Performance Effectiveness - Publications - Faculty & Research

04 Nov 2015
What Do You Think?

Why Does Gender Diversity Improve Financial Performance?

Does Gender Diversity in Management Enhance Performance? Why? A variety of explanations for the positive correlation between gender diversity and better business performance found in a recent McKinsey study were advanced in responses to... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

25 Apr 2011
Research & Ideas

What CEOs Do, and How They Can Do it Better

what the boss is doing all day. For all of the minute-to-minute monitoring of employee performance from the time of Henry Ford onward, it's amazing how little any of us really know about how CEOs of major companies spend their time.... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

14 Jun 2021
Op-Ed

When Your Nerves Get the Best of You, Change the Narrative

excited, and as a result, I perform better. Not only that, research shows that I am also judged by others as more competent. Reframe your anxiety as excitement Research has found that when we approach high-stakes View Details

Keywords: by Francesca Gino

07 Jul 2011
What Do You Think?

So We Adapt. What’s the Downside?

many things are interconnected, it is harder and harder to explain why things, including success, happen. He asks why success in fact is no insurance against subsequent failure, as all writers about individual companies and their managers at the peak of their View Details

Keywords: by Jim Heskett

08 Apr 2019
Sharpening Your Skills

The Life of Luxury and How to Sell It

maker better off emphasizing performance over luxury? Are luxury and sustainability mutually exclusive? And just what is the “new aspirational lifestyle?” Here is what they found. A Good Place to Start The ‘Luxury Prime’: How Luxury... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Auto; Retail; Fashion

16 Oct 2017
Research & Ideas

The Most Successful Startups Have Hands-On Founders

that more intensive people management is a worthwhile investment of a founder’s time.” Effective human resource management is more than just keeping the paperwork flowing. “You also need to focus on the strategic part of managing people... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

09 Apr 2007
Research & Ideas

Industry Self-Regulation: What’s Working (and What’s Not)?

terms of environmental performance than companies that haven't adopted this standard. And I find some evidence that they subsequently improve faster as well. It's not conclusive proof that third-party certification is what's making the... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

05 Feb 2018
What Do You Think?

Should Companies Disclose Employee Compensation?

throughout an organization. As CEO, for example, he shared his 360-degree performance evaluation from peers and subordinates with HCL’s 50,000 employees as part of what he called “reverse accountability.” Ray Dalio, founder and head of... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett; Financial Services

10 Mar 2009
First Look

First Look: March 10, 2009

and suggest the effects on subsequent reporting periods and competitor behavior are greater than previously documented. Download the paper: http://www.hbs.edu/research/pdf/08-073.pdf Geography, Poverty and Conflict in Nepal (revised)... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

28 Sep 2011
Research & Ideas

The Profit Power of Corporate Culture

concept," he says. "Its impact on profit can be measured and quantified." Heskett finds that as much as half of the difference in operating profit between organizations can be attributed to effective cultures. Why? "We... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

May 2017
Case

CNS Worldwide

By: Robert J. Dolan and Karthik Easwar

CNS Worldwide has long been the market share leader in the IaaS cloud server market, yet it has remained unprofitable for years. Industry capacity utilization is low, and prices have declined over 70% over the last decade. CNS is considering withdrawing from the market... View Details

Keywords: Price; Marketing; Performance Capacity; Bids and Bidding; Analysis; Web Services Industry

Citation

Educators

Purchase

13 Jan 2020
Research & Ideas

Do Private Equity Buyouts Get a Bad Rap?

private companies. The work had to be done by Census personnel to maintain the proper anonymity. Once the researchers had job and performance data on different companies, however, they also had to match them across time. “When one has a... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Financial Services; Banking

28 Jul 2008
Research & Ideas

Making the Decision to Franchise (or not)

less well-known dynamic of customer differentiation and its effect on the way businesses are structured and run is examined in a recent Harvard Business School working paper, "Organizational Design and Control across Multiple Markets: The... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Retail

29 Sep 2009
First Look

First Look: September 29

is capital intensive and when it is difficult for headquarters to identify the value-maximizing investment strategy for the business unit. In evaluating the performance of profit centers, rate-of-return measures like ROA are likely to be... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

September 2011 (Revised December 2012)
Case

Pepsi-Lipton Brisk

By: Thales S. Teixeira and Alison Caverly

This case showcases key decisions in promoting the re-launch of Brisk, a ready-to-drink iced tea by Pepsi-Lipton. The decisions are: creative, media and metrics selection. It also deals with budget allocation to traditional (Super Bowl, television) and new (viral ads... View Details

Keywords: Marketing Channels; Marketing Communications; Advertising Campaigns; Decision Making; Media; Product Launch; Resource Allocation; Performance Effectiveness; Budgets and Budgeting; Food and Beverage Industry

Citation

Educators

Purchase

02 Jul 2018
Research & Ideas

Corporate Tax Cuts Don't Increase Middle Class Incomes

University professors Suresh Nallareddy and Juan Carlos Suárez Serrato, analyze data created by tax filings to compare effects on workers at varying compensation levels in different US states with and without tax cuts. The result: Tax... View Details

Keywords: by Roberta Holland

March 2014
Teaching Note

Oral Rehydration Therapy

By: Nava Ashraf and Natalie Kindred

This Teaching Note accompanies the case "Oral Rehydration Therapy" (911-035). The case highlights the puzzlingly high rate of diarrhea-related child mortality in developing countries despite the existence of a simple, effective treatment: oral rehydration therapy... View Details

Keywords: Health Care and Treatment; Innovation Strategy; Problems and Challenges; Developing Countries and Economies; Technological Innovation; Distribution Channels; Emerging Markets; Consumer Behavior; Performance Consistency; Performance Evaluation; Health Industry; Africa; Asia

Citation

Purchase

21 Sep 2020
Research & Ideas

Are You Sabotaging Your Own Company?

leaders who create arcane and tedious processes can kill employee morale and cripple company performance just as quickly as an adversary who pours sand into the gas tank of a company vehicle, Thomke writes in the MIT Sloan Management... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

09 Feb 2015
Research & Ideas

Professional Networking Makes People Feel Dirty

participants who read the professional networking story gave much higher ratings to the cleansing products than those who imagined the friendly party. The neutral products received similar ratings across the board. The Effect On Job View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

March 2011 (Revised March 2012)
Case

Arck Systems

By: Ian Larkin

The Arck Systems series of cases describes the dilemmas faced by a senior sales manager in determining a sales compensation plan at an enterprise software company. The existing compensation plan is aggressive and highly rewards "star" performers. The cases track a... View Details

Keywords: Compensation and Benefits; Retention; Performance Effectiveness; Salesforce Management; Motivation and Incentives; Software; Information Technology Industry

Citation

Educators

Purchase