Publications

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Field Course: Business of the Arts (BOTA)

Charity Navigator
Ratings of nonprofits based on their Accountability & Transparency and Financial Health. Advisory Board for the Arts Global network-based learning organization in the cultural sector. Statistics... View Details

William A. Sahlman

William Sahlman is a Baker Foundation Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School.

Mr. Sahlman received an A.B. degree in Economics from Princeton University (1972), an M.B.A. from Harvard University (1975), and a Ph.D. in Business... View Details

03 Jan 2023
What Do You Think?

How Would the Leadership Style of Girl Scouts' Frances Hesselbein Fare Today?

(iStockphoto/400tmax) While summarizing comments to this same question asked about Jack Welch in last month’s column (shown below), I received word of Frances Hesselbein’s death. Welch was regarded by many as the greatest CEO View Details

Keywords: Re: James L. Heskett

24 Sep 2018
Blog Post

Working to Keep Pirates At-Bay: My Summer in Cyber Security

After spending three years working in consulting before coming to HBS, I knew I wanted to use my summer to expand beyond the world of Board of View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship

February 1998
Case

Lyondell Petrochemical Company

By: Jay W. Lorsch and Daniel P. Erikson

In August 1994, Lyondell Petrochemical Co.'s corporate parent and largest single shareholder effectively shed its stock, resulting in the resignation of 5 of its 11 directors. The remaining outside directors immediately acted to overhaul the executive compensation plan... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Governance; Governing and Advisory Boards; Executive Compensation; Design; Business or Company Management; Management Teams; Mining Industry

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December 1961 (Revised January 1994)
Case

Plowman Poultry Farm

By: Samuel L. Hayes III

A poultry farmer wanted to expand production greatly and sought a large extension of his line of credit from his bank in addition to his existing loan on which he had not made payment. The Board of Directors must review a detailed account of events leading to this... View Details

Keywords: Governing and Advisory Boards; Animal-Based Agribusiness; Expansion; Decision Choices and Conditions; Financing and Loans; Commercial Banking; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry

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April 2021
Case

Glass-Shattering Leaders: Michele Hooper

By: Boris Groysberg and Colleen Ammerman

Michele Hooper joined the board of the Dayton-Hudson Corporation when she was in her late thirties, becoming the company’s youngest director as well as the only woman and the only person of color in the boardroom. Such “firsts” were not unusual for Hooper, who had been... View Details

Keywords: Governing and Advisory Boards; Diversity; Corporate Governance; Personal Development and Career

31 Mar 2023
Research & Ideas

Can a ‘Basic Bundle’ of Health Insurance Cure Coverage Gaps and Spur Innovation?

By the early 1980s, several high-income countries—including Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, and New Zealand—had universal health insurance covering 100 percent of the population. Meanwhile, 40 years later, the United... View Details

Keywords: by Kasandra Brabaw; Insurance; Health

26 Jan 2024
Blog Post

Career Advice from the Guests of the HBS Climate Rising Podcast

Supports Corporate Boards to Accelerate Climate Action “Find something you really love and then get good at it, really specialized. That specialized could either be in a subject matter - you could be an expert in water, methane, or lots... View Details

09 Nov 2009
Research & Ideas

Come Fly with Me: A History of Airline Leadership

war years; and innovator Herb Kelleher at Southwest near the end of the century. In this e-mail interview, Mayo, director of the HBS Leadership Initiative and the Thomas S.... View Details

Keywords: by Sarah Jane Gilbert; Air Transportation

01 Jun 2018
News

Alumni Connections: Photos of Recent Alumni Events

(AASU)—were each presented with the Hutchins Center’s W.E.B. Du Bois Medal by Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. (far right), director of the center. The medal is Harvard’s highest honor in the field View Details

06 Feb 2006
What Do You Think?

Should CEOs of Public Companies Offer Earnings Guidance?

one of the three most important issues facing managers and directors in 2006. He commented that, "Activist shareholders, led by hedge funds which today have aggregate assets View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett; Financial Services

September 1995
Case

Benjamin Rosen and Compaq

By: William A. Sahlman and Jason Green

Addresses the challenges faced by Ben Rosen and the company board of directors as continuing problems force it to make a decision about the ongoing governance of the firm. The issues are complicated by the current CEO and founder, Rod Canion, who has had, until... View Details

Keywords: Governing and Advisory Boards; Management Teams; Business or Company Management; Corporate Governance; Problems and Challenges; Decision Making; Information Technology Industry

02 Feb 2011
Working Paper Summaries

Lawful but Corrupt: Gaming and the Problem of Institutional Corruption in the Private Sector

Keywords: by Malcolm S. Salter; Financial Services

George A. Riedel

George A. Riedel is the Henry B. Arthur Fellow and Senior Lecturer in the General Management Unit, where he currently teaches TEM (The Entrepreneurial Manager) and acts as a Section Chair in the Required Curriculum (RC). He has also taught TOM (Technology and... View Details

February 2020 (Revised January 2022)
Case

Mission Related Investments at the Ford Foundation (A)

By: Shawn Cole, Michael Norris and T. Robert Zochowski

In 2017, Darren Walker, president of the Ford Foundation, one of the largest philanthropic foundations in the world, was preparing to meet with his board of directors to discuss beginning a mission related investments (MRI) program. Walker hoped to devote $1 billion of... View Details

Keywords: Mission-Related Investing; Philanthropy; Foundation; Endowments; Socially Responsible Investing; Investment; Institutional Investing; Investment Activism; Governance; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Mission and Purpose; Social Enterprise; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; United States; New York (city, NY)

22 Apr 2002
Research & Ideas

Profits and Prophets: The Role of Values in Investment

education, not for use as a political weapon. The board conditionally agreed to end the disputed investments. The result: With investments constricted over a number of years, the fund experienced a $3... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

November–December 2024
Article

How Robust Is Your Climate Governance?

By: Lynn S. Paine and Suraj Srinivasan

During the past few years, as evidence of climate change and its effects has mounted, many corporate boards have added climate governance to their agendas. But the maturity of boards’ climate-oversight processes and activities varies widely.
To better... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Governance; Climate Change; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Governing and Advisory Boards