Publications

2012
Chapter

Structuring Consulting Firms

By: Tim Morris, Heidi K. Gardner and N. Anand

This chapter presents a model of the way in which consulting and other professional-service firms organize themselves and grow. We will argue that the fundamental structural-design challenge for consulting firms, like other professional firms, is to adapt appropriately... View Details

Keywords: Experience and Expertise; Management Practices and Processes; Demand and Consumers; Service Operations; Organizational Design; Organizational Structure; Projects; Groups and Teams; Consulting Industry; Service Industry

January 2002 (Revised June 2002)
Background Note

A Note on Building and Leading Your Senior Team

By: Linda A. Hill and Maria Farkas

As performance demands intensify in fast-moving global markets, more executives are coming to rely on senior teams for strategic and operational assistance. Team building with powerful senior executives presents special challenges, including competition for their boss'... View Details

Keywords: Talent and Talent Management; Globalized Markets and Industries; Selection and Staffing; Leadership; Management Teams; Operations; Organizational Culture; Rank and Position; Strategy

November 2016 (Revised February 2017)
Case

BrightStar Care: The Evolution of a Leadership Team

By: Boris Groysberg, Colleen Ammerman and John D. Vaughan

BrightStar Care was a rapidly growing franchise of home health care agencies. Founded by husband and wife team JD and Shelly Sun as a single agency near Chicago in 2002, BrightStar had opened nearly 300 franchises across the United States by 2016, generating over $300... View Details

Keywords: Health Care Services; Entrepreneurs; Board Of Directors; Boards Of Directors; Health Care Industry; Growth Strategy; Organizational Change; Brand Positioning; Entrepreneurial Organizations; Entrepreneurial Management; Franchising; Family-owned Business; Home Health Care; Managing Growth; Management Styles; Organizational Development; Talent Management; Women Executives; Women And Leadership; Business Startups; Family Business; Small Business; Talent and Talent Management; Governing and Advisory Boards; Health Care and Treatment; Human Capital; Leadership Development; Leadership Style; Business or Company Management; Growth and Development Strategy; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Management Skills; Management Style; Management Succession; Management Systems; Management Teams; Brands and Branding; Marketing Strategy; Strategy

20 Jun 2005
Research & Ideas

Creating a Positive Professional Image

appearance, but how do you manage something like skin color? Roberts will present her research, called "Changing Faces: Professional Image Construction in Diverse Organizational Settings," in the October issue of the Academy of... View Details

Keywords: by Mallory Stark

2009
Article

Social Structure Shapes Cultural Stereotypes and Emotions: A Causal Test of the Stereotype Content Model

By: P. Caprariello, A.J.C. Cuddy and S.T. Fiske

The stereotype content model (SCM) posits that social structure predicts specific cultural stereotypes and associated emotional prejudices (Fiske et al., 2002). No prior evidence at a societal level has manipulated both structural predictors and measured both... View Details

Keywords: Competency and Skills; Mathematical Methods; Emotions; Personal Characteristics; Prejudice and Bias; Status and Position; Culture; Competition

Find at Harvard

Read Now

15 Sep 2009
First Look

First Look: September 15

competence—expertise in technology—and its skilled people to accomplish what government and relief agencies could not: an information system and supply chain that tracked and managed the flow of relief supplies. Its efforts were crucial... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

May 2024
Supplement

gWorks (A)

By: Richard S. Ruback and Royce Yudkoff

In January of 2019, Joe Heieck, CEO of gWorks, was deciding whether to proceed with his acquisition of Data Tech, that was a business roughly the same size as gWorks. gWorks, which provided geospatial software to small city and rural county governments, was acquired by... View Details

May 2024
Supplement

gWorks (B)

By: Richard S. Ruback and Royce Yudkoff

In January of 2019, Joe Heieck, CEO of gWorks, was deciding whether to proceed with his acquisition of Data Tech, that was a business roughly the same size as gWorks. gWorks, which provided geospatial software to small city and rural county governments, was acquired by... View Details

December 1994 (Revised May 2008)
Case

Jensen Shoes: Lyndon Brooks' Story

Jane Kravitz (Caucasian female), strategic product manager, and Lyndon Brooks (African American male), a member of her staff at Jensen Shoes, a successful producer and marketer of casual, athletic, and children's footwear, are assigned to new positions and to each... View Details

Keywords: Prejudice and Bias; Ethnicity; Race Characteristics; Performance Evaluation; Gender Characteristics; Management Skills; Diversity; Apparel and Accessories Industry

12 May 2021
Book

The Hard Truth About Being a CEO

Fubini, a senior lecturer in the Organizational Behavior Unit at Harvard Business School, poured that knowledge, along with a list of lessons learned from researching leaders past and present into the book Hidden Truths: What Leaders Need... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

20 May 2008
First Look

First Look: May 20, 2008

prepared to accompany the CommonAngels case (No. 807-149), enables students to decide whether to invite an entrepreneur to present to potential angel investors. Purchase this case:... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

2010
Chapter

Utilizing Team Member Expertise Under Pressure

By: Heidi K. Gardner and Erin McFee

Pressure intensifies on a strategy consulting team as they deliver a critical project, and the team manager faces a dilemma about her changing role on the team. Although she had been the key decision-maker in the early weeks of the project, Julia Narino now finds that... View Details

Keywords: Experience and Expertise; Managerial Roles; Organizational Culture; Projects; Groups and Teams; Behavior; Customization and Personalization; Consulting Industry

29 Jul 2002
Research & Ideas

Time Pressure and Creativity: Why Time is Not on Your Side

Harvard Business School professor Teresa Amabile is in the midst of a ten-year study looking at, among other things, how time pressure in a corporate setting affects employee creativity. She recently presented early findings and an... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Education; Fine Arts

08 Mar 2021
In Practice

COVID Killed the Traditional Workplace. What Should Companies Do Now?

A year ago, COVID-19 forced many companies to send employees home—often with a laptop and a prayer. Now, with COVID cases subsiding and vaccinations rising, the prospect of returning to old office routines appears more possible. But will employees want to flock back to... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

22 Sep 2009
First Look

First Look: September 22

literature on the notion of institutional entrepreneurship introduced by Paul DiMaggio in 1988, we propose a model of the process of institutional entrepreneurship. We first present theoretical and definitional issues associated with the... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

09 Oct 2012
First Look

First Look: October 9

International ICST on Auctions, Market Mechanisms, and Their Applications (AMMA 2011) held in New York, August 22-23, 2011. The 22 revised full papers presented were carefully selected from numerous submissions covering topics such as... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

01 Nov 2020
Research & Ideas

Good Leadership Is an Act of Kindness

of the simplest words and gestures often gets lost when CEOs and managers are in perpetual crisis management mode, struggling with layoffs, remote work technology, market woes, and a range of other frustrating disruptions. While confronting these challenges requires... View Details

Keywords: by Boris Groysberg and Susan Seligson

September 2008
Case

TCS: The MCA 21 Project

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), a leading outsourced software services provider based in India, must decide whether to bid on a high-profile government project within India. The project, if completed successfully, would mark another step in TCS's progression from a... View Details

Keywords: Experience and Expertise; Developing Countries and Economies; Globalized Firms and Management; Growth and Development Strategy; Service Operations; Projects; India