Publications

16 Jan 2019
Research & Ideas

What Football Firings Teach Managers About Staying Relevant

pace due to the increased rate at which we now exchange information. That’s why it is more important than ever for managers to make increased efforts to stay relevant and protect against skill obsolescence.... View Details

Keywords: by Boris Groysberg, Evan M.S. Hecht, and Abhijit Naik; Sports

07 Jan 2013
Lessons from the Classroom

Culture Changers: Managing High-Impact Entrepreneurs

does business management mean in this context? For some MBA students, the answers are something of an awakening. The ways that they have traditionally added value—by implementing top-notch business practices, using deep analytical View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Beauty & Cosmetics; Food & Beverage; Entertainment & Recreation; Information; Publishing

30 Apr 2008
Sharpening Your Skills

Sharpening Your Skills: Brand Management

Sharpening Your Skills dives into the HBS Working Knowledge archives to bring together articles on ways to improve your business skills. Questions To Be Answered Does branding work for business-to-business marketing? Can individuals... View Details

Keywords: by Staff; Sports; Publishing; Auto

September 1987 (Revised October 1987)
Background Note

The Job of the General Manager

By: James L. Heskett

Describes elements of the job of the general manager that are addressed in the Management Policy and Practice course at the Harvard Business School. These include: 1) establishing strategic direction, 2) setting goals and managing standards of performance, 3)... View Details

Keywords: Experience and Expertise; Policy; Recruitment; Working Conditions; Managerial Roles; Resource Allocation; Mission and Purpose; Performance Evaluation; Strategy; Value

November 1981
Background Note

Helping Managers Improve Performance

By: Arthur N. Turner

Keywords: Management Skills

May 1997
Background Note

Institutional Perspective on Management

By: Rosabeth M. Kanter

Discusses the dimensions of the institutional environment surrounding business, including the role of stakeholders and the need for new collaborations in emerging markets; the key assumptions of the institutional perspective on businesses and markets, especially in... View Details

Keywords: Economics; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Management Skills; Emerging Markets; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Perspective

August 2009 (Revised November 2010)
Case

Managing Creativity at Shanghai Tang

By: Roy Y.J. Chua and Robert G. Eccles

Shanghai Tang is a luxury brand that focuses on Chinese-inspired fashion, accessories, and home decoration products. In fall 2008, amidst a growing global economic crisis, Raphael Ie Masne, executive chairman of Shanghai Tang, had to decide what to do with the recently... View Details

Keywords: Talent and Talent Management; Financial Crisis; Employee Relationship Management; Selection and Staffing; Creativity; Apparel and Accessories Industry

December 13, 2017
Article

What It Takes to Become a Great Product Manager

By: Julia Austin

As an aspiring product manager (PM), there are three primary considerations when evaluating the role: Core Competencies, Emotional Intelligence (EQ), and Company Fit. The best PMs have mastered the core competencies, have a high EQ, and work for the right company for... View Details

Keywords: Management; Product Development; Personal Development and Career

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2008
Book

Becoming a New Manager

By: Linda A. Hill

You've just been promoted to a managerial position for the first time—congratulations! But beware: the managerial role differs markedly from the individual contributor role. Go into the job with mistaken assumptions about what to expect, and you just may be blindsided... View Details

Keywords: Leadership; Management Skills; Management Style; Managerial Roles; Performance Improvement; Groups and Teams

January 2025 (Revised March 2025)
Case

Thomas Müller: Mr. Bayern Munich

By: Boris Groysberg, Sascha L. Schmidt, Alexander Liebhart and Sarah Abbott

In 2024, FC Bayern Munich superstar Thomas Müller announced his retirement from German national football. His contract with Bayern Munich runs through the end of the 2024-25 season. In 2025, Müller reflects on his long career in football, on the skills that have driven... View Details

Keywords: Soccer; Football; Data Science And Analytics Management; Bundesliga; Sports Data; ＂Sports Organizations,; Career Changes And Transitions; Career Management; Retirement Transition; Skills Development; Analysis; Competency and Skills; Decision Making; Performance; Personal Development and Career; Retirement; Transition; Sports Industry; Germany

July 2012
Case

Performance Management at Vitality Health Enterprises, Inc.

By: John Bingham and Michael Beer

Vitality Health Enterprises, a medium-sized firm that manufactures health and personal care products, has experienced six straight quarters of strong revenue growth. James Hoffman, the new Senior Vice President of Human Resources, fears that the chain of success is... View Details

Keywords: Performance Evaluation; Motivation and Incentives; Compensation and Benefits; Talent and Talent Management; Health Industry; Consumer Products Industry; Manufacturing Industry; United States

25 Jun 2024
Research & Ideas

Rapport: The Hidden Advantage That Women Managers Bring to Teams

managers reallocated staff to different work shifts. The researchers found that fast-food restaurants with managers and workers of predominantly the same gender had: Better communication and improved worker... View Details

Keywords: by Kara Baskin; Food & Beverage

June 2020
Background Note

Customer Management Dynamics and Cohort Analysis

By: Elie Ofek, Barak Libai and Eitan Muller

The digital revolution has allowed companies to amass considerable amounts of data on their customers. Using this information to generate actionable insights is fast becoming a critical skill that firms must master if they wish to effectively compete and win in today’s... View Details

Keywords: Cohort Analysis; Customers; Analytics and Data Science; Segmentation; Analysis; Customer Value and Value Chain

02 May 2011
Research & Ideas

Casino Payoff: Hands-Off Management Works Best

ensure that the casinos' best customers return to play another day. “It's not absolute freedom—it's freedom within a framework" —Francisco de Asís Martinez-Jerez And it turns out that casino hosts are ideal subjects to gain insight into an ongoing question debated for... View Details

Keywords: by Dennis Fisher; Entertainment & Recreation

30 Jan 2012
Research & Ideas

Measuring the Efficacy of the World’s Managers

Firms in the United States, Japan, and Germany tend to be managed especially well, while firms in Brazil, China, and India tend to be managed poorly. Those are among the initial findings of the World View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

Research Summary

The role of the manager in cross-sector interactions

My second stream of research takes the individual manager as the unit of analysis in examining cross-sector interactions. Two papers explore processes and mechanisms that allow managers to cross sectoral boundaries more effectively.

The first paper... View Details

26 Mar 2006
Research & Ideas

The Office of Strategy Management

and think in strategic terms are critical. They need good interpersonal skills since they must interact effectively and authoritatively with senior business units and functional heads. Project management... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

2004
Working Paper

Judging Fund Managers by the Company They Keep

By: Randolph Cohen, Joshua Coval and Luboš Pástor

We develop a performance evaluation approach in which a fund manager's skill is judged by the extent to which his investment decisions resemble the decisions of managers with distinguished performance records. The proposed performance measures are estimated more... View Details

Keywords: Measurement and Metrics; Performance Evaluation; Investment Funds; Investment

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Article

Can Mutual Fund Managers Pick Stocks? Evidence from Their Trades Prior to Earnings Announcements

By: Malcolm Baker, Lubomir Litov, Jessica Wachter and Jeffrey Wurgler

We consider measures of stock-picking skill of mutual fund managers based on the earnings announcement returns of the stocks that they hold and trade. Relative to standard approaches, this approach focuses on an especially informative subset of the returns data,... View Details

Keywords: Competency and Skills; Stocks; Investment Return; Investment Funds; Earnings Management