Publications

05 Feb 2018
What Do You Think?

Should Companies Disclose Employee Compensation?

would avoid a "one size fits all" approach to the practice of making compensation known. These are the views put forth by participants in this month's discussion of transparency in compensation. Disclosing pay ranges vs.... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett; Financial Services

September 2015 (Revised March 2016)
Case

Intuit: Turbo Tax PersonalPro - A Tale of Two Entrepreneurs

By: Shikhar Ghosh, Joseph Fuller and Michael Roberts

The case provides a vehicle for teaching about both corporate intrapreneurship and the use of lean startup methods. It tells the story of a product manager within Intuit who develops an idea for a new product that spans two of the company's existing business... View Details

Keywords: Business Units; Business or Company Management; Applications and Software; Accounting; Product Development; Financial Services Industry

01 Oct 2001
Research & Ideas

How To Make Restructuring Work for Your Company

also matters in how its disclosures are received. Many restructurings try to improve company profitability two ways, by both reducing costs and raising revenues. Scott Paper Company's restructuring was also... View Details

Keywords: by Stuart C. Gilson

03 Jan 2008
What Do You Think?

Does Judgment Trump Experience?

Summing Up How is good judgment developed? Whether judgment trumps experience quickly gave way in this month's rich exchange of views to other questions about how (and the extent to which) judgment is developed. Most of those addressing the question agreed with the... View Details

Keywords: by Jim Heskett

07 Aug 2009
What Do You Think?

Why Can’t Americans Get Health Care Right?

uncoordinated information and education (Mark Beaty, Carlos V., Scott Beaumont, among others); and finally citizens, patients, and their loved ones who do or don't take part in managing their own wellness and care (Mary Parker). All of... View Details

Keywords: by Jim Heskett; Health

01 Oct 2020
What Do You Think?

Are CEOs the Wrong Leaders for Stakeholder Capitalism?

Interorganizational management in a channel of distribution is a complex matter. But it doesn’t hold a candle to the complexity of stakeholder capitalism, as suggested by responses to this month’s column on the subject. Reading them, it’s... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

March 2018
Case

Sachem Head's Activism at Autodesk

By: Suraj Srinivasan and Quinn Pitcher

In 2015, activist hedge fund Sachem Head Capital, led by founder Scott Ferguson, launched an activist campaign at computer aided design (CAD) software maker Autodesk. The activist campaign, waged mainly in private, was over Autodesk's lackluster financial performance,... View Details

Keywords: Shareholder Activism; Investing; Activist Investing; Technology; CEO Turnover; Hedge Fund Activism; Benchmarking; Corporate Governance; Information Technology; Investment Activism; Performance Improvement; Management Succession; United States

April 2001 (Revised July 2001)
Case

Verge Software (A)

By: Dorothy A. Leonard and Elizabeth Kind

Scott Rozic, CEO of start-up Verge Software, has just told his board that he is taking the company in a totally new direction, moving from enterprise knowledge management software to Internet direct marketing. This case covers the start-up of the business, and Rozic's... View Details

Keywords: Venture Capital; Investment; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Business or Company Management; Business Strategy; Technological Innovation; Applications and Software; Management Teams; Governing and Advisory Boards; Business Startups; Decision Choices and Conditions; Product Development; Information Technology Industry; United States

19 Jan 2022
In Practice

7 Trends to Watch in 2022

from 2022 will help us start to understand the impact of these new technologies and, I hope, allow us to move forward in pursuing a more thoughtful, more evidence-driven vision of the digital future of health care. Ariel D. Stern is the Poronui Associate Professor of... View Details

Keywords: by HBS News

20 Aug 2014
Research & Ideas

Dragging Patent Trolls Into the Light

Harvard Business School; Umit G. Gurun, of University of Texas at Dallas; and Scott Duke Kominers, of the Harvard Society of Fellows, attempts to answer that question by studying which firms NPEs target in... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Legal Services

23 Feb 2009
Research & Ideas

Creative Entrepreneurship in a Downturn

as those by recently laid-off employees; he said his sales rose by 55 percent in 2008. Charles Burckmyer and Scott Noll have created a fund to buy companies that are now... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

May 2022 (Revised May 2024)
Case

The Freedom Fund (A): Ending Modern Slavery

By: V. Kasturi Rangan and Courtney Han

The Freedom Fund founded in 2013 to end modern slavery had raised more than half its intended target (by 2025) of $200 million. In 2021, impressed by its decentralized-partnering style of operations, philanthropist MacKenzie Scott awarded the Fund a gift of $35 million... View Details

Keywords: Social Issues; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Spending; Decisions; India; Thailand; Ethiopia

02 Jul 2001
Research & Ideas

George C. Lodge

named him assistant secretary of labor for international affairs, a position to which he was reappointed several years later by President Kennedy. In 1962, Lodge, who had strong views about issues such as foreign aid, unemployment, and... View Details

Keywords: by Staff

05 May 2010
What Do You Think?

Is Denial Endemic to Management?

Summing Up How best is denial managed? Denial is endemic to management. It is a natural part of human nature, closely related to the survival instinct. It can be useful or disastrous. And it can be managed. That sums up at least many of the reactions to this month's... View Details

Keywords: by Jim Heskett

11 Oct 2022
Research & Ideas

Shrinking the Racial Wealth Gap, One Mortgage at a Time

sellers, leaving people of color out of a crucial means of wealth building. The national dearth of minority loan officers is considerable. In 2019, just 15 percent of mortgage loan officers were minorities, compared to 39 percent of the total US population, write... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne; Financial Services

September 2015 (Revised February 2017)
Case

MOD Pizza: A Winning Recipe?

By: Boris Groysberg, John D. Vaughan and Matthew Preble

Scott and Ally Svenson, the founders of MOD Pizza, had to make a number of decisions in planning how to scale their small company. They wanted to grow MOD from 45 stores as of May 2015 to 200 stores by the end of 2016, and while the two believed that MOD could manage... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Employees; Employee Relationship Management; Selection and Staffing; Leadership; Growth and Development Strategy; Marketing; Service Delivery; Organizational Culture; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Mission and Purpose; Service Industry; United States