Publications

Web

Podcast - Business & Environment

climate series features HBS alumna Sanchali Pal, Founder and CEO of Commons, an app created to help consumers make more climate-friendly purchasing decisions. Sanchali discusses why she chose an View Details

March 2014
Case

Babcock International Plc

By: John R. Wells and Galen Danskin

In 2013, Babcock International Plc (Babcock) was the largest engineering services provider in the UK with sales of over £3 billion. Under the leadership of CEO Peter Rogers, Babcock had grown revenues and profits nearly tenfold over the previous decade as it benefited... View Details

Keywords: Strategic Change; Strategy And Leadership; Diversification; United Kingdom; Military; Nuclear Power; Nuclear; Engineering And Construction; Conglomerates; Strategic Planning; Competitive Strategy; Global Strategy; Corporate Strategy; Construction Industry; Energy Industry; United Kingdom

24 Oct 2023
HBS Case

From P.T. Barnum to Mary Kay: Lessons From 5 Leaders Who Changed the World

stories contain pearls of management wisdom for today’s executives looking to lead with excellence. “Without exception, all these people are opportunity seekers,” says Simons of the leaders profiled, which include former British Prime... View Details

Keywords: by Avery Forman

Benson P. Shapiro

Benson P. Shapiro is a well-known authority on marketing strategy and sales management with particular interests in pricing, product line planning, and marketing organization. He is also the Malcolm P. McNair Professor of Marketing Emeritus at the Harvard Business... View Details

09 Feb 2010
First Look

First Look: Feb. 9

reflect the predominant opportunities pursued by social entrepreneurs focused on public education in the United States over the last decade. The book offers an overarching framework for creating and... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

15 Mar 2021
Blog Post

Be Unapologetically Yourself: Interview with Singer-Songwriter and Banking Strategist Andrea Mendoza

Ironman and he brings that identity to work,” Mendoza shared. “This creates opportunity for others to do the same and as a leader within the organization I can set an example as well.” Mendoza knows that not... View Details

28 Oct 2024
Blog Post

It Takes a Village: Global Field Courses at Harvard Business School

team is assessing potential locations and travel-related information across the organization, and the IFC team is heading out for domestic and international assessment visits to source the content for the courses. IFCs are an elective View Details

10 Sep 2020
Blog Post

Founding a Company at the Intersection of Medicine and Technology

surgical robotics to treat lung cancer, the intersection of medicine and technology was a deep interest of his prior to HBS. He is now the Founder and CEO of Alife Health, which uses machine learning to help assess the healthiest embryo... View Details

08 Jan 2007
Research & Ideas

Who Rises to Power in American Business?

"outsiders," such as Elizabeth Arden, created their own road to success, overcoming significant odds. The new book Paths to Power: How Insiders and Outsiders Shaped American Business Leadership explores the demographics of... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

03 Feb 2016
Research & Ideas

The State of Customer Service Leadership

still hold true. But a great deal of research over the past 20 years or so have put a lot of meat on those bones. As one example, we’ve come to learn more about creating the high-trust environment that leads to engaged employees who... View Details

Keywords: by Jim Aisner; Retail

26 Jun 2018
First Look

New Research and Ideas, June 26, 2018

the sale be distributed among family members? If the business is not sold, how should ongoing ownership and control be shared among family members? The exercise, which is inspired by a collection of real-world scenarios, provides an View Details

Keywords: Dina Gerdeman

14 Dec 2021
Op-Ed

To Change Your Company's Culture, Don't Start by Trying to Change the Culture

Culture change is probably on your leadership agenda. You may want (or feel forced) to create a post-pandemic culture, or become more collaborative, innovative, or aggressive. But most companies fail in this because they try to change... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Beer

19 May 2009
First Look

First Look: May 19, 2009

Peter Barge, CEO of the newly created Corporate Solutions Group of Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL), is executing a restructuring of the U.S. corporate real estate services division that will enable the company to... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

August 2022
Case

Air Wars: Deregulating the U.S. Airline Industry

By: Tom Nicholas and James Weber

In the early decades of the twentieth century, the U.S. government assisted in the development of an airline industry by subsidizing the delivery of mail and allowing mail carriers to also fly passengers. Because the government awarded mail routes to the lowest... View Details

07 Jun 2011
First Look

First Look: June 7

self-interests of others contributes to suboptimal outcomes. Yet sometimes, an excess of cynicism appears to lead us to overthink the actions of others and make negative attributions about their motivations without sufficient cause. In the process, we may miss View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

09 Jun 2015
First Look

First Look: June 9, 2015

ratio of CEO wage to the average employee's wage. Our six studies show that pay ratio disclosure affects purchase intention of consumers via perceptions of wage fairness. The disclosure of a retailer's high pay ratio (e.g., 1000 to 1)... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

November 2005 (Revised December 2016)
Case

Bally Total Fitness (A): The Rise, 1962–2004

By: John R. Wells, Elizabeth A. Raabe and Gabriel Ellsworth

From a single, modest club in 1962, Bally Total Fitness had grown to become—in management’s words—the “largest and only nationwide commercial operator of fitness centers” in the United States in 2004. Bally had faced its share of challenges, but the last couple of... View Details

Keywords: Bally Total Fitness; Fitness; Gyms; Health Clubs; Chain; Securities And Exchange Commission; Paul Toback; Weight Loss; Exercise; Contracts; Personal Training; Retention; Accounting; Accounting Audits; Accrual Accounting; Finance; Advertising; Business Growth and Maturation; Business Model; For-Profit Firms; Customers; Customer Satisfaction; Public Equity; Financing and Loans; Revenue; Revenue Recognition; Geographic Scope; Multinational Firms and Management; Health; Nutrition; Business History; Lawsuits and Litigation; Management; Business or Company Management; Goals and Objectives; Growth and Development Strategy; Marketing; Operations; Service Delivery; Service Operations; Public Ownership; Problems and Challenges; Business and Shareholder Relations; Business Strategy; Competition; Corporate Strategy; Expansion; Segmentation; Trends; Cost Management; Profit; Growth and Development; Leadership Style; Five Forces Framework; Private Ownership; Opportunities; Motivation and Incentives; Competitive Strategy; Health Industry; United States; Illinois; Chicago

March 2018 (Revised June 2018)
Case

City Year at 30: Toward Long-Term Impact

By: Rosabeth Moss Kanter and James Weber

In 2018, City Year was a 30-year-old nonprofit that recruited and organized teams of young-adult “volunteers” (corps teams) to provide a year of citizen service. It had 3,100 corps members serving in 327 schools located in 28 U.S. cities. In its early decades, City... View Details

Keywords: Education; Service Operations; Nonprofit Organizations; Growth and Development Strategy; Performance Efficiency; Resource Allocation; Change Management; Social Entrepreneurship; Middle School Education; Secondary Education; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Human Capital; Growth Management; Service Delivery; Organizational Design; Social Enterprise; Poverty; United States

March 2013 (Revised October 2013)
Supplement

Growing Integrated Services at Jones Lang LaSalle (2008) (C)

By: Ranjay Gulati and Luciana Silvestri

This case describes the strategic and organizational challenges that Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL) faced between 2005 and 2008. Having dismantled its long-standing service-line-oriented structure, JLL created two interdependent groups: Accounts and Markets. Accounts housed... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Structure; Strategy; Integration; Real Estate Industry; North America; South America; Central America