Publications

15 Sep 2014
Research & Ideas

Are the Most Talented Employees the Highest Paid? Yes—If They’re Bankers

Job seekers who want to be paid commensurate with their talent level might want to pursue a career in high finance. Recent research finds that the finance industry compensates employees largely according to how talented they are. Other... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Banking

December 8, 2023
Article

What Makes a Company Great at Producing Leaders?

By: Sarah Abbott, Robin Abrahams and Boris Groysberg

GE is well known as an “academy company”—a talent incubator that exports effective leaders to other organizations and even industries. To better understand which companies are top talent incubators today, the authors worked with the Official Board, a firm that provides... View Details

Keywords: Personal Development and Career; Talent and Talent Management; Training; Organizational Culture

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May 2024 (Revised January 2025)
Technical Note

Education Technology: A Technical Note

By: Boris Groysberg

This note considers educational technology as it intersects with HR technology. View Details

Keywords: Edtech; HR; AI; Data Science; Competency and Skills; Talent and Talent Management; Human Resources; Personal Development and Career; Education Industry; Technology Industry; United States

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; Consumer Products Industry; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; Europe

September 2003 (Revised March 2004)
Compilation

PEARL Project, The: Work Patterns at Ditto (A)

By: Leslie A. Perlow

Describes life on a product development team, the behaviors that are rewarded, and the difficult tradeoffs members often have to make as a result. This is a rewritten version of an earlier case. View Details

Keywords: Product Development; Time Management; Groups and Teams; Work-Life Balance; Motivation and Incentives; Information Technology Industry

07 Jan 2015
Research & Ideas

The Quest for Better Layoffs

were more like them, too, whose careers were similar to the careers the students were pursuing," Sucher says. So the video series includes people like Hemant Luthra, now a top executive at Mahindra CIE... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Manufacturing

May 2025
Case

RTX's Lifetime Income Strategy: Shaping the Future of Retirement

By: Daniel Green, Luis M. Viceira and Sarah Mehta

Set in 2024, this case explores the Lifetime Income Strategy (LIS), a novel retirement product launched by aerospace and defense company RTX in 2012. Aiming to embed the security of a traditional pension within a 401(k) plan, the LIS allowed participants to secure a... View Details

Keywords: Asset Management; Compensation and Benefits; Collaborative Innovation and Invention; Jobs and Positions; Labor; Retirement; Society; Adoption; Personal Finance; Aerospace Industry; Financial Services Industry; Insurance Industry; United States; Virginia

21 Nov 2016
Research & Ideas

It Matters That Your CEO Doesn't Know Much About Sales

senior executives specializing in everything except sales. “The number of executives reporting to the CEO in the average S&P 500 company has doubled in the last 20 years,” says Frank V. Cespedes, a senior lecturer in the Entrepreneurial View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

08 Mar 2004
Research & Ideas

Secret to Success: Go for “Just Enough”

do everything your way. Not to mention being best at every activity of your life, from tennis to cooking to managing your portfolio. For this kind of mix, maximization will not work as an operating paradigm. How can you maximize four... View Details

Keywords: by Laura Nash & Howard Stevenson

May 2023
Supplement

Alicia Keys and Swizz Beats Video Supplement Playlist

By: Boris Groysberg

Keywords: Entertainment; Music Entertainment; Personal Development and Career; Entrepreneurship; Goals and Objectives; Power and Influence; Music Industry; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; Fine Arts Industry

October 2019 (Revised December 2019)
Case

Swizz Beatz and Alicia Keys: A Power Couple

By: Boris Groysberg, Annelena Lobb and Sarah Mehta

Set in 2018, this case follows married couple and music industry titans Swizz Beatz and Alicia Keys as they consider how best to use their platforms to achieve their goals. Since achieving professional success in the music industry early in their lives, Swizz and Keys... View Details

Keywords: Entertainment; Music Entertainment; Personal Development and Career; Entrepreneurship; Goals and Objectives; Power and Influence; Music Industry; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; Fine Arts Industry

July 1997
Case

Graffs, The (B)

By: Carl S. Sloane and Gregory C. Rogers

Supplements the (A) case. View Details

Keywords: Work-Life Balance; Family and Family Relationships; Conflict Management

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October 2024 (Revised January 2025)
Case

MDH Partners: Evolving a Family Legacy

By: Christina R. Wing and Sarah Mehta

This case is about succession planning for MDH Partners, an Atlanta-based industrial real estate investment firm founded in 2005. When Jeffrey Small, Jr. cofounded MDH Partners, he named the company in honor of his grandfather, Mark Durward (MD) Hodges, an early... View Details

Keywords: Buildings and Facilities; Business Ventures; Ownership; Business Exit or Shutdown; Family Business; Management Succession; Personal Development and Career; Financial Services Industry; Real Estate Industry; United States; Georgia (state, US); Atlanta

06 Jun 2012
What Do You Think?

Is Something Wrong with the Way We Work?

Summing Up Fixing the Way We Work There is a lot wrong with the way we work, but very little of this is due to new networking capabilities or communications technology. Neither can we blame increasing globalization and the demands of doing business across 24 time... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett; Consulting

November 2008 (Revised January 2011)
Exercise

Breaking Through Action Plan

By: David A. Thomas and Karen J. Watai

The "Breaking Through Action Plan" is a developmental tool based on the book, Breaking Through: The Making of Minority Executives in Corporate America by David A. Thomas and John J. Gabarro. The Action Plan was originally designed as part of a facilitated session but... View Details

Keywords: Competency and Skills; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Personal Development and Career; Relationships; Power and Influence; Trust