Publications

September 2003 (Revised June 2005)
Case

Polycom's Acquisition Process

Describes the acquisition decision-making process employed at Polycom. Focuses on the potential acquisition of the firm's archrival, Picturetel, in mid-2001. View Details

Keywords: Decision Making; Mergers and Acquisitions

29 Apr 2009
Working Paper Summaries

Female Empowerment: Impact of a Commitment Savings Product in the Philippines

Keywords: by Nava Ashraf, Dean Karlan & Wesley Yin; Financial Services

2012
Case

Advanced Leadership Pathways: Shelly London and Ethics Education—'Strengthening Our Moral Compass'

By: Rosabeth Moss Kanter and Anne Arlinghaus

Shelly London and Ethics Education — 'Strengthening Our Moral Compass' 2009 AL Fellow
Following a successful career as a Senior Vice President, Vice President, and Chief Communications Officer at two large corporate companies, Shelly London set out to promote... View Details

May 2000
Supplement

Bain & Co., Inc.: Phyllis Yale in Conversation with MBA students

By: Ashish Nanda

Phyllis Yale, chairman of Bain's Compensation and Promotion Committee (CPC), discusses how the CPC decided on four promotion cases. She reflects on the impact of the promotion decision-making process on the firm. View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Compensation and Benefits; Service Industry

February 2007 (Revised April 2010)
Case

Wyeth Pharmaceuticals: Spurring Scientific Creativity with Metrics

By: Robert S. Huckman, Gary P. Pisano and Mark Rennella

Describes the reorganization of the drug discovery organization at Wyeth Pharmaceuticals and focuses on the decisions to: (1) centralize decision-making within drug discovery and (2) institute numerical metrics--jointly affecting all R&D scientists--for the progression... View Details

Keywords: Decision Making; Measurement and Metrics; Business Processes; Organizational Structure; Research and Development; Science-Based Business; Creativity; Pharmaceutical Industry

07 Jul 2008
Research & Ideas

Innovation Corrupted: How Managers Can Avoid Another Enron

them from hard choices by a flight to abstractions. In Enron's case, its stated purpose—at first, to be the world's best energy company, and later to be the world's best corporation—was too general to permit disciplined and responsible View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Energy; Utilities

May 2004 (Revised October 2007)
Background Note

Best Practices: Decision Making Among Venture Capital Firms

By: G. Felda Hardymon, Josh Lerner and Ann Leamon

Describes investment decision-making processes, based on interviews with 56% of the top 38 venture capital firms in the country. Discusses some implications for the future growth of the industry. View Details

Keywords: Decision Making; Venture Capital; Investment; Industry Growth

August 1997 (Revised August 1999)
Background Note

Orientation for Viewing Kevin Williams

Covers approximately six months in the life of a recent second-year Harvard Business School student. The focus is on the career decision-making process. The protagonist is considering three choices. View Details

Keywords: Personal Development and Career

fall 1995
Article

Standard Setting Consortia, Antitrust, and High-Technology Industries

By: James J. Anton and Dennis A. Yao

Examines the antitrust treatment of private-sector standard setting in the U.S. Applicability of law and decision-making issues in high technology industries; Examination of cost-based facilitating theory; Approach to evaluate the reasonableness of a standard. View Details

Keywords: Private Sector; Information Technology; Law; Decision Making; Cost; Theory; Performance Evaluation; Standards; United States

Find at Harvard

March 2000 (Revised August 2000)
Case

Ethan Berman at RiskMetrics Group (A)

Ethan Berman, CEO of J.P. Morgan's risk management spinoff, has grown RiskMetrics Group (RMG) from a small team of 30 to a 70-person firm contemplating an IPO. Along the way, the consensus-based decision-making process that he espoused started to prove unwieldy; his... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Management Style; Business Growth and Maturation; Decision Making; Service Industry; Consulting Industry

March 2000
Case

Spec's Music (B)

By: John A. Davis and Susan Harmeling

Explores the reasoning behind the final decision to sell and the decision-making process that leads to the final question of "if so, to whom?" Four of the bidders are music retailers and the fifth is a Tampa entrepreneur. View Details

Keywords: Decision Making; Decision Choices and Conditions; Entrepreneurship; Bids and Bidding

January 2002
Case

DeRemate.com: Building a Latin American Internet Auction Site

Analyzes the strategic decision-making process in terms of market forces and short-term growth for an online trading community site in Latin America. A major competitor to E-bay, DeRemate.com is contemplating expansion throughout Latin America. View Details

Keywords: Strategic Planning; Competition; Expansion; Internet and the Web; Auctions; Latin America

Find at Harvard

2009
Working Paper

Female Empowerment: Impact of a Commitment Savings Product in the Philippines

By: Nava Ashraf, Dean Karlan and Wesley Yin

Female "empowerment" has increasingly become a policy goal, both as an end to itself and as a means to achieving other development goals. Microfinance in particular has often been argued, but not without controversy, to be a tool for empowering women. Here, using a... View Details

Keywords: Saving; Microfinance; Personal Finance; Decision Making; Microeconomics; Gender; Power and Influence; Philippines

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October 2023
Case

JPMorgan Chase in Paris

By: Joseph L. Bower, Dante Roscini, Elena Corsi and Michael Norris

In 2019, Daniel Pinto, President and COO of JPMorgan Chase, has to make a recommendation to the bank’s Chairman and CEO, Jamie Dimon, about where to physically locate the bank’s European trading operations after Brexit takes effect in 2020. The decision-making process... View Details

Keywords: Change Management; Banks and Banking; Financial Markets; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Globalized Firms and Management; Globalized Markets and Industries; Decisions; Banking Industry; Europe; European Union; France; United Kingdom; Paris

October 2003 (Revised January 2005)
Case

Shared Decision Making

By: Richard M.J. Bohmer, Karen Sepucha and Laura Feldman

The Foundation for Informed Medical Decision-Making has created an interactive videodisc system that provides patients with customized support regarding medical treatment or screening decisions when they face a choice between two equally effective courses of action.... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Borrowing and Debt; Health Care and Treatment; Innovation Strategy; Technological Innovation; Product Marketing; Distribution Channels; Production; Partners and Partnerships; Research and Development; Information Technology

17 Dec 2020
Working Paper Summaries

How Do CEOs Make Strategy?

Keywords: by Mu-Jeung Yang, Michael Christensen, Nicholas Bloom, Raffaella Sadun, and Jan Rivkin

11 Feb 2019
Working Paper Summaries

Gender Stereotypes in Deliberation and Team Decisions

Keywords: by Katherine B. Coffman, Clio Bryant Flikkema, and Olga Shurchkov

November 1997 (Revised January 2005)
Background Note

Orientation for Viewing Humphrey Chen

By: Monica C. Higgins, John Galvin and Adam Richman

Addresses the career decision-making process of Humphrey Chen as he graduates from HBS with an MBA. In choosing between an offer from a top-tier consulting firm and launching a start-up entrepreneurial venture, Chen must weigh the expectations of many people--family,... View Details

Keywords: Personal Development and Career