Women Executives - Publications - Faculty & Research

April 2022
Teaching Note

CVS Health: Prescription for Transformation

By: Rosabeth Moss Kanter and Catarina Martinez

In 2021, new CEO Karen Lynch (named the most powerful woman in business) considered the next transformation phase for CVS Health (a Fortune 5 corporate giant). The 2018 acquisition of Aetna insurance brought her to the company as part of its long evolution from a... View Details

Keywords: Health; COVID-19 Pandemic; Primary Care; Leadership; Change Management; Women Executives; Retail; Pharmacy; Pharmacy Benefit Manager; Clinical Trials; Vaccination; Acquisition; Innovation and Invention; Transformation; Retail Industry; Pharmaceutical Industry; Health Industry; United States

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November 2016 (Revised February 2017)
Case

BrightStar Care: The Evolution of a Leadership Team

By: Boris Groysberg, Colleen Ammerman and John D. Vaughan

BrightStar Care was a rapidly growing franchise of home health care agencies. Founded by husband and wife team JD and Shelly Sun as a single agency near Chicago in 2002, BrightStar had opened nearly 300 franchises across the United States by 2016, generating over $300... View Details

Keywords: Health Care Services; Entrepreneurs; Board Of Directors; Boards Of Directors; Health Care Industry; Growth Strategy; Organizational Change; Brand Positioning; Entrepreneurial Organizations; Entrepreneurial Management; Franchising; Family-owned Business; Home Health Care; Managing Growth; Management Styles; Organizational Development; Talent Management; Women Executives; Women And Leadership; Business Startups; Family Business; Small Business; Talent and Talent Management; Governing and Advisory Boards; Health Care and Treatment; Human Capital; Leadership Development; Leadership Style; Business or Company Management; Growth and Development Strategy; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Management Skills; Management Style; Management Succession; Management Systems; Management Teams; Brands and Branding; Marketing Strategy; Strategy

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01 Dec 2020
News

The Complete Package

school: Although she never completed her undergraduate degree, Chong earned her executive MBA at the National University of Singapore. “I always wanted to experience campus life. It was one of the toughest things in my life, because I... View Details

Keywords: April White; entrepreneurship; sustainability; packaging; leadership; women; Manufacturing

Web

Women on Boards: How Lara Druyan and Ann Lucena Are Shaping the Future of Corporate Leadership - Blog: RGE Report

Race, Gender and Equity at Work Race, Gender and Equity at Work Filter Results Arrow Down Arrow Up Read posts from Author HBS Staff Topics Topics Board Diversity RGE Blog Filters Read posts from Author HBS Staff Topics Topics Board Diversity RGE Blog 31 Mar 2025 View Details

01 Dec 2020
News

Well Matched

founded by Diego Saez-Gil, is leveraging data and AI to create a carbon-offset marketplace for companies through reforestation projects. Another I’d mention is Every Mother, which offers exercises, education, and support for postpartum View Details

Keywords: Julia Hanna; venture capital; diversity; inclusion; tennis; leadership; women; Finance

12 Apr 2023
News

Step Change

working as an economist in the Egyptian Ministry of Finance when the Arab Spring swept through Cairo in 2011. When we met, she was executive director of the Egyptian American Enterprise Fund, a $300 million investment initiative between... View Details

Keywords: Julia Hanna; entrepreneurship; women; venture capital; Egypt; developing economies; Finance

01 Dec 2020
News

Steady as She Goes

executive leadership committee, it was not normal for someone to say ‘Can we start the meeting at nine o’clock, because I want to drop the kids at school?’ I have worked to normalize that and to build a culture where people are... View Details

Keywords: April White; COVID-19; change management; leadership; women; grocery stores; Food and Beverage Stores; Retail Trade

01 Mar 2023
News

Step Change

Habib. “I’d always heard about Magda and how she was an execution machine,” says Enan. Still living in the States at the time, Enan asked Habib out for coffee whenever she came back to Cairo. Habib was consulting after exiting Fawry—a... View Details

Keywords: Julia Hanna; photographed by Abdelrahman Gabr – Koree; entrepreneurship; women; venture capital; Egypt; developing economies; Finance

Mar 16 2018
Testimonial

Building a Global Support System

05 Jan 2015
Video

Building a Global Support System

Video

Khalid Al Rumaihi

Khalid Al Rumaihi, Executive Chairman of Amriya group based in Bahrain, discusses the job opportunities and policies for women in the country, highlighting that Bahraini women are highly competent with great work ethic and team spirit. View Details

15 Aug 2024
Blog Post

Learning from Mistakes and Leveraging Personal Experiences: Tiffany Kent (MBA 2001)

individuals, particularly men, was notably oversaturated. As a woman in finance, what originally felt like an obstacle now became a gift. I realized that executive women, female business owners, and women... View Details

Video

Dr. Laura Catena

Dr. Laura Catena, Managing Director of Bodega Catena Zapata, discusses the state of gender equality in the wine industry as well as her efforts to promote women to executive positions. View Details

03 Nov 2015
News

Lean In to Be Stretched Thin?

11 Sep 2017
Research & Ideas

Why Employers Favor Men

Fighting discrimination Coffman, who has conducted other research exploring the role of gender, hopes these findings will spur business executives to take a closer look at whether those doing the hiring within their organizations have... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

23 Mar 2016
Research & Ideas

Researchers Prove C-Suite Gender Gap—but Can’t Explain It

Here’s some bad news and some worse news for women who aspire to the executive suite. The bad news is that there’s a huge gender gap in top corporate positions, both in terms of the number of female View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

June 2013
Article

Dysfunction in the Boardroom: Understanding the Persistent Gender Gap at the Highest Levels

By: Boris Groysberg and Deborah Bell

The article examines the gender gap that is present in boardrooms in U.S. corporations and internationally in 2013 as more women attempt to reach executive-level positions. Countries in the European Union are attempting to institute laws regarding the minimum... View Details

Keywords: Equality and Inequality; Governing and Advisory Boards; Gender; United States; European Union

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25 Mar 2022
Video

Omobola Johnson

Omobola Johnson, the former Minister of Communication Technology in Nigeria, explains how the non-profit organization WimBiz seeks to increase the representation of women on corporate boards, spotlighting the WimBoard Executive Database. View Details

2016
Article

Do External Labor Market Job Switches Affect the Gender Compensation Gap?

By: Boris Groysberg, Paul M. Healy and Eric Lin

This paper investigates how external mobility influences the gender compensation gap for job switching executives. Using proprietary data for 2,034 executive placements from a global search firm, we find job switching narrows the gender gap by 45%, from 11% to 6%. We... View Details

Keywords: Executive Compensation; Gender

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October 2000 (Revised July 2001)
Case

Avon Products (A)

By: Lynn S. Paine and Greg Rogers

The general manager of Avon Mexico, Fernando Lezama, must decide whether to promote a woman to the position of vice president of sales. If appointed, the candidate would be the first female in all of Latin America to hold an executive position and one of the first... View Details

Keywords: Business or Company Management; Leading Change; Salesforce Management; Organizational Culture; Job Design and Levels; Gender; Management Teams; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Mexico

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