Publications

2021
Book

Remote Work Revolution: Succeeding from Anywhere

By: Tsedal Neeley

The rapid and unprecedented changes brought on by COVID-19 have accelerated the transition to remote working, requiring the wholesale migration of nearly entire companies to virtual work in just weeks, leaving managers and employees scrambling to adjust. This massive... View Details

Keywords: Remote Work; Health Pandemics; Employment; Disruption; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Management

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Program

The Women's Leadership Forum

successfully, you will emerge reenergized about your career and empowered with a realistic agenda for change in your company—and in your own approach to leadership. Details Help your organization achieve key business goals Improve your... View Details

April 2008 (Revised July 2011)
Background Note

Strategic Decline

By: David J. Collis and Jan W. Rivkin

This note first documents the facts around the sustainability of competitive advantage. It then observes that the demise of a previously successful strategy, in the first instance, often comes from some change in the external environment. It, therefore, characterizes... View Details

Keywords: Competitive Advantage; Strategy; Situation or Environment; Organizational Change and Adaptation

October 17, 2023
Article

10 Emotions That Are Undervalued in the Workplace

By: Frances X. Frei and Anne Morriss

In their new book, Move Fast and Fix Things, Frances Frei and Anne Morriss outline five strategies to help leaders tackle their hardest problems and quickly make change. Their fourth strategy is about telling a compelling story about the change you need to... View Details

Keywords: Emotions; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Business or Company Management; Leading Change

April 2011 (Revised January 2019)
Case

Talismark

By: Richard S. Ruback and Royce Yudkoff

Talismark, which helped its customers manage their waste, was considering re-engineering its business fundamentals to dramatically increase profitability by changing its sales and information processes. Implementing the changes would be expensive and would interrupt... View Details

Keywords: Restructuring; Business Processes; Information Management; Sales; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Wastes and Waste Processing

July 2004 (Revised May 2009)
Case

Getting Participant-centered Learning to Work

By: Thomas R. Piper, James L. Heskett and Gustavo Herrero

The newly appointed dean of a South American business school is eager to transform the learning process from the traditional lecture method to one that actively engages students and contributes to the development of critical managerial skills, attitudes, and world... View Details

Keywords: Change Management; Transformation; Business Education; Leading Change; Business Processes; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Alliances; Education Industry; South America

It is taken for granted in the knowledge economy that companies must employ the most talented performers to compete and succeed. Many firms try to buy stars by luring them away from competitors. But Boris Groysberg shows what an uncertain and disastrous practice... View Details

Program

Senior Executive Leadership Program—India

change agents. Taking place in three modules, the Senior Executive Leadership Program–India accelerates the transformation of experienced senior executives into capable leaders who can drive business success. Delivered in a series of... View Details

March 2008
Article

When Growth Stalls

By: Matthew S. Olson, Derek C. M. van Bever and Seth Verry

This article includes a one-page preview that quickly summarizes the key ideas and provides an overview of how the concepts work in practice along with suggestions for further reading. An abrupt and lasting drop in revenue growth is a crisis that can strike even the... View Details

Keywords: Growth Strategy; Revenues; Crisis Management; Revenue; Growth and Development Strategy

January 2009 (Revised June 2010)
Case

Cisco Systems (2001): Building and Sustaining a Customer-Centric Culture

By: Ranjay Gulati

Customer centricity has been an important part of the culture at Cisco Systems since its inception. While part of this is attributable to values put in place by the founders and retained by subsequent management, it is also closely interwoven with its organizational... View Details

Keywords: Customer Satisfaction; Organizational Design; Organizational Structure; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Change Management; Organizational Culture; Research and Development; Job Cuts and Outsourcing; Employees; Brands and Branding; Customer Relationship Management; Business Units

August 1995 (Revised September 1995)
Case

Hutton Branch Manager (C)

By: Lynn S. Paine and Jane Palley Katz

Centers on the company's plea of guilty to 2,000 counts of mail and wire fraud in response to the U.S. government's challenge to its cash management practices. Describes the Justice Department's investigations as well as the findings and recommendations of former... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Financial Management; Governance Controls; Crime and Corruption; Governance Compliance; Law Enforcement; Financial Services Industry; United States

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November 2008 (Revised October 2009)
Case

American Cancer Society: Access to Care

By: Robert L. Simons and Kathryn Rosenberg

CEO John Seffrin decides to radically change the strategy of the American Cancer Society. The new Access to Care strategy relies on advocacy to change public policy and increase the number of Americans eligible for cancer prevention and treatment. The new strategy... View Details

Keywords: Values and Beliefs; Governance Controls; Leading Change; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Structure; Nonprofit Organizations; Business Strategy; Health Industry; United States

April 2000
Supplement

GE's Two-Decade Transformation: Interview with Jack Welch, November 1999 (Video)

By: Christopher A. Bartlett

An interview with Jack Welch on his views of the current status of GE's two-decade transformation and his changing role in leading it. Among topics discussed include his views of GE as a learning organization, the process of change that allowed GE's transformation to... View Details

Keywords: Leading Change; Transformation; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Problems and Challenges; Change Management; Management Succession; Managerial Roles

JOSEPH L. BOWER, Donald K. David Professor Emeritus, has been a leader in general management at Harvard Business School for 51 years. He also served on the faculty of the Harvard Kennedy School during its first decade. He has served in many administrative roles... View Details

Keywords: banking; chemical; electronics; financial services; home appliances; hotels ＆ motels; information technology industry; insurance industry; private equity (LBO funds); retailing

27 Jun 2011
Research & Ideas

Recovering from the Need to Achieve

to making real career and organizational progress." Book Excerpt from Flying Without a Net: Turn Fear of Change into Fuel for Success Now that we're aware of the traps that can keep us from changing,... View Details

Keywords: by Kim Girard

03 May 2010
Research & Ideas

What Is the Future of MBA Education?

understanding organizational realities. Q: Were they deeply worried? Garvin: Among deans, there was widespread acceptance and recognition of the same set of missed opportunities and unmet needs. Some schools, however, had already launched... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Education

January 1973 (Revised March 2006)
Case

Tyler Abrasives, Inc.

Involves multinational pricing policy. Should a multinational industrial products supplier, with plants on several continents, grant a single worldwide price on given products to multinational customers who purchase on several continents? If so, what should the... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Marketing Strategy; Price; Multinational Firms and Management; Sales; Industrial Products Industry

June 2004 (Revised July 2005)
Case

Procter & Gamble: Global Business Services

By: Thomas J. DeLong, Warren Brackin, Alex Cabanas, Phil Shellhammer and David L. Ager

Dave Walker, vice-president of business service opportunities and chairman of the governance team at Procter & Gamble, must decide what to do with P&G's 5,700 employee Global Business Services (GBS) group. GBS brought together internal services such as finance,... View Details

Keywords: Business Units; Change Management; Decision Making; Globalized Firms and Management; Job Cuts and Outsourcing; Organizational Design

August 2017 (Revised February 2023)
Case

Managing Diversity and Inclusion at Yelp

By: Michael Luca, Joshua Schwartzstein and Gauri Subramani

This case explores the industry-wide lack of employee diversity in the technology sector and Yelp’s decision to take a leadership position in identifying strategies to increase diversity. The goal of the case is to provide an opportunity for students to develop a... View Details

Keywords: Diversity; Employees; Leading Change; Strategy; Organizational Culture; Technology Industry