Publications

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28 Aug 2012
First Look

First Look: August 28

likely attributable to improvements in comparability (i.e., better precision of across-firm information) than to changes in information quality specific to the firm (i.e., core information quality). If IFRS... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

05 Aug 2014
First Look

First Look: August 5

Technology May Change the Game By: Mills, Karen, and Brayden McCarthy Abstract—Small businesses are core to America's economic competitiveness. Not only do they employ half of the nation's private sector... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

Article

Buyer-Initiated vs. Seller-Initiated Information Revelation

Sales presentations are the core of the selling process where salespeople provide information to prospects. One challenge is that the amount of information available to be potentially communicated may exceed salespeople's ability to communicate or customers' ability to... View Details

Keywords: Information; Quality; Marketing Communications; Game Theory; Sales

June 1995
Case

Northern Telecom and Tong Guang Electronics (A1): Getting to Know Each Other

By: Rosabeth M. Kanter and Pamela A. Yatsko

In its second year of operation, the joint venture between Northern Telecom (Nortel) of Canada and Tong Guang Electronics of China to manufacture telecommunications equipment in China has hit a crisis. The Chinese partner has asked Northern Telecom to replace its... View Details

Keywords: Mobile and Wireless Technology; Joint Ventures; Change Management; Organizational Culture; Crisis Management; Financial Crisis; Job Cuts and Outsourcing; Leadership; Telecommunications Industry; Manufacturing Industry; Canada; China

Find at Harvard

20 Nov 2007
First Look

First Look: November 20, 2007

we call "design-driven innovation." This strategy aims at radically changing the emotional and symbolic content of products, i.e., their meanings and languages, through a deep understanding View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

November 1995
Background Note

Business Process Reengineering: Its Past, Present, and Possible Future

Explores the origins of reengineering; its evolution during the 1980s and 1990s; the current state of reengineering, which is prevalent in business today; and several possible futures of reengineering, specifically in relation to process management, knowledge work, and... View Details

Keywords: Change Management; Business Processes

April 2002 (Revised September 2003)
Case

Stephen Brown at John Hancock Financial Services

By: Robin J. Ely

Describes a major organizational transformation process at John Hancock Financial Services in which CEO Stephen Brown takes a series of measured steps to turn the old-line mutual insurance company into a competitive, performance-oriented financial services firm. At the... View Details

Keywords: Change Management; Leadership; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Culture; Alignment; Competitive Strategy; Financial Services Industry

June 2023 (Revised January 2024)
Case

Communities In Schools (Atlanta): Innovating a College Program

By: V. Kasturi Rangan, Lynda M. Applegate and Alexis Lefort

Frank Brown, CIS of Atlanta's new Black CEO, was keen to extend CIS's well-honed case management in schools program to youth in college. Founded 50 years ago by Bill Milliken, CIS, a network of 110 affiliates, had built a strong program of assisting and supporting... View Details

Keywords: Decisions; Education; Expansion; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Atlanta

June 2011
Case

Leaders Who Make a Difference: Sam Palmisano's Smarter IBM: Day 1

By: Joseph L. Bower and Sonja Ellingson Hout

Sam Palmisano explains the moves he made to transform IBM into a faster-growing, more profitable company focused on IT solutions to the problems of companies, cities, and nations. View Details

Keywords: Change Management; Transformation; Growth and Development Strategy; Business or Company Management; Information Technology Industry

23 Nov 2010
First Look

First Look: November 23

labels identifying search engine advertisements. In particular, for a random subset of users, we change "sponsored link" labels to instead read "paid advertisement." We find that users... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

April 1995
Case

Phelps Dodge Corporation

By: W. Carl Kester and Kendall Backstrand

A prolonged decline in copper prices prompts Phelps Dodge, one of the world's largest independent copper companies, to consider corporate diversification as a means of protecting itself from copper price volatility. View Details

Keywords: Diversification; Price; Volatility; Risk Management; Mining Industry; Arizona; United States

May 1975 (Revised September 1987)
Case

Bio-Tech, Inc.

Financial vice president is expected to prepare a financing plan for Bio-Tech matching the most recent long-range plans of three operating groups. The latter, however, must be adjusted to take account of recommendations to be made on plant investment of one product... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Corporate Finance

February 2003 (Revised June 2006)
Case

Implementing the Nissan Renewal Plan

By: Michael Y. Yoshino and Masako Egawa

Carlos Ghosn, a former executive vice-president of Renault, became the COO of Nissan Motor Co., a troubled auto company in Japan when Renault bought 38% of the company in 1999. This case deals with how Ghosn turned the company around. Examines in considerable detail... View Details

Keywords: Acquisition; Change Management; Employees; Leading Change; Strategic Planning; Motivation and Incentives; Auto Industry; Japan

2020
Presentations & Discussions

Lessons from AASU50

17 Jul 2007
First Look

First Look: July 17, 2007

deepening and a decline in total factor productivity following the introduction of wrongful-discharge protections. This last result is potentially quite important, suggesting that mandated employment protections reduce productive... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

16 Sep 2015
News

Built for Speed

Rogers breaks in. “OK, guys, let’s try and keep the rest of these to about a minute.” He has other calls to make. On the next call, travel options are weighed (Toulouse? Berlin? Paris?) for meetings with a potential European collaborator.... View Details

Keywords: Dan Morrell; Machinery Manufacturing; Manufacturing

12 Apr 2011
First Look

First Look: April 12

conducts one of the first large-scale, establishment-level empirical studies of delegation within firms. Recent contributions to a rapidly growing theory literature have... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

January 1989 (Revised February 1993)
Case

Warner Cable (A)

The new general manager of Warner Cable's Medford, Massachusetts complex faces a number of turnaround challenges in 1985, including service deficiencies, customer complaints, high turnover, and low employee morale. By 1988 he has turned the situation around, but some... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Management Style; Human Resources; Telecommunications Industry; Massachusetts

July 2002 (Revised August 2002)
Case

SIG Beverages (A)

SIG Beverages, a leading supplier of bottling and packaging systems for the beverage industry, has recognized an opportunity in providing services for its product end users. Management's challenge is to develop a service portfolio to address end users' needs, while... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Production; Service Delivery; Manufacturing Industry; Italy