

By: Hannah Riley Bowles and Kathleen L. McGinn

Negotiation is a process that creates, reinforces, and reduces gender inequality in organizations, yet the study of gender in negotiation has little connection to the study of gender in organizations. We review the literature on gender in job negotiations from... View Details

Keywords: Gender; Body of Literature; Negotiation Process; Organizational Culture; Research; Behavior; Equality and Inequality

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03 Feb 2015
First Look

First Look: February 3

modules in conjunction with the firm's organizational boundaries and property rights. Download working paper: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2512209 Markets with Price Coherence By: Edelman, Benjamin, and Julian Wright Abstract—In markets with... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

March 2018 (Revised June 2018)
Case

Knowledge Sharing at REMA 1000 (A)

By: Tatiana Sandino and Olivia Hull

A year after Norwegian grocery chain REMA 1000 adopted Workplace, Facebook’s enterprise social network, Chief Human Resource Officer Tore Høylie is asked to evaluate its impact on company culture and communication. Almost 90% of the workforce is engaged with the... View Details

Keywords: Social Network; Enterprise Social Media; Facebook; Workplace; Social and Collaborative Networks; Communication Technology; Performance Improvement; Organizational Culture; Knowledge Sharing; Social Media; Retail Industry; Norway

14 Feb 2022
Research & Ideas

Curiosity, Not Coding: 6 Skills Leaders Need in the Digital Age

to share in decision-making and creating a culture that makes people feel safe enough to take risks and act on behalf of organizational interests. It’s also about earning trust from and offering trust to... View Details

Keywords: by Linda A. Hill, Ann Le Cam, Sunand Menon, and Emily Tedards; Technology

16 Nov 2021
HBS Case

How a Company Made Employees So Miserable, They Killed Themselves

on the chopping block themselves. One manager who had overseen 200 workers was accused of “professional incompetence” and abruptly relocated across the country. “I have no work anymore,” he reportedly said. “I am not even in the View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

14 Dec 2021
Cold Call Podcast

How Japan’s Recruit Holdings Regained Trust after a Scandal

Keywords: Re: Sandra J. Sucher

April 2025
Case

Kleiner Perkins (2019)

By: Jo Tango and Srimayi Mylavarapu

Kleiner Perkins, founded in 1972, quickly rose to prominence as one of Silicon Valley’s leading venture capital firms, earning a reputation for early investments in industry giants like Google, Amazon, and Citrix. However, a bold, strategic pivot to cleantech investing... View Details

Keywords: Venture Capital; Investment Funds; Technological Innovation; Entrepreneurial Finance; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Financial Services Industry

January 2011
Case

Founder-CEO Succession at Acer

By: Noam T. Wasserman, Michael Shih-ta Chen and Keith Chi-ho Wong

Stan Shih, founder-CEO of Acer, Inc., had proactively chosen and transitioned the "perfect" successor as CEO, but was now faced with major problems. Over the last two years, his heir apparent, Leonard Liu, had made the changes he had been hired to make, including... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Entrepreneurship; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Management Style; Management Succession; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Culture; Organizational Structure; Conflict Management

30 Apr 2013
First Look

First Look: April 30

this book can help you change your life. Publisher's link: http://hbr.org/product/what-you-re-really-meant-to-do-a-road-map-for-reaching-your-unique-potential/an/11370E-KND-ENG 2006 Management Science Overcoming Resistance to View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

September 2020 (Revised December 2020)
Case

Hot Wheels at Mattel: Reinventing the Wheel

By: Elie Ofek, Andres Terech and Nicole Tempest Keller

In 2017, Chris Down, Global Brand General Manager for Hot Wheels, and his team from the Advanced Play Group within Mattel, Inc., were considering which innovation path to pursue in order to "future proof" the Hot Wheels franchise going forward. Hot Wheels was the... View Details

Keywords: Toys; Industry Evolution; Innovation Strategy; Product Development; Growth and Development Strategy; Technological Innovation; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Decision Making; Digital Transformation