Publications

July 2020 (Revised January 2021)
Case

Rosalind Fox at John Deere

By: Anthony Mayo and Olivia Hull

Rosalind Fox, the factory manager at John Deere’s Des Moines, Iowa plant, has improved the financial standing of the factory in the three years she’s been at its helm. But employee engagement scores—which measured employees’ satisfaction with working conditions and... View Details

October 2007 (Revised January 2009)
Case

The Hertz Corporation (A)

By: Timothy A. Luehrman and Douglas Scott

Examines the leveraged buyout of Hertz in 2005, a complex, high-profile deal and a good example of cutting-edge practice in private equity. The first of a two-part series on the Hertz LBO, adopts the perspective of Clayton, Dubilier & Rice, the leader of a private... View Details

Keywords: Leveraged Buyouts; Private Equity; Bids and Bidding; Negotiation Deal; Valuation; Value Creation; Financial Services Industry; United States

September 2021 (Revised March 2024)
Case

Tesla in 2023: 'Electrified' Competition

By: Eric Van den Steen, Ramon Casadesus-Masanell and Karen Elterman

Over its 17 years in existence, Tesla had redefined people’s view of electric cars, and in 2020, the company saw its stock rise by more than 700% to became the most valuable carmaker in the world. In December 2020, Tesla celebrated its fifth consecutive quarter of... View Details

Keywords: Barrier To Entry; Competitive Advantage; Innovation; Tesla; Automotive Industry; Sustainable Competitive Advantage; Values; Vision; Learning By Doing; Economies Of Scale; Electric Vehicle; Scenario Planning; Batteries; Competitive Strategy; Product Positioning; Profit; Competition; Industry Growth; Auto Industry

April 1, 2012
Article

The Driver in Ford's Amazing Race

By: Nancy F. Koehn

In "American Icon: Alan Mulally and the Fight to Save Ford Motor Company" (Crown Business: $26), Bryce G. Hoffman recounts the turnaround in careful, often gripping detail. Make no mistake, this is a story, not a structured analysis of Ford's transformation. Those... View Details

Keywords: Business History; Transformation; Manufacturing Industry; Auto Industry; United States

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June 2010 (Revised December 2019)
Case

Piramal e-Swasthya (A): Attempting Big Changes for Small Places - in India and Beyond

By: Rosabeth M. Kanter and Matthew Bird

Anand Piramal and his team sought to "democratize healthcare" in India through the development of a new service delivery model. If Henry Ford could build and deliver cars to everyone in the United States, Piramal thought, then why can't India deliver healthcare to the... View Details

Keywords: Health Care and Treatment; Service Delivery; Social Entrepreneurship; Change Management; Emerging Markets; Health Industry; India

May 2025
Teaching Note

Bridj and the Business of Urban Mobility (B): A New Model in Kansas City

By: Rosabeth Moss Kanter and Jonathan Cohen

This Teaching Note helps instructors teach students the HBS Case, Bridj and the Business of Urban Mobility (B): A New Model in Kansas City. In late 2016, Bridj was expanding its digital platform to help address urban mobility problems faced by cities across the country... View Details

Keywords: App Development; Innovation; Stakeholder Engagement; Collaboration; Ride-sharing; Entrenchment; Digital; Transportation; Urban Development; Disruption; Business Startups; Digital Platforms; Growth and Development Strategy; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Partners and Partnerships; Expansion

22 Feb 2010
Op-Ed

Tragedy at Toyota: How Not to Lead in Crisis

has always been quality, a competitive advantage that prompted many Americans to stop buying GM and Ford brands. Toyota can only regain its footing by transforming itself from top to bottom to deliver the highest quality automobiles. When... View Details

Keywords: by William George; Auto

January 2017 (Revised April 2017)
Supplement

Bridj and the Business of Urban Mobility (B): A New Model in Kansas City

By: Rosabeth Moss Kanter and Jonathan Cohen

In late 2016, Bridj was expanding its digital platform to help address urban mobility problems faced by cities across the country and the world. Its founder and CEO, Matt George, weighed up several possible strategies for growth as he aimed to responsibly build the... View Details

May 2012
Article

Herbert A. Simon on What Ails Business Schools: More than A Problem in Organizational Design

By: Rakesh Khurana and J.C. Spender

We critically examine Herbert Simon's 1967 essay, "The Business School: A Problem in Organizational Design." We consider this essay within the context of Simon's key ideas about organizations, particularly those closely associated with the 'Carnegie perspective' on... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Design; Perspective; Innovation and Invention; Business Education; Research; Management Practices and Processes; Teaching

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2015
Chapter

From Periphery to Core: A Process Model for Embracing Sustainability

By: Luciana Silvestri and Ranjay Gulati

There is a growing call for business enterprises to adopt sustainability principles and practices, yet many established organizations continue to struggle in their quest to embrace them. In this chapter, we analyze how organizations that relegate sustainability to the... View Details

December 2023
Case

Robert McNamara: Changing the World

By: Robert Simons and Shirley Sun

This case traces the life of Robert McNamara from Harvard Business School to Ford Motor Company to the U.S. Department of Defense. McNamara excelled in every job along the way: becoming the youngest-ever professor at Harvard Business School, the first non-family... View Details

Keywords: Performance Measurement; Military; Leadership Development; Values and Beliefs; Personal Characteristics; Leadership Style; Success; Business and Government Relations; Power and Influence; Business Education; War

November 2009
Case

The HLB Turnaround

By: Lynda M. Applegate, Bhaskar Chakravorti and Laura Winig

Ford Pearson has recently taken over as CEO of HLB, a Chicago-based product design and development firm (and once one of the largest in the business), to help turn it around after a series of crises that had seriously threatened its survival. Pearson has personally... View Details

Keywords: Business Organization; Business or Company Management; Private Equity; Restructuring; Product Design; Corporate Finance

June 2005 (Revised May 2006)
Case

Covisint (A): The Evolution of a B2B Marketplace

By: Lynda M. Applegate and Elizabeth Collins

Ford Motor Co., General Motors, and DaimlerChrysler--the three original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) that dominated the automotive industry throughout the 20th century--launched Covisint in February 2000 as an industry supply chain exchange that would drive out cost... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Supply Chain Management; Business Startups; Management Teams; Manufacturing Industry; Auto Industry; United States

Article

Creating Value in the Age of Distributed Capitalism

By: Shoshana Zuboff

Capitalism is a book of many chapters—and we are beginning a new one. Every century or so, fundamental changes in the nature of consumption create new demand patterns that existing enterprises can't meet. When a majority of people want things that remain priced at a... View Details

Keywords: Value Creation; Economic Systems; Transformation

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November 2011 (Revised June 2012)
Case

The Big 3 Roar Back

By: William W. George

The "Big 3"—Ford Motor Company, General Motors, and Chrysler—were all headquartered in Detroit, Michigan. Born between 1903 and 1928, they dominated the automobile industry in the U.S. for decades until they became complacent. In the 1970s they started losing share to... View Details

Keywords: Production; Labor Unions; Labor and Management Relations; Industry Clusters; Competitive Strategy; Auto Industry; Manufacturing Industry; Michigan

2004
Book

Birth of a Salesman: The Transformation of Selling in America

By: Walter A. Friedman

This book chronicles the remarkable metamorphosis of the American salesman from itinerant amateur to trained expert. From the mid-nineteenth century to the eve of World War II, the development of sales management transformed an economy populated by peddlers and... View Details

Keywords: Sales; Employees; Transformation; United States