Publications

October 2004 (Revised July 2006)
Background Note

Ownership Structure in Professional Service Firms: Partnership versus Public Corporation

By: Ashish Nanda

This case reviews the relative merits of partnership and public ownership structures in professional services firms. It also evaluates the various rationales for converting partnership professional services firms to publicly owned firms. Finally, the case highlights... View Details

Keywords: Private Ownership; Transition; Partners and Partnerships; Public Ownership; Service Industry

December 2021 (Revised September 2022)
Case

Moleskine: Daniela Riccardi Turns the Page

By: Ryan Raffaelli and Sarah Gulick

Newly appointed CEO Daniela Riccardi needed to develop and present an action plan to the board of the company that owned Moleskine. Riccardi was hired because Moleskine had recently overextended its reach and needed more focus and discipline. Having previously served... View Details

Keywords: Rebranding; Brands and Branding; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Operations; Planning; Retail Industry; Italy

Program

Strategy: Building and Sustaining Competitive Advantage

Summary In the fight for market leadership and the continuous drive toward improved returns, your company needs to devise an effective strategy—and execute it flawlessly. This program prepares you to tackle or lead that challenge in all... View Details

February 1993 (Revised March 1995)
Case

Bernd Sterzel at the IVth Medizinische Klinik (A)

By: Linda A. Hill

After 10 years of running a small laboratory at Yale Medical School, Dr. R. Bernd Sterzel assumes leadership of a nephrology clinic in Nurnberg and Erlangen, Germany. In his ambitious efforts to transform the clinic into a leading academic research institution, he... View Details

Keywords: Change Management; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Problems and Challenges; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Health Industry; Germany; Connecticut

April 2021 (Revised June 2021)
Case

IBM: Design Thinking

By: Srikant M. Datar, Amram Migdal and Paul Hamilton

This case describes the 2012-2020 effort at IBM to implement design thinking throughout the company and hire thousands of designers to serve on every product team alongside technical engineers and developers and product managers. IBM’s design transformation is told... View Details

Keywords: Business Ventures; Business Divisions; Business Units; Business Organization; Change; Change Management; Transformation; Competency and Skills; Talent and Talent Management; Design; Human Resources; Recruitment; Selection and Staffing; Innovation and Invention; Collaborative Innovation and Invention; Innovation and Management; Innovation Strategy; Jobs and Positions; Job Design and Levels; Leading Change; Management; Business or Company Management; Goals and Objectives; Management Practices and Processes; Operations; Product; Product Design; Product Development; Organizations; Business Processes; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Design; Organizational Structure; Strategy; Adaptation; Adoption; Technological Innovation; Information Infrastructure; Information Technology; Technology Industry; Information Technology Industry; United States

2022
Book

O Coração do Negócio Os princípios de liderança e a chave para o sucesso

By: Hubert Joly and Caroline Lambert

A remarkable turnaround by a leader with a remarkable philosophy: Find your noble purpose. Put people at the center. Unleash human magic.
"It was fall in Minnesota. It was getting cold and we were supposed to die." This is how Hubert Joly describes the early,... View Details

Keywords: Capitalism; Leadership; Mission and Purpose; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Leading Change

February 2003 (Revised May 2003)
Case

Intuit, Inc.: Transforming an Entrepreneurial Company into a Collaborative Organization (A)

Describes how Intuit, Inc.'s CEO, Steve Bennett, changes the company from an entrepreneurial "siloed" organization into a collaborative one. View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Leading Change; Organizational Design; Entrepreneurship; Information Industry

Allison Mnookin is a Senior Lecturer of Business Administration in the Technology and Operations Management (TOM) Unit at the Harvard Business School. She currently is the co-chair of the first-year MBA Technology and Operations Management course. In addition, she... View Details

August 1993
Case

Ford: Petersen's Turnaround

By: Nitin Nohria and Sandy Green

Discusses the changes that Donald Petersen made to turnaround Ford during his tenure, first as president then as CEO. Describes his major initiatives, including the new emphasis on quality. View Details

Keywords: Change Management; Transformation; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Leadership Style; Management Teams; Auto Industry; Manufacturing Industry

Find at Harvard

05 Nov 2007
What Do You Think?

Why Is Succession So Badly Managed?

today's breakneck world, who has the time for such things?" Several cited the difficulty of selecting a new CEO, particularly from within, given the changing nature of the needs of a modern corporation. As Veronica Serrano put it,... View Details

Keywords: Re: James L. Heskett

Blog

HBS Online and Executive Education Leadership: Q+A with Patrick Mullane and Luis Viceira

of both organizations. The easiest way to explain it is that the non-degree programs on campus fall under our purview. At about the time the leadership role in ExecEd opened up, there were conversations happening at HBS about online and... View Details

March 2021
Case

Astralis Group: Determining a Brand Strategy

By: Benjamin C. Esty, Mette Fuglsang Hjortshoej and Emilie Billaud

After launching a Danish esports company in July 2019, and going public in December 2019 with multiple brands associated with different games, the Astralis leadership team was contemplating a shift to a single, corporate brand. While the original arguments for... View Details

January 2009 (Revised February 2009)
Case

Pitney Bowes: Employer Health Strategy

By: Michael E. Porter and Jennifer F Baron

Pitney Bowes, a Fortune 500 mail and document management firm, offered its first health plans in the years following World War II. Over the ensuing decades, Pitney Bowes adapted its approach to employee health amid rising health care costs, shifting employer attitudes... View Details

Keywords: Cost; Insurance; Policy; Health Care and Treatment; Compensation and Benefits; Employees; Corporate Strategy

August 1993
Case

General Motors: Smith's Dilemma

By: Nitin Nohria and Sandy Green

Discusses Roger Smith's tenure as CEO of General Motors. Describes his vision for changing General Motors, and how he went about implementing that vision. View Details

Keywords: Change Management; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Management Teams; Leadership Style; Auto Industry; Manufacturing Industry

August 2019 (Revised April 2020)
Case

Transforming Hindustan Unilever

By: Krishna G. Palepu and Rachna Tahilyani

In October 2013, when Sanjiv Mehta had taken over the reins of Unilever’s business in India and the larger South Asia region, Hindustan Unilever (HUL) had been going through a difficult time. Caught in the midst of a weakening economy, falling consumer spending, and... View Details

Keywords: Change Management; Transformation; Leading Change; Performance Improvement; Consumer Products Industry; India

July 1996
Case

Bayside Controls, Inc.

By: H. Kent Bowen, Jennifer Kochman and Sylvie Ryckebusch

Two recent MBA graduates acquire a small and ailing metal-machining company that had manufactured small aerospace components. Through clever application of state-of-the-art manufacturing, engineering, and marketing/sales concepts, they turned the company into a growing... View Details

Keywords: Business Earnings; Leveraged Buyouts; Machinery and Machining; Leading Change; Growth and Development Strategy; Marketing Strategy; Production; Personal Development and Career; Sales; Aerospace Industry

Editorial

How to Turn Around a Country

By: Paul Kazarian and George Serafeim

Change is hard. Especially trying to change an entire country and its public sector that consists of more than 650,000 employees and has an annual budget of approximately 80 billion euros. This is the case of Greece, once the fastest-growing eurozone country, which has... View Details

Keywords: Greece; Europe; European Union; Turnaround; Accountability; Sovereign Finance; Leadership; Corporate Accountability; Public Sector; Accounting; Economic Growth; Change; European Union; Greece